So I just got back from a week in Japan. I spent most of my time in Gifu, but went to Kyoto and Nagoya and spent a day in Tokyo as well. It was a blast, the weather was great, it only rained one day and most of the time it was in the 50's. At a small temple in Gifu. This is the decal on newbie driver's cars. Pronounced wakaba, where Wakaba got his screen name idea. I was really impressed with the number of cars that had winter tires there, especially for a mild climate, they only had one snowfall this year and over half the cars I saw had winter tires. Blizzaks are very popular there. Gifu Castle. View from Gifu castle. Overlooking Gifu city and Nagara river. Looking back up at Gifu castle from the Gifu park. Large wooden Buddha statue. Elevator car park. The round part on the ground turns your car for you when you pull in. Yanagase shopping mall in Gifu. Used to be very popular, but it's getting quiet these days. Kyoto train station. Large graveyard in Kyoto. Kiyomizu temple. Kiyomizu temple balcony. Market in Kyoto... I think these are Ayu, they were caught in the Nagara river (cormorant fishing). We had these for breakfast each day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant_Fishing_on_the_Nagara_River Just a typical street in gifu. Plum blossoms, we were there too early for the cherry blossoms. Some strange gaijin playing on the playground. (actually, I was there with my neices and sister in law, they insisted I go down the slide) City view.
Kinda sunset view. Cheap sushi place, still better than anything in the midwest. View of Nagoya from the 47th floor, across the street from the JR towers. JR tower in nagoya. I didn't get to do any shopping here... I saw a lot of subarus though, mostly legacies, few nice imprezas though. I didn't really get any good pics though. Lunch. Tokyo from the hotel room. Just outside of Tsukiji fish market. Lunch inside of Tsukiji fish market. Mmm.. eel... very good food. Subway station. Sensou temple in Asakusa. We returned some old good luck charms and bought new ones. Akihabara, I still can't believe I didn't buy anything for myself here... More food. Leaving Japan. Somewhere over the ocean. Coming in to land in Portland.
mmmm...sushi :yumyum: Great pictures and did you bring anything back for us while you were there?! Welcome back!!
Sweet... thanks for sharing the experience. We'll have to talk up cause I want to goto Japan also. Need some tourist tips and what not to prepare myself on what to bring and not bring... any ethics etc.
not quite morning anymore, but thanks. yeah, I ate a lot of everything, I tried to challenge myself a bit and eat new things. yosmiley, yeah I can share what I know. I've only been there twice, first time was 10 years ago for school, I spend almost 6 months there. This time was just a week. phi11, have fun on your trip. I'm hoping that I can go back more often, once every 10 years is not enough.
Thanks, I took almost 300 pics and still missed a lot of things. I didn't want to spend the whole time looking through a camera lens though.
yeah yeah, I know. but I didn't actually spend too much time walking around so it was hard to get car pics. There was a nice GC8 that we drove past several times, I guess I could taken a blurry photo out of the side window...
Pics look amazing. Looks like you had a great time and saw a lot of things. If somehow I can find some money I am supposed to be going next summer.
dynapar, start saving your money, it'll be worth it. You can travel around in japan pretty reasonably, it's not that expensive really. prodrivesti04, we never drove up in to the mountains. The highest we went was probably just taking the cable car up to Gifu castle.
Sweet pics looks like a good time. That balcony pic looked sketchy!! P.S. Did you see anybody drifting when you were in tokyo??
Yeah Joel why? Just kidding...if Joel would of dare to take picture of chicks over there his wife would of make him do a "seppuku" .....:biggrin: j/k
I'm sorry, our schedule was pretty full. We were orignally planning to be in Tokyo for 16th-18th, but we ended up just spending the 18th there, so I really didn't have much extra time.
Yeah, most people are very friendly and polite. If you block the escalator in Tokyo station at rush hour or hold up traffic in Tsukiji market it might be a different story though.
No, I looked a bit at Tokyu Hands, but didn't see anything worth getting. I have an old hasegawa impreza wrx wagon model in the closet if you want it though, I'm never gonna have time to put it together.
The hello kitty factory is about 20min from my front door. Actually I can see it from my storage unit where I was working on my bike...all day.
Ah the home sickness, the home sickness... strange. Great pix, thanks. My understanding of the snow tires in Gifu is that traditionally many villages were closed off from everywhere else in the winter because of the snow in the mountains. Not much of an issue anymore with modern roads and tunnels, but those roads could still be pretty treacherous. However, lotsa folks in the Kanto Plain/Tokyo area also put snow tires on in the winter. And EVERYBODY carries chains. And they will stop EXACTLY where they are in the MIDDLE of the road to put them on if they suddenly think they need them!
