Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Hong Kong

Sunday, February 3, 2019

When we planned our trip to Japan we decided to stay for a night in Hong Kong on the way back. This seemed like a good idea in the planning stages, but when the time came we were all feeling like we would just rather go straight home.

However, with flights and hotels booked we made our way to Hong Kong, arriving quite late at night to a muggy and vibrant city. In the end we were all glad we did the trip to Hong Kong (the boys both said they would like to come back) - it was such a culture shock from Japan! Dirty, chaotic, smoking on the street, jay walking, crazy traffic, shops open all hours. It turned out to be a great way to finish our trip.

Our hotel had a mini museum on the ground floor - an area with artefacts and photo opportunities.

All our hotels came with breakfast, but Hong Kong could not compare with the beautiful buffets on offer in Japan.

I insisted we take the Peak Tram up to the Peak - this involved queueing for about an hour to crowd into the tram for the rickety ride to the top. And what a tourist mecca at the top! Crowds, crowds, crowds; a massive viewing building with many floors, full of shops and restaurants; and then a long queue to get back down again (very different from when I was there for New Year's 1988/89). But it was worth it.

It was very hot and muggy in Hong Kong and we didn't have the energy for a lot of the other things on my "to do" list. We wandered through a park which had turtles in the pond, found a playground for the girls, found a water fountain to call off under and went through a night market for last minute shopping and dinner. (Charlie loved the bargaining!). Then it was time to head to the airport and home.

Japan - Osaka

Our first adventure in Osaka was to Dotonbori, a busy night market area by a river with shops and food and lights and lots of people. Rory, Erin, Natalie and I went on a massive ferris wheel attached to the side of a building - impressive views though I wasn't very comfortable at the top!

The is what they got up to while we were on the ferris wheel

We did a day trip to Nara Deer Park - again, lots of tame deer, temples, pagodas, a museum and crowds. We got caught in the rain (which made a nice change).

In the park is Todaiji (Great Eastern Temple), apparently the largest wooden building in the world. The construction is certainly very impressive.

There is a massive bronze seated Buddha and around the back is a hole in one of the pillars - if you can crawl through this hole, enlightenment is around the corner! There was a queue of children on the day we went, and even some adults managed to squeeze through.

And on our last full day we went to Universal Studios which incorporates Harry Potter World. This was fun! Crowded, expensive but fun. Apparently on the day we went it wasn't "peak" time, but some of the more popular rides still had waits of over an hour! At Charlie's insistence, we went back to Harry Potter World at the end of the evening, close to closing and by this time the crowds had dispersed quite a bit - for most rides we could either walk right in or wait for only a short time.

October is Halloween month and so lots of dressing up is involved. In the evening they "release the zombies" - this is quite a scary time, especially for the little ones (the zombies were very realistic but "well behaved" in that they didn't come too near young children). The makeup and special effects were so well done and there was lots of screaming as they chased people with chainsaws and axes and all things nasty.

We also had a visit to the Pokemon Centre, at the top of a department store in Osaka. The kids got right into playing on the machines and I think we were lucky as there were no other kids there and they got to play for quite a while.

Japan - Kyoto

From Miyajima it was back to Hiroshima and on to Kyoto, a city that survived the destruction of war so is chock full of temples, castles and Japanese culture. We rented a house in Kyoto which was quite a good size by Japanese standards I think, but still quite quirky and small. But it fit us all in well and gave us all a chance to catch up and laze around for a while.

Kyoto is flat - good for walking and everyone seems to ride a bike here. Just walking around the streets is interesting, looking at different houses and buildings and finding different districts. Japan seems to stay alive longer into the evenings than we are used to with shops open and people mulling around well until 9 or 10pm.

The streets of Kyoto:-

McDonalds home delivery

This was a smoking spot

We didn't do nearly as many temples as I had on the list - it was hot and we were a bit saturated. But by Kyoto I feel we had got Japan "sorted" and were able to more confidently find our way around and know what we wanted in a supermarket and how to find it, etc. Robin and I were able to leave the kids at the house a few times and go out to dinner and wander around. As I think I mentioned before, wifi is EVERYWHERE and at times this can be your best friend!

We walked to Nijo Castle one hot day which is restored and has beautiful grounds. I had brought food, thinking we could sit under a tree somewhere for lunch ... but no ... everything is roped off and the only places to sit are with the crowds near the vending machines and smoking areas! But this was made up for by the fine mist sprays that were set up near the exit - very much appreciated.

Mum it's too hot!!

View of the moat

One day we took a day trip to Arashiyama to see the Bamboo Grove there. The bamboo is very impressive but I think the crowds were more so. It was sooooooooo crowded and, with the heat, made the experience a bit trying. The village and the temple and surrounds are very striking and "Japanese" looking but it was hard not to want to "just go home".

We had some school children come up to us with their teacher to practice their English - asking us questions like where we are from, our favourite Japanese food, what Japanese words we know, etc. It was so nice to talk with them.

We persevered however and continued on the trail and worked our way down to the river. We walked as far along as we could (until a barrier stopped us) and sat on the rocks in the shade and dabbled our feet. Erin was the bravest and went swimming, Natalie nearly did but couldn't get the idea of sharks and eels out of her head, no matter how hard we tried.

This is one of the Imperial Palaces, the parklands of which are open to the public (the palace is not). We spent a morning here after leaving our accommodation and before catching the train to Osaka. There are a couple of temples here and lots of beautiful old trees and the gardens are obviously used a lot by locals. The best thing we saw was about eight preschoolers, obviously from a day care centre, being pushed to and from the park in a trolley, like a large linen basket on wheels.