Yokohama

 Yokohama

I worked in a hostel in Bristol for 3.5 years  and behind the reception we had a calendar with 12 pictures for each month  from different locations in the world.I took a picture with my phone of each of those 12 locations on the calendar and said to myself -One day I am going to visit all these places.

One of the places  was Yokohama  and when I was there I took a picture from that exact location with the Ferris wheel.I was very happy to be at the place I've seen on the  calendar a few years ago.

I decided to go and stay at the hostel which address I gave to an immigration officer upon arrival in Japan.

The owners of the hostel were a really nice couple and said they've visited Bulgaria and stayed in Hostel mostel in Sofia so already knew quite a lot about my home country.The hostel in Yokohama  is called Futareno and the address is Naka-GU,Noge 4-173-5 Yokohama,Japan 

There I met an american girl Meghan and with her ,the owners and a few others we shared Japanese beer,sake and Japanese food.They gave me a lot of information about interesting places I could visit until I still have my JR pass and recommended I should visit Kamakura and Matsumoto castle so I did.

Yokohama

Rainy Yokohama

Not caching any airplanes all the way from Moscow to Japan. I Did it!

I made a day trip to Matsumoto castle .Here are some pictures:

Matsumoto castle

Matsumoto castle

Former Kaichi School

On my way back to Yokohama I saw a sign saying Hachioji or sometning like that and that actually reminded me of the film Hachiko ,so I thought maybe if I could go and find that statue of the dog where he waited for his owner for so many years.So I asked two boys working on the information point on the train station  and although 

their English wasn't great they said :Oh yeah,we know the Dog and the  film and they googled  it and said :It's on Shibuya station and gave me all the instructions how to get there,so I found myself on the train to Shibuya.

Rush hour on the Japanese trains 

I found the Famous Hachiko statue

and took a picture with him :)

After that on the next day I made a day trip to Kamakura:

Shibuya station:look at the amount of people crossing.It is insane!

In Japan I got all my senses overloaded and brain overwhelmed.But it was well worth it!

Day trip to Kamakura-I found it quite touristy with a lot of people on the streets so I only stayed there a few hours and headed back to Yokohama.Here are some pictures from Kamakura and Yokohama again:

Kamakura

Back to Yokohama

Hard rock cafe Yokohama-unfortunately everything was very expensive

In Yokohama I bought a few presents and   sent a small parcel with  them to Bulgaria  as I also put inside the box my Trans Siberian handbook,water from Lake Baikal and few other souvenirs which I've been caring on this journey with me across Russia and Korea .My bag got a bit lighter.

My Japan Railway pass was about to expire and unless you have it, all the tickets for the trains are very expensive if you buy them on the train station so I decided to move on to Tokyo the last few days before I fly out to New Zealand.

I am grateful!

Mount Fuji

Mt Fuji

My next destination after Kyoto was Mt Fuji.

A kind lady explained to me how I can get to there.I had to travel to a bigger city by train and then take a bus to Fujikawaguchiko. It's small town so it was very easy for me to camp on one of the hills nearby.From there I could either hitch to the 5th station of Mt Fuji or take the bus.

I arrived in the afternoon in the small town and decided to camp there and on the next day hid my big rucksack and  took a bus to the 5th Station of Mt Fuji.From there you can hike to the top.

The summit was covered with clouds but just before we reached 5th stationed clouds cleared so I managed to take a few pictures.

Unfortunately when we reached the 5th station I found out that the trails to the top were closed for the season .It was November and the top was covered with snow so that was kind of expected.

I ignored the signs and started climbing up on one of the trails but soon met another European who was coming back and said that it was very icy and unless I have crampons it would be very difficult for me to climb .

I did a few hikes around and after that returned to the visitor information center where I bought some souvenirs and sent a few cards to Europe ans USA.

I returned back to the small town Fujikawaguchiko .My bag was intact at the place where I left it so I stayed another night on the same spot camping.Next morning I had a short stroll around the town and decided to take the train to Yokohama.

The first part of that travel was on a very small and colourful train.

Mt Fuji

5th station covered in fog

Fujikawaguchiko

Kyoto

I had a peaceful night on the hill so on the next day i got up early in the morning and headed towards the train station where I could exchange my voucher for my JR pass.There were a lot of people in the ticket office so an Indian girl was trying to help me out getting my pass,asking me where am I planing to visit next week.I said I have no idea where I am going but had to write something down  so I decided to go and visit Kyoto as it was recommended by a Russian girl and her family that I met while travelling around Baikal lake.

The Shinkansen to Kyoto

First time in my life I was going to experience riding a train that reaches 300 km/h.
As I was looking through the window the world passing by ,soon we reached Hiroshima,
I could only see the city through the window but it had kind of gloomy feeling.
A dutch couple boarded there and since the boy sat next to me we had a chat all the way to Osaka.He said they spent a few days in Hiroshima and quite liked the city.He,also like me were first time experiencing such a fast train.After about 3 hours we reached Kyoto.

As I normally do,I went to the tourist information centre to grab a free map and asked them to point me the best places to visit in the city.
 It's a shame I wasn't keeping any notes during my trip in Japan like I did in Russia.
Kyoto is a very touristy city and there are so many places you could visit that you could easily spend a week there.Some of the place I've put on my phone as visited are Shore-in and Ginkaku-ji as well as walk along the  Philosopher's path.
I camped near small shrines in the outskirts of the city and during the day i visited many tourist attractions.Japan is very safe country ,so  as long I was out of sight somewhere in a park I hoped I'd be fine.All the entrance fees for places to visit are not cheap and accommodation could be expensive as well so sleeping in a tent saved me quite a lot of money during my stay in Japan.

Kyoto is well worth a visit although along with Kamakura were the most touristy places i visited in Japan.There are many Western -European tourists as well as Americans everywhere.I don't particularly like very touristy places so 2 days were enough for me and I decided to move on and took a train to mount Fuji.