That's all for now!

That is all I think we have to share at the moment about our trip to Japan. For all of those wondering if Japan is a country worth visiting...YES it is!

I would probably recommend going during the cherry blossom. But for those of you that want to enjoy being the only tourists at many tourist attractions January is the month to go. January is also the sunniest month of the whole year for the southeastern and eastern part of the main island. I can be quite cold some days though...but the sun warms you up!

The language barrier isn't anything to worry about (like I did before going). We didn't really have any problems getting around, you usually just need some extra time.

The food is great! The people too! So what are you waiting for! Just goooooooooooo!!!

Starbucks!

You must wonder how many Starbucks mugs I bought in the end. Here's the answer: 9 (11 including 2 I'm giving away).

My total number of mugs is 16 which means that 16 of you are welcome some weekend in the future for a Starbucks inspired fika!

As the geographer I am...

I love watching the world from above so even though I am a bit scared of flying I can't resist the window seat and looking out the window. And I have to, of course, share those wow moments!

Agricultural fields...lots of them.

You can, if you try really hard, see Mt. Fuji far far away.

Mountainous Japan.

Northern Russia.

The beer food samples made it through security...yeah!

We had the pleasure to once again travel with the Friendly Limousine Bus to get to the airport (we also took this bus when we arrived in Tokyo). It’s very convinient for visitors that my brother has a fancy and large hotel just a two minute walk from his house :o)

Before arriving at the airport the bus stopped at a security check point just outside the terminal which was quite interesting. We had our passports checked and they did some kind of second long check of the luggage in the luggage compartments. I still don’t know what the security check was for since I doupt that they could discover anything dangerous in our luggage that quickly…maybe they would if there had been dogs involved in the process.

A very very very happy guy helped us at the baggage drop. He must really get wrinkles if he smiles that hard all through his work days.

I was sort of worried about going through security with my beer food samples that were to heavy to put in my checked in suitcase. And I guess the customs found them suspicious because they wanted to go through the carry on suitcase manually after the screening and the only thing they were after was the beer food samples. Luckily, when the custom official discovered what it was he let me off the hook.

Beer food samples.

I had planned to sleep lots on the long flight…but that didn’t happen. I watched four movies instead, one action movie and three romantic comedies. Rickard who wanted to watch as many movies as possible slept more than I did, but

I still think he managed to watch four as well.

We had lots of time at Heathrow to pass through security which was good since we ended up in the queue behind a lot of Japanese people from our plane of which some had a difficult time understanding the English instructions from the customs official. My beer food samples went through the security screening this time … but it took some extra time for the suitcase to come through. I was glad, since it would have been more difficult to describe what it was to the British customs than it was for the Japanese customs since they are used to seeing food samples everywhere.

I had some British pounds with me that we spent at … Starbucks of course! We couldn’t afford coffee but bought a bag of coffee beans (and I'm proud of myself that I didn't buy one of those cool mugs they had).

Our last flight became 30 minutes delayed but we still managed to get home to our apartment by 11 PM after 22 ½ hours of travelling, including the bus to Narita Airport.

Rickard started his Sunday with checking prices on flights to Japan during the cherry blossom. After that everything returned to normal (=vardag).

Last day in Tokyo and in Japan :o(

Enough sightseeing! Time to buy everything we need to bring home!

Rica (my brother's wife) took us to a four stories grocery store, Jasco, in the morning. It had lots more than groceries though. While Rickard was going through the alcohol and food sections I had to convince myself not to buy one of those cute school backpacks for children in grade 1 to 6 that I really wanted to buy. What postponed the decision was the fact that it was to small for me to wear (and VERY expensive) … but I may ask my brother to buy one in the future just because it is sooooooooo cool! Well anyway, Rickard bought lots of groceries and alcohol to compensate for not buying the backpack.

After lunch together with Rica on the 16th floor of a hotel building Rickard and I headed to Harajuku, the center of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles. My two oldest nephews just loves this place, but it wasn't really for me. The only reason for going really was to finally find a 100 Yen store (one of the largest in Tokyo) to buy hair elastic bands for my sister Anna. To be able to say that we had been there, we also walked the main street for the extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles, Takeshita Dori.

Takeshita Dori in the background.

We then headed over to Ginza for a last visit to Ito-ya, our favourite office supply store that consists of eight storeys of everything you need when it comes to your office :o) I just bought a few things, but could have gone wild in there if I hadn't bought all my Starbucks mugs.

Ito-ya is in the narrow building with the large paper clip.

The evening was mostly spent packing. I don't know how but all those kilograms we brought over for my brother that we thought we wouldn't replace was very replacable after all. We ended up filling both our suitcases with just the weight limit we were allowed (23 kg each). Luckily I took all my heavy Starbucks mugs in my carry on suitcase.

Suitably for the last evening in Japan, we had sushi for dinner!

Not much time and still lots to see!

Thursday was spent discovering more new places in Tokyo. We began the day by travelling to Odaiba - a man made island that began being built during the end of Edo-period 17th century. It's one of Tokyo's main tourist attractions today with lots of shopping, dining and leisure options.

One of the shopping malls on Odaiba. It was like coming into a

totally different world from the world outside.

Really nice fountain in the middle of the same shopping mall.

Another Ferris wheel by a shopping mall.

Our main purpose with the trip was to find a 100 Yen store to buy some things for my sister Anna. But since the island is large and have quite a few shopping malls we didn't find the store (and we thought it would be called 100 Yen store, like the 1 dollar stores in Canada, which we learned afterwards that it's not called). Instead we went on a tourist cruise of the harbour in the beautiful sunshine. We were not all alone on the boat as you may think from the pictures. There were 4 more persons after the first stop and 8 more persons after the second stop.

Rickard alone at sea!

At least he had me!

Some of Tokyo's skyline.

Rainbow bridge.

After a great sushi lunch with a view of the Rainbow bridge, we got to enjoy a train ride on the Yurikamome elevated train line. It was a really cool ride that felt more like being on a roller coaster (it actually went in a circle after the Rainbow bridge) than a train.

Sushi for lunch.

We're still in Tokyo...

The day continued with another visit to the kitchen district to find some bowls and another food sample (a beer can this time with fake ice on its outside).

I just love food samples :o)

We then headed on to Tokyo Tower, pretty much a copy of the Eiffel Tower but 13 meters higher, where we went up 250 meters to get a view of Tokyo by night. I can't say I enjoyed the elevator ride but the view was fantastic.

Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo from above...

Rickard didn't dare to stand on the lookout window...I managed.

Our last stop for the day was Roppongi Hills which is a city in the city that includes residential space, offices, shops and recreational facilites within one building complex. (Roppongi is also the name of my favourite sushi restaurant in Stockholm) I didn't find Roppongi Hills that fascinating but the view of Tokyo Tower with the moon wasn't too bad.

Roppongi Hills.

My favourite picture of the day.

Since we didn't start the day until 11 AM we started making our way back to my brother's place at 9 PM, but after so much sightseeing I really just wanted to sleep!

Izakaya but without Nomihodai!

After watching the Sumo wrestling, we met up with my brother and went to Shinjuku, for an Izakaya night with Nomihodai. Izakaya is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks (usually many different small dishes). Nomihodai is the name for paying a certain price and then getting to drink as much as you like within a limited amount of time (for example two hours).

Not all Izakaya's have Nomihodai so we walked around for a long time without finding a good place for Nomihodai. Maybe that was for the best just ending up with a regular Izakaya :o)

Since Japan is a high tech country we could order small dishes of food, beer and drinks from a computer screen at the table. Very convenient!

We didn't leave hungry, that's for sure!!! To top things off we went to a British pub on the way home. Food and beer is usually not expensive but imported beer is very expensive at least compared to Swedish prices.

Japan Post!

I received my first confirmation text message that at least one of my postcards has arrived in Sweden. Both Rickard and I sent our postcards on Sunday which means it only took 4 weekdays to arrive. That's faaaaaaaaaaaaast!

And the stamps were really cheap! 70 JPY which is about the same as sending postcards within Sweden. Half price really from sending postcards abroad from Sweden.

Sumo!!!

Last night we got to see Sumo. It was day 11 of the Hatsu Basho at Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. We got there at 4 PM and stayed to the last fight at 6 PM. The reason we got there so late was that the better wrestlers fight at the end of each day. It was two exciting hours.

The bout is about to begin

Our cheap seats still had a desent view of the dohyō

Deliberation between the judges after doubts about who the winner was.
Their decision was a re-match.

One of the fights we got to witness.

Kaiten-sushi

We've been sushi deprived for a week now so on the way to my brother' place we passed the Kaiten-sushi place we tried our first evening in Japan. We couldn't use the ordering system because it was only in Japanese but yummy things were brought to us anyway.

Beer is heading our way!

Not only sushi is served.

Fuji-san

We wook up to a beautiful day yesterday which meant we could see Mt. Fuji (if the weather is not great usually the mountain hides in the cloudes). Our upgraded room though didn't mean we got the beautiful view from our window.

After having our brought breakfast (the breakfast at the hotel was expensive) we headed out to catch a cable car on the Hakone Ropeway. It goes from Togendai by Lake Ashi, past Ubako and Owakudani to Sounzan. We got on at Ubako which was a short walk from our hotel.



Our first stop was Owakudani ("valley of great boiling") where steam jets from the crevices and fumaroles belch sulfurous vapors. One of the main attractions here are the black eggs that are cooked in a hot steam spring. The inside of the egg gets a weird and loose consistency that you don't get from boiling eggs at home. They almost tasted like ice cream!


We've come to love the English signs that you can find all over the place. This one on the inside of a cable car says "Door will open automatically, so pleace refrain from putting your hands".


We also liked the sign at the different stops that said which station it was followed by "Please teach the station employee the person who gets off".


After going to Sounzan we headed back down to Togendai for a trip on Lake Ashi with replicated ships of old historical ships. You had a pretty good view of Mt. Fuji from the lake as well.




After stopping at Hakone-machi and Moto-Hakone we headed back to Togendai took the cable car to Ubuko to get our bags at the hotel and then took the bus back to Odawara for our last Shinkansen train ride.