Puti's and Sri's trip to Japan 28th March - 6th April 2023
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The long-awaited and often-postponed trip to Japan came true. I made an about one-week itinerary for our trip, including famous sightseeing locations and culture experiences, and also the meeting of two old friends of mine, introducing my new wife to them. My third friend passed away before I managed to get into Japan.
The friend seen here is Michiyasu Tsunekawa who was formerly in a management position in NTT and helped me to get a trainee job when I was a student. We have been in contact since and I have met him on my every visit to Japan. Now he is 80, and he reminded me that this may wuite well be the last time that we still have a chance to meet.
Our friend gave us a dinner in a little-known but personal and strongly local restaurant Nurukan. He suspected that our evening would not be as joyful and relaxed as planned because our minimal consumption of alcoholic beverages. We nevertheless tasted beer and the locally produced sake which was not available anywhere else.
Michiyasu Tsunekawa
Sensō-ji temple in Asakusa ward, Tokyo
Next morning we went for a walk in the Sensō-ji temple area. The breakfast restaurants were not yet open.
As it was the cherry blossom season, we went for flower viewing trip known by the Japanese name as hanami. Our firts trip happened in the Ueno Park in Tokyo.
The sheets are waiting for picnic visitors
On our walk we visited the outskirts of the area of the Imperial Palace.
Our flower viewing went on in Chidorigafuchi Park which is located on the west side of the Imperial Palace area.
This cherry species is named maihime, "Dancing Princess".
After our walk we continued by train to Shibya where we had lunch in an Asian restaurant and went to see the statue of Hachikō the dog. This dog became famous as it was waiting the return of his deceased master every day until its own death. The people living nearby began to take care of the dog.
Nex day we traveled by train through Tokyo, continuing westwards to the cities of Kōfu and Minobu. In Minobu we waited for the bus to take us to the mountain inn. Sri was writing postcards to her closest ones under a cherry tree.
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is the oldest hotel-like installation in the world, recorded as such in the Guinness Book of Records. It has been owned and run for 1300 years by the same family line and served, for example, the Emperor of Japan and other people of a high rank. The hotel is pumping from the volcanic wells uniquely large volumes of natural bathing water, which allegedly has several benefits for health. The inn is luxurious and accordingly expensive to stay in. For us the experience was worth the money.
The outside image of the inn has been copied from the English Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishiyama_Onsen_Keiunkan#/media/File:Wikipedia-Nisiyama-Onsen-705AD.jpg
Black salsify for the welcome snack of the visitors
The inn has several large scenery baths, available in turns for both sexes. We, however, reserved a smaller bath dedicated for family use.
After the bath we had a multicourse traditional dinner, included in the price, and as luxurious as was proper for the prestige of the inn.
The fish was soft enough to eat with all of its bones
Our beds were made while we dined.
In the lobby of the inn there was a shop with an impressive variety of ice-creams, and space for spending time.
As before, also in the morning we were served a formidable breakfast, served in a private room like the dinner.
The staff of the inn had well deserved special thanks.
We returned to the city of Minobu from which we continued our trip by train to Shizuoka and from there by the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto.
Our hotel in Kyoto was APA Hotel Kyoto Ekimae. Its morning buffet provided us with still more delicacies to eat.
Included with the serving there was also the dread of foreigners, nattō, made of fermented soy beans, and aojiru, which in spite of its appearance is not green tea but a vegetable drink based on kale. It, too, has its select circle of enjoyers.
Our next place of visit was the Nijō Castle with its palace area and the Shinsen Garden at its southern side.
Near the Kyoto Station there was Higashi-Honganji, a large temple.
The brown liquid is tea, but there was a warning against drinking it
Kinkakuji is the permanent favourite of travelers and a world-famous attraction.
Ryōanji temple has not only a famous rock garden but also a beautiful plant garden.
The return trip with a rail bus and a train to the Kyoto Sataion.
This clock face uses banking numbers which are used, for example, in checks as a countermeasure against falsification
Kyoto Station building is lofty and spacious
Dinner time in the underground alley network of the Kyoto Station, in one of its numerous restaurants.
A walk wearing rented kimonos through Gion, the Kyoto old town, to Kiyomizu temple. The distance amounted to two and a half kilometers. The return trip we did by a taxi.
A visit to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, the torii arcade.
For a dinner we had ramen portions, amply sized as is customary, and domestic strawberries for dessert. The tastes of industrially and privately produced strawberries differ here, too.
A bullet train trip from Kyoto to Tokyo. We bought a lunch box from the train. We passed Mt. Fuji by a rather short distance.
Wakae Uchida, my "other mother" from Yokohama. She gave me a home stay when I was a student trainee.
Our last overnight stay in Shinjuku, Tokyo, in a hotel named JR Kyushu Hotel Blossom which, in spite of its name, is not located in Kyushu.
This cafeteria you can enter only within the time slot indicated by your reservation.
We travelled by the Narita Express train from Tokyo to Narita Airport in the middle of a workday, and yet we were the only passengers in our compartment even inside Tokyo.
