We took off from Honolulu at 15:00 of the 18th of April. The flight took about 9 hours, but since we passed the international date line we landed in Tokyo on 19:00 of the 19th of April, so gained 5 hours, but we lost 1 day!
From the airport we took the bus to Chofu station. We met our friend Claudio there and took the train together to reach his apartment. Claudio is a kindergarten friend of Lorenzo and they grew up in the same town. Claudio is living in Japan since 8 years and it is our first time to visit him here.
On Saturday after breakfast we took off to explore Tokyo all together. We walked mainly in the Roppongi district. It is our first time in an asian country, so all the signs in Japanese, the language and the crowd were all so new to us!
After our first Japanese lunch we proceeded our walk along the walls of the imperial palace towards the financial district and the central station from where we took the train back home. However before going home we stopped for a stroll in the park and dinner.
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| Cherry blossom |
On Sunday Claudio took us for a very nice hike up the Jinba Mountain (Jinba San). The first part of the hike was all uphill until we reached the first hill, where we stopped and ate our pic-nic. After lunch we continued towards Jinba.
On the peaks and rest areas different little stands offered soups, tea or tempura of alpine herbs to refuel energy. On the top of Jinba we tried a home made ice cream made from yuzu, an asian citrus fruit. Very delicious and refreshing!
On our descent from Jinba we also stopped at a traditional Japanese spa, the onsen (traditional public baths).
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| Mountain herbs tempura on our way to Jinba |
On Monday in the morning we went to the university of Tokyo with Claudio and he showed us his office and some of his projects and we had lunch together at the cafeteria, which was very good!
In the afternoon we explored the Shibuya district, with the famous Shibuya crossing. Towards the evening we moved to Akihabara, the electronic district, famous for all the electronic shops, for the comic figures and video games.
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| Shibuya crossing |
The following day we walked around the Shinjuku district and visited the Tokyo city hall in the afternoon. We went up to the 24 floor of one of the 2 towers and appreciated the view of the skyline. It was pretty clear but a bit dim in the distance, so we could not see mount Fuji...
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| Tokyo City Hall |
On Wednesday, our last day in Tokyo, it was rainy. We visited the National Museum, an art, archaeology and history museum of Tokyo. After the museum we moved to the Ginza district for some shopping. First stop was the Hello Kitty store :) and then we went on the search of mochi, pastries made of rice flour, that we wanted to bring to our Korean friends. In the evening we shared one last meal in a nice sushi bar. The order could be placed on a tablet and the ordered sushis were brought to our table via a little train. Very cool!
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| Sushi restaurant with the little train :) |
On Thursday 25th of April in the morning we took our last train ride to the airport, which also was an experience! We had to take the train in full rush hour time! The train was just squeezed full with people and with our big backpacks it was not the nicest of trips we had...
Our next stop will be Seoul, South Korea, where we also will meet some friends that we met in San Diego almost 10 years ago.
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