Summer 2019 (Cumulative)

I traced out the route I took on my bike ride, starting on the left and finishing on the right. It was a nice ride, much recommended!

It was a good ride. Before I turned in my bike, I noticed that I was at 59-ish miles. A quick trip around the block made sure that the distance turned into a cool 60!

On the train ride back, there was a very nice sunset-y view.

The day after the Shimanami Kaido, my body was a bit of a wreck, so I had a nice easy day of seeing some pretty things in the area. Okayama Castle is known as the “Crow Castle” because it is painted black. It’s a nice looking building.

Next to the castle, you will find the Korakuen Gardens. These are one the three great gardens in Japan. It’s a pretty nice area with all sorts of different plants to check out.

Pretty flower.

After my big bike ride the day before, this bridge a little more my speed today!

I was trying to take a great picture with the fish, but they were being a bit koi.

Another nice shot of the Okayama Castle.

I thought about getting a boat and rowing around on the little lake near the castle, then took stock of how my body felt and decided against it.

In front of the Okayama Train Station is this cool fountain. While they can certainly be found other places, Okayama claims that this is the first.

Near Okayama, I visited a quaint little town called Kurashiki. Its claim to fame is a nice historical quarter with canals running through it. It’s a bit of a tourist trap, but still nice.

No idea who this mascot is, but there were people taking pictures with him (her?) so I had to jump in!

One of Kurashiki’s exports is denim products (jeans and the like...). There was a little shop selling Denim Burgers, Denim Dumplings, etc... I had to try the denim ice cream. Thankfully, it didn’t taste like some old jeans. By the way, you can get ice cream cones all of the place in Japan. The best one so far was the salt ice cream cone I got during the Kaido...it was delicious!

After Kurashiki, I went back to Onomichi. This was the starting point of my bike ride the day before, but this time I actually wanted to check out the town. This dock is actually where I took the ferry to start the big bike ride (it just takes you across the small waterway, biking the first bridge is a little tricky and not really worth it according to the guides).

One nice thing that Onomichi had was a nice little walk to see some different temples scattered around the hill above the town.

There were many steps!

The view from the top was quite nice.

The photos don’t do a great job showing the amazing view from the mountains above Onomichi. You can see the first bridge of the Kaido in the background.

I returned to Okayama for my last night in the town and stopped by the castle to see it lit up at night - quite nice!

Before bed, had to grab a quick ramen. In Japan, you can get ramen that is slightly better than the little ten cent packs that you can buy by the box-load at WalMart!

Arriving in Tokyo on a rainy Sunday evening, my main focus was finding something to eat and having a good night’s sleep (at this point in the trip, I’m starting to wear down a little bit...I’ve been busy!). My hotel was in Shinjuku - a very popular and crazy neighborhood in Tokyo. Every night - but especially Sunday night - the streets are packed...neon signs everywhere...just sensory overload! Not exactly what I was looking for at that exact moment. That’s when I turned a corner and happened to look down a little path in the middle of this bustling metropolis when I came upon this sight of a lady getting some photos taken in a temple area. It was so unexpected and nice, I had to sneak a quick shot!

The next day, I took a train to Nikko - a city somewhat near Tokyo famous for its shrines and temples. There was this cool bridge - the Shinkyo Bridge.

I loved this dragon fountain. That’s one awesome dragon!

There are many very important temples in the Nikko area. This is a very important area for Buddhist and Shinto worship. Looking at a Google Maps view of the area (and yes, I wore Google Maps out on this trip) shows a scary site. Just as a church has a cross symbol and a synagogue has a Star of David, the Buddhist temples are marked with a swastika - it’s not at a 45 degree angle like the Nazi’s used, but still...something you don’t see every day.

Neat thing.

The highlight of Nikko was the Toshogu Shrine. This is a crazily decorated shrine. THe detail work was spectacular to look at.

They went all out on this shrine. It serves as the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.

That’s a sweet fish you’re riding there dude! Strangely, this is the first of two photos of a person riding a fish in this album...

They had some people taking pictures of you in front of the shrine. They were trying to get you to buy their version, but they’d still take a photo with your camera as well...doesn’t seem like a tremendous business plan. Suffice it to say, I did not purchase the 1,000 yen version ($10)

Cool Torii

I am very disappointed to report that I did not get to see or fight any monkeys on this trip.

After seeing the temples and shrines, I took a bus up a mountain to see the beautiful Lake Chuzenjiko. I had seen some great pictures on the lake and waterfalls in the area and was pumped to check them out. One problem though...it’s was a tad foggy. At one point I was very close to a very impressive sounding waterfall. I couldn’t see a lick of it, but it sounded cool. Sort of a bummer, but you win some - you lose some! This won’t be the last time I’m foiled by fog on this trip...

When I’m riding trains, I often make the time pass by trying to figure out what the advertisement is selling. I might need to sign up for this “Cute Pose Lesson” to help spice up my selfies!

That night, I wandered by Tokyo Tower. It’s inspired *cough* copied *cough* by the Eiffel Tower. They painted it white and international orange for air safety reasons. It’s a cool looking tower that has a very different effect from the actual Eiffel tower. In Paris, there aren’t a ton of tall buildings, so the Eiffel Tower dominates the sky. In Tokyo, there are quite a few tall buildings so you just get glimpses of the Tokyo Tower. It’s a pretty thing.

I had hoped that this old vs. new shot had turned out better, but alas, it was sort of late at night. It does a decent job showing the tower though. You can go up to an observation deck, but I decided against it - I’ve been to the SkyTree (a much taller tower) and frankly didn’t feel like spending the money.

On the way back to my hotel, I dropped by Shibuya. If you’ve seen videos of Japan, you’ve likely seen the Shibuya crossing - a huge road crossing with tons of people. One very famous landmark right next to the train station is the statue for Hatchiko - a dog that kept returning to the station to meet its master, even after the master had died. The loyalty it displayed greatly impressed the Japanese people. It’s now a very popular meeting spot.

Shibuya Crossing

This is the Yamanote Line - this train line simply circles Tokyo and it can be a bit nuts at times. Trains are how Tokyo runs. The station I stayed near (Shinjuku Station) is the train station with the highest number of passengers passing through it - 1.26 BILLION people a year. For reference, the busiest station in the US (Penn Station) carries 107 million people per year. If you want to have fun, try taking a heavily loaded suitcase on one of these trains during the morning rush hour...great fun!

The next day I had a light day - as I was completely pooped. I did a little museum hopping and hung out in an entertainment district. I checked out the Tokyo National Museum. This day was the first day of a new special exhibit “Three Kingdoms: Unveiling the Story”. It was all about the Chinese drama after the Han Dynasty broke up after 220. The next eight years featured three kingdoms vying for control of China. The exhibit had a bunch of very important Chinese artifacts from the 200’s (that’s hard to imagine how long ago this was!).

One of the reasons for the popularity of the Three Kingdoms time was that the time has been written about heavily, including manga dramatizing many of the actual events. They had some original copies of the comics to see.

Cool old crossbow.

I went to the nearby science museum. I’m always a sucker for a good science museum! I had been here before but it was fun to come back to visit. One of my favorite pieces was a feature of different types of measurements featuring interactive explanations of the seven fundamental units in Physics. They even had an old kilogram and meter standard!

I then subway’ed over to Akasaka - they have a cool outdoor shopping area where I got some delicious treats (I wish I could say this was the only place I got delicious treats...fortunately/unfortunately, I found delicious treats at almost every stop! Diet starts soon!)

Cool thing in Akasaka

From Akasaka, I took a boat ride down a river. One famous sight of Japan is this statue (with the SkyTree in the background). It’s supposed to be a flame on top of a beer mug (the building is the Asahi Beer Hall). No one thinks its a flame...it’s definitely a golden poop (an actual Japanese symbol for good luck, called Kin No Unko)

I took the boat down to the entertainment island of Odaiba. I’d been here before, but I was just looking for a nice comfortable spot to spend an evening. It was mostly safe due to the Gundam guarding one of the malls.

Dusk falling over Tokyo. This bridge is a very famous on in Japan, called the “Rainbow Bridge”. Now, if you are anything like me...this name seems a little odd - it’s a white as can be, not exactly a rainbow. Turns out, during December they light up the bridge in multiple colors...hence the name. Certainly would be something cool to see. You can also see the Tokyo Tower in the background.