Takao Mountain

Takao Mountain is very relaxing place very close to Tokyo city. Its just 1 hr train journey from main Tokyo city. Even in summer it’s a nice place to visit.

For me, this place was so close, that I started from my house at 7:30am and came back at 2:30pm. We went up the mountain using Lift which costed us just 470 yen per head. It was really worth experience. After that we climbed rest of the part for about 30 minutes and reached the top! It was so lush green everywhere!
Here are some more photos...Enjoy!

Some of the links to help you plan your trip to takao -

Tokyo Tourism Info on Takao

Takao Mountain - Japan Guide

Cost for Cable car & Lift

Tokyo Disneyland

Wow! this was the most memorable trip in Japan! Disneyland is really an amazing place! Each and every ride we took was great! The person coming to Tokyo should not miss this place.

To plan our trip we visited Disneyland website. On this website you will find two park names, Disneyland and DisneySea. We had planned to go to disneyland. You need to go to Maihama station through JR Keio Line to visit Disney parks. Both the parks are just in front of this station.

Ticket to Disneyland for adults was 5800 yen.

This place is so big that we could not cover all the places in one day! We tried the Jungle cruise first, it was quite funny and enjoyable boat ride with some mock scenes of wild animals created across the artificial river path.


























We were bit late for the parade...but managed to get the place. This event is really worth! It has everything which can lure people of all ages :D. All the disney characters, dancing boys and girls and the music of "ALOHA"! People were already waiting for the parade about 1 hr in advance with there video cameras.






















We also visited ToonTown, Big Thunder Mountain, Tom Sawyer Island, Splash Mountain and Beaver Brothers Explorer canoes. Also Electric parade in the evening was fantastic one to end our day with lots of memories!














Disneyland is supposed to be very much crowded on weekends and you may even have to wait in queue for around 2 hrs! So the most important tip i would like to give you is take the fast pass of the most ride which you want to finish first. Check the details of fast pass here. Also Disney passes are available in all Family marts and AM PM shops.


Overall, it was completely enjoyable day and I would love to visit again!

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