Japan 2025: part 2

You can read about the first part of our 2025 Japan trip here.

We took the bus from Kyoto Station to Koya-san or Mount Koya, a sacred site and also a UNESCO sacred site and pilgrimaged route.

We drove through the industrial area of Kyoto, past rice fields mixing young dark green with ready-to-be-harvested yellow green lots. In one of the villages there was some festival on. We also noticed that there was quite a bit of rubbish around villages, they were definitely dirtier than the cities. We went through what looked like a mountain pass where it was pouring down with rain, to arrive at the bus stop in Koya-san. From there we walked to the traditional temple accommodation where we stayed, Hoon-in.

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After we were welcomed and shown to our rooms, which were very nice and simple – tatami mats on the floor, simple and traditional sliding windows and doors, we had a short refreshment break then we got going again.

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The first destination was a temple not far from the accommodation, Danjo Garan. The pond around the lake was very peaceful and the bridges were mirrored beautifully in the water. Photos are not allowed inside but it was quite ornate with lots of paintings and statues of Buddha and lotus flowers.

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Next destination was the cemetery- temple, Okuno-in. We walked all the way to the temple and we observed the locals as well. It was amazing as the memorial plaques and statues are surrounded by very tall trees. The day we went it was quite foggy and cloudy as well, so the lanterns were on. The atmosphere was just magnificent! Once we reached the bridge closest to the temple we noticed some Buddha statues that were being purified at the entrance; incense was burning in lots of special containers at the back and there were a couple of rooms used to store ashes, with smaller Buddhas and bigger lanterns where actual ashes were stored.

Here is a video of as well.

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The town itself is quite small and picturesque.

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Dinner back at the inn was traditional Japanese – sitting cross-legged with lots of small things, all vegan. We had an early night went to sleep around 8 pm and had the best sleep in a while, on the rice-filled pillows and with the windows opened listening to birds and crickets.

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In the morning we went for a walk in the opposite direction to yesterday’s, to Dai-mon gate, which is the gate to the sacred place that is Koya-san.

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We would have liked to go up the hill for a bit, but there were warning signs about bears being in that area so we decided against it.

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Back with the group, we caught a bus to the local cable car station, then went by cable car for a couple of minutes before a longer trip by train where we changed three trains before reaching Osaka.

We walked through Kuromon food market then Dotonbori with all its big, bright signs to get to the restaurant where we had okonomiyaki for lunch.

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From there we went to an area where they sold mainly kitchen / dining / cooking utensils and accessories, Doguyasuji.

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Our hotel had a free kimono try-on session.

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Dotonbori was even busier and brighter at night than in daylight!

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We visited a department store called Daimaru that is housed in the same building as the train / subway station. Everything looked very nice but also very sugary so we indulged our eyes and left early.
Osaka Castle of the Shogun fame was the next destination. It was very busy. We got to see the Octopus Stone, the largest of the castle, and we walked around the gardens. The queue to get tickets and visit the castle was pretty long, probably longer than one hour, so we gave up.

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From there we went to a nearby pier on the river and caught an Aqua Liner water bus for a one hour cruise on the river where we got to see the Kawasaki Bridge and Japan Mint.

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Back on land we caught the subway to Umeda Sky Building which was impressive to see. The park nearby is beautifully manicured as well, and the building itself is amazing. From the top there are panoramic views with endless skyscrapers on sight, and the ocean is also visible in the distance. They have a short movie with the story behind the building’s design and built which is quite interesting (there’s two skyscrapers joined together by a horizontal platform, and the original plan includes a third one which might be built in the future).

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From Osaka we got on the Shinkansen to go to Hakone. Despite sitting on the Mt Fuji side, we didn’t get to see it due to low cloud.

We hired a car in Hakone (a very Japanese Honda NBox to blend in) to be able to explore this area around Mt Fuji.

We first went up the mountain to Owakudani but it was not a very successful trip: it was full of tourists, there was fog and low cloud that we could only see 10 m in front of us; there were black eggs being sold everywhere plus there was the dedicated monument outside as well.

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Our hotel room has beautiful views towards Lake Ashinoko. The first day we woke up to fog and rain and despite this there were still lots of fishermen on the lake.

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We went for a cruise on one of the pirate ships on Lake Ashinoko and it was a very nice experience. They have some small swan-shaped water bikes which are quite funky!

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From there we went to Hakone Open Air Museum and spent most of the afternoon there – it was foggy but we still managed to see it including the outdoor statues. They have a Picasso Gallery as well with quite a few pieces by Picasso including a really nice series called La Tauromaquia, about bull fights and some of his ceramics done in the older age when he was trying to create art like a child. In the sculpture collection they have one of the many versions on The Kiss by Constantin Brancusi.

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There was also a very interesting exhibition by young artist Tetsuya Noguchi called Armoured Dreamer. He uses the image / armour of a samurai to create an allegory reflecting today’s weaknesses of man / what became of the feared samurais.

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We also saw an interesting foot bath, a climbing net for children and a tower made of stained glass.

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Another interesting part was a section by Italian sculptor Giacomo Manzu who sculpted the Door of Death for the Vatican

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We had a ice afternoon tea (and some local sweets) in a traditional tea house.

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On our second day in Hakone we woke up to an amazing morning with blue skies and clear views of Mt Fuji from our room.

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After breakfast we headed out for a day of exploring the area around Mt Fuji.

The first destination was Owakudani again. We arrived there at 8:50 am and there was another one of the many elderly traffic wardens directing traffic. He didn’t allow us to enter the car park, but directed us to turn around in a blind corner, cross the continuous line and join the queue of other cars waiting.

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At 08:59:45 he allowed cars to start going in! Next we caused a bit of a stir at the ticket booth as well – the guy was very puzzled / “where did you come from” as the cable cars coming up were all empty, and the tourists only started arriving a bit later, going up in the cable car from the valley station. This meant that we had the cable car to ourselves and had amazing views of the sulphur vents (and their whole industry of extracting it and building retaining walls) and Mt Fuji initially, then towards Tokyo once we crossed the hill and started descending.

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We took the cable car the other way as well, to Togwndai / Lake Ashi which was basically the other end of the lake, where the cruise had turned around the day before.

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Once we had enough of admiring the views near Owakudani we started driving towards Mt Fuji, aiming to get to the 5th station on Subaru Line. All was nice and good until we reached Gotemba, where the road was closed and we had to do a detour. This turned out to be quite a good thing, as we ended up on a spectacular toll road, Hakone Sky Line, giving us amazing views of Mt Fuji and all the way towards Shizouka / Suruza Bay. We heard that the speed limit is never enforced on the toll roads, so the little NBox got a work out. It turns out that it was actually fitted with an engine, although it was one that produces more noise than power, and going uphill is a terrible challenge.

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We passed some really nice “pension villages” which are not for pensioners, but for tourists as most houses are pensions run by the local families. We also drove past Fuji Lakeside country club golf and Forest adventure Fuji, a rope course that looked very, very nice and appealing.
The Subaru line is basically a one way toll road to the 5th station when climbing Mt Fuji. It offered breath taking views of the peak, and also of Lake Kawaguchiko. But it was packed with tourists that were being ferried by the busload. The views however were very nice, with the amazing autumn shades of auburn.

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Back at the foothill we ended up near Yamaka Lake where we were mesmerized by the nice sunset colours and the sun setting behind Mt Fuji.

There’s a video of some of the roads that we drove here.

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The following morning we woke up to an amazing view of Mt Fuji bathed in sunrise light. The nature choir was very busy with lots of birds in the nearby trees / forest. And the silence was only intermittently broken by the occasional fishing dingy rushing to catch a better spot on the lake. Less than an hour after this amazing sight Mt Fuji was all hidden by cloud.

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When we left we noticed that all the hotel workers had masks on and then read that Japan had just declared an influenza epidemic and closed more than 100 schools (as most cases are in kids under 14 years old)!

The drive back to Hakone was straightforward and quite enjoyable. We stopped and refilled at a petrol station – a normal one and not one with nozzles hanging from the ceiling – but the attendant did everything from filling up to cleaning our windows. We had a tea at Starbucks, then spent another 20 min or so on the platform waiting for the Shinkansen to Tokyo. During this time we saw quite a few trains passing without stopping or slowing down, and they are so fast!

The train journey was ok and so were the transfers.

In Tokyo we stayed at a hotel very close to Shibuya Crossing. Our room was on the 10th floor and it was tiny!

We spend an afternoon at Nezu Museum – an interesting place famed for its building and tranquil gardens. We had some nice food in its cafe, but the gardens were not that tranquil as there were lots of planes flying low above. The museum is named after its first owner, who was the chairman of a railway company. The galleries have quite a few things from Korea and China.

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From Nezu Museum we walked down Omotesando looking at the various glamorous shops, all the way to Harajuku where we walked the whole length of Takeshita St – but we only saw a couple of girls in funky outfits.

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From Harajuku we returned to Shibuya, where we watched the crossing a few times and then crossed it a couple of times as well. L’Occitane have a cafe, and they also sell quite a few more things than in Australia.

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We visited the Hachiko Dog Statue as well

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and then headed to Mo-Mo Paradise Shibuya for dinner.

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The Imperial Palace in Tokyo is not open to the public but its gardens are and worth a visit.

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Next destination was Ningyocho where we thought we’d get lunch but most places were either closed or had long queues, so we ended up at a burger place called Brozers and it was pretty nice. We then accidentally came across a tea shop run by a French guy who had been a sommelier but then changed jobs and became the equivalent of a sommelier but for tea. He knew quite a bit about it and, unlike the Japanese tea experts that we met before, was more interested in the taste of tea rather than the ceremony around how you drink it. He has a tea house nearby as well where we enjoyed both cold and hot tea, but also tea brewed on ice to get the umami taste – amazing! He also makes / sells flavoured tea made with food grade extracts (using alcohol dilution and then distillation) of various things (peach, plum etc.). It was one of our best experiences in Japan, and we would highly recommended. The shop is called Ocharaka Tea Shop and you can find it on Facebook or Google.

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From there we travelled to Ginza / Nissan Crossing and walked along Chuo Dori which is closed to traffic on Sunday afternoons.

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Roppongi Hills is a huge concrete jungle mixing shops, apartments, offices, restaurants, a hotel and a museum.

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We first went to the National Art Centre where we spent some time admiring the building which is quite nice.

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Then we had ramen for lunch at a very nice restaurant called Afuri, and ice cream at a gelato place.

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We tried to visit Mori Contemporary Art Museum but all the tickets for the day had been sold so we just spent a bit more time around the shops.
From there we went to Akihabara where we explored a huge electronics shop and then walked around the neighbourhood which is famous for its electronics and anime shops (saw a maid cafe as well). We had dinner at a really nice restaurant called Roast Beef Ohno in Harajuku, where they did roast beef rice bowls.

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Tokyo had a lot of rain for our last day in Japan, so we spent it all at Tokyo National Museum. The exhibits are quite interesting so we spent quite a bit of time reading about them. They have quite a few things on display that were pillaged from China, Korea and even Iran / Iraq area in a very similar fashion to the British, during similar expeditions of “discovery”.

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Lunch in their tearoom was quite tasty.

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On the day of our departure we had an early rise to get to the airport in time while travelling through peak morning chaos. The ride on Yamanote line was ok, by Keikyu to the airport was pretty packed – we did manage to get to the airport on time though.

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We saw an interesting side of Haneda airport now – the runway is partly built on reclaimed land and pylons. It must be a really busy airport and we saw planes coming to land at the same time but on different runways.

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We got a nice view of the Philippines and one of Mayon Volcano

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and of Singapore of course.

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And this was our first trip to Japan.

Apart from safety and good public transport, another reason that makes travel easy in Japan is the availability of various amenities at hotels. There’s pyjamas in every room as well as coin-operated washing machines which are very reasonably priced. And then pretty much anything else that you might need is either free to borrow or available to buy.

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Here is a video with some sights while using public transport during this trip in Japan.

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