A week in Japan

The four symbols of Japan:

*Geisha*


*Cherry blossoms*


*Mt. Fuji*


*The Golden Pavilion*

:: One week in Japan was an interesting experience. It's quite a challenge as my parents aren't used to that kind of traveling (taking public transport, finding our own way, getting lost, heaps of walking). Finding our way was also a challenge since the Japanese that we met could hardly understand us.

:: The things that I really like about Japan is the food *yummmmm!*, the willingness of the people to help despite the language barrier, Japanese crafts (origami, Japanese papers and fabrics, Japanese fans) and the traditional Kyoto.

:: I found the fast pace of living in Tokyo to be quite stressful. The stations are always full of people who are running (yes, running) to their destinations no matter what time of the day it is. You'll also see people finishing work really late at night (around 11pm) and falling asleep on the train on their way home.

:: We took heaps of buses while we were in Kyoto and it's interesting how the bus works differently. The people would get on from the back door and pay the fares as they get out from the front door:)

:: We often take maps in Sydney for granted, but the maps in Japan are nothing like Sydney’s map. There’s no clear indication where to turn, how many more traffic lights before the turn, and even the street names aren’t very clear. Being used to read Sydney’s map, it’s really challenging to use maps in Japan to find your way.

:: There are many train companies and around 20 different local train and subway lines in Tokyo. The different train companies usually located at different locations. That means if you are in Shinjuku and you are looking for the train station, you need to know the train type (JR, Keisei, subway) to be able to locate the correct station.

:: I think overall we covered quite a number of places in our short stay in Japan. In Tokyo, we went to Asakusa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, and Tokyo Imperial Palace area. Then we went to Mt. Fuji (drove up to the 4th station), Hakone (the National Park close to Mt Fuji area), and one of the five lakes that surround the Mt. Fuji. In Kyoto, we managed to see the Golden Pavilion, the Silver Pavilion, the Kiyomizu Temple (one of the candidate for the new 7 wonders of the world), the Gion area, the bridge where they shot the movie 'Memoirs of a geisha', Ryoanji zen garden, Yasaka Pagoda, and the Sannenzaka slope.