My trip to Japan

 My trip to Japan

      During the last school holidays, my family and I visited Japan. After checking-in to our hotel at 2:45 in the morning, we slept till 11:00 in the morning before eating brunch at a Michelin-star restaurant which served sardine dishes. After our breakfast, we visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Park which had many flowers there; the majority of the flowers were cherry blossoms,  but there were also other flowers like tulips, sweet-briers, etc. There was also a small lake in the middle of the park and we took many pictures there because the landscape was very scenic. 

Brunch

Shinjuku Gyoen National Park

      After that, we went to Meiji Jingu which was a Shinto shrine which honoured the deceased Emperor Meiji (Tip: Shrines are in Shinto culture while temples are in Buddhist culture). The site was very tranquil and serene and we could relax our mind with ease. For dinner, we ate some sushi, tempura and ramen as we walked around the busy streets of Tokyo and a shrine in the middle of the city.

Meiji Jingu

Dinner

The shrine

      On the next morning, we ate at Sukiya and I ordered a bowl of udon. After finishing that exquisite dish, me father rented a car and we embarked on our journey to Kawaguchi. After a 2 -hour journey to our destination (we stopped at an R&R for a short break), we took a ropeway to the peak of Mount Kachi-Kachi to have a view of Mount Fuji (too bad 'cos a fog kinda  Mount Fuji but don't worry, we saw it later) and to enjoy the environment there. We bought some souvenirs and had lunch at some restaurant selling noodles like udon and soba.

Breakfast

Our car

Lake Kawaguchiko

Someplace at Mount Kachi-Kachi

Lunch

      Then, we continued our journey to Arakurayama Park to see Mount Fuji again. After walking up what felt like a thousand steps, we arrived at the park. Whenever you search the Internet for pics of Mount Fuji, you could see the mountain together with some red pagoda, right. Yeah,  those photographers go to Arakurayama Park to take those photos. And the name of the pagoda is Chureito  Pagoda, and yup, we took a plenty of photos of that scenery of Mount Fuji too. 

Arakurayama Park

      Next, we went to a souvenir shop in an art museum which I forgot its name but we didn't buy any souvenirs :( . Not long after, we had tea at a cafe called Mimi Cafe which is located near Lake Kawaguchiko. After the tea, Mount Fuji was finally cleared off the fog. We took many scenic pictures of Mount Fuji with Lake Kawaguchiko before the sun set. After half an hour, we ate dinner and headed back to Tokyo and returned our car. 

Before

After

Dinner

     On the next day, we ate breakfast at McDonalds and visited Ueno Park where there were countless cherry blossoms again. There was also a statue of a Japanese prince, a tomb of a plenty samurai and an honourable statue of Saigo Takamori, the last samurai general. Right after Ueno park, we visited Sumida Park which is located near the Tokyo Skytree. There was also a statue of Katsu Kaishu too. For lunch, we had some barbecue at a nearby restaurant and we ordered pork, chicken and the famous Kobe beef. 

Ueno Park

Statue of the Japanese prince

Tomb of the samurai

Statue of Saigo Takamori

Sumida Park

Statue of Katsu Kaishu 

     My family and I walked to Asakusa right after we had our lunch. We took pictures of Senso-ji, a temple inside Asakusa honouring the goddess of mercy. We also bought many souvenirs there like keychains, fridge magnets and tidbits. Not to forget, but there were also many women wearing kimonos and yukatas. 

Asakusa

     After the trip to Asakusa, we went to the Shinjuku Samurai Museum. During the one hour period in the museum, we learned a lot about samurai and there was even a samurai demonstration. We saw many old armours,weapons and even helmets in the museum. At the end of the museum tour, we were even allowed to dress as samurai or geisha to take photos. We had dinner at a restaurant which had a variety of Japanese cuisine like sashimi and barbecue again. We walked through Tokyo and ate a bowl soba before going shopping. On our final day, we visited a shrine called Asama Shrine which was just very near our hotel. Although that place is a bit small, it was still interesting.

Shinjuku Samurai Museum

Dinner

Asama Shrine

     After that, we ate breakfast at Yoshinoya and visited Yoyogi Park (plus loads more of cherry blossoms!) and sat by a lake to rest after taking a variety of photos again. At the park there was something like a dog corner where we watched the dogs enjoy themselves together. For lunch, we ate sushi at a conveyer belt restaurant at Shibuya. Since we were at Shibuya, we visited the statue of the famous Hachiko and took pics of it. Next, we went to Chidorigafuchi where (there were cherry blossoms again) there was a huge site for us to picnic. We didn't really go inside to look around so we rested under a pine tree. 

Yoyogi Park

Lunch

Statue of Hachiko

Chidorigafuchi

     Last but not least, we encountered something different from everywhere we went in our entire trip at Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. Although we were there for a short time ('cos the garden was about to close :( ), the place was amazing as we saw many plants, a huge lake and (cherry blossoms, duh) Japanese stone lanterns while enjoying ice cream(sorry but I can't really describe it because you have to experience it to know). We ate dinner at a Japanese fusion restaurant. After that, we did plenty of shopping before leaving for Haneda Airport. I cherished my time at Japan a lot.