And so I've reached the end of my adventure, and what an adventure it's been!
This morning, I had breakfast at the hotel. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, but instead of Western staples like cereal and bagels, it was all traditional Japanese breakfast foods (such as rice, soba noodles, pickles, fish, and mochi) and it was delicious.
After breakfast, I set off to explore the shopping area one final time, and while most of the shops were still closed, I came across a side street called Nakamise, which was set up like a farmers market and featured everything from fresh fish and vegetables to grilled food on skewers and all kinds of tea.
It was time to say goodbye to Kyoto, though, so I made my way to the train station and boarded a shinkansen to head off to Tokyo. This time, I was fortunate to get a window seat, and got to see a good deal of the Japanese countryside.
I even got to see Mount Fuji! Albeit from far away and mostly shrouded by clouds.
After about three hours, I arrived in Tokyo once more. I got to my hotel in short order, located in Gotanda, but check-in wasn't for another 45 minutes so I left my luggage and wandered around for a bit. I stayed in the neighborhood, as anything I wanted to see was at least a half hour away, but I managed to find a good ramen shop on a side street and had a late lunch of pork ramen.
I eventually headed back to the hotel for 3:00pm and unpacked a bit, trying to decide what to do with my remaining time in Japan. It certainly was starting to feel like I was in the epilogue or post-credits scene of my trip, as there wasn't much time left to do stuff and travel fatigue was finally settling in. I eventually decided to check out the Imperial Palace, so I hopped on the subway and took a half-hour trip out to the heart of Tokyo.
The Imperial Palace was pretty cool, even though visitors aren't allowed inside (or even very close) as the Emperor still resides there (though apparently he will abdicate at the end of April, marking the end of the Hisei Period and starting off a ton of festivals leading up to the reign of a new Emperor later this year).*
*thanks, Wikipedia.
The palace grounds were immaculately-kept and beautiful, surrounded by an impressive moat.
From there, I decided to make my next destination Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin, a shrine I'd read about while planning my trip that sounded worth a visit. As I walked around the exterior of the palace grounds and into the heart of the city, I felt like I must have put in the wrong address, and I was surrounded by skyscrapers and there couldn't possibly be a shrine nearby. Eventually, though, I turned a corner, and there it was. For reference, here's the shrine's entrance:
And here was what was just across the street:
The shrine was another Inari-dedicated shrine, and much like Fushimi Inari Taisha, was filled with fox statues.
It was an incredible little place, being just this little sanctuary of an ancient tradition of nature worship surrounded by tall, modern buildings and traffic in the heart of the largest city on the planet.
Feeling very grateful to have seen that shrine, and having gotten my adventurous spirit back, I decided to head over to Akihabara once more as the sun was setting and I'd pretty much seen all the outdoorsy or temple-y stuff on my list. After a quick subway ride, I was once more in the heart of the Electric Town, where I spent more time than I care to admit looking at the vast array of geek stuff, though just barely managing not to buy anything. I even saw a group of people dressed as Super Mario characters cruise down the main street in go-karts, though I was too slow on the camera draw to take a picture as they raced by.
As it was pretty late, I decided to head over to Ueno to try to find a good sushi place for dinner. It didn't take long to find one as the train station let out into a vast restaurant district. I quickly came upon a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where I ate my fill of delicious sushi and nigiri, finally completing my list of eating the essential Japanese foods on my trip.
Full and tired, it was time for me to head back to my hotel for my last night in Japan. I got back a bit after 9:00pm, ready to call it a night, with a fantastic view of the city from my hotel room window.
Thus concludes my second trip to Japan! Tomorrow morning I head off to the airport, and thanks to time zone technicalities, I'll be back home two hours after I leave. Thanks again to anyone who's reading this blog; I hope it's been an entertaining read and I hope you get to visit and experience Japan for yourself someday. As with my last trip, I will be uploading all 2000+ photos from this trip to Facebook once I'm back home.
Well, that's all for this journey. It's been an incredible adventure, and I can't believe I actually made it through whole thing. On to the next!
After breakfast, I set off to explore the shopping area one final time, and while most of the shops were still closed, I came across a side street called Nakamise, which was set up like a farmers market and featured everything from fresh fish and vegetables to grilled food on skewers and all kinds of tea.
It was time to say goodbye to Kyoto, though, so I made my way to the train station and boarded a shinkansen to head off to Tokyo. This time, I was fortunate to get a window seat, and got to see a good deal of the Japanese countryside.
I even got to see Mount Fuji! Albeit from far away and mostly shrouded by clouds.
After about three hours, I arrived in Tokyo once more. I got to my hotel in short order, located in Gotanda, but check-in wasn't for another 45 minutes so I left my luggage and wandered around for a bit. I stayed in the neighborhood, as anything I wanted to see was at least a half hour away, but I managed to find a good ramen shop on a side street and had a late lunch of pork ramen.
I eventually headed back to the hotel for 3:00pm and unpacked a bit, trying to decide what to do with my remaining time in Japan. It certainly was starting to feel like I was in the epilogue or post-credits scene of my trip, as there wasn't much time left to do stuff and travel fatigue was finally settling in. I eventually decided to check out the Imperial Palace, so I hopped on the subway and took a half-hour trip out to the heart of Tokyo.
The Imperial Palace was pretty cool, even though visitors aren't allowed inside (or even very close) as the Emperor still resides there (though apparently he will abdicate at the end of April, marking the end of the Hisei Period and starting off a ton of festivals leading up to the reign of a new Emperor later this year).*
*thanks, Wikipedia.
The palace grounds were immaculately-kept and beautiful, surrounded by an impressive moat.
From there, I decided to make my next destination Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin, a shrine I'd read about while planning my trip that sounded worth a visit. As I walked around the exterior of the palace grounds and into the heart of the city, I felt like I must have put in the wrong address, and I was surrounded by skyscrapers and there couldn't possibly be a shrine nearby. Eventually, though, I turned a corner, and there it was. For reference, here's the shrine's entrance:
And here was what was just across the street:
The shrine was another Inari-dedicated shrine, and much like Fushimi Inari Taisha, was filled with fox statues.
It was an incredible little place, being just this little sanctuary of an ancient tradition of nature worship surrounded by tall, modern buildings and traffic in the heart of the largest city on the planet.
Feeling very grateful to have seen that shrine, and having gotten my adventurous spirit back, I decided to head over to Akihabara once more as the sun was setting and I'd pretty much seen all the outdoorsy or temple-y stuff on my list. After a quick subway ride, I was once more in the heart of the Electric Town, where I spent more time than I care to admit looking at the vast array of geek stuff, though just barely managing not to buy anything. I even saw a group of people dressed as Super Mario characters cruise down the main street in go-karts, though I was too slow on the camera draw to take a picture as they raced by.
As it was pretty late, I decided to head over to Ueno to try to find a good sushi place for dinner. It didn't take long to find one as the train station let out into a vast restaurant district. I quickly came upon a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where I ate my fill of delicious sushi and nigiri, finally completing my list of eating the essential Japanese foods on my trip.
Full and tired, it was time for me to head back to my hotel for my last night in Japan. I got back a bit after 9:00pm, ready to call it a night, with a fantastic view of the city from my hotel room window.
Thus concludes my second trip to Japan! Tomorrow morning I head off to the airport, and thanks to time zone technicalities, I'll be back home two hours after I leave. Thanks again to anyone who's reading this blog; I hope it's been an entertaining read and I hope you get to visit and experience Japan for yourself someday. As with my last trip, I will be uploading all 2000+ photos from this trip to Facebook once I'm back home.
Well, that's all for this journey. It's been an incredible adventure, and I can't believe I actually made it through whole thing. On to the next!
