As we decided to rent bikes a bit on a whim, we had to find a place where it was possible without prior notice and without a high cost – and also with the possibility of renting the bike until the evening. We found a place in Ueno where it was possible to rent bikes until 8PM for only 300 yen (around 15dkk).  When arriving at the bike rental place however, I found out that tourists should always carry their passport when sightseeing. Remember this!! If I was not able to speak Japanese, I would not have been allowed to rent the bike since I didn’t bring my passport. Luckily for me, after some discussion the guy there wrote in my driver’s licence number instead of passport number and allowed me to rent the bike.

At such a low price we didn’t expect the bikes to be very nice, but they were actually surprisingly OK. There were no gears, but they were in good condition. However, as always with “grandma bikes” in Japan, the maximum seat height is really low. Even though I put it into the max setting I still wanted to put it higher (I could easily have both feet on the ground while sitting on the bike).

Without really considering how far it actually was, we decided to bike to Odaiba and briefly stop at the Tsukiji market on the way there. As it was already afternoon at this time, it was just a short stop looking at some of the fish they sell and sushi restaurants.

After stopping at the Tsukiji market, we headed for Odaiba. Had it been in Denmark, 10km would not feel so far. However, in Japan you bike on the pedestrian paths and when there are many people, you have to stop completely and follow the pace of people walking. Therefore, it takes quite some time to drive such distance, but when you get used to it, it feels really good to go around by bike in Tokyo anyway. However, as it was really hot that day and because of the low pace it took some time to go there, so we were quite exhausted when arriving in Odaiba.

Odaiba is a place near the sea with view over Tokyo Bay housing several shopping malls among other things such as the Fuji TV building…

…where you can enter the observation deck and view Tokyo Bay.

There is also a miniature statue of liberty…

…and an (artificial) sand beach.

A bit after we took off from Odaiba, the sun set while we were still near the ocean.

On the way back to Ueno to turn back the bikes we went through Ginza where we drove on the road due to the many people….

… and Tokyo station, which I had only seen from the inside. It is made from bricks, which is not very typical Japanese but quite beautiful, particularly when it’s lit up in the evening.

We arrived at the bike rental place around 20 minutes before the deadline (8PM), and having biked a lot more than we initially intended we were quite exhausted and ended up going to an Izakaya for some food and beer in reward of the effort! ^^

That concludes the tale of the bike trip in Tokyo! Next up will be a trip to the Tochigi prefecture and Nikko.

The post Biking from Ueno to Odaiba and back appeared first on Kristines Blog.

Or just at the side-walk…

Just being in a place like this is an experience in itself. Last time I went to Harajuku I didn’t stay for long, but this time I could feel that I had gotten used to the amount of people from my last visit to Japan, so it didn’t really bother me. And on top of one of the buildings there was a Starbucks with a very nice view.

And you can find interesting cafés and restaurants if you look around. For example I had a “Benedict” in a café called “Afternoon Tea”, I think. I was a bit suspicious about the combination of tuna, bread and egg, but was surprisingly good.

And close by… aside from the well know Meiji Shrine with the big gate at the entrance (I did not enter this time)…

…is Yoyogi park. There’s almost always something going on in this park, and even if there isn’t it’s a really nice place to sit down and relax for a bit. It’s a really peaceful place where people are having picnics, playing sports, relaxing with a beer, and where kids are playing. When the weather is this good (this day it was 27 degrees and sunny), I can really recommend to buy a beer in a convenience store and sit down somewhere in the park to drink it.

After a long time working weekends and holidays, it was a really nice and relaxing day! And if you are not the person who deals with crowds well, at least give Yoyogi park a try.
I went to Yokohama today, so that will be up next. But that was it for now, so see you next time!

The post Harajuku and nearby appeared first on Kristines Blog.

I had a brunch plate at “Mammamia” and was surprised about how good it was… Not the worst “last meal” in Denmark for the next 6 weeks! ^^

After finding the souvenirs we went to the airport, and I got through very fast. The automatic backage drop system really has sped up everything compared to how it was some years ago. It did not take more than 10 minutes (probably less) to get rid of my luggage. By coincidence, due to a slight trafic jam of chineese people at the entrance to the security check, I got in through the express line. Therefore, I entered the shopping area of the airport extremely fast, and had plenty of time to walk around and also to sit down and have a beer (even though the glass label said Carlsberg, it was of course a Tuborg Classic ^^).

The plane departed as scheduled and since it was really nice weather I used the opportunity to take some pictures through the window in the airplane.

The view during take-off was really pretty, showing the patch-like “texture” of Denmark from above the ground.

For once, I actually thought the food in the airplane was decent. We had curry rice with… chicken… I think. ^^ In the hope of being able to sleep a bit later, I had another beer for dinner.

Even though the seat next to mine had been booked earlier, it turned out to be vacant. Time might have passed faster if there had been someone there, however because of that I could easily read through a paper I promised my supervisor to review (I thought it might help me in my quest for sleep, but it was actually pretty interesting ^^). But another advantage of a vacant seat next to mine was the increase in number of possible sleeping positions, as I really cannot sleep while sitting upright. But… as expected, even though I tried for a few hours, I still couldn’t sleep in the end. We were also served breakfast on the plane according to Japanese time (hence around 2AM in Danish time), so I was not particularly hungry when I got the food, but it was ok.

Everything went fine when arriving to Narita airport, and I got to the apartment by train. In order not to fall asleep until evening, I went out to get a data sim card and I also bought one more Japanese study book. The prepaid sim cards you can buy in Japan as a tourist are fixed to an amount of data and also a time range. Since I am staying here for 6 weeks, I had to go into a few stores to find a good solution where I don’t have to change simcard again after 1 month. What I ended up with was the “Prepaid LTE SIM” from “So-net” with 3GB over 60 days.

It cost me 5000 yen (around 250dkk). I might have been able to save some money by chosing another solution and refilling the data if necessary, however I wanted something which I did not have to change again before I return to Denmark. It was easy to set up on my Iphone 6s, and it seems to work well. So now that I have my phone up running, I can go out without getting lost! Finally, I had Soy Ramen (noodle soup) for my first dinner here, which was really good. I really feel like a tourist when I take photos of my food before I eat it, but here’s how it looked! ^^

That was it for now. Until next time!

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