Japan Vacation: Ending in Tokyo

I ended our last four days in Tokyo after our Japan Rail Pass was expired. There's lots to see still and I did lots of walking.

Ginza

Fake-lace chain link, but still cool (the design was hooked in separate)

Window displays appreciating skeins

Traditional dress in front of Tiffany's

The floor of the museum, I couldn't help it, I'm inspired by the inlay.

Beautiful gold foiled panels.

So much anime in Electronic Town, this was a bunch of girls dressed as characters, it was in an outdoor expo sort of area.

Back to Ueno park, we hit the Zoo.

So long Tokyo, until we meet again.

Japan Vacation: Atami/Izu Peninsula

I was really tired after hiking Mt. Fuji but got in a nap at a hotel in Mishima and found this great teriyaki place for dinner.

This is their attempt at writing out an English menu.

One of my favorite manhole covers!

Ajiro Station where our host for the Atami Red House that I booked picked us up at 

(more than a few times!)

The only traditional guestroom I stayed in at Atami Red House.  It was a lovely spot.

Oh the slippers! The main ones had little dogs, then there were slippers for the toilet too,

Our hosts took me and another guest for a drive along the sites.  We went to Ajiro's public Beach.

Atami Castle

Atami castle allowed photos of the armor and helmets, which are just beautiful.

I couldn't read anything at the Atami Castle since it was all in Japanese, so I still have no explanation for some of the below images...

(They would carry the lords around in these little boxes)

Atami is known for its dried fish....these are all out in the open markets.

Excellent sashimi, except the cuttlefish....I decided that one wasn't for me.

Zack couldn't help but play with the fish head.

Atami Beach

Private bathhouse that our hosts had access to, hot springs inside and outside on the top story overlooking the bay.

Hibachi

The National Park in Ito...took a wrong turn and had an all-day hike...

It has the largest wax myrtle in Japan.

There's a herd of kitties that live on one of the bluffs along this hike!

The second homemade delicious breakfast at Atami Redhouse.  The bread on the left actually has cream cheese, figs and raisins in the middle.  YUM!

Japan Vacation: Hiking Mount Fuji

Coming up to My. Fuji.

Trail head! 7:15 pm

Trail markers in the dark.

Crazy huge mountain leach.

The moon and clouds.

Flora.

The moon again....the little dots are hikers coming up Mt. Fuji.

Hope!

The entrance to the top. 3:30am

Trying to warm up with miso soup.

Sunrise is coming!

Here it is! 5:15am

Ice at the top.

Heading back down.....

Bells. Make a wish with a bell on Mt. Fuji.

Back down.

Getting close, very tired.

I hiked this at night! It hurt just as bad coming back down. Back to trailhead 9:30am.

Japan Vacation: Hiroshima

My first meal of Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima hit the spot,

I ordered two different kinds, it is even a delicious leftover! 

Breakfast at a french style bakery one morning,  I just loved their wallpaper and flowers. The pastries were yummy too.

 Hiroshima Castle.  I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, but the museum is full of amazing cast iron armor and helmets.  The swords are really intricate too. 

And then I went to the Miyuki seed bead factory which gets it's own post here.

The next day I toured some of the Peace Memorials.

The memorial Cenotaph.

I agree with grandma Behler, being a US citizen and visiting the Hiroshima bombing memorials are tough. This eternal peace memorial looking out on to the skeleton of the Atomic Dome at the back, then the peace flame across a low pool and the sculpture that aligns them. The box shape within the sculpture encases the list of names of people lost in the bombing. 😟

I had lunch at a different Okonomiyaki place waiting for the boat the take me over to Miyajima Island. I like this place even more than the first, it seems at the end of the strip of covered mall before the Peace Memorials.

Stormy boat ride to Miyajima Island.

The deer are like the squirrels in the Grand Canyon. Tons of them, if you have food, they follow you. One greeted me off the boat and immediately got into pockets.

Torii Gate.

Waterfall on the walk up to the gondola.

Japan Rail pass is good for this ferry! Sweet.

Hiroshima giant oysters. 

Heading out to Shikoku Island.

Japan Vacation: Kyoto

Beautiful little shrines everywhere.

This was my hotel for 3 nights, great deal and a helpful staff.

Ice cream! I got the shaved ice strawberry thing.

Golden Pavilion. It's amazing!

I hit so many shrines walking back through Kyoto from the Golden Pavilion.

Such wonderful silks are woven here.

Weaving silk, probably about 100+ ends per inch.

Winding silk off of the silkworm cocoons.

Kimono fashion show.

Writing and birding at the Imperial Palace park.

Kyoto's traditional food.

Nino Castle (it has nightingale floors that chirp when walked on to alarm you that someone is in the building).

Nijo Castle gardens.

Must take your shoes off!

Imperial Palace

I just loved this painting with the bull, kitty and mouse.

Sento Gardens in the Imperial Palace compound, definitely worth seeing. (Better than the Imperial Palace tour.)

Waterfall over a single stone.

All of the rocks behind me were brought in by hand.

Shrine to a Japanese poet.

Praying mantis with red eyes!

Breakfast to-go heading out of Kyoto to Hiroshima.

Train station.

A Kyoto Morning

I really liked Tokyo, but I took a walk alone around Kyoto this morning with my coffee. The cleanliness, the views and the faint scent of incense here and there is wonderful.
People don't crowd each other, and everyone is SO polite.
I always kind of thought that the scenes in Japanese art history were more of a stylistic view of nature. But the trees are truly bent and twisty with the knowledge of thousands of years. Clouds roll in and out of the mountains.
It's wonderful here.

Japan Vacation: Tokyo

After a 13 hour flight and a nap I woke up ridiculous early in Japan and started exploring. 

(Do not feed the fish, Koi, or for that matter anything in any park)

A short walk from our hotel was this sculpture.  Dubbed the "golden poo" by locals.

I was really excited bout food here and after this particular meal, both of us were messed up (gory details if you ask me in person, but thanks Jenny Scroggins for the tip about carrying your own tissue for public bathrooms!)

This is all water behind us with these crazy beautiful huge water plants taking over the water part of the park.

Balcony outside one of the temples.

This picture is completely Lynne Bruning fault. Sewer covers with great detail abound.

So I had breakfast, no coffee. But in Tokyo there's vending drink machines on at least every corner. I was surprised to get a hot drink from vending, like really hot,  hard to hold in your hand. The ones with screw tops are the cold ones.

This doesn't even begin to explain the hub of anime, stores and tech that we were overwhelmed with, seriously, so much tech, dvd, comic, slots & pincho, lights....we were just looking for a coffee shop!

I then headed for the green space on my Google maps. The Gardens of the Imperial Palace. So many fruit trees! Walking up what's left of the original palace, it's a very similar feeling to the fort at St. Augustine in Florida....

This is part of the gardens, but there were a number of birds....definitely a heron, and a few questionables.  Japan bookstore bird book? Done and done.  For myself, I couldn't find a defining Sailor Moon manga...I'm a bit embarrassed to ask she trolling the teeny bopper section! I'll be looking into it, the only new Sailor Moon Crystal hype in print was fan fiction.

Umbrellas are a thing, so is bicycling!  The bikes are amazing here, so is the gear. But the classy umbrella holder... <3

This is the train station, also pretty much a mall. It's hard to focus getting through!

And trains abroad are....easier and cleaner and classier, I wish I had bullet trains in the US.

Rice fields from the train, it was going too fast to get the egrets. ..

On to Kyoto!