Hakone 8 & 9 November 2010

HAKONE

Hakone is part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. You may be able to view Mt Fuji if weather is good. ..we were unlucky :-(

If you have JR pass, you may get to Odawara Station. The train was extremely comfy.


Odawara Station. A large station with some nice biscuits and snacks offered in some shops.


Buy a 2-dayHakone pass at Odawara Station to explore Hakone. Cost JPY3900 per person if you buy at Odawara Station. You can use the pass to take a train to Hakone-Yumoto from there.

Hakone pass is an economical and convenient way to explore Hakone, it gives you unlimited usage on their cable cars, pirate ship, railway and buses. Arrive around 9am if you intend to do the round course within a day, most of the attractions will be closed by 4.30pm and they are not near to each other. You might need to take into accounts of traffic jam on certain roads too.

There are some shops, an tourist information counter near Hakone-Yumoto Station. I felt so romantic when strolling along the streets...





Nice scallops to go with wine or beer.











Wines & beers, with prices.


Earning morning, clear blue sky in Hakone




Hakone-machi, where we take the pirate ship, supposedly


Some shops at Hakone-Machi.




Beautiful Lake Ashi

We were very unlucky as the weather turned bad that day, the wind was too strong and unsafe for pirate ship and cable cars to operate. We have no choice but headed to Kyoto without exploring this beautiful place further. You can imagine how disappointed I was....

I have to go back again!

MY JAPAN ITINERARY

Tokyo 8 November 2010 (Tsukiji Fish market)

Da da da dang! Our long-awaited Tsukiji Fish market for breakfast!

Tsukiji Market consists of an inner market where most of the wholesale business and the famous tuna auctions are taking place, and an outer market whose retail shops and restaurants carter to the public. We arrived around 9 a.m and of course didn't hope to witness any tuna actions as the wholesale market was already closed by then.

Hours:

Outer Market: varies by shop, typically 5:00 to 14:00 Wholesale Area: open to visitors after 9:00am Tuna Auction: open to visitors from 5:00am to 6:15am (restricted to 140 visitors/day)

Closed:

Sundays, national holidays and some Wednesdays

Make sure you check the closing days of the market before you go. You may check it at their website.

Tsukiji Market is just above Tsukiji Shijo Station on the Oedo Subway Line. Alternatively, it can be reached in a five minute walk from Tsukiji Station on the Hibiya Subway Line. The closest JR station is Shimbashi (covered by JR pass), from where you can walk to the market in about 15 minutes (Or take a taxi from Shimabshi, cost JPY710). It is also very near Ginza.

There are lots of restaurants in the market but we were looking for the very famous Sushi Dai. They have an advertisement in the station which includes a map, I forgot to take a picture.



Outer markets area which consists of many restaurants and retail shops.


Had tamago yaki ( 玉子烧).It's a slightly sweet grill egg and I like it.


Finally found the restaurant of great renown, Sushi Dai...


But look at the crowd, it is just 10% of the line!! Arrived before 6am to avoid the line if you can, now I truly understand the early bird catches the worm.


Another popular restaurant next to it... the line was shorter, but we didn't want to queue too.


This is a famous restaurant for sashime don but the line was long as Sushi Dai. We finally decided to give them a miss.



We went into the restaurant next to it and we were not disappointed at all.

Feel like in a Japanese drama...

Quite reasonably priced, I think

YUMMY! They were simply fresh! Look at the Uni (Sea Urchin) and Ikura (fish roes)!



I read from somewhere that a grade A sea urchin is bright yellow in color, with a firm texture and tastes a bit sweet... This is definitely grade A.


Super fresh sushi set, yummy too!

We headed to Hakone after this very satisfying breakfast.

My Japan Itinerary

 

Tokyo 7 November 2010 (Kyushu Jangara Ramen & Isetan)

Kyushu Jangara Ramen is very well-known not only in Japan but also abroad.
This is definitely the nicest Ramen that I've ever had. It was so so delicious! Some may find it too salty but I like it very much. Even though it was salty I didn't feel thirsty after that, unlike the soup noodle selling in my home country.

They speak simple English and provide English menu as well.

It is a stone's throw away from Harajuku Station, the line is usually long but we were quite late for lunch that day and thus only had to wait for about 10 minutes.

九州じゃんがら Kyushu Jangara
TEL:03-3404-5405 Address (English): Shanzeru Harajuku II 1-2F, 1-13-21 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 151-0051
Address (Japanese): 〒150-0001 東京都渋谷区神宮前1-13-21
Hours: Open Mon-Fri 10:45-02:00; Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays 10:00-03:30







We find these so-so...


Very thick and look oily, but wait until you drink it, it was awesome!


I particularly like the thick pork bone soup.

This wasn't that oily but tasty too!



One of them was JPY1,000 and the other one was JPY1,100 - sorry that I can't recall which is which...


We went to first floor of Isetan Shinjiku to pack our dinner back to hotel.




Wow, look at the price! but they are faux food.


Can't afford to try this even though very tempted to.


We bought this for our son... look nice but taste so-so only.

What a tiring day... luckily the beds at Sheraton Miyako were very comfortable...

My Japan Itinerary