Last day in Japan

Buddha must have thought that we'd had enough sunshine on our trip. We woke up to rain. What a lousy way to spend our last day in Tokyo. Oh well, nothing to do but equipe ourselves with raincoats and umbrellas. 

We went off to see the Tokyo Business Forum which is well known for its crazy architecture. I have to agree, the place is truly impressive. 

and then headed towards the imperial palace. Though its closed throughout the year, there are gardens which are open on the east side of the palace. We decided to head over there on foot. But with each step we took, we got wetter and colder and it was still so very far. We saw a bit of the palace from the outside of the grounds, and then some other part of the palace buildings 

And then I gave up. I knew Ori was going along with the wet plan of the garden for me and didnt really care whether or not we saw it. So, as we saw this place, I said - ok, lets go. Im done. I need heat and to be dry. He happily agreed and we were treated to a little show by a couple of swans on our way to the JR station. 

We got to the trainstation and felt much better. 

For a few days now Ori has been saying that he wants to get a haircut as soon as we get home. He joked about getting a cut while in Japan. Well, why put off till tomorrow what you can do today? So right there in the subway station we saw a cute little barbar shop with three chairs and three barbers. We walked in, paid for the cut at the machine and waited for Oris turn.

Easy, right? Nope. try explaining how short or what you want done when you dont share a language. It took a while, and there were a few seconds of apprehension, but in the end, all is fine and Ori's hair is freshly cut and vaccumed (yup, they vacuume the top to catch all the little bits)

Then we got on the subway and continued our last exloration of the city. This is Oris natural position on the train. Its not that he doesnt know the stops by heart or how long it takes to gt from point A to point B and how long between each stop. Its just that he likes to follow the electronic board as it moves us along from stop to stop. 

Each train station is massive and contains a million passages and just as many exists and lots of shops. All is clean and sparkly and no garbage anywhere in sight. They are often very nicely decorated as well - this is Shinjuku (I think).

Oh, and I finally bought my tea pot! Yayyyy. I have been driving Ori crazy with my search for the perfect traditional caste iron tea pot. Whenever I saw one, they would be either too small, too big, painted some colour (which is nice, but not the traditional black that Ive wanted for years) or the problem most often seen - wayyy too expensive. Yamamoto, our guide in Shirakawa-go said that I would be able to find one near the temple at Asakusa. So off we went in search of the tea pot. Again the same problem. I was starting to think Id made a mistake not buying the one I saw in Kyoto, or that maybe I should give up on the black and get green. Green is nice. I like green. On a whim, we went into the tourist information office in Asakusa and asked. They immediately knew what I wanted and looked it up online and took out map after map after map. They dont do single maps here - ever. There is always an accompanying map to the first one and sometimes a third. So we got a map of the area, a map of the cookware district (thankfully within a few short minutes walk) and a list of the stores on the block of the cookware district. We also got to see a photo of the store logo and Ori was told to take a photo of it so we would know how to identify the store. And off we went to find my tea pot. We indeed found a street of kitchen supply stores and eventually even found the one that was recommended. It unfortunately did not have my tea pot, but two doors down- success! 

Photos to come at a later date as its already packed away. Or you could always come for a cup of tea sometimes. :)

We went exploring the Sony building and tried out their experimental stuff. I left Ori alone for a few seconds and this is what I came back to find. He had no idea I was watching him. 

We then went walking around Ginza but then it started to rain again so we headed back to the hotel to drop off the heavy bags (caste iron tea pot, remember?) and go look for a place for our last Japanese dinner. As wee were walking to the hotel from the train station we heard Klezmer music. We both looked at each other and thought - odd place to hear this. And we went exploring to see from where the music was coming. This was the origin - 

Crazy. I think someone got more than a little confused. Arabian nights playing Klezmer music. Thats TOkyo for you. Always showing you something new. 

On to dinner. The hotel recommended a place nearby and we werent disappointed. 

Definitely recommended. Too bad I dont remember the name right now. But it was within walking distance of our hotel which was great. 

We put off getting back to the hotel as long as we could (yuck, packing!) but we still had some wine to finish off and I had a bath with my name calling out to me. Woohoo. 

So there you have it. Thats it for our honeymoon. We've had a fabulous three weeks and now its time to go back home and back to reality. 

Cheers to you, our family and friends. Its been great. 

We hope you enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed writing and experiencing it. 

Here comes the sun...

So Buddha smiled on us once again and cleared up the rain just for us. We woke up to a beautiful blue sky without a cloud in sight. We decided to give the boat ride another try and to go back to the first park of Hakone, down the mountain, and try the Open Air Museum now that its not raining. 

We went downstairs for breakfast, without much enthusiasm. We werent disappointed - it was probably the worst breakfast ever. I should clarify that it was the worst breakfast for us, not for Japanese. I think in Japanese standards, it was gourmet. They really did outdo themselves in presentation and variety. Too bad none of the options offered were to our liking. 

I could forgive them our not liking the food, but what I dont understand is the lack of milk for my coffee. When asked, they pointed me in the direction of the fake creamers. Yuck. 

We both had rice for breakfast. 

Packed up, we left for the boat. Upon arrival, we were told that we could get on the boat to the other side of the lake, but that then we have to switch for the way back and because of the strong window, they cant guarantee whether there would be a return ride as they might cancel. Okkkaaaaaay, thats a no go. But at least we got to see the dock in its full glory under the clear sky. 

And here's the boat we took yesterday, and would have taken again, had it not been for the strong wind. 

We decided to take the cable car back while it was still running. Strong winds which stop a boat will most definitely stop a cable car from running. 

We had it all to ourselves :)

OMG it was amazing! There we were, enjoying the lovely scenery of the green and blue of the trees and lake which we couldnt see last night.

and suddenly, there it was - MOUNT FUJI.

In all its glory.

Ori and I had a cable car all to ourselves, actually we had both cablecars to ourselves, and all we could do it photographs Fuji, and do selfies with Fuji, and look at Fuji.

Thats when we knew we'd done everything we'd set off to do on our Japan Bucket list. Narita Buddha - check, Golden Pavilion - check, Fuji - check, check, check to so many other things. And yet, there are so many more things to do and places to see. We are far from feeling satiated with Japan. Ori has been talking about coming back and we've not yet left. 

We got to the museum stop, dropped our bags in the lockers by the train station only to learn that the lockers at the musem were a quarter of the price and just as big if not bigger. Oh well. My lesson for you to learn (in case you should be looking for a place to stash your bags when next in Japan). 

The Hakone Open AIr Museum seemed interesting in the Lonely Planet but to say that is to totally underestimate it. It was amazing. It was perfection. Nature, Scenery and Art, Wow. As we exited the tunnel, the space openned up to us - green lawns, trees and sculptures of every kind. 

There was Rodin and Miro, Moore, and many others.

There was even a Picasso museum, where paintings, lithographs, sculptures, pottery and much more were on display in one small building. 

The curator of the entire museum is a genius! This is a definite must see when in Japan. After the Picasso, should you need a rest, you could have a seat and soak in the citrus foot spring bath. 

Sitting and relaxing we were greeted by a group of Israelis on an organized tour to Japan. They asked us to photograph them (especially the woman in the top left corner).

Her friend, I think Leah was her name, started talking to us and when she heard that we were on our oneymoon, she gave me a big hug and kiss and blessed us lots of luck and many trips in our future. Ori is still shocked this happened. I on the other hand was flattered but not that surprised; I find that Israelis outside of Israel often treat strangers as long lost friends. 

In the middle of all this, across from the foot bath is a tower with a round staircase. Its nice from the outside, but amazing from the inside!

The whole tower is made up of a glass mosaic, reminiscent of Chagall's windows at times. In this tower, you feel like you are walking inside the mosaic. The light shines through the glass and you are transported into a magical place of light and colour and imagination and pure happiness. 

Here are but a few of the many other pieces at the museum - 

Having seen all that the museum had to offer, we headed back to our bags and the trainstation. Tokyo here we come!

This was supposed to be another one of those multi switch routes which would have gotten us to Tokyo many hours later. Ori had read about another train company that goes directly from Hakone to Shinjuku station, which is where our hotel was. It would save us over an hour and a half of precious time in Tokyo. The problem was that it wasnt a JR train and so it wasnt included in our pass. Yes, no, yes, no. Hmm what to do. When we got to the Hakone train station we saw that this train was suppsed to leave within a few minutes. On a whim, we asked one of the attendants\conductors how much a ticket is and discovered it was only 870 yuen. We decided that 1740 yuen (approximately $16) was worth it to save the hassle of switching threee more trains and to get the extra time in Tokyo. The Japanese conductor pressed all the necessary buttons on the machine, we put in the money, got our tickets and he put us on the train. Good decision. Tokyo, here we come. 

The ride was smooth and simple but we missed out on our opportunity to ride the Shinkasen one more time. Next visit to Japan. 

In Japan, you enter the train station with the ticket and you exit with the same ticket. We went to the ticket attendant to ask which direction was the exit to our hotel and she thought we were there to show her our exit tickets. As Ori is asking about the directions, she looks at our tickets and starts flipping through a binder. Turns out that the conductor at Hakone had put us on the Romance Car limited express (which actually means super express, as in limited trains are this express). Anyways, her point is that we didnt pay enough and she wanted us to add another 870 yuen per person. Now, had we known it was double the amount, we might not have taken it. Who knows. But its not like we made the cheaper decision on our own. A company conductor did all the purchasing process for us and this highly annoyed me. In the three weeks in Japan we've done everything by the book. It didnt seem fair that we had to pay extra just because someone else made a mistake. A mistake by the way which I still dont understand how he made, but thats irrelevant. Anyways, go explain this to someone who doesnt speak English and I dont speak Japanese. The exchange went something like this. She pointed at the binder that had a page with explanation in English that we needed to pay extra.  "You must pay more" "I no pay more" (somehow, English is understood better when grammar is simplified and filled with mistakes, dont ask me, but its proven correct thus far). We went back and forth a few times like this until a young man shows up to help. He speaks English. A colleague of the woman saw that we were all lost in translation (or mistranslation) and he went and got this young man who works in the station travel information desk. We explained the situation and once we told him that we had a JR pass and that we would have just taken the JR had we known the full cost but that someone on their staff processed the purchase for us. He then explained everything to the woman in Japanese and showed her our JR passes. As soon as he got to that part she started understanding, agreeing with him\us and suddenly she was appologizing profusely for the confusion. Wow, what a turn around. We apologized as well, thanked her and wished her a good day. The young man, we thanked as well and gave him a chamsah key chain with the travelers blessing on the back in English which we had brough to Japan from Israel for exactly such situations where we meet kind strangers. 

And then we went on our way to our hotel. 

Throughout our trip, we have been pretty economically smart about accommodation. Its not that we stayed in hostels or crappy hotels. But we didnt stay in four star hotels, despite sometimes the price tag (Kamikoche for example, was near 30,000 yuen ($300) for the night, and that was relatively cheap for the area. But for our last two nights Ori surprised me and upgraded us to a four star hotel in the middle of Shinjuku. While I really enjoyed the places we had thus far, I was also looking forward to a little luxury at the end of our trip. Walking to the hotel, we were surprised by our surroundings. It was both interesting, shiny, but with a little sleezy mixed in.

The hotel lobby was lovely and that room was great. Unlike all the other hotels in Japan, here we had an actual queen sized bed. The room was slightly small but it exactly what we needed. There was a bathtub and special chocolates (yummy!) on the bed along side two origami cranes and a personalized welcome and congrats for our marriage from the hotel.  

Within a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and in came a bottle of white wine that Ori had preordered for us. It was perfectly romantic. 

We had a glass of wine and headed out to greet Tokyo once again. Oh and to have dinner. Dinner tonight was to be at No-Midori. What's that you ask? You mean you don't know nom nom No-Midori? Thats ok, neither did I before I started reading about Japan. But heres a little clue - 

Yup - Shushi!! We had to wait about 35 minutes but it was totally worth it. Last time we were around, we gave up on the idea when we heard it was over two hours' wait time. This time, we waited. It was also a cultural experience. Outside the restaurant there is a number machine. You get your place in line to eat and you take your place in line for waiting. There is bench outside the restaurant where people sit and wait. After the bench, people stand in line. When a number is called, usually those sitting first in line get up and go inside. Then the entire row of those sitting on the bench get up and move to the front of the bench, freeing up spots on the end of the bench, and so on until you get to your number. Theres no such thing as sitting in a freed up spot on the bench. So we stood in line to sit on the bench and then we sat in line to get inside the restaurant. Interesting method. 

Full and happy we walked back to Shibuya crossing and then took the JR back to Shinjuku to check out the golden-gai. It is a collection of connecting streets full of tiny little bars.

And when I say tiny, I mean seating 3-8 people each. Id say the majority served an average of 4-5 people.

Most charge a cover to enter. We werent actually there to drink but to look around and check out the area. We werent the only ones. We saw a few other Westerners look and leave without having entered a place. 

Happy and more than a little exhausted from the long day we dragged ourselves back to the hotel, had some more of the wine and dropped off to la la land. 

Oh No! Tomorrow is our last in Tokyo. Sigh...