very short summary of day 3 - 6
Since I’m rushing from one important sight to another from dawn till dusk I’ve barely had time to access the Internet in recent days.
Anyway, here’s a short summary of what I’ve been doing during the last three days:
June 3rd: trip to Yokohama and a great afternoon and evening with friends in Shibuya & Harajuku (the coolest area of Tokyo where many young people gather; Shibuya is most famous for the huge crossing which is also featured in “Lost in Translation”)
June 4th: went to Nagoya by Shinkansen (the extremely fast Japanese high speed train) where I was shown around by a good friend. We visited the Toyota Museum, some parks and “Oasis 21″, a place in the center of the city which is illuminated in bright colors at night)
June 5th: one day in Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan. There is a temple around every other corner and many places where you can get a realistic impression of how Japan must have looked like a hundred or two hundred years ago. Especially the Golden Pavilion and Kiyomizu Temple are among my favorites. I stayed one night at a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel where you sleep on futons in tatami-matted rooms. The room was about twice the size of an average Japanese hotel room. Staying at a Ryokan is a great experience.
June 6th: I went to Kobe this moring and I began to like this city when I smelled the ocean. The “Harborland” area is a place to hang out, eat and go shopping. Fisherman’s Marketplace is where you can get the best food at the most reasonable price. Next to the port area, the shopping district around Sammayima Station where all the night life takes place is definitely worth seeing.
