CLAUDIA & CARSTEN'S WORLD EXPEDITION

Welcome to Japan

Starbucks here welcomes international customers with great style!

Meiji Shrine

We arrived to Tokyo late in the night, so our first day in Tokyo was pretty relaxed. This is the Meiji Shrine, which is a sanctuary built to honor Emperor Meiji. In the late 1860s, he began a conversion of the Japanese political and social structure to end the Shogunate state and begin a modern state.

Sake containers

Washing your hands

This is standard procedure in Japan before you enter a worship site.

Cleaning

I think this was our first glimpse of Japan. The person in charge of this garden, dressed in a suit, cleaned the entering place of the garden every time somebody walked in.

Entering the main shrine

Prayers

People write their prayers on these wooden blocks and place them around a tree in the area.

Manga is big in Japan

Hello Kitty giving directions

Shibuya crossing

This is the street crossing in front of the metro station of Shibuya. We were there at around 19:00 and it was not very crazy, but on busy hours this is packed with people.

Shibuya

Chinese restaurant

Most restaurants in Japan look like this. You are served very fast and the food is very good.

Tsukiji Market

We wanted to see a Sumo practice, but they were not held while we were in Tokyo, so we decided to do to Tsukiji Market instead. The famous tuna auction has become a big tourist attraction, so you have to be here at 03:00 AM to (maybe) get a spot. We decided we didn't want to spend our time on that, so we visited the market in the morning instead.

Huge scallops

Fresh seafood

King crab??

His head is bigger than mine

Breaking ice

Tsukiji market is very old and it has been agreed that it will be replaced by a new and more modern market in the next months. In the meantime, these men are still breaking blocks of ice in order to deliver to the different shops and keep the fish and seafood cold. It is not allowed to take pictures inside the market, so all the photos we have are from shops in the outside area.

The market shrine

Shrine of the tuna fish

Shrine of the merchants

Canned whale meat

I took this picture, but in one month, this is the only place where we have seen this. Maybe because we cannot read Japanese, but whale doesn't seem to be part of their diet.

This restaurant served whale meat

This is the fire extinguisher

Yan-san and us

Yan-san is a good friend from Maersk times and we spent this day with him.

Charcoal grilled tuna

He took us to this excellent restaurant that lies close to the market where you can eat charcoal grilled tuna jaws. They were so soft and tasty and delicious!!

Asakusa Temple

We also visited this temple, which in the last 10 years has become very touristic. Japan, like most countries in Asia, is now invaded with Chinese tourists.

South East Asian geishas

All the girls you see dressed as geishas in our pictures, are foreign. For JPY 3.000 (USD 25) you can rent a Kimono for the day and walk around. This girls were probably from Malaysia or Thailand.

Yan-san and Carsten

Yan-san brought me Sakura (cherry tree) flowers from his garden and Carsten is holding them on this picture, that's why they are laughing.

Trying to take good pics

Fountain

Incense and prayers

Sakura trees

We were around 1 month too early to see all Sakura trees in blossom, but nevertheless, we managed to see some around.

Outside the Imperial Palace

It was closed that day, so we couldn't get inside.

Pruned trees

I was shocked to see that every single tree in this garden was perfectly pruned....at a cost of JPY 200.000 per tree!!! Most trees we saw in Japan were pruned, which only goes to show the Japanese style of doing things...perfect.

Imperial garden

Dinner with a good friend

I hadn't seen Moto probably since 1999, so it was nice to catch up again.

The day after

Carsten and Hans Peter had been out for a "Heavy Metal evening" the night before, so we needed some coffee the day after.

Tour to Odaiba

We went with our friends to the Odaiba area to look around and stumbled upon a crowd of people searching for Pokemons.

Freedom still lives in Japan

??

Yes, you see weird things in Japan. Like this grown up man dressed in pink and buying Hello Kitty stuff in the mall.

Games

There are hundreds of huge game stores, where you can play video games and all kind of games. The noise in this places is unbelievable.

Playing

Akihabara

We went to this neighborhood because I wanted to see some Manga stores, but it was not very interesting. The Ghibli Museum of Hayao Miyazaki is probably the best one, but it lies in another area of Tokyo and you need to book in advance and I didn't do it.

So you take your duck for a walk

Japanese people have the strangest habits when it comes to owning pets. As population ages, there are now more dogs than kids in Japan; which makes people treat their pets, as they would treat their kids. Dogs are not walked around, but rather carried in trolleys, dressed up like humans and can sit on a chair in a café. This duck had shoes....

Night view from Ebisu Garden Palace

Tokyo by night

Day trip to Hakone

Kendo helmet for sale

Pruning

I took this picture, just because it shows how much they care for the way things look around here.

Skywalk

Our friends

Mount Fuji in the distance

Traveling to Kyoto

These people in the suits are in charge of cleaning the Shinkansen (train) wagons and rearranging everything before the next trip starts. They do everything in 10 minutes. They bow to every single passenger that comes off the train.

Bento Boxes

This is the way you have lunch in Japanese trains. At the stations they sell these Bento boxes, which have ready made sushi or food which you can carry with you. Though the amount of paper and plastics used in Japan is crazy, we must say it is a nice way of trying food, because every city and region have their own speciality.

Sushi

Salmon nigiri

Fuji covered again!

Our apartment in Kyoto

Food machine

This is the way you order food in most Japanese restaurants. You get a ticket from the machine and give it to the cook. In that way, there is no contamination with the money. Smart. And they always have change.

This food was delicious!

Ginkakuji Temple

The "Silver Pavillion" was our first visit.

It was very pretty

With the usual shrine

And beautiful gardens

This is the way the roof is made

The philosopher's path

Philosopher's Path

This is a very nice walk and luckily we could see some Sakura trees.

Temples

Kyoto was fortunately not bombed during the war, so it kept many of the old buildings. Kyoto is the "quintessential" Japan and it used to the Japan's capital.

Chinese geishas

Higashiyama street

Kyomizu Dera temple

Samurai statue

Nishiki Market

Stuffed octupuss

It was good!

Kinkakuji Temple

This is called the "Golden Pavillion". It was also full of Chinese tourists.

Arashiyama Forest

I saw this forest in a National Geographic magazine in the 80s. Now it is full of tourists.

Sanjusangendo Temple

Sanjusangendo Buddhas

These pictures are not ours, you are not allowed to take pictures inside. The building holds statues of 1.001 Buddhas and it is very beautiful.

Inari shrine

Praying

Buy your worship piece of wood

Map

Shrines

Every single one of these columns is a worship that people have made. You buy one and you pay according to the size and position in the mountain. It takes around 1 hour to walk all the way to the top of the hill.

Manga worship....

The top

Kyoto by sunset

Imperial Palace Gardens