Taking in the urban scenery of Tokyo

Today we didn't do anything extraordinary, not even anything particularly exciting.
After we woke up we just went to the Tokyo station and from there to the Imperial palace grounds. It was very sunny and windy out side, yet it was a bit cold.
After that we went to Hamatsucho station to meet my friend  and to have lunch with him.
We went to my favorite curry chain restaurant: CoCoIchibaya!!! I took my usual Chicken katsu curry, and as always, it was SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!
After a filling meal we walked to a Park nearby and strolled around talking. Later we walked to the Tokyo Tower.It's an old broadcasting tower that reminds you of the Eiffel tower in France, though this was only 333 meters tall.
We walked from there to the metro station and took our subway train with one change to Asakusa.
There we went to the super and by the PAKU PAKU bento shop and bought ourselves some dinner.
This was our pretty regular day today but tomorrow we will have more excitement!

Cheers!
Robert

Already alone !? My trip to Nikko

Today we woke up a bit drowsy from last nights drinking. We were out in Asakusa and went to a street bar where I struck up a conversation with a few Japanese people. we had fun and they even bought me a beer and complimented me on my Japanese which always makes the little egomaniac inside of me pleased.
But back to today! I decided early on that, since the girls wanted to go and shop together in Harajuku,  I would travel by myself. I thought about where to go for a while and decided that Nikko would be a good place to spend one day by myself.
Nikko of course is famous for its UNESCO world heritage temples and is the grave sight for the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate and Edo (what Tokyo was called back then), Tokugawa Ieyasu.

I must emphasize the fact that spring in Japan is so cool and beautiful. Coming from cold Finland it really feels nice to be walking around without a jacket.
The cherry trees are soon going to blossom so can't wait to see it!

In Nikko I took a stroll through the town towards the park where the temple complex lied. It was war, but quite windy outside. Thanks to the JRPass I could just simply walk and reserve the tickets and just go as I pleased.

I ate an Ekiben or a boxed lunch from the station on the train, it was delicious as always. After climbing stairs up to the temple and grave I took my time there and just absorbed all of the scenery in, bit by bit.

Finally as the clock was nearing half five I started to return to the station and took my trains back to Ueno. There I met up with my girlfriend and her sister to go and eat.
There is a quite good ramen shop at the station, so we went there.
After we had eaten we went by our hostel and rested a bit but then we wanted to still go out for a little walk, so I took them to see the nearby Tokyo Sky Tree.

Tomorrow we will probably do some intercity sightseeing.
'Till then!
Robert

A journey man on the road again

Waking up to the surreal feeling that you are going to leave behind the dusts of your own country, and fly to the land of the rising sun. It is always as accelerating to make the first step out of bed, knowing that you will see it first after many weeks.
This time I'm not alone in my travels. I have my girlfriend, her sister and three other friends with me. Though it will be mainly me, my girlfriend and her sister that travel together.

Today we didn't have the best start on our travels since, as it well happens sometimes, the flight was over booked and we didn't exactly have seats reserved, just the flight.
Finnair tried to give us monetary compensation to get us to take a later flight if we could. But for us it was a definite no go on that option. Why? well Hilda, my girlfriends sister had booked her flights after me and Wilhelmiina, and for some weird reason they had booked a seat for her...
Oh well We got seats thanks to the effort of the attendants at the airport and Finnair and we are now glad to say we're here!!!
It is my first time here during the cherry blossom season and I have already seen some promising buds on the trees.

Today, since we are a bit Jet lagged, we have been touring around Asakusa where our hostel is. Asakusa (for those who didn't know) for its temples, Incl. : the sensoji temple. Also this is where you find the picturesque thunder gate, or more properly known as "KAMINARI MON".

We ate some bentos we got from the paku paku lunch box shop just near by our hostel. they sell good quality food for a low budget prize, every Obento is about 250 yen each. It's INSANE.

We will go drinking tonight at the beautiful Asakusa bar street!!

Many cheers!
Robert

13 days to liftoff !

Hi guys!
So only 13 days until we leave to Japanand :)
I have been keeping myself busy by brewing beer etc. in order not to go MAD from the wait.
Japan has truly so much to offer and I am freaking out by the mere thought of the cherry blossom season that will great us when we arrive!
I will be filming my trip on my GoPro again but I am going to have some tough decisions to make regarding the editing of the videos. I am not satisfied with my older videos thanks to their crappy editing. Tho I have to say, I published one video a day so.... it was to be expected?

Anyhow just wanted you to know what's going on.

Cheers!
Robert

New year, New trip!

It's been a While since the last post and now I am all fired up for my next trip. Where you ask, well Japan of course!

Though I have been there allready 3 times I got to say that it is a country that you can hardly get tired of. I will be going with a bit bigger gang this time, including my girlfriend :)
We will be hanging around Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima mainly, but knowing ME there will be some stops in other places as well.
Best part will be that we will be going there while the Sakuras are blooming (cherry trees)!!!!!!!!
Holy smokes it will be awesome. It has long been on my to do list to visit Japan during blosom season! 

So I wish a late Happy new year to all the readers and wish it to be a prosperous one on everyones part!

Cheers and happy trails!
Robert

The Munch museum, the Viking ship museum and returning home

Hi again!
Now that I have rested my tired bones and had time to recollect my thoughts, it is time to put them down here and bare myself to you once more. 

On Monday was our last whole day in Oslo so we decided to go to the Viking ship museum and the Munch museum. Such was part of what we were going to do but also I wanted to walk along (or up the) Akersalva river because I had heard/read somewhere that it was supposed to be very pretty and relaxing place to walk. 

We woke up around nine and our wonderful host Jan, who had returned home the day before, made us some scrumptiously delectable omelets together with toast. Wow! It was soooooo good, and I mean what a nice guy he was to make breakfast to us, mere couch surfers!  

   I really like the whole concept of Norwegian hospitality and how the people are so friendly and happy! 

After finishing breakfast we left for the subway/metro to get to the city center. 

   From there we walked to the backside of the Oslo Rådhus,at the harbor. It only took us approx. 10 min with a leisurely pace to get there. From there we took the bus nr. 30 towards Bygdøynes to get to the viking ship museum. The stop where you should get of is Vikingskipene. 

   You can use the same buss to go to the Norwegian folk museum, the Holocaust center, the kon tiki museum etc, which are all located on the same little peninsula.   

The museum was interesting and I highly recommend making this trip while visiting the folk museum and the other interesting museums of the peninsula. We unfortunately did not visit them because my friend was not interested. But be warned! The viking ship museum has only three boats there and it is a relatively small place so I don't recommend just visiting there if you venture to the peninsula.
   We got the student discount but I still thought it was a bit expensive for normal adults without discount: 60 kronor (~7€/9$) but students get in for half. 

After we had digested everything we took the bus back to the city from where we went to the museum of Edvard Munch to see the Scream.
   The ticket price was 50 kronor and was more or less worth while seeing. 

I found it somehow abstractly funny that to get in you had to leave your jacket and bags in the locker and pass trough a airport security like security control to get in. It gave me a sort of false sense of coming in to a huge museum with many important exhibitions. But it was a small museum and the painting itself was indeed cool to see but I can't shake this sense of letdown from me. 

Madonna

   The reason the security is so tight is that the painting that they have there, has been stolen many times since it is so hugely famous. 

Anyhow we looked around there for a while and after leaving we went to take the walk along the river which turned out to be the best ting that we had decided on doing on that whole day. 

   The riverside road was lovely to walk along and was really peaceful. We then took a little detour through a little hill road called telthusbacken towards the city. after a long day we then returned back home. 

The next day we woke up at seven to leave together with our host to the city, He headed to work and we were left in the city to walk around aimlessly.
   We didn't really have anything left to see so we just shopped and ate and drank coffee to pass time. 

********About the prices********

Norway is one of the three most expensive countries in Europe, here i have listed some prices over things: 

Buss ticket bought from the buss: 50 Kronor 

Metro/bus/tram ticket from an automated ticket-vendor : 30 kronor

Beer from the store (0.5l): ~45-50 kronor 

Average food cost at a medium priced restaurant: 160-240 kronor 

The train ticket (express) from the airport: 90 kronor (one way) 

cost of coffee at a café: 25-35 kronor

cost of coffee at a kiosk : 20 kronor 

books: around 200 kronor 

****************************

Thanks for reading! 

Robert

Oslo national art museum and Vigeland park

Cheerio!
What a good day today was. We woke up at nine well rested because of the extra hour we got because of the winter day light savings or whatever. You know the thing where you turn your clock to wintertime, one hour backwards.

Anyhow we ate breakfast and left to the town. We walked to the National art museum to go see the exhibition for FREE!!! The entrance is free of charge on Sundays so it's great if you are on a budget. I highly recommend visiting there! The exhibitions were really nice, especially the paintings by Dahl.

   I rarely go to art exhibitions though I really like art, but I usually go to art museums when vacationing.

   There after we went on our day by walking to trough slottsparken, where the royal palace was located, took pictures and continued towards the Viegeland park.
   We didn't have a map but I had a somewhat good hunch on where we should walk and after stopping to eat on the way, we arrived there.
   The park is ridiculously huge!!! Its main passage was ornamented with sculptures of various sorts and the park was beautiful. I just wish we had come a bit earlier in Fall, when the trees still had properly some leaves.
   The main sculpture, the big carved stone pylon at the center of the park, was majestic and truly worth its praise.
   It was surrounded by symmetrically placed smaller sculptures on stairs and the pylon, or should we just call it a pole, had many human figures carved into it.
   The amount of detail was a bit creepy but still, I really liked it.
We had been spending much time walking around town and it was getting darker so we started to return back home.
   On our way back we chatted a bit with some facers for Amnesty. I didn't pledge for anything but we still had a nice chat about current situations and about Finland etc.

Tomorrow we will most likely go to the Viking ship museum and other places, so for now I thank you for reading and hope to have you soon again.

Cheers
Robert