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More pages: April 2025



π 2025-04-17 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips, Trips
Because Nikko had a lot of cool things to see, and I didn't know about Edo Wonderland, I arrived only 2H before it closed, which was enough to get a feel for it, but not nough to see all their shows. It was worth 3 or 4H but the 2 were still more than fun:





















I tried:










They had troublemakers :)







Nice fish :)





See more images for Edo Wonderland Nikko
π 2025-04-13 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips, Trips
I had been to Takayama before Takayama 2, but since I was going to be back in Japan during their biyearly float festival (apparently the 3rd most popular festival in Japan), I figured it would be fun to go back. The 2 small downsides were that it's a bit of a trip from Tokyo, but thankfully there is a 6H direct bus from Shinjuku that went there. The other downside was that the city was super booked and it was both very expensive and very hard to find a room for those 2 days (close to $500 a night).

early morning bus from shinjuku
early morning bus from shinjuku

8:15 direct bus to Takyama
8:15 direct bus to Takyama

no more new snow, but rain
no more new snow, but rain

plenty of snow
plenty of snow


Once arrived in Takayama, started with the float museum:



Then went to the folk village museum:






On the way back to town, found a cafe rescue cafe, worth a stop :)




The very expensive hotel with the only room left:



the first restaurant looked interesting, but the meat was not great
the first restaurant looked interesting, but the meat was not great

The next morning, first went to visit a local museum and market:




After that, it was time to see the floats and puppet show on top of floats. Those puppets were very nicely animated:









lots of people came to see the show
lots of people came to see the show

Then it was a good time for a walk around town and its small museums:





The floats were being displayed around town:



After that, it was a good time to go for for a the pretty mountain walk around town. Higashiyama Walking Course is tricky to follow, thankfully I had my GPS track from 2016 that helped a lot:








found a wild mountain goat
found a wild mountain goat














At the end of the walk, was the float museum which, turns out, only had the autumn floats, while the spring floats were outside:





Nextdoor was a small indoor museum with a recreation of Nikko:






After that, it was time to go back to town to visit and see the float parade:

Old town has nice little shops including some beef sushi and yummy ice cream :)









Then the float parade finally arrived:












After that, there was more time to visit town and see fun things:




And then I did my best to find a better meat restaurant after the disappointing one from the previous night. It was indeed a lot better:




The next morning, there was about 2h to visit town before the trains to Nikko:












Due to light rain, the floats were not able to get out and performed in their respective shelters:






But there was time to see one last museum and a few nice views of town:








See more images for Takayama Spring Float Festival
π 2025-04-12 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Outings, Public
Another fun Animal café, this time in an Odaiba mall:

the sunflower seeds I almost always carry, came in handy :)
the sunflower seeds I almost always carry, came in handy :)

always love those little birds
always love those little birds

even the chicks loved them
even the chicks loved them

first time seeing Capibara, finally. They are kind of very big docile rats :)
first time seeing Capibara, finally. They are kind of very big docile rats :)






soft and nice, also loved sunflower seeds
soft and nice, also loved sunflower seeds

giant rabbit
giant rabbit

also an owl café :)
also an owl café :)


even a sloth
even a sloth

See more images for Tokyo Odaiba Animal Cafe
π 2025-04-12 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Ndining
I was able to find a last minute reservation in a fancy sushi restaurant in ginza, Sushi Meguri Ginza, where they spoke minimal english but enough that with my minimal japanese, we were able to make a reservation and they were willing to trust that we would show up for dinner.

Pretty indoors:


they have new menus every few weeks for sub seasons of the year
they have new menus every few weeks for sub seasons of the year

display of the food that was going to be served
display of the food that was going to be served













Post dinner photo, thanks for the yummy food:


See more images for Sushi Meguri Ginza
π 2025-04-12 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Museums
Teamlab Borderless in Tokyo (Mori Building), is simply amazing. Frist, you need to know that it books out weeks in advance, so this is something you have to book before you go to Japan, or waste a lot of time to hope and get a last minute cancellation, but your odds are going to be low. I had to do it the hard way, I do not recommend that :)

It took a while to find the building museum at the basement of a building, but found it eventually:


One inside, it was very nice:









The very impressive hanging LED room:



And the Tea Room was simply amazing. That was beautiful and magical at the same time:



Summary of Instagram Videos:

Long story short, absolutely recommended, book early.

See more images for Teamlab Borderless Mori Tokyo
π 2025-04-11 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Outings, Public
Of course Japan is known for cat cafés, but it has even more than that: plenty of other animal cafés. Takeshita street in Harajuku has so many, went to see a few. Micropig café was fun of course :)



piggie overload ;)
piggie overload ;)

more piglets :)
more piglets :)



Then, cute dogs :)






Then another cute dog café:







And more:


chinchilla!
chinchilla!


Cuteness overload ;)

π 2025-04-11 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Ndining
Very nice Teppanyaki in Tokyo, fun and yum!









Even had a nice dessert:




See more images for Teppanyaki Hama in Tokyo
π 2025-04-10 01:01 in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips
This Japan trip was meant to be for festivals in Takyama (Japanese Alps Area), and then Nikko, both happened to have fun yearly festivals around the time of this trip.

So, things started in Tokyo. I picked Shinjuku since it's nearby most things I cared about. The first day was really just the end of the day, but enough to go out for dinner and walk around:


meat is not cheap in Japan but it's very good
meat is not cheap in Japan but it's very good

Then a quick walk through Golden Gai and its streets filled with little bars;



And random things in the streets that are fun:


unfortunately the original robot restaurant is dead. The new one is nowhere close
unfortunately the original robot restaurant is dead. The new one is nowhere close



Next morning, went to the MET, thinking it we could go up somewhere by 08:30, but the information was confusing and we'd only be allowed up at 09:30, which was too late due to a reservation at Shibuya Sky at 10:00:


So, not much of a view at MET before you can go to the top (it's free, but opened too late that morning), however, there was time to go walk though Yoyo-ji on the way to Shibuya Sky:









Tnen, it was finally time for Shibuya Sky, which does require reservations weeks in advance. I found it nice and fun to visit, but probably overhyped and not worth the headaches to try and get a last minute timeslot:





Yoyo-ji Park
Yoyo-ji Park

Shibuya crossing
Shibuya crossing


Mario Karts :)
Mario Karts :)

Didn't realize there was a google building nextdoor ;)
Didn't realize there was a google building nextdoor ;)








A few pictures from lower down before going back to Shibuya crossing:




It was then fun to go visit Takeshita Street:




Yum
Yum





One fun thing in Takeshita Street, are all the animal cafés:



There were also nearby fancy dog cafés:









After cute animal overload, went to visit Gyoen National Garden, which was beautiful during cherry blossom season:















Then, it was time to go back to Shinjuku for the Ninja Show:










Then back around Shinjuku to find dinner:



yummy teppanyaki
yummy teppanyaki



For day #2, took a cab towards Odaiba to save time over public transport:



Went back to Maraikan, which is still an inteeresting and unusual science museum:








The park outside had plenty of pretty tulips:






Then, we got to diver city shopping mall:





And the Unko museum:






Then more walking around the area:




And found another animal café, there:







More about Odaiba Animal Cafe Here

Inside the mall, lots more shops and fun museums, didn't have time for them all:


At that time, I got the great news that we could go to Teamlab Borderless (my online ticket chagne, was approved, so it made sense to cut things short a bit and head towards the Mori buidling for Teamlabs:







And then time for a yummy sushi dinner:






A quick walk through Ginza from there:



And that was it for Tokyo, next morning was a bus to Takayama


More pages: April 2025

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