We have packed as much as possible into our time in Japan, and the last few days have been no exception. Yesterday we went walking through Harajuku and down to Shibuya crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. We had a drink at Starbucks and watched the people pass by beneath us.
The public transportation system here is amazing, although peak hour can be crazy and very squishy! It seems you can always fit more people into the train carriage, no matter how full it may appear.
Our last dinner with Josh and Minae - Japanese schnitzel. Not too bad, but I definitely prefer sushi.
Today we went to a Grand Sumo competition - it was unbelievable! It only happens a couple of times a year and we happened to be here at the right time. It was so much fun to watch and we especially liked the more awkward looking moments, a few examples follow...
These guys are the big guns of the competition. We went back in the afternoon to see them and it was worth it. The fights were intense and the sumos were huge!
This guy on the left was massive, but all it took was a quick side step from his opponent and he was out of the ring in a matter of seconds - his weight propelled him over the edge!
After the sumo, we headed off to the baseball at Tokyo Dome. The game was between the Osaka Tigers and the Tokyo Giants, the two most popular teams in Japan. The stadium was packed and the crowds didn't stop cheering the whole game.
It was an exciting match and after 9 innings it was still 3 all, so the game went in to over time. I was going for the Giants, so of course Ben decided to go for the Tigers, and sadly for me the Tigers brought it home in the end, at 5-3.
Tomorrow we farewell Japan and start our long journey home, leaving here at 6am and finally arriving in Australia Thursday morning. We're looking forward to seeing everyone but will miss our travels and are already thinking about our next adventure!
Saturday afternoon we headed off to Mount Fuji's 5th Station. Just after 9pm we started the long climb upwards. It was raining and the wind was howling, and apart from the small amount of light coming from our head lamps, it was completely pitch black. While we may look happy in these photos, it doesn't mean it was easy...it was anything but!
This was Josh's 4th time up. I can't imagine why you would want to ever do this more than once...
A few hours after starting, the rain finally stopped, which was such a relief.
A total of 8 hours climbing, and we finally made it to the top at 5.15am - just in time for sunrise. We were literally running up the rocks in the last half hour or so, past slower people, just to make it to the top before the sun came out!
Ben's gloves were literally frozen into this shape - he'd had them hanging on the outside of his bag after they got wet in the rain.
Sunrise.
Yay! 3776 meters above sea level!!
Our elation at reaching the top and seeing the sunrise was not long lived, as we faced the long and difficult walk down...4 hours to be exact.
We got down the bottom of the mountain at 9.30am, but it was a long trip home, involving a bus and numerous trains, and it wasn't until 4pm that we finally crashed on the couch and were able to think about what a crazy 24 hours we'd just had! It was a great experience, but never again!!!!!
Last week we headed off on a road trip, first stop: Kyoto. We spent 2 days in this city and could have spent a whole lot longer - it was beautiful. Kyoto actually used to be the capital of Japan for about 1000 years and has some of the most amazing shrines, temples and gardens in the world. We visited Ginkaku-ji temple first and it was our favourite one out of the whole trip. It had spectacular gardens, with raked cones of white sand and exotic Japanese trees.
We walked down the Path of Philosophy and ended up at San-mon gate. We climbed up to the second story (after removing our shoes and carrying them up with us in plastic bags) and the view from the top was fantastic. We could see Nanzen-ji temple right next to us and out across the entire city.
We did alot of walking, and this is some of what we saw.
We walked through a cobbled alley called Ishibei-koji which is lined with traditional Japanese inns and restaurants and looked magical in the afternoon light.
Then it was off to walk through Maruyama park - the parks here are amazing - so peaceful and perfectly maintained.
Right next to the park was Yasaka Shrine...middle photo is mine.
More walking...my photo again (got to claim what I can!). We walked through the floating world of Gion and Pontocho just as night was falling - gorgeous.
Photo taken during dinner. More interesting than a traditional selfie.
Day 2 in Kyoto. We started the day walking through the Nishiki food markets. There were things I'd never even heard of there and it was all beautifully presented.
We went to Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, which consists of five different shrines spread out across the slopes of Inari-san. The shrines are connected by a 4km pathway which is lined with hundreds of red torii and it was so much fun to wander through them.
More walking on the way to our next destination.
Iwatayama Monkey Park! We walked for 20 minutes uphill before coming across the monkeys. They were roaming free around an observation area and we were able to walk around with them, while also enjoying an amazing view of Kyoto. The baby monkey in one of the photos even started climbing at my leg at one stage!!! I was told to stay very still and before I knew it the monkey's mother had raced over and grabbed her baby off my leg! Ben filmed it, so we'll try and blog the movie later...it was very funny :)
Our last stop for the day was Ryoan-ji temple, which had a lovely pond covered with water lillies and a famous zen rock garden.
Japanese lunch boxes - you buy them at the train station and we had ours for dinner on the bullet train to Hiroshima.
Day 3 - Hiroshima.
We stayed in a traditional Japanese hotel, with tatami mats and futons to sleep on. In the morning, we hired bicycles for the day and rode around everywhere on them - it was a lot of fun. We headed to the new baseball stadium down the road first before paying a quick visit to Hiroshima castle.
Then we cycled to Hiroshima Peace Park and visited many of the memorials there, including the A-Bomb Dome, the Children's Peace Monument, which was surrounded with thousands of origami cranes (in honour of Sadako and all the other children who died) and also the Peace Memorial Museum. The focus is on remembering the past and learning from it for the future and they are committed to eliminating nuclear warfare worldwide.
Lunch time! We had Okonomiyaki, a speciality in Hiroshima. It's a crepe with cabbage, noodles, shallots, garlic, egg and some other ingredients. It was really nice and great to be able to watch it being made too.
We then caught a ferry to Miyajima Island and the minute we stepped out of the port we were greeted by wild deers! They were everywhere...they just wander around the town and there are signs everywhere with warnings, including not to touch them...we didn't read them til after I'd patted one though, oops!
Ben with the world's largest rice spoon!
We also saw the Otori Gate, which is a massive structure, over 16m high and weighing over 60 tonnes, which sits out in the water surrounding the island.
Day 4 - Osaka. We visited Osaka Castle, which had an impressive moat!
Then visited Dotombori, a famous shopping and entertainment area in Osaka.
Last stop, the Osaka Aquarium. I don't like fish generally, but this place was amazing. We saw dolphins, otters, seals, whale sharks, penguins. Very cool!
