Trip Day Seven & Eight: Karuizawa, Harajuku and Night Train to Hokkaido

Filed under: Time Off

Posted 3 months ago at 10:07 pm. 4 comments

Shiraito Falls

As usual, the photos and videos are up on flickr.
Day 7: Karuizawa
Day 8: Harajuku

The most interesting part might be the experience of taking a night train from Honshu to Hokkaido.

Night Train to Hokkaido
The cheap seat-only carts (like this one) were filled by mostly tourists, whereas the couchettes (bed carts) were occupied by locals. I had no problem sleeping on the reclined seat, but it got uncomfortably cold at night and I had to wrap myself in pants (didn’t bring a jacket).

How to go to Hokkaido with a JR Pass:

17:56 - 21:00 東京 Tokyo => 八戶 Hachinohe
21:17 - 22:18 八戶 Hachinohe => 青森 Aomori
22:45 - 06:07 青森 Aomori => 札幌 Sapporo

It’s not exactly fun, but that’s the cheapest way to do it since it’s fully covered by the JR Pass. Plus I got to save money on a night of accommodation. Now that I have done it once, I might do it again.

Arriving Sapporo at 6 a.m. was harsh, but I will save that for the next post.

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Trip Day Five & Six: Shopping Areas

Filed under: Time Off

Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 3:57 pm. 1 comment

Jon and Larry were up on Mt. Fuji on Day Five and Six, so I just went shopping.

There is a Starbucks in Shibuya near the Hachiko intersection that is popular among photographers.
Starbucks Iced Coffee Jello

After an Iced Coffee Jello drink and a little bit of Photoshop effort, here’s the tilt-shifted Shibuya miniature.

Tilt-Shifted Shibuya

Roppongi
Digital Clock near Roppongi Hills

Day 5 Shibuya, Shimokitazawa, Kichijouji, Roppongi and Day 6 (nothing interesting) on Flickr.

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Trip Day Four: Lunch at Kanidouraku and Railway Museum

Filed under: Time Off

Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 12:13 am. 0 comments

Bestest

For the longest time, my website would show up as the first result if you search for kanidouraku in google. Not anymore. I need to go there more often.

Railway Museum

The Railway Museum (鉄道博物館) was quite nice. I recommend spending a morning there, even if you are not a JR fan.

A lot of the shots were taken with my new wideangle lens. For more photos and videos, go to the Flickr set.

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Trip Day Three: Disneyland

Filed under: Time Off

Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:10 pm. 1 comment

On the third day, Random Jon woke up and decided it would be a good day to visit Disneyland. I went unprepared, with only an uncharged battery in my point-and-shoot. The indicator was red and empty by noon.

Space Mountain
Space Mountain was still the best ride. Well worth the wait compare to the other ones that I can’t even recall.

By using the “wait a few seconds and turn it on again” technique repeatedly, I was able to take a bunch of 1 or 2 seconds clip at night. By the end of the parade, my camera did not even have enough power to retract the lens.

One thing I noticed though, teenage Japanese girls are way more into Disney characters than others. During the parade(s), they screamed out Mickey’s name and flapped their arms, as if they saw Justin Timberlake or something. Oh, and the blue rat is huge in Japan.

IMG_0504

Disneyland photos and videos

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