Two final days in Tokyo

Our final two days in Japan centered mostly around shopping in Tokyo. We spent Saturday in Harajuku. We loved the area. The main streets are filled with lots of big name designer shops which are housed in some fantastic futuristic-looking buildings.

The smaller streets feature some great local designer shops. We loved the Spiral Market, which includes gallery space as well as a shop with lots of unique homeware and accessories. Ed helped me choose a lovely pair of earrings and a necklace.

We also shopped up a storm in a four floor ¥100 store. These shops are fantastic. A bit like $2 shops but with so many great items. Almost all items are ¥108 with tax which is around $1.35 NZ. The stores have so much choice! There's no such thing as a plain note book in Japan, or plain anything really. We purchased craft punches, note paper, Hello Kitty tissues and so much more! 

As well as shopping we also visited the Meiji jingu shrine which is not far from Harajuku Station and shopping streets, but surrounded by trees so it's incredibly peaceful. 

After so much shopping and sightseeing we headed back to our hotel for a bit of a rest. In the early evening we went out again to look in some of the shops in Shinjuku. The shops in Japan seem to open late in the day, around 10 or 11am, and stay open until 8 or 9pm in the evening. I had a great time choosing a selection of pens and assorted stationery from the Tokyu Hands department store.

We'll definitely miss the buzz of Shinjuku at night and all the crazy signs lit up!

For dinner we chose a restaurant where we'd had lunch when we first arrived in Tokyo. We had amazing sashimi, yakitori and umeshu (plum wine).

On the morning of the last day we once again headed for Tokyo Station. This time we were visiting the Imperial Palace East gardens, the only area of the palace open regularly to the public. The gardens were lovely and tranquil. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering through Shinjuku and finishing our shopping before catching the train to the airport for the journey home. 

We both really enjoyed our trip to Japan and would really like to return one day to explore further. Our highlights were the friendly people, delicious food, lights and atmosphere in Tokyo at night and the history in Kyoto. 

Return to Tokyo

After coffee and breakfast at a cute shop called Precious Coffee Moments we spent the morning wandering by the river in Kyoto and finishing up our shopping there. The river is a beautiful spot and there were a number of locals out jogging and riding bikes. We spent quite a while watching the herons foraging in the river and spotting fish in the water - a real novelty for us.

At midday we took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We're now staying on the West side of Shinjuku Station, also known as the Skyscraper District, just across the road from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. 

This evening we had an amazing dinner at the New York Grill, in the hotel made famous by the film Lost in Translation. The restaurant is on the 52nd floor and has incredible views across the city. The food was great and I had the best Cosmopolitan ever!

Kyoto

We spent yesterday exploring Kyoto including visiting the Kinkaku-ji temple, Nijo Castle and some shopping!

The Kinkaku-ji temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion, is a spectacular site set in beautiful gardens. The autumn foliage made the views of the temple even more spectacular. The temple is very popular so we arrived early - but there were still lots of people including a number of school groups.

After the temple we visited Nijo Castle. The castle features beautiful gates with ornate carvings and gold. Inside the castle the screens were painted in gold with animal, bird and floral designs. Outside the castle the gardens were very beautiful and we spent a relaxing time walking through them and taking photographs.

We walked back from the castle heading toward the centre of town and our hotel. We were looking for a shop specialising in handmade Japanese paper which Ed managed to find with his awesome navigation skills and a not very detailed map. The shop was amazing and I came away with several large sheets of paper and mixed packs of smaller sheets. This adds to the collection of paper products I've already purchased this trip! For dinner we decided we'd return to the same sushi restaurant near our hotel that we visited on our first night in Kyoto. The sashimi, sushi and sake were all as delicious as the first time we were there - perhaps even more so!

Hiroshima day trip

Wednesday was a huge day: we did a day trip to Hiroshima. We certainly got amazing value from our Japan Rail pass too, as all of our transport for the day was covered by it!

After arriving in Hiroshima we transferred to a local train line to go to Miyajima-guchi. From there you can catch a ferry to Miyajima which is an island in Hiroshima Bay. It was raining slightly and this gave the island a misty, ethereal ambience. 

As soon as we left the ferry terminal we saw a woman photographing what looked like a fake deer beside an information sign. Then the deer moved! As we went closer, we saw another deer beyond. And as we continued round towards the shrine we found lots more, including a couple of fawns, mostly sheltering under trees, awnings and signs to get out of the rain.

We walked around the waterfront to the Itsukushima Shinto Shrine. On the way there were great views of the shrine's Torii which is out in the sea.

The shrine is built out over the water and lines up with the Torii. We visited part way between high and low tide, but apparently at high tide the shrine appears to be floating on the water

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After visiting the shrine we walked up to a pagoda that we could see from the shrine. Then we walked back towards the ferry, looking in the shops and stopping for lunch in a restaurant on the main street. We also stopped by the world's largest rice paddle for a few photos.

We took the ferry back to Miyajima-guchi and then caught the train back to Hiroshima Station, where we were able to hop on the tourist sight seeing loop bus. We were headed for the Peace Park, but decided to get off at Hiroshima Castle for a quick look around the outside.

We walked through the Peace Park stopping at the Atomic Bomb Dome. This building was almost directly below where the bomb detonated and was one of the few buildings left standing. It's a haunting reminder of what happened. 

As we stopped at the Peace Flame, which will only by extinguished once all nuclear weapons have been dismantled, a group of school children approached us. They were practising their English and asked us some questions, and Ed wrote a message in their workbook and marked New Zealand on their map. 

The Peace Musuem was incredibly moving. We hadn't realised that so many of the victims were children who had been assigned to perform demolition work in the city centre. The stories, artifacts and exhibits were heartbreaking - the scars of an absolute atrocity.

After visiting the museum we walked back through the Peace Park visiting the memorials and viewing the A-bomb Dome from across the river.