Day 65: Final Thoughts

It's strange how it feels as if I've been away for months on end, yet at the same time it's flown so quickly. Singapore seems like forever ago to me right now and I'm already struggling to remember those first few stops! Good thing I have my blog posts to look back on, although right now it'll only make my sad as I sit here in the airport waiting to go home.

Deciding to do this trip was the best decision I could have made, and my only regret is that I didn't make it that bit longer. But, I have an AML exam to study for and I can't keep avoiding life forever. Although I didn't really expect to have an epiphany while I was away, I did hope to be a little clearer on what I want to do and where I want to go in life. Well, I know where I want to go. More countries! 

Thought I'd finish off by answering some common questions I've been asked throughout my trip.

What has been your favourite country?

I've loved each and every country I've visited, but all for very different reasons. Sometimes it's been the company that has made a particular place enjoyable, sometimes it's the culture or the scenery. But for me, nothing compares to Japan. The food, the people, the vibe. It's the place where I felt the happiness and had the best time (mainly due to Bec, Jen and Andrew). 

What's it like to travel alone?

When people hear I'm travelling alone, the most popular reaction is that of shock and surprise followed by 'I don't think I could do that'. I think everybody has it in them to travel alone, and they should, because it's a completely different experience. You meet so many great people that you wouldn't otherwise have met. I'll never stop travelling alone, even when I'm married (if that ever happens!)

What would I have done differently?

If I were to do it all again, I'd be more flexible. My route and all my stops were planned out and there was very little wiggle room. But the problem is you meet people that suggest  different places that you hadn't known about or thought of. Although it would be a struggle for me as a planner, I think it would have lead to a completely different experience. The only other thing I wish I did would have been to slow down and appreciate it a bit more. I guess it's tough to do that when I had so many places to visit and so little time. I look back at some of my photos and think, wow that was incredible I can't believe I was actually there. 

What have you learnt about yourself? 

Honestly, at this point in my life I'd say I already know myself pretty well, the good traits and the bad. I already knew I was angry, irritable and impatient and that I'd get pissed off with some of the cultures here! I would say though that I've surprised myself in terms of the foods I have eaten. Hard to believe I used to be incredibly fussy as a child. 

What's the first thing you'll do when you get home? 

Give Marie a big hug (she's picking me up from the airport). Given I get home around 0730 I'm looking forward to cooking myself eggs, avocado and bacon. You can't get a decent breakfast in Asia! I'll also probably hug my wardrobe since I've missed it so much. Living out of a backpack and wearing 4 or 5 outfits on rotation is a pain in the ass. Then I have a LOT of tv shows to catch up on! And I probably should drag my ass back to the gym...

My flight is now boarding so that's it for my final blog of the trip. But don't worry, this will not be the last of tinyhandsontour. 

Day 64: Mount Fuji

Today was my the last day of my journey, and what better way to spend it than with a trip to Mt Fuji. We were extremely lucky with the weather as apparently at this time of the year the mountain is often covered by clouds. Today the sky was so clear and you could see for miles. It also snowed last night, so there was a lovely blanket of white on top of the mountain. It was a pretty breathtaking view! 

I was sat next to a guy called John from Colorado on the bus, and ended up just hanging with him all day. He was pretty good chat, although he was a BIG guy. When I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a pilot, I was pretty shocked as I've no idea how he manages to fit into a cockpit. He'd literally flown 12 hours to spend like 3 days in Tokyo because he doesn't get much time off. Mental. 

I didn't get back from the trip until after 7. By this point the gang had moved to our final location in Tokyo, the Book and Bed hostel. It's a hostel with beds set into bookshelves and is super cool! It's the first time I've stayed in a mixed dorm in a hostel since I was 17, but it's so chilled out and the capsules are really spacious it was such a cool experience and a good way to finish off my time here. It was even better when I arrived to discover that Jen had stolen me the robe from the posh hotel that I loved so much. Best souvenir of the trip!

For my last night we just chilled out at the hostel and grabbed some dinner. These guys are up early to travel to Mt Fuji. My flight isn't until 1740 so I'll check out the hostel area and grab one final yummy Japanese dish before I head to the airport.

I'll round off with one final blog post tomorrow when I'm at the airport. Some final thoughts if you will. I'm not going to lie, I won't miss writing this blog. It's a pain in the backside. 

Day 63: Robot restaurant and dress up karaoke!

Today we each did our own thing. I had planned to go to the Imperial Palace today until I realised it's closed on Mondays. I started off by going to see the Tokyo Tower, which is just a less impressive version of the Eiffel Tower. While I was there I saw a group of people dressed as super mario characters. You can do this activity here where you dress up and drive around in super mario karts in the streets! It's amazing! Had I known about it I totally would've booked to do it. 

From the tower I went to Ueno where there is a park and a zoo. I walked past a ramen restaurant with a queue so stopped for some lunch. Ramen is fast becoming my favourite food. It was really good, and rivalled some of the better ramen I've had here so far. I walked around the gardens for a bit and then headed East to see a couple of shrines in Asakusa. The area itself was pretty cool, although the temples were nothing special, and one of them was completely covered by screens for renovation. To finish the day I travelled back to Roppongi and went up the Mori tower for views of the city. It is a fairly steep entry price, but I think the views are worth. 

This evening we went to Robot restaurant for a show. I can't even begin to describe it, it was just so bizarrely Japanese. The pictures speak for themselves really. It was expensive for what it was, but in a weird way I thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterwards we found a fancy dress karaoke and had such an amazing night! I lost count of Jen's costume changes over the two hours we were there, but I was rocking the cow onesie and Alice in Wonderland. 

I can't believe I only have one night left until I go back to Scotland. I was ready to go home until I got to Japan. Now I feel like I could stay here forever I love it so much. And I'm having so much fun with this crazy bunch of Aussies. They're trying to get me to stay on with them and go back to kyoto and Osaka. I'm sorely tempted! 

Day 62: Harajuku girls

This morning Bec and I walked to the Meiji temple. It was a bit of a let down as far as temples go, but there seemed to be some sort of wedding ceremony going on there, so that was cool to see. It was also a really good day weather wise, so a good day for just pottering. From the temple we walked to Harajuku where we spotted the cat cafe, which we obviously couldn't pass up! The cats were adorable, although I can't say they were any friendlier than the ones in the Edinburgh. They seemed happy enough though.

While we were walking we spotted a ridiculous queue for a cafe called Detective Conan. The queue went down about 3 flights of stairs and as far as the eye could see down the street. We were curious to see what the fuss was about so went up for a look, which is where we discovered the cafe. It's apparently a pop up cafe based on a Japanese anime show and sells limited edition collectible items. It all starts to make sense now. The Japanese go mental for that stuff.

At this point we're starving as we haven't eaten all day. We went to a gyoza dumpling place I'd heard about called Harajuku Gyozaro. We shared 4 plates of dumplings (two steamed and two pan fried). They were delicious and we could easily have eaten another couple of plates. We spent the next hour wandering around Harajuku and looking  in the weird and wonderful shops they have there. The place was absolutely rammed though!

Not content with our cat fix, we hopped on the metro to Roppongi area where there was a hedgehog and bunny cafe. The queue for the hedgehogs was a 30+ minute wait so we couldn't be bothered with that, but there was no wait for the bunny so we went up. When we sat down we found out that it cost around £9 to gold a bunny for 10 minutes, and that they didn't serve any drinks, so it wasn't really a cafe. I said that I could hold Marie's rabbit back home whenever I wanted, and that she even lets me help cut her bum fluff for free, so I was loathe to pay. We got up and left.

This evening we went to watch Kabuki which is a traditional Japanese dance-drama. It was bloody weird. The show lasts 4.5 hours, but you can buy tickets for the 40 minute acts, which is what we did thank god otherwise I wouldn't still be living to tell the tale. For about the first 30 minutes of the act some guy literally just 'danced' around the stage with a fan. Jen bought an English guide, the rest of us didn't bother so I was a bit lost as to what was going on. That said, even with the subtitles the story made absolutely no sense. Anyway, it was an experience that's for sure.

After, we went on the hunt for food. We were starving so ended up in some random Japanese place that was empty by the time we got there. Bec and I ordered yakitori which was actually really tasty, apart from the last skewer which tasted foul and had a weird texture. When we later discovered this was actually chicken heart I thought Bec was going to spew it back up as she was so horrified. I didn't enjoy it, but I've certainly put worse things in my mouth since I've been out here!

Day 61: Last stop, Tokyo!

This morning I took the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo which takes about 2 hours 20. I arrived at 11 and headed to the hotel to dump my stuff. The hotel is swanky with a really nice view. I headed to Shibuya crossing to meet Bec and her friends Jen and Andrew. The crossing wasn't as mad as I expected it to be, but maybe it depends on time/day of the week. We went in search of somewhere to eat. We originally found somewhere with a huge queue of Japanese people, which is always a good sign, but we gave up after about 20 mins queuing. The place was tiny, it would've been a long wait and we were starving. We found a ramen place nearby (yes, more Ramen). Tasty but not as nice as the others I've had. After lunch we stopped at an arcade shop. They're literally everywhere. I wasted about ¥500 with no success on the claw machines.  

This evening we went to New York Bar which is on the top floor of the Park Hyatt hotel. The bar was featured in Lost in Translation. It's rather pricey, and there's a cover charge after 8, so we only stayed for about 30 mins to have one drink. Anyway, I've seen a lot of sky views over the past couple of months, and they all start to blend into one eventually!

We headed to the Golden Gai area for drinks and food. It's a really cool area with lots of alleys with the tiniest bars you've ever seen, most of them don't fit much more than 5 or so people in. We had some terrible cheap sake and listened to some bad karaoke for a bit before finding somewhere to eat. That proved fairly difficult in the area and we ended up at some udon place which was fairly average. I had udon noodles with pork. Udon noodles are a lot heavier than ramen noodles and impossible to pick up with chopsticks. Every time I got them near my mouth they'd slip off and splash broth all over my face. Points for best dish go to Jen though with her udon carbonara, which was literally a big bowl of gloop 😂

Next on the agenda was karaoke! You can't not do karaoke in Japan! After some shameless lift selfies with some random japense people, we booked a private room for 2 hours with unlimited drink. Needless to say we were all awesome and rocked every song on the list. The videos speak for themselves. There will be more of that on this trip no doubt! 

So far so good. Loving Tokyo every bit as much as the rest of Japan! And it's nice to have some friends with me this time!

Day 60: Japanese temples

Well I have to hand it to the Japs. They build the best temples. And I've seen ALOT of temples so I feel well qualified to say so. I thought I'd get a bit bored but can honestly say that today was great! I started off at Fushimi-Inari Taisha. This one required a fair bit of walking as it was set into the mountain. There was a covered path all the way to the top, and it was pretty damn far! But you're rewarded with some nice views of the city. 

Next was Kiyomizu-dera. I was probably most looking forward to this one as it looked the most beautiful. It was a really pretty spot, but unfortunately the whole building is currently surrounded with wooden scaffolding so it does kind of spoils it a little bit. After this temple I decided to stop for lunch. I went to Mikaku for some Kobe beef. I really wanted to try it, and figured lunch is the best way to do it as it's a third of the dinner price for the same meal. I had the rump steak and it was amazing! Steak at home will never be the same again! I paid £25 for it (dinner would have been £65) and bear in mind I went for the cheapest cut. So it ain't the cheapest beef! For dessert I grabbed some matcha green tea ice cream from a stall nearby. 

The third temple I visited, Shoren-in, was probably my favourite of the day. 

It was really quiet and peaceful, and set in a really pretty garden. There were far less visitors at this one too which made it all the nicer. For my last temple I travelled across to the other side of the city to Tenryu-hi. Unlike other temples in Asia, where they all start to look the same, I didn't find that the case here as they're all pretty different in style. I had originally planned on squeezing another one or two in, but I just didn't have the time. You could spend a week here and still not see them all. 

Finally to finish the day I took a walk through the bamboo forest before my feet literally couldn't take anymore. I went back to the hotel to soak them in the bath! 

I asked my hotel to try and make me a reservation for the yakitori place but they were fully booked again. I tried two other places I'd read about but they were also full. The problem with restaurants here is that they're so small so don't take many people. I was getting pissed off at this point and decided just to walk down Ponto Cho (an alley with lots of restaurants). I stopped at the first place I could find that had yakitori. I peered in the window and saw that it was packed (good sign) and that there was one spare seat at the counter. I ordered chicken yakitori and grilled duck which was served with rice, salad and edamame beans. It was sooo good! After I ordered the guy to my left started chatting away to me, and told me his friends in Kyoto had recommended this restaurant, so i chose well! His name was Masa and he was Japanese from Tokyo, 58 years old and worked for a large bank here. Not quite the Tinder date I was hoping for, but he was lovely! He had come to Kyoto to spend the week as apparently it's the best time of year to see the cherry blossoms. So I'm here at the best possible time. We chatted away for a good couple of hours, and he ordered me some sake which I hadn't actually tried yet. We said our goodbyes and he gave me his business card in case I ran into any trouble in Tokyo. Score! 

Day 59: Kyoto

This morning I got the train to Kyoto and arrived around 11. Kyoto is really pretty with the cherry blossoms trees along the river and lining the streets. There are also Geishas everywhere!  After dumping my stuff in the hotel I walked to Nishiki market which is pretty huge. Loads of stalls selling vegetables, fish, snacks and such like. The most popular of all seemed to be little octopus on a stick. I know I've eaten a lot of mad things while I've been out here, but even I can't stomach the though of eating those tentacles 🤢

For lunch I went to a famous place called Ippudo for more ramen. It was good, but I still think the one I had in osaka was better. From there I walked to Nijo castle which was built in the 1600s. It was actually really cool, as it's a typical Japanese style wooden building with huge rooms, all painted with gold murals and big sliding doors separating the sections. The gardens are also really pretty with all of the cherry blossoms and bonsai trees. 

Last stop was the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor. It wasn't the most exciting place to visit as all you can do is walk around the grounds and you can't actually go into any of the buildings. 

Tonight I tried to go to a yakatori restaurant I'd read about, but it was fully booked. I'm going to get my hotel to try and book a table for me tomorrow night instead. I was absolutely knackered tonight for some reason, but dragged myself to a couple of bars. One of them was called la cafe siesta, which was a tiny shabby little place with loads of old games consoles and arcades. I really wanted a shot on the Super Nintendo but there was a group of nerdy japs hogging it.

Tomorrow is Temple day. Although I'm kind of sick of temples, I have a feeling these are good to be far superior to the ones I've seen already. Plus, it's the very last temples I'll be seeing on this trip.