Hakone

This was our second trip during golden week. This place, called Hakone, is about 80kms from Tokyo. You need to reach a place called Hakone-Yumoto which is entry point for Hakone. To save money you should buy a Hakone Free Pass which may cost 3410 yen to 5500 yen depending on the station you buy it from.

We reached Hakone-Yumoto at around 8:45am and got in to Hakone Tozan Line (Railway photo). Speciality of this railway was that it was going up the mountain in zig zag way. It was going up in one direction and then further up in reverse direction by changing the track.

After Tozan Line there is a cable car and then you need to take ropeway. The ropeway gives you beautiful views of nature. You can see Fuji mountain quite clearly. With Hakone Free pass all these rides are free. (You actually pay for this free pass in advance :) ).

You also get to see hot spring outlets from ropeway car. The fumes coming out shown in lower photo could be of sulphur. (Photo captured using 12x zoom from Ropeway Car)

After ropeway you can catch a bus towards Ashi Lake. Also there is second ropeway going towards Ashi lake, but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. We preferred to walk for 45min than wait for bus and it was really worth walking!

Finally we reached Ashi lake. This cruise ride is also free with your Hakone Free Pass. It can take you from Togendai to Hakone Machi and then to MotoHakone. We got down at moto Hakone and took a bus towards Chokokonomori. Every ride in Hakone was free with Hakone Free pass. Also for museums and gardens there is a discount when you have Hakone Free pass.



We finished our one day trip to Hakone with nice dinner at Tachikawa.
For more photos check following album

Hakone

Kamakura - The Great buddha

Its golden week!! I have holidays on 30th Apr and 3rd and 4th May!! Its time to roam around in Japan!!
So here we are in Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-west of Tokyo. We visited Hase temple, Kotokuin Temple where Buddha statue is located and then Hachimangu shrine. Then we had gone to Sea shore in Hase. Don't forget o buy a pass worth 540 yens so that you can move any number of times here and there on Odakyu Enoshima line.

Hase temple was really beautiful. Its very well maintained! There are 3 temples inside and also one small museum. The statue in main temple out of 3 stands tall around 20 foot. (Here photography was not allowed ) Its having 11 heads each of them indicating different expression. Antique pieces kept in museum are from 12th century. One of the place in temple had interesting small statues of monks, infact 100's of them!! Close up of small statues is shown in above photo.

The great buddha of Kotokuin Temple is about 20 min walk from Hase station. This statue is very old statue. It has a height of 13.35 meters. It is called "Daibutsu" in Japanese. In 13th century the temple enclosing Great Buddha was washed out in tsunami waves. From that time it is there open to air.
There is also a small shop which sells items related to Great Buddha.

The Hachimangu shrine is about 24 min walk from kamakura station. This is supposed to be one of the main shrine in Kamakura. It was having a wedding place at the center of ground. Also some mysterious pots lined up in row one over the other...like a wall. (Check album).

Then we had gone to Hase beach. It was 10 min walk from Hase station. People were surfing and enjoying the holiday. (I wish I could also surf... it seems to be a great fun! ).

While returning we had went to China Town in Yokohama. This place is full of chinese restuarants and chinese stores. But the chinese food looked so similar to the japanese food which we eat daily, it couldn't lure us much. We had dinner in an Indian restaurant near China town :).

Overall...had a nice time through out the day! Check more photos below by clicking album cover photo.

Kamakura And China Town

Sakura In Tokyo

A picture is worth 1000 words!! (This one I had to downsize to fit in here. This is panoramic view photo taken using Canon S3IS)

I was very lucky to be in Tokyo during Sakura Season. First let me tell you something about Sakura. Sakura is a name of flower. It starts blooming at the start of spring and withers in approximately 2 weeks. It blooms only once in a year. So spring along with Sakura is supposed to be start of new good things.

When Sakura blooms, the scenery looks so beautiful...the trees are full of Sakura flowers. You can't even see any of the leaves...there are only flowers! The beauty just can not expressed in to words. (That's why I have put some pictures :-) ).

Japanese people enjoy Sakura flowers with party called "OHanami" or "Hanami". Hanami is a way of enjoying beauty of flowers. People sing, dance, eat and mainly drink lots of osake or beer! To View all the photos click following album Cover

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Sakura In Tokyo

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Photos shown above are from place called Kudan shita. Indian Embassy in Tokyo is in this area. There was one event called Sakura Bazar arranged at this place especially for Indians. There was Indian Food and Indian Music. Also 2007 being Indo-Japanese friendship year there were many events arranged. Unfortunately I missed this Sakuara Bazar event...but I have got some video clips of that event. Please check following videos.

This one is not related to Sakura...but just could not resist posting it here! Enjoy !!

ब्लॉगर आता देवनागरी मध्ये!

नमस्कार ! आपल्या मातृभाषेमध्ये टाईप करताना फारच आनंद होत आहे. मातृभाषेमध्ये टाईप करण्याची संधी दिल्याबद्दल मी ब्लॉगर चा अत्यंत आभारी आहे. अगदी २-३ आठवड्यापूर्वीच तोक्यो मराठी मंडळाचा मी सदस्य झालो. तोक्यो मध्ये राहून मराठी लोकांच्या सम्पर्कात रहाणे फारच आनंदाची गोष्ट आहे. तोक्यो मराठी मंडळा बद्दल अधिक माहिती साठी ह्या (तोक्यो मराठी मंडळ)लिंक ला भेट दया.