Trayle

The last 3 weeks I have been travelling around Japan with my girlfriend Vale. Japan is an amazing country, highly organized, never chaotic but almost always busy. The Japanese are some of the most corteous people I know. An example: we asked a person if a certain train would be arriving at the platform we were standing on and he said it would be arriving in six minutes. After six minuted exactly (trains always run on time in Japan), the train arrived. The guy pointed us to the train and said how many stops we should remain in it and walked of the platform. He had waited six minuted just to point us to the train, he didn't have to take...  Another thing are the toilets, amazing machines in Japan, with gadgets like the sound of rushing water if you can't start peeing, lids that automatically open when you enter the cubicle... But to the journey:

We arrived in Tokyo at Narita airport. Tokyo is huge, but does not have one centre but at least 6 centres, each a metropolis in its own right. Some of the things to see there are

 

the world famous fish market where at 5 in the morning the fresh fish arrives to be sold to all the restaurants and shops all over Tokyo. Did you know that the Japanese eat 20% of all fish eaten in the world?

 

 

 

 

Another highlight is the Emperial Palace, which has some beautiful stroll gardens and a lovely fountainpark. But the best thing about Tokyo is just strolling around in the city being amazed about the people, the buildings and all the shops.

 

During our stay in Tokyo we made a day trip to Nikko.  This small town 100km north of Tokyo is the place where the Shoguns were buried. Now you can see beautiful temples in ancient forest. When you arrive near the temples you can still see the old bridge that brings you to the temple forest. In the forest you will find a multitude of smaller and bigger temples. One of these: a beautiful 5 tiered pagoda.

The following destination of our trip was Kyoto. An absolute must for everybody that goes to Japan. More than 4000 temples dot the city and almost all are worth a visit. Unfortunately we only had time to visit about twelve of them.  But only these twelve made Kyoto a city I won't forget easily. Possibly the most famous of these temples is the golden temple. Although not genuine any more because a monk lost his mind 20 years ago and torched the place. The temple you see now is an exact replica of the original.

Close to the golden temple is probably one of the most famous sights of Japan.  The rock garden with 15 rocks. It looks like every little stone has been handplaces, and probably this is also the case. Go there very early in the morning because the crowds can really destroy the experience and this temple is really crowded. Of course there are lots of other things to see in Kyoto but for that you will have to go there yourself!

From Kyoto we made to trips to other towns one of them because we could not find a place to sleep in Kyoto was to Kobe. This city is known throughout the world for the great earthquake of 1995 which all but leveled the city. So no old temples here.  The city is very modern and has a very vibrant feeling to it. The placement in between lush green hills and the ocean makes this a very pleasant place to stay. Another reason to go to Kobe is the beef. The immaculate kobe beef is made from cows which have been massaged every day and in whose diet there is room for beer. The tenderness of the meat is amazing and the taste makes my mouth still water...

The other trip was to Nara, the capital of Japan before Kyoto was the capital.  All the sights of Nara can be found in the Nara-Koen. In this park there thousands of deer, who attack all tourists around in search of food or paper which they see as food.  The most impressive sight is the huge wooden hall (the biggest wooden sturcture in the world) which houses an 18m high bronze Buddha. Although this place was very crowded and it was raining heavily (things that can make sightseeing a hell), this is something I wouldn't have liked to miss from my trip to Japan. So if you go make time for this.