12.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 4)

This was our last day in Tokyo, so we basically went to the last places we couldn't go before.

First of all we went to Ueno park. This place was really crowdy, I suppose because it was saturday. Ueno park is a big park which also owns a zoo. We didn't want to visit the zoo but the park was really nice.

There were also some kind of events there, because we could see things like this:

In the park, you can also see a golden temple.

And that was all in Ueno park. Our next destination was Yanaka. This place is well-known as the cat street, because it is supposed you can see cats everywhere....probably there was a new chinese restaurant in the district because we saw just one cat, and it was really fat hehe. Anyway, in Yanaka you can see a lot of temples and the big cemetery.

Our last visit of the day, was to a very tourist place: Tokyo Skytree. This is the highest building of Japan (I think) with 634 meters of height. We arrived very late and it was super crowdy, so we didn't have time to get the top of the tower. What a pitty! but the entrance fee is 2500 yen, so at least we save some money hehe.

Afterwards, we went to Ikebukuro to take the bus. We said goodbye to Tokyo, Kyoto was our next stop.

11.04.2014 - Japan trip (part3)

Our third day in Tokyo. This time we changed our hostel, from Otemachi to Asakusa. In Asakusa we were in Sakura Hostel. A good hostel because it included a buffet breakfast, yummy!

But before going to the hostel we visited the famous Glass House, a building of the architect Sou Fujimoto.

Yeah basically it is a house made of glass walls instead of brick or wood walls....and.....that's all.

We also visited a temple nearby, more interesting I think.

Afterwards, we went to Asakusa. This is a very tourist place, full of people. It is not a quite place, so run away if you are looking for something peaceful.

After visiting Asakusa we went to take the lunch to the docks. We intended to have some sushi, because it supposed we can eat there for a reasonable price. And actually we ate the best sushi I have ever tried, and it wasn't very expensive.

After the lunch, we visited the Meiji Jingu gardens. I haven't got many things to say about it.

To finish our day, we visited Shinjuku, another place with a vibrant night life.

To finish our day, the return to Asakusa. It is worth to visit at night I have to say.

And that was all for our friday in Tokyo.

10.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 2)

We woke up very late that day due to our "night adventure" in Roppongi. On thursday our first destination was Roppongi again, but not for party, this time we went to visit the Asahi TV set. A place where you can see the set of one of the most popular Manga/Anime of Japan: Doraemon!

Afterwards, we went to the gardens of Higashi Gyoen, which are actually the gardens of the imperial Palace. Unfortunately the palace was closed, so we could just take a walk around the gardens.

After visiting the gardens, we were walking around the neighborhood of Ginza. Ginza is a good place full of shops, bars, pubs, and so on. I found a shop of hand-made katanas and armors. Amazing!

Our next stop of the day was the island of Daiba. Where the huge Gundam is located. What is Gundam? Look at the following pictures...

Very geek, isn't it? hehe. The island has also a smaller reproduction of the Statue of Liberty.

To finish our day, we went to Shibuya. Probably Shibuya is mainly famous because of its cross walk which is the most transited of the world. More than 5 million of people pass over there every day. Of course we had to take a picture there.

In Shibuya you can also see the statue of Hachiko, the dog. If you have never heard about it, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D

That's was all for the thursday 10th!

09.04.2014 - Japan trip (part 1)

This was the first (and so far, for me the only) trip outside of South Korea: Japan.

Here in Asia, there are some flights companies which are totally unknown for the foreigners. If you can find them, you can check a lot of cheap flights. That was our case, we flew from South Korea to Japan with EastarJet, and from Japan to South Korea with Peach. Before coming to Asia, I had never heard about those companies hehe.

Our itinerary in Japan was: Incheon -Tokyo - Nara - Kyoto - Osaka - Incheon. So we spent our first day in one of the most populated cities in the world: Tokyo.

The first thing we did in the airport once we arrived to Narita (Tokyo), was being interviewed by a local TV. They wanted to ask us why we are in Japan, and which cities we were going to visit.

First advice for people who want to go to Japan: don't change money in the airport. It is better if you withdraw money from the cash machine. The exact change would be: 1 euro ~ 150 yen. And 1000 won ~ 100 yen.

Second advice: You can buy a 2-days subway card in the airport. Buy it, because is the only place where you can buy it. And it is much cheaper than the 1-day card.

Narita airport is located around 1 hour and 30 minutes far from the center of Tokyo. The bus fee was 980 yen (7 euros more or less). The first thing we did when we arrived was taking the lunch!

I have to say that japanese food is way better than korean food (sorry guys), mainly because it is not spicy hehe.

Afterwards, we headed to our hostel, but walking towards there, you can find some curious things along the way.

So we left our backpacks in the hostel and went to our first place to visit: Akihabara: the most geek place I have ever seen in my life.

Special mention to the f***ing Kaikan radio. Some person should know why...

Afterwards, we went to the Skyline of Roppongi. Not very interesting I have to say. Maybe because it was at night and my camera is not good enough to take pictures under that kind of conditions hehe.

Our hostel seemed to be a holy crap, and between 23:00 and 06:00 it was closed. So nobody could enter or leave between 23:00 and 06:00. So we had to spend the night partying hard until 06:00 (oh what a pitty). So we went to the best place to party hard: Roppongi (laughs).

According to some travel guides, Roppongi has the best night life of Tokyo, and it also owns the biggest disco of Japan....that was actually beyond the truth.

Indeed Roppongi has a lot of discos, pubs and so on. But it seems the main entertainment there is paying to chinese girls for some services. In Roppongi you can find people from all around the world, even guys from your same country who can explain to you what you can do in Roppongi if you have money and you feel lonely...

Anyway, we tried to enjoy the nigh life of Roppongi as best as we could.

Anyway, we finished partying at 05:00 and we went to the hostel to sleep. It was a long long day, and we needed to rest to be ready for the next one.