Japan 2023 - Hiroshima

Hiroshima

It took some time to get from Umeda to Shin-Osaka station, and then it's approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes from Shin-Osaka station to Hiroshima station by Shinkansen. Fast and comfortable ride.

 

Hotel in Hiroshima was somewhere within the walking distance from the Hiroshima station, and I think room was a little bit bigger than others on this trip.

 

First impressions:

• as expected, Hiroshima has different vibe than Tokyo and Osaka, cause it's a much smaller city
• cars are less fancy than in Osaka, and probably a bit older as well
• cool-looking (or "old school") trams
• less tourists 

 

points to expand: 

• day trip to Miyajima island 

Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima Peace Memorial park is a must-visit place if you're in the area (and it's probably the big reason you'd consider visiting Hiroshima). Peace Memorial Museum is especially difficult place to be in (at least it was for me), but kind of necessary.

to be continued... 

Japan 2023 - Osaka

Osaka

Shinkansen for the win :) It is a great mode of transportation indeed. About 3 hours after leaving Tokyo, I arrived at Shin-Osaka station, and from there it's just a few stops by a subway line to get to the center (Umeda / Kita).

 

First impressions: 

• Osaka clearly has a different "vibe" than Tokyo, though I can't exactly pinpoint it.
• less tourists (outside Dotonbori etc, that is :)
• cars are fancier on average, but a bit older as well

Osaka castle

Even though I only saw it from outside, it's impressive, as it's surroundings / fortifications. And as with many places in Japan, it's the contrast between new and old that adds to the vibe. Like skyscrapers not-so-far away, or airplanes on approach, in the sky above the castle.

 

Underground stations 

Underground stations (Umeda especially) are like towns, with many "streets" and insane amount of exits. Took me a few days to discover (and memorize) the exit nearest to my hotel 😀 And also, speaking of hotels... when you're navigating back to your hotel from an unknown direction, check the name you're putting into the navigation, and resulting location (on a map). There may be multiple similarly named ones, and if your rely on auto-complete too much, you may end up slightly off-course. Don't ask me how I know 😀 

 

Umeda Sky Building

It's a distinct cool-looking building and worth the visit. In addition to "normal" (inside) observation deck, there is also an open-air observation deck at the top.

Also, some massive construction was going on nearby, which slightly complicated navigation.

 

Dotonbori

It's just crazy. Overcrowded, "touristy", and overall, not exactly pleasant. But there are ton of food places there (some of which had quite long queues btw). So... if navigating through crowds is your thing, go ahead. If not - look elsewhere.

 

Food

Osaka is known for it's love of food. And there's ton of different restaurants, street food etc. Won't give any recommendations, except maybe try Okonomiyaki?

 

Osaka bay

Bay area (subway stations Osakako / Cosmosquare) is nice. If you have the time and are looking for a relatively chill place, Osaka Bay area might be worth a visit. There's also a really impressive Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (which I didn't visit at that time), Legoland (if that's your thing), Ferris wheel, promenade etc. 

 

Sun vs trees

My impression was that Osaka has way less places (trees / parks etc) to hide from burning sun than say, Tokyo...

 

And... eventually it was time to move to the next destination - Hiroshima

 

Photos 

Osaka 2023 

 

Japan 2023 - Tokyo 1

Tokyo, part 1

Hello, Haneda Airport, nice to meet you :) 

Anyway... after a very long flight (yes, complaining about long flights is kind of a first world problem) it was nice to finally get out of the plane. Compared to Narita in 2018, Haneda seemed less intimidating. 

 

Exchanged a bit of cash (in most cases, you can get by with credit/debit card just fine... but you still need cash), bought a Pasmo card,

exchanged voucher for Rail Pass (in fact they advise to use other offices - not the airport ones - unless you need to activate Rail Pass right away, which I didn't need), and off to the city.

 

Haneda Airport (when compared to Narita Airport) is a bit closer to the city, especially if you stay somewhere south-ish. And I think it has better public transport connections too (including monorail 😎). Finally, after some minor glitches on my part, I managed to check in to hotel, so all was good.

 

Walked around neighborhood, got some food, and slept like a log.

 

Rainbow bridge and Odaiba

I was randomly browsing map of Tokyo, just to get ideas, and noticed a bridge at the edge of the Tokyo bay. Bridge photos seemed interesting, so I decided to go there and have a look. Well, it's a nice bridge indeed, but not exactly photo-friendly. It's fenced off for the most part, so there aren't many "picture-taking" places up there. On the other (eastern) side of the bridge is Odaiba district, which is worth visiting. And surprisingly there's also a smaller replica of Statue of Liberty. 

 

Yodobashi / Bic Camera

Don't let the names mislead you :) These mega-shops are not just about cameras. They're basically devil's creation... If you need to spend (waste / pass / whatever you call it) a couple of hours - they got you covered. But be warned, it might be harmful to your wallet.

 

3d cat in Shinjuku

Shinjuku Cross Vision or whatever the "official" name is. It's just cool, and you don't have to search for it either, cause if you're going to Shinjuku, chances are you'll see those screens right away.

Also, part of the "coolness" isn't in the screen (or cat animations) itself, but just the slight "absurdity" of it. Big meowing animated cat, doing cat things, and bunch of people looking at it in awe, possibly through their phone cameras 😀 

 

Tokyo tower 

Well, it was worth the visit, less crowded than a Skytree, and surroundings are also kind of interesting.

 

Hamarikyu Gardens

It's a really nice, big park. There's an entrance fee, but it's reasonable (and for locals there's also a season ticket option). Surrounded by tall buildings it's an interesting contrast. Good place to just be and do nothing.

 

Public transport (metro / urban rail)

Rail transport in Tokyo is cool but somewhat difficult to navigate / fully understand. It's divided between multiple companies / line types (JR / metro / ...), stations with the same name (but different type) may have separate entrances/exits etc. Also this makes "day tickets" kind of pointless, cause they don't cover all the lines / types. On the bright side though, Google maps was mostly spot-on regarding routes / time-tables, so that helped massively.

 

Computer / kiosk interfaces

Seems like Japan has it's own specific "take" on UI/UX. I won't say it's necessarily bad, but it is different. Also, on couple of occasions, even though UI had (optional) English version, I couldn't find it myself.

 

Masks

Even back in 2018 it was not uncommon to see people in (protective) masks on the street. So, unsurprisingly, in 2023 you could notice masks a lot.

 

Better usability of Rail Pass compared to 2018

I couldn't do much with Rail Pass myself back in 2018 if I remember correctly - everything had to be done "manually" via JR customer service offices. Now I was able to book all tickets myself via ticket machines.  There was still one occasion when I visited customer service (more on that later), but it was not directly related to Rail Pass.

 

Other impressions compared to 2018

• more tourists (not that there was any shortage of them in 2018)
• seems like rules regarding smoking are stricter now (?) - which is good, I saw less people smoking on the streets

 

After "decompressing" in Tokyo for a couple of days, it was time to continue the journey. So, off to Osaka.

Photos: Tokyo 2023 on Flickr   

Japan 2023

Introduction

This series of posts will be more like a diary of random observations, and less like a consistent story. Over 2 years had passed since that trip, and some memories inevitably got lost (tip: writing things down, even in a keyword form, while on a trip, helps), but… 

This trip was longer than previous one in 2018, and had more complex itinerary:

• Tokyo
• Osaka
• Hiroshima
• Kyoto

And then some “improvised”  day-trips from Tokyo at the end.

Let’s begin with a fact that as of spring 2023, Japan still had some COVID-related restrictions for foreign visitors. You needed to be either fully vaccinated, including 3rd booster shot, or provide a negative COVID test taken within certain time frame before flight. So yes, this complicated things a bit.

I ordered a Japan Rail Pass + data sim card in advance (I could probably find a data sim in Japan too, but just didn’t want to bother). I think 2023 was the final year when Japan Rail Pass still made financial sense (while still being not cheap), after that they raised prices dramatically. I guess you can’t subsidise tourists forever...

 

How to backup photos while traveling

Have you ever wondered how to backup photos from a camera, while on a trip, without needing a computer and internet? 

Well, there are 2 main options for this:

1. Smartphone (or tablet) + USB card reader + external storage if needed (USB flash drive / SSD / ...)
2. Purpose-built proprietary devices (hard drive + battery + card reader combined into 1 device)

Option 2 doesn't sound like a good fit for me - I don't want to rely on a proprietary backup device (which is likely expensive, and also won't be used that much). My idea was to utilize existing (or common / standard) devices as much as possible, so I gravitated towards Option 1 (iPhone + USB-C hub / card reader + USB flash drive). When you have this hardware combo working, you can use standard "Files" app on the iPhone, but it's a bit inconvenient and prone to human errors in this scenario. 

So I asked myself - maybe I should create an app to make (travel) backups more simple and robust (and also learn something about iOS development in the process - I have years of programming experience, but not with iOS specifically)? 

Yes, it took time, but eventually, I created and published the app on App Store. So, if backup problem mentioned above sounds familiar, and you have newer iPhone or iPad, you might give it a try. See app's website for more info - TurtleBackup - offline photo backup app for iPhone

PS. app is free (no ads or other shit) at the moment, and realistically I don't think there's enough potential users to bother making it non-free.

 

It's been a while

More than 4 years since last post... Guess I need to post slightly more often? 😕

 

Japan 2018 - Kyoto

Kyoto

Train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto was smooth. I went on Hikari train, it's not the fastest one available,

but still pretty damn fast. On the way you see some suburbs / countryside, which reminds of the USA a bit.

On arrival, you immediately feel that Kyoto is way smaller than Tokyo.

According to the internet, Kyoto has around 1.47 million people, but it sure feels less than that.

Much more relaxed and "chill" atmosphere overall.

Old temples, buildings, streets... all this obviously attracts a lot of visitors.

Anyway, even aimlessly wandering on "secondary" streets feels damn good.

 

Summary:

Chill city, even though I've only got a really small glimpse of it, would gladly visit again (and I did, in 2023).

 

Photos: Kyoto 2018 on Flickr 

Japan 2018 - Tokyo

Tokyo

It's not an easy task to describe Tokyo in a few words... Realistically it's impossible. Tokyo is deep, overwhelming and amazing.

But, I'll try. So, here are some bullet points. Sure, many of those are obvious for well-travelled person, but I'm not that person 😀

• "Hello Kitty" is a thing
• People are glued to their phones in the subway
• First reminder that you're in the megalopolis (megapolis), is the view from the Tokyo Skytree. It is something special indeed, at least in the dark (I hope I come back to someday, to compare the view in daylight, if nothing else 😀). For the person who isn't used to the skyscrapers with red lights on top... I can't describe it properly, pictures I've taken also aren't good and don't do it justice. But...  if you've seen "Lost in translation" you should kind of understand what I'm trying to say here.
• Second reminder that you're in huge city indeed - is the amount of people in rush hour, especially in subway
• At daytime, river banks (promenades) were almost empty, streets also didn't seem crowded
• Foreigners are not uncommon, but there aren't that much of them compared to the number of locals
• (Kitchen) knife shops - that's something I haven't seen before
  
• Also a whole block of shops dedicated to kitchen / restaurant-related stuff  (including plasticky "demo food")
• You can even find Justin Bieber records in some random the book shop I encountered😀
  
• Some "weird" desserts in the convenience stores (you understand that it's a dessert, judging by the shelf it's located at, but you can't exactly figure out what it is even if there's a picture). Bought some, interesting taste (some green stuff, can't exactly describe)
• Heated mirror in the hotel's bathroom. Definitely a good idea if you ask me.
• They'll provide you with a chopsticks at the checkout if you buy a meal (sushi / noodles / ...) from the convenience store. Also, generally they can reheat your meal if needed (haven't tried though)
• Shinkasen trains (aka bullet trains) are something special, for sure
• Platforms are numbered in accordance with train car numbers, so you're in the right place in advance
• Shinjuku district is kind of uncomfortable, some shady-looking people around
• Shibuya. The infamous Shibuya crossing - it exists, and it's impressive.
• A ton of "capsule" wending machines (machines that sell stuff packaged in capsules)
• Insanely great shopping malls, especially Yodobashi. I almost got sensory overload from all the sounds and blinking lights 😀 Also lot of sophisticated toy / hobby stuff (like trains, glue models etc)
• "introvert friendly seats" at food places.. I mean, Japan overall is an introvert-friendly country, and food places aren't exception
• Newer subway trains have LCD screens with route / direction / transfer information, also show on which side the doors will open
• "sideways" light switches in the hotel
• just a single option of Japanese beer available in place called "Wold beer museum", kinda strange (I'm sort of beer aficionado)
  
• It seemed like Tokyo never sleeps, like with some planning you could find a meal in the middle of the night
  

As usual, I often felt stupid for not being aware / not adjusting to the situations quickly. 

Had some minor "customer service" issues, like item was billed twice in the shop (and I discovered it only after leaving the shop), and public transport ticket (Suica) wasn't working after returning from Kyoto. But both issues were resolved, even if it took a bit of time and the other person didn't understand me well (and for sure I didn't know any Japanese either)

Bottom line is - from what I've seen and experienced, Tokyo it is a great city indeed, would gladly visit again (and I did, in 2023).

Photos: Tokyo 2018 on Flickr

Japan 2018

Introduction

Idea to visit Japan was in the back of my mind for a while. At the moment, it's still the only country I've visited outside Europe / North America continents

It took some time to do a research and make initial plan.

Planning points

• Keep it short (week +/-)
• Avoid "high seasons" ("golden week" etc) if possible
• 2 cities only - Tokyo and Kyoto
• there were NO OFFLINE Google maps for Japan due to legal / business reasons !
• Research about mobile internet (looking back, I would have been in trouble if I haven't bought the local SIM. I also managed to stay under 500 MB of usage AFAIK). Having mobile internet and Google maps in particular, at all times with you in the country where you can't read the alphabet at all, is worth a lot.
• Order Japan rail pass in advance (update: as of 2025, Japan rail pass is no longer relevant, because of very high price. Just buy Shinkansen tickets when needed)

 Arriving in Tokyo

• It took about 3 hours from landing in Narita Airport (NRT) until boarding a train to Tokyo. Because I needed to
• get a SIM card (forgetting my account password in the process :)
• exchange Rail pass voucher for a Rail pass
• get a SUICA card (for local transportation)
• get some cash, just in case
• some other stuff I don't remember 

Some other "first impressions" 

• Weather was good and really warm
• even you know that they drive on the left, you don't notice it right away
• trucks / semis with lots of chrome, like in US
• a TON of vending machines everywhere, selling various stuff, for kind of reasonable prices
• 7-11 / FamilyMart convenience stores, there are lots of them and they're open until late. Godsend.
• More "sensible" / "serious" approach to everything in general
• Underground is a bit hard to understand / non-intuitive compared to Europe
• "politeness"
• English translations... aren't everywhere.
• Interesting "remaining time until green" indicators at the traffic lights
• "Cold coffee", not unique to Japan, but seemed like much more of a "thing" compared to Europe
• obsession with plastic bags. They have gazillion sizes and strive to pack your purchase  in the correctly sized bag

Overall, Japan is "crazy" and unusual. Would gladly visit again. Not sure when that could happen in current job market and pandemic thing though...

Eurotrip 2017 - Conclusion

To be done:

• stats (road tolls / fuel)
• other notes / remarks

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 10-11

Day 10-11 - Slovakia, Bratislava

Surprisingly, Bratislava exceeded my expectations (I had none). I mean, it's not fancy, glamorous or anything, but it had a good 'vibe'. And it was actually cheap (not 'Budapest cheap', Budapest didn't seem cheap at all for what it is), and cleaner than Budapest. Ok, I admit, my hotel choice was not good (actual time to reach center by bus was like ~40 minutes in rush hour, instead of advertised 20, add walking time from/to bus stop on top of that), but nevertheless. So my first impression of the city was good.

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 8-9

Day 8-9 - Budapest

The road

Hungary motorways were surprisingly empty, like you could drive for several minutes before seeing another car 😊 It was a strange feeling indeed. Tolls - you have to buy 'electronic vignette' for motorways - they just register your car's license plate in the system and give you the receipt.

The city

Oh well... I don't know where to start. To put it simply, Budapest is a beautiful city but it's dirty as soon as you're (even slightly) off the tourist paths.
First of all, I made a silly mistake entering the hotel address into GPS (misspelled one letter), and drove to the other end of the city. When I was driving away from the center, that should've given me some hints, right?

Anyway, when I parked the car not far from the hotel, got out, and saw garbage everywhere, I was like "is it even safe to leave a car here?". It was really messed up by my standards. Guess somewhere in India it would be considered normal?
(Not) fun fact: beer glass in some restaurant had 'Made in Russia' stamped on it.

Bottom line is - I didn't like the city, and don't want to visit it again. Not anytime soon.

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 6-7

Day 6-7 - Graz, Austria

Nice city overall, though there isn't much to write about it.

• Wasn't exactly crowded, which is a good thing
• Great trams (and you can by tickets from the machine inside the tram)
• Reasonably priced fast-food place near Uhrturm
• And beer was good as well
• Hotel choice was really spot-on this time. I'd go so far saying it was the best hotel I've stayed in a while.. If you disregard the location.
  

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 4-5

Day 4 - Berlin - Munich

My paranoia level about engine oil level reached it's peak, so I finally decided to buy some (my timing is always perfect, right? 😀). Engine oil prices on gas stations weren't welcoming at all (something like 32 eur / liter 😒 Seriously?), but by pure randomness I've found major spare parts ('telie' in German) shop, and sure enough they had oil with necessary specification, made in Germany (surprise), and price was reasonable as well. Added a few hundred ml's, and my paranoia was silent for a while.

Fun fact: in Germany there are 'emoticons' on roadwork signs - face smiles more as you're reaching the end of the stretch.

Hotel in Munich had it's own garage (quite unusual among hotels I've stayed in so far) and you had to enter same code as for your room for the door to open. Even considering it was an Oktoberfest time, garage was quite empty (like 25% full).

Oktoberfest

well... I knew it would be crazy, but I didn't expect it would be THAT crazy. And it's certainly not an event for introverts 😃
Finding a place to sit in a beer tent isn't trivial (and this was during the week, not a weekend!). But locals said like - "oh, this is ok, but on weekends it gets real crazy". Well, I don't wanna know how crazy it gets on weekends then 😕
Still, it was worth visiting, even considering I almost got hit by flying 1 litre mug filled with beer 😑

Fun fact - you don't need a map to reach Oktoberfest place, just pick one of the metro stations nearby and go with the flow, you won't get lost 😀

Daily distance: 602 km
Driving time: 7:20

to be continued...

Eurotrip 2017 - Day 1-3

Day 1 - Estonia - Poland

Because I started in the afternoon, there was no chance to reach Warsaw at reasonable hour, so my plan was to make overnight stop earlier, just before Lomza. Anyway, day 1 was ok, some inevitable delays due to roadworks, and minor detour due to my mistake.


Driving time: almost 11 hours
Daily mileage: 792 km

Day 2 - Poland - Germany

Weather wasn't very welcoming in the morning, rain and stuff. Motorways in Poland are still cool, though payments are kinda annoying. After reading stuff on the internet, I was a bit stressed about an emission sticker ( Umweltplakette )
NB! You're required to have it (even if vehicle is registered outside of Germany!) if you plan to drive in 'Umwelt' zones (many big cities have those zones, usually in city center and around). 
Because getting this sticker requires some additional logistics (cheapest way is to visit some TÜV station) and both of my hotels were supposedly outside of this zone, I decided not to bother.

Long story short, I successfully reached Berlin.

Driving time: 8:20
Distance: 722 km

Day 3 - Berlin

well, one thing to remember is that U-bahn / S-bahn trains stop working not long after midnight.

to be continued...

Eurotrip 2017

Introduction

Choosing destinations wasn't particularly difficult, as Hungary and Slovakia were on my 'to-visit' list for a while, so that took a big chunk of kilometers already. Munich and Berlin were also an easy choice, so the only real question was to choose a city in Austria (I wanted to visit Austria again, but not Vienna) and properly order all destinations.

Jumping ahead, a short summary:

• Almost 4900 km total
• Berlin left a better impression this time
• Munich... Well Munich is always cool. Will visit again someday.
• Graz - not exactly special, but it is a nice city indeed. Somewhat similar to Ljubljana.
• Budapest. Well, I expected true Eastern Europe, and I've sure found it.
• Bratislava - actually it was better than expected, and sure better than Budapest.
• Traffic jams on motorways - annoying as always
• constantly finding myself in silly situations - even more than usual

Copenhagen 2016 - Malmö

Malmö

Well, if you're already in Copenhagen, it totally makes sense to test-drive the Copenhagen-Malmö train, as it only takes about 35 minutes. So I did. First there was some confusion about which trains you can take (you need to look for ones that go in airport direction), then you probably have to switch the train at the airport (don't quote me on that, maybe there are direct trains as well). There are also Copenhagen-Stockholm trains, which you'd think are the correct trains, but no, they aren't. Then there are 2 passport checks (refugee crisis and whatnot).

Short walkaround in Malmö center, nothing special, but it's not as bad as I imagined.

Copenhagen 2016

Copenhagen 2016

Introduction

In short, it was a good trip. Didn't take much notes, so for sure I've forgotten some interesting stuff, but will try to 'reconstruct' the story from photos.

First thing - there's a direct train from airport - always a good thing (it plays a role in my destination selection process). Hotel - initially I had chosen cheaper hotel a bit away from city center, but I didn't book it right away. So, after a few days when I finally decided to book it  - it was already sold out (surprise 😃), so I took more expensive one, but closer to the center. Which, looking back at it, was a good decision. Anyway, Copenhagen isn't cheap by any means if you didn't know :)

'Bullet points' to be expanded

• Osterbro
• Malmo (one-way border control) / 'confusing' trains
• Ticket / Document control
• Architecture

Nyhavn

Glamorous, busy and touristy district

Norrebro

contrast with Nyhavn is really harsh... As if you're in another city, or even another country.

Aquarium

It is cool, but price / coolness ratio is worse than in Lisbon 😃

Mermaid

Nothing special, waste of time (as expected). But as it wasn't the goal, I just passed it on my walk through the park, so no harm was done :)

Document control on Copehnagen - Malmö train

On the way to Malmö I got my documents checked twice, I think  - first when switching trains at the airport and second, when arriving to Sweden.  On the way back - just ticket control, no documents.  Also some confusion / cancelled trains.

Portugal 2015 - Porto

Lisbon-Porto train was awesome - fast and very comfortable (ok, there are slower and a bit cheaper versions too...). Of course, there's a ticket control, which is not surprising considering the price 😃 But controls in suburban trains / metro are a bit surprising.

Metro in Porto is newer / fancier than in Lisbon, seemed like brand new.

The city is one big hill, so prepare your legs for it :) There are also unfriendly-priced cable cars (which aren't covered by daily ticket) if you really want to.

Bullet points:

• Port wine street. Well how can you not enjoy a glass of nice port there?
• Matosinhos district, nice coast
• Bridges

Prev: Lisbon

Up: Introduction