Travelogue Japan-Videoes Part 4

Continuing with Gundam, the transformations get more dramatic as the day nears night.  The video below was captured at twilight.  Notice the lights and music in the background

Travelogue Japan-Videoes Part 3

We continue today with a few more videoes.  We will start with Godzilla in Shinjuku.  The head and hand peers over the Toho Cinemas location in Kabukicho.  On an hourly basis, Godzilla will roar and spit atomic flames with his theme music in the background.  This is the more classic design compared to the current statue at Tokyo Midtown which embodies the look from the 2016 Shin Godzilla live action movie

Travelogue Japan-Videoes Part 2

The first video shows the wall of instant ramen that chronicles the product from its first inception to many of the products that are on offer now at the Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama

Travelogue Japan-Videoes Part 1

Some videoes that I took but did not upload til now.  Some needed to be edited while others needed to be compressed for upload.  The first few are of the river that was outside our hotel in Hakone.  

Travelogue Japan-Departure

I fly home today feeling like I had just begun this trip not very long ago.  My flight leaves Haneda around 1625.  This morning, I caught up on all the blog posts for this trip.  This left very little time to do anything except have lunch and get to the airport.  I was in the mood to have a hamburger steak.  There are a number of places to go.  Family style restaurants are places that are sure to have this item.  Royal Host and Denny's come to mind but I choose Jonathons.  There was one not to far from Yurakcho station.  I had the mix grill with sausage and chicken.  I always opt for the rice instead of bread.  The drink bar option gave me access to a number of beverages.  This was filling but mostly it was a satisfying cap to the trip

Travelogue Japan-Day 10 Mt Fuji Part 2

Lunch was a local favorite as hotto.  It was described as flat udon.   It was a flat wide noodle with vegetables in a miso broth.  It was a warming dish served on a day like this.  Karaage accompanied the meal but was not as crunchy as I would have liked it.  Tasted ok

Travelogue Japan-Day 10 Mt Fuji Part 1

Today was a bad day to go to Mt Fuji.  I had booked a bus tour that would take you to the Fuji Subaru 5th station.  There would also be fruit picking

Travelogue Japan-Day 9 Ameyokocho

One of the rare days of sun in the city during my stay.  Would have been nice to have just a few more of these

Travelogue Japan-Day 8 Gundam

Today I start the bulk of my shopping.  Sure I could have done it days earlier with everyone else but I didnt want to lug all that stuff from Ueno to my final hotel.  Sumo sighting at Tokyo station as I boarded bound for Shibuya

Travelogue Japan-Day 7 Cup Noodle Museum And Kamakura

When mentioned, a few in our party were glad to hear about the museum in Yokohama.  There were all sorts of problems with the trains today.  It took a little while longer to get down to the museum.  It wasnt very crowded so we got into making our cup noodle pretty quickly.

Travelogue Japan-Day 6 West Side Story

We are exploring the west side of the Yamanote loop.  I have found that I have not taken as many pictures over the last few days as I normally would,  This has also resulted in forgetting what we did that day.  We began at Meiji Jingu because my friends' son was still a toddler when he came.  He remembered a few things about that visit and wanted to explore it more.  Afterwards, we went to the World Gourmet and Music festival.  A rather disappointing little event in my mind.  I was hoping for more vendors to pack the event location.

We walked the short ditance to Shibuya where we spent the builk of the time at Mega Don Quijote

I didnt chronicle this part in hardly any pictures but we went to Shinjuku aftwards.  I got a video of Godzilla roaring and breathing fire.  They got a kick from looking at the entrance to the Robot Restaurant.  A little bit more shopping was done when we stumbled upon a 100 yen shop.  Broke into 2 groups for dinner, sushi or noodles.  When dinner was done, some continued shopping, some went back for the night and the last went to Sky Tree.  Sola Machi Mall makes the base of the structure

Enter through the lower observatory before paying an additional fee to reach the higher level.

The Asahi building with its unique ornament back on its roof.  Last year it was removed

It was decided to walk to Asakusa instead of taking the subway as we did on the ride to get here

Across the bridge and we can look back on where we came from.  We took the subway the rest of the way back to our accommodations

Travelogue Japan-Day 5 Go East

The sun comes up early in Japan.  On sunny days, it could be fully bright by 4:45 am.  I meant to walk the banks of the nearby river the previous day but got caught up in watching TV

Travelogue Japan-Day 4 Onsen

Much of this trip was to recreate alot of the things we did 13 years ago when the majority of the group came together for a trip to Japan.  Heading to Hakone Yumoto, we transfer at Odawara.  A few people train watching from an upper level

Travelogue Japan-Day 4 All Quiet On The Western Front

This morning we leave Osaka in the rear view mirror and flow back to the east towards Hakone.  We stayed in an area very close to America Mura.  I like this location as Dotonburi is within walking distance and the subway exit is only a block away.

Travelogue Japan-Day 3, Go West

We are staying in the sahdow of Skytree.  due to the weather, this is the first we have been able to see the very top of the tower

Travelogue Japan-Day 2 The East Side

To take advantage of the jet lag, our first destination was Tsukiji Market.  We didnt get up early enough doe the fish market but definitely came to grab something for breakfast

Travelogue Japan-Update

Postings will resume again shortly.  Friends have flown in and have been showing them around.  Went to Osaka abd Hakone during a few days outside of Tokyo. 

Its been a bad few days for the Shinkansen.  There was a stabbing one day.  Another day, a train hit something which damaged its nose.  Thinking nothing of the conductor continued.  Later human body parts were found.  On Sat, Yohoku bullet trains were delayed due to earthquake.  This morning i woke up to news of an earthquake on Osaka that halted all trains for a while.  Makes me wonder if a swarm of quakes will lead to shaking in Tokyo while I am still here

Travelogue Japan-Day 1 Meet Up

Today, friends fly in from home.  I will be leading them around.  Went to get breakfast: onigiri with furikaken, onigiri with tuna mayo, curry fried rice, vegetables and a comforting bowl of miso soup.  thought about going out to see the new Unicorn Gundam statue in Odaiba but the constant rain from yesterday really hampered those plans.

Travelogue Japan-Arrival

Flew into a raining day in Tokyo.  Activated my JR Pass for the next day and took the Keikyu line into town.  Transferred at Shinagawa and got off at Tokyo  Stn.  This is a new location for the Toyoko Inn chain.

I can take a hint...

On my way to Japan.  Due to the high cost of taking a direct flight I booked a flight to LAX before departing abroad the next day.  I made sure to arrive at the airport at appropriate time.  Unfortunately I can't say the same for the airline.  Original estimate was a 3 hour delay.  Later it was reduced to 1.5 hours.  Luckily I don't have connecting flight to catch.  This itenarary was built utilizing 2 different airlines.

The previous time I booked a similar schedule that took advantage of a red eye out of LAX.  I was hoping to find some sleep on the flight but it eluded me as with every other flight.  This trip was booked all on the same airlines.  On that occasion the flight was delayed as well.  After the flight landed I ran to the international terminal to get to the gate as they began boarding.  A sinking feeling was gnawing at me during the flight.  I was to discover that although I made the flight, my luggage did not.  It found its way to me a day later.

So this time I had a cushion of several hours but it's taught me to avoid these issues and take the direct flight when possible.

Thanks a lot airline industry.

Update:The delay has gone back to 3 hrs. Damn it!

Update: 1.5 hrs into the delay and an announcement informs us that neither the 203 nor 2240 flight for LAX has even taken to the air for SFO yet.  Looks like the later flight may get to LA first.  To think i paid more to get on the earlier flight.  DAMN IT!

UPDATE: 3.5 hr delay and land at 0130 in the morning. At the room by 0200.  Will need to get up and out by 0730