Our Japan Vacation

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On June 15, 2008 I went to Japan with my friend and will meet other one of my friend who were already in Japan.

This is the plane I rode to Japan from San Francisco International Airport. The flight took about 11 hours.

Tokyo

After arriving in Tokyo we met our other friend. We went to JR (Japan Railways) train station and got our Japan Rail Pass, which allows us unlimited rides on most JR trains in all of Japan.

We then took the train to central Tokyo and walked to our hostel, Sakura Hostel but not after we got lost for a while, trying to find the hostel. Once we arrived at the hostel, we checked in and went up to our room on the fourth floor. Our room was really basic. There were only 2 double deck beds, lockers, and an AC. The restroom and shower room was down the hall. Downstairs in the lobby there was a row of computers for Internet use, a small kitchen where you get your free breakfast and wash your dishes, and at the end of room is a TV center.
We left the hostel to tour the city. We walked down the street and went down to the subway to ride to the place called Akihabara. Akihabara is an electronic town. It's a shopping market full of electronic, computer, and anime stores. But since we went there at night, most stores were closed so we couldn't do much there. We ate dinner at a ramen restaurant there. We then went back to the hostel, but not after we got bit lost... again! The area our hostel is in is like a maze. It took a while for us to know the area. We went to bed soon after. It had been little over 24 hours without sleep since I left San Francisco.

In next morning we woke up, showered, got ready, and went downstairs to the lobby and ate a simple, but free, breakfast. It was just a toast and some tea. We then walked to Sesoji temple, known for its infamous Great Red Lantern which hangs in the Kaminarimon, the outer main gate of the temple. Still within the temple, we walked down the street that have small shops lined up on both sides all the way to the Kaminarimon. At the Kaminarmon there was the large red lantern hanging from the ceiling with a bronze dragon design on the bottom of it.

We then walked to the nearest bank to exchange our money for Japanese Yen. After that we walked toward the river to hop on the boat to go to Odaiba Island.

The boat we took was the water bus named Himiko. This boat was designed by Leiji Matsumoto, a creator of anime show Galaxy Express 999.
Inside the boat, the walls and ceiling were white, with wooden floor and long blue glass-like rectangle down in the middle of the floor. Toward the bow of the boat, just behind the bridge, stands the cardboard cut-out of Galaxy Express 999 characters.

We rode the boat to Odaiba Island. Odaiba Island is a man made island located in Tokyo Bay. On Odaiba Island we went to the arcade place called Joypolis. We went there just to play the Initial D arcade game. This game is nothing like what we have here in USA. You get to play the game inside the life sized car! It's pretty expensive to play the game. It costs about six dollars just to play one game! We played the game twice anyway.
After that we walked back to the boat dock. On the way there, we saw a miniature Statue of Liberty. It was the exact copy of real Statue of Liberty.
(source: Wikipedia) Apparently there was a Statue of Liberty at this same location from April 1998 to May 1999 in commemoration of "The French year in Japan."
However, because of its popularity, in 2000, a replica of the French Statue of Liberty was erected at the same place.

We arrived at the boat dock and took a different boat back to main land. We walked to Tokyo Tower. On the way to the tower, we went through the Zojoji temple.
There stood the tree that General Grant, the eighteenth president of the United States, planted in 1879 and another tree that was planted by president George H. W. Bush, however, the tree was broken in half! Upon arrival at Tokyo Tower, there was a statue of group of the sled dogs.
(source: The Japan Times) This statue was erected by the Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The reason they erected it was because in 1958 a Japanese research expedition in Antarctica had to make an emergency evacuation and was forced to leave behind 13 sled dogs. Another team went there one year later and found all but two dogs dead.
 
We went inside Tokyo Tower. There were two observation decks, the Main Observatory and the Special Observatory. We went up to the Main Observatory first. On that deck we can see the vast, towering buildings all around us. The buildings seem to go beyond the distance our eyes can see. We went up to the Special Observatory where we got a better view of all the city. We could see the Odaiba Island, the bridges, and the temples from the observation decks.

(Thanks to kriemhilde00 for the logo!)

After Tokyo Tower, we went to a roller coaster ride at Epson Aqua Stadium that I wanted to go to. It's a roller coaster based on the anime, Galaxy Express 999. We first stood in the waiting lobby which doubles as a museum. The weapons and clothes props were on display there. We were then guided to the hallway where two robots started speaking about something. I had no idea what they were saying. After that the door opened, and in that room we watched a short 3D animation of the show. It could be related to the ride, but I'm not sure. After the show was finished, the door on other side of the room opened. It looked like we were entering the train as the wall on oposite side was decorated to resemble the interior of a train. It was the same interior of a train from the anime. We hopped into the roller coaster, and the ride rocketed off to a start, blasting us into the darkness. There were stars everywhere with some galaxies. There was also a loop too.

Pictures below are pre ride photos. You can see few more pictures of the ride here.

Pictures below are post ride photos. The picture frames with 3D characters were pictures of the animation that i saw just before I got on the ride.

Since I didn't take any video. I found other people's video.

Later that night, we went to a restaurant to have dinner with other Japanese deaf people. We ate in the Japanese tradition room. We ate sitting on the floor at a low table. We ate a lot of different foods, some I had never tasted before. I had problems sitting on the floor because my legs are long and my feet kept falling asleep. At one point when I tried to stand up, I almost fell down because of my sleeping feet. But it was a good experience dining that way and I had a good time.

Hakone

Once we arrived to Hakone, we went and checked in the hostel, Kappa Tengoku (Kappa means 'water sprite' and Tengoku means 'heaven' in Japanese). The room was compeletly Japanese style. The room had Tatami flooring, a futon for each of us, a small low table, and a TV with just a few channels in a corner. We went hiking afterward. We hiked over the mountatin which took about 3 hours! 3 hours... because of me. About halfway through the hike, I ran out of energy and had to rest for quite a while.
When we reached the end of the trail there was a snack bar which also have foot bath. We rested there for a while. In order to get back to our hostel, we had to take the train and transfer to this cable car and ride it up the hill. At top of the hill we transfered to gondola. While riding the gondola, we saw the Great Boiling Valley where black eggs are boilied. We did have plan to go there but we didn't have a chance to do that. We would have taken the boat across the lake but it was already closed so we took the city bus instead.
Later that night, we had dinner at the hostel. We cooked our own food on the cooking table. After that, we all went and relaxed in the hot spring at the hostel.

Osaka

Next day we went to Aquarium Kaiyukan, one of the largest aquarium in the world. But before that when we got off at train station we saw the Universal Studios train.
We did have plan to go there if we had time but we didn't have time to go. And we saw the ship named Santa Maria sailing by.

Kyoto

Nara

Hiroshima

Itsukushima Shrine

Sapporo

Tokyo