Day trip to Karuizawa

We went on a day trip to Karuizawa (軽井沢) near Nagano (長野). It turned out to be a BIG success!!


Easy Transportation
It took only an hour to go to Karuizawa by Shinkensen. If you buy the reserved seat tickets, you can pretty much just go to the station causally 5, 10 mintues before your train leaves. It's a little bit expensive though. One way reserved tix costs about $50 US dollars. Mike thinks it's absolutely worth it to pay that to be "instantly" out of central Tokyo in a very comfortable pace. The other option will be to buy the cheaper non-reserved tix and go to the station VERY early and line up to try to get a seat.


I like to look up info about where to go/travel, and what to see in those new places. Mike is more the other opposite - he claims that he likes to "explore" - without planning. ;)
I usually like printing out maps and bus schedule for the places that we want to see and be prepared; however, with the few travel experience so far, I found out that that's almost unnecessary in Japan. The tourist information is usually extremely helpful here. Usually what you need to do ONLY is to have in mind the things/places that you want to see. Then you walk up to these toursit info counters, tell the people there what you have in mind and let them plan out the day for you and give you all the necessary schedule/map information. Isn't that awesome?!?! Those so-called tourist info centers in the US are usually pretty useless. That's why we were so impressed with the great services here in Japan!!

That's exactly what we did. Easy, fast, no-pain... =)


Shiraito Water Fall (白糸の滝)

The lady at the counter suggested us to go see the Shraito Waterfall first. That turned out to be a brilliant suggestion - bus ride was about 25 mintues and took us straight to the waterfall.







There were already many people there, families, kids, couples, etc.







Apparently, this is one of the "must-see" in Karuizawa. The name of this water fall means "White Strings". It is probably the best description of the waterfall.






The fall drops about 3 meters and is 70 meters wide - so pretty and amazing that almost makes me wonder - is this really nature?! (yes, confirmed that it IS!!)






I read somewhere that say Karuizawa is a tiny town; however, the population doubles during summer, since everyone likes to go there to escape the unbearable heat in Tokyo. And you know what, it's really much COOLER in Karuizawa, about at least 6, 7 degree difference (in celicius).




Mike was so afraid that I'd jump on this pseudo wooden bridge. (Since I tend to have a tendency to jump on every bridge that looks dangerous!!) He was afraid that he'll have to yell "tasukete" ("help" in Japanese) if I fall into the water or break my head or something!! ^___^











Question: Find the two biggest things on Mike in this picture.
Answer: "Eye bags"


What really happened was that he overslept in the morning. (We were almost late for the shinkensen train.) You can probably tell he needs more sleep from his "bags" !! Poor Mike... Z_Z






Usui (碓氷) Bypass/Hiking Trail

Next stop in our trip is to hike up the Usui Bypass. The hike was an easy comfortable hike, took about an hour and a half to hike up and a half hour for us to run down the mountain =)
Gosh... I miss hiking!!!


Supposedly at the top of the trail, there is a scenic point that you can see the pretty view of Mount Asama (浅間山) from across, but when we got there....








Very unforunately, it was SOOoooo foggy that day on top of the Usui Bypass. And we could only see this.... (i.e. nothing)







Just as a comparison - this is what we are supposed to see (if the fog was NOT there!!!) That mountain is Mt Asama. Just FYI - the Shinkensen to go to Nagano is named after this mountain - Train Asama (浅間).


We were a little disappointed about the fog, but overall the trail itself was very good - green, shady, good attitude level, and all Japanese people who passed by said "こにちは" (Konichiwa) friendly to us!!

So afterall, we enjoyed the hike a lot, and nonetheless, it's our FIRST hike in Japan!! (hehe... and we don't need to drive two hours of windy roads just to go to a place to hike!!!) AWESOME AWESOME!!


Kumoba Lake (雲場湖)

Japanese people call this lake the "Swan Lake". We didn't see any Swan that day, but there were few small ducks and fish, and a surprisingly small amount of mosquitos (which you would expect to see A LOT for a smiliar lake in the States or in Hong Kong).








Hehe... Mike, are you trying to hide your "eye bags"? =P







The lake is heavily surrounded by green leaves/trees during summer. I heard that in Autumn all the leaves will turn into red/yellow/orange colors. Must be a very pretty scene!!









Random things and observation...

Parts of Karuizawa is a very westernized town. You can easily see big, brightly-led restaurant with French style exterior seats (like this one) along the street.










Our train back to Tokyo was at 8pm, so we grabbed dinner before broading the Shinkensen. On our way to find a restaurant near the station, we saw this very cute little cat. Mike tried to take a picture of it and it almost ran up and jumped to him.





Looking Forward...

We have decided to go back to Karuizawa either in Autumn (to see the pretty red, yellow falling leaves at Kumoba Lake) or in Winter (to see the annual International Ice Festival) !!







Autumn








Winter









We love this little resort town!!

Oh i am so full..........

I think Mike cooked 3 pounds of Japanaese curry tonight, and we are sooooo.... FULL...... (<~O_o~>)

My tummy is going to explode.... helpw..... (it's very yummy thou....I wanta eat more....)

Yay, home sweet home (X'mas version)

HaPpY hAPpY news !!! Successfully "bagged" my manager for VERY LONG holidays (well, Japanese standard) for x'mas and new year, and Mike got us flight tickets today. We are flying back home to visit friends and family in Dec~! For those of you who don't know - Japanese people do NOT have any X'mas holiday. (yea, I know, I had that response the 1st time I heard about this too!!) Apparently, it's very common for foreigners working here in Japan to fight for vacation during x'mas!

Fortunately, my beloved teammate in Hong Kong is willing to cover for me during those days (well... willing for now, guess it's a bit too advanced to plan for what you will do FOUR months later!) Anyways, I will be off the hook for 2 weeks (YESSSS, no more gettint into the office at 7:30am, and no more worries about stocks/futures/option price for at least TWO weeks!!)

HEHE... Looking forward to fly back to Bay Area to see mom and dad, and also to St Louis to visit Mike's family!!! And also my long-craved DIM SUM!!!! yum yum...

良かったね !! 　 \(^_______^)/

To the people in Bali, time is like a ....

Went out to dinner tonight with a very cool friend and had a very awesome conversation!!! She just came back from Bali and showed us lots of pretty pictures of Bali and from her Bali dance performance.

Of coz, we learned a lot more about Bali too... =)

"To the people in Bali, time is like a rubber band -- very flexible!!"
Very interesting analogy, I think I'll start using that on the French!! =p (j/k)

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Natsuko!! お誕生日おめでとうございます !! (And thx for theおみやげ !!!! hehe...)

Ahhhhh... wanta post more Nikko pictures... but it has already passed my bedtime.... needa be in the office by 7:30 am tomorrow... (P__P) 嫌だ !!!

Nikko Trip

After a long week of exhausting work, Mike and I went on to our long-planned trip to Nikko (well... mostly just me planning, and Mike "participating" !!)

Though it was only a day trip, it was great. We saw some amazing ornate temples (which was the most famous thing in Nikko). The thing that we liked the best though was actually a waterfall called Kegon, which was a 50 minute bus ride from central Nikko.



Kegon Waterfall (華厳滝)



Kegon waterfall is one of Japan's 3 most famous waterfalls. It is about 100m (351 feet) in height.
















It's Mike's first time to see a "real" waterfall like this !!














Even though I have seen other waterfalls before, it is definitely one of the most amazing one. You can feel the water "force" even you are standing a long distance across from it.





The Kegon waterfall is famous not only because of its beautiful view, but also because it used to be a famous place for suicide!!








Apparently, some 18-year old Japanese dude was tired of life. He left a very "philosophical" suicide note behind and then jumped into the waterfall. From then on, the Kegon waterfall had become a popular place for lovers who have no future and chose to die together here. (kinda destroy the spirit of the amazing waterfall, in my opinion!!)










Shinkyo (神橋) - Bridge of God

Shinkyo is a symbol for Nikko - a much photographed red bridge separates the shrines from the town of Nikko. I read somewhere that in feudal times, only the shogun was allowed to crossed it.





And of course, even today, us - the common peasants people are NOT allowed to "go through" it either. What you can do instead is to pay a 500 yen fee to go on and then turn back exit on the same side (Yea, they KNOW how to make $$).





The water underneath the bridge is suprisingly clear and clean!! You can totally see through the small stones at the bottom. Crazy!







This bridge is actually the main driving force for us to come to visit Nikko -- Mike insisted that he absolutely wanted to see this pretty bridge. It was pretty, if you take the picture from the right angle ^___^ Otherwise, you might capture the road RIGHT NEXT to it including its ugly traffic jam (to the right of where Mike is standing!~!)




The Temples

Apparently, if you ask any Japanese people about Nikko, the first things they will tell you to see are the two temples and one shrine here. They are Toshogu (東照宮), Rinno-ji Temple (輪王寺) and Futarasan Shrine (二荒山神社). All three of those historical architecture have been listed in some World Heritage List for Japan.



Shady green little road to Toshogu (東照宮).








Toshogu (東照宮)


A cool-looking temple thing at Toshogu. (yea... didn't really bother to look up what the heck it is, but it looks cool though) =p







Of coz there must be some kind of famous carving in every temple. Though this time I am a bit confused - this "sleeping kitten" (nemuri-neko) is the most famous carving in Toshogu. I don't know what is so special about this cat, but people do have to pay an extra 520 yen to see it!!





"Hi, Mike, look over here!" (on our way walking from Toshogu to Futarasan Shrine. The 3 temples are within walking distance to each other - making it very convenient for vistors/tourists)








Futarasan Shrine (二荒山神社)



Futarasan Shrine (二荒山神社) is a rather quiet shrine (comparing to the other two temples). It gave people a very peaceful feeling.





Me in frontFutarasan Shrine








All 3 temples are surrounded by tall green tress. Very "nature".















(to be continued...)

The most amazing fireworks that I have ever seen...

I have a huge blog debt that I need to "repay"... so much stuff is pending to be blog'ed; however, I just saw the most amazing fireworks last Saturday that it beated all the other "pending" events to be blogged and jumped to the head of the queue!!! =)

I had seen fireworks at Hong Kong and in the US, but nothing compared to the one that we saw over the weekend in Edogawa, a rural area 30 mintues away from Central Tokyo.

I would never imagine that one could experience fireworks in such a short distance - a few times I almost feared that the fireworks would fall onto me. Indeed, they felt THAT close. And big! And clear! And Pretty!! They were so big that you felt like they were just above your head, and you could almost touch them if you raise your arm!! The pounding noise the fireworks made went directly into your heart, deep and solid !!!

The firework was an hour and 20 mintues long (longer than any fireworks that I ever know of). Duration that whole time, everyone (not only us, the Japanese firework-newbie, but all the other Japanese audience as well) were so excited and you could hear すごい (awesome) the entire time!!

So here ya go!! Below are some videos we took attempting to capture the amazing-ness of the fireworks. But you really do have to watch it in person to truly experience the unbelivable atmosphere and the firework power!!

.. The entire firework show ran for a hour 20 minutes, longer than any firework show that I know of...


. I was told that it is very common to have firework shows in summer in different regions around Tokyo - Summer festival event type of things...

. Familes, friends gathered together, sitting, eating, laying on the ground, enjoying the fireworks together, very awesome atmosphere!!


. This one is called the "bee"!! See if you can spot them flying!!


. It's a very common tradition for Japanese girls and guys wear Yukata to see fireworks. (didn't get a picture of them wearing Yukata this time, but you can get an idea from the Yukata wiki page)

p.s. Thanks for the courtesy of Mike for selecting and uploading all these amazing videos. お疲れ様でした！