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Two of my favourite pictures from our trip to Tokyo, Japan. 

Introducing Fotomoto

I signed up to Fotomoto, which lets me start selling my photos online! If you want to buy one of my photos, simply click on the "buy print / buy card" link below the picture and go through the shopping cart steps. It's 100% safe and secure, and it's used by many professional photographers, artists, and organizations!

You can choose from prints, canvas, and cards in all different sizes (just be sure to click on the "more sizes" button)!

Also, most of my pictures on my blog have my "tag" on it, but when purchasing the picture, the tag will not be part of the print itself [unless you want it to :)]. Most pictures going forward will have the option to buy the print. If there is a particular picture from a previous post that you would like to buy, but doesn't have the option, send me an email and let me know which one so I can make it available for you!

Thank you in advance!

Taste of Japan: Day 09 / Summary

Today marked the last day of our trip :(

We woke up at our regular time and had breakfast. We took our time because our flight wasn't until 5pm, so we had ample time to relax and slowly make our way to the airport. We had our final lunch in Tokyo and it was a sad feeling. 

We packed in so many activities and we saw so much and although we were only there for eight days, it felt longer. We're happy we added Japan to the list of places we have visited. We also won't forget the company that we had while we were there. Travelling with friends, especially to somewhere like Tokyo, was enjoyable because although we were on the other side of the world, we didn't feel too far from home. 

One of the best memories I'll keep during this trip will not be the food itself, but the experience of how we ate the food. To eat, we sat in a chair, a booth, a stool, a cubicle, and believe it or not, two of the best meals I had was sitting on the floor and standing up at a sushi bar. We ordered what we wanted from a vending machine, chose what we wanted from a tablet, pushed a button on our table whenever we needed the waitor, and never had to worry about being dehydrated as there were always vending machines everywhere, from the hotel, to the streets, to the mountain side. I don't remember a time that I felt hungry either, because there were always shops everywhere we went that sold everything from fresh food to packaged food, dry food to frozen food, and even canned food.

Everyone in Tokyo and Kyoto were extremely nice and the environment was safe. We would definitely go back to Japan, but would visit other areas like Osaka or Hiroshima. Until then, we'll have our pictures to look back on and the memories to recall.

Taste of Japan: Day 08

We took advantage of our stay in Kyoto and woke up early this morning. Destination: Fushimi Inari Shrine. This shrine is famous for the thousands of torii gates located in the back. These torii gates line up and form a trail up Mt. Inari. The torii gates are purchased and donated by individuals and companies, and their name and date of the donation is carved into the side.

The whole trail takes almost 3 hours to walk, but due to our time limitations, we were only about to walk about 45 minutes. We read that the first look out point is this far up, so we wanted to at least make it to that point. The walk itself is calming; surrounded by the torii gates and also the lush greenery. If we had more time, we would have made an effort to walk up to the end.

After Inari, we made our way back to our hotel to pack up and check out. We had lunch and got back on the bullet train to head back to Tokyo. We arrived late afternoon and did some packing before heading back out into the city. Our friends who left earlier in the day recommended a stand up sushi bar inside the subway station at our hotel. We went to try it out as a snack and had one of the best pieces of sushi I've ever had! It was a slightly charred salmon sushi; a piece of salmon on the rice roll, topped with mayo and at the end, the chef would use a blow torch to cook the salmon to about 70%. Everything literally melted in my mouth! 

After our snack (which turned out to be dinner because we were full afterwards), we made our final trek to Shibuya and walked around one last time :(

Taste of Japan: Day 07

Kyoto was on the menu for today, which included a one night stay and a round trip from Tokyo on a bullet train! We got up early this morning to catch the train at 730am. The train ride itself was quite the experience. In Japan, they have three different types of bullet trains, which is I like to sum up as the fastest, faster, and fast trains -- we took the faster one. Although going at a speed of around 250km/h, the ride was smooth, the seats were comfortable, and the leg room was plenty.

One thing we were excited about the train ride was the possibility of seeing Mt. Fuji. We read that you get a nice view of Fuji on the way to Kyoto, and our friends had gone to Kyoto before we arrived and they were able to see it. The travel book we read said you would see Mt. Fuji about 45 minutes in to the train ride after departing Tokyo. Around 45 minutes later, we saw Mt. Fuji! We were lucky this time around as the sky was somewhat clear and we had a nice view! Since we missed it the other day, we were happy to see it this time (however, coming back from Kyoto the next day, it was too cloudy so we didn't see it on our way back).

We touched down in Kyoto and hoped on a local train and made our way to Nara, a city about 30 minutes south of Kyoto. The main purpose of going to Nara was to see Todaiji, the world's largest wooden building housing the largest statue of Buddha in an enclosed building. The bronze Buddha is 15 meters high, and its hand  is larger than the average person. The pictures don't do its justice as it's hard to know how big it really is without being there.

The walk to Todaiji was interesting as well as Nara is famous for their friendly deer that roam around the city. The deer over there was equivalent to pigeons here in Toronto, meaning they're just hanging around in the park in bunches. There are people selling crackers that the deer like to eat as well, so that's probably another reason why they're in the area. 

After Nara, we made our way back to Kyoto and went to the Nishiki market, a long path of little shops that sell trinkets and food. We were unlucky with the timing once again, as the shops started closing about 30 minutes after we started walking around. 

We strolled our way to the Gion district of Kyoto. After roaming around what seemed to be a secret area due to the lack of people and the hush restaurants, we finally found a restaurant to have dinner. One of the best eating experiences in my life as I ordered the sashimi, which included shrimp sashimi that I watched the chefs pull live from the tank!