31/10 - Hakone - Kyoto

After having a breakfast at the Hakone hotel we took a bus to Gora station. From there a "carmelit" took us to Souzane, a place nearby where we could take the cable-car up the hill. Fanatastic forests, rich colours and very fresh air. We arrived then to a place where vulcanic activities are observable all the time. The entire mountain smokes, and ejects sulfide steams.
Fuji-San, the greates vulcano, was hardly seen because of the clouds around him. We only saw its flat peak of the 3776 meters high mountain.
We ate special eggs which were boiled in the vulcanic hot mineral water. They had a black colour from outside, however they had regular taste.
Another cable car took us to the Ashinoko lake, where we took the pirate's boat to the other side.
From Gora station then we took a special tram to Hakone-Yumoto. This tram ascends and descends up- and downhill while taking zig-zags. Each segment the tram changed its direction of moving. The driver changed his location from one end to the other permanently.
Afternoon we took the Kodama Shinkansen from Odaware to Kyoto. It took about 3 hours.
On the way we could clearly see the huge Fuji-San on the right side of the rails.
We found the hotel very easily in the city, and went for a walk and sushi dinner in a small authentic local bar. This sushi was the greates ever. I know that I have stated this already about the Tokyo sushi which we ate, but we both think that this small place wins.
At the first sight Kyoto seems to be a most bubbly city with lots of restaurants, bars and clubs. So far we saw only a couple of streets, but I am sure that in the next days we will explore it deeply.

30/10 Nikko, Hakone

Today we toured the most central sites of Nikko. This includes many temples, a treasure house, and a japaneese garden. We began our tour with the garden, which made on both of us a great impression. Beautyful colours, and spectial smells of trees and their wonderful leafes with all colours of the rainbow with the background of the temples and the pagodas with their red-brown colours.
The temples are most beautyful. The three buddha's statues are more than 3 meters high.
Around noontime we took the trains (regular trains and Shinkanzens) back to Tokyo station and from there via Odaware to Hakone.
Hakone is a wonderful town south of Tokyo, quite close the Fuji mountain. Today we went to a swimming pool complex, where we tried all kinds of very special bathes. Jakoozies, and beer bath are only two examples.
Fabulous dinner in the hotel has just put the final accord on this happy day.

29/10 - Nikko

Today we took the Shinkanzen to Untsunomya, and from there a small train to Nikko. Nikko is an ancient town, where the emperror sat for a short period in the Edo era. We saw his house which is today a museum. Wooden walls, wodnerful gardens. We saw a park of lots of Buddha statues sitting in a row. Nikko is located north of Tokyo in the hills. Fresh air far away from the city's pollution. We also saw a nearby waterfall on 1200 meters above the see level, and a fantastic lake with a traditional Japaneese village. After returning to Nikko we started to search for a restaurant, which was a much more difficult task than we thought.

- Excuse me Sir, we are searching for a restaurant. Could you please tell us where we can find one?
- Oh, Sil, go to the light, and then take light, and this will be on the light side of the load.

... restaurant found, eating very tasty chineese food, decided to drink a beer afterwards...

- Excuse me, can we get some beer please?
- Ah.... Bean? Ok! Just a moment!
- No, no ... beer!
- Yes, of coulse!
She goes to the cashier and prints the bill.
- No, sorry we wanted a beer, not the bill yet!
- Oh! Just a moment Sil!

Finally we got our Kirini, which tasted delicious.
:)

28/10

Today we had wonderful sunny weather. We went all the way to the Imperial Palace, which is closed to ordinary people, opened only for his majesty and company. Impressive green parks, lake all around the palace. Simply wonderful. We returned to see Asakusa. We visited the Sinsho-ji - a beautyful temple, and the 5-stores pagoda. Authentic market, very crowdy. Enjoyed very much.
Then in Ueno we found an entire neighborhood of temples. Amaizing. Back 500 years in the history. Parks, pagodas and museums.

Tomorrow we are heading to Nikko.

Pictures I cannot upload now. Hopefully in the next few days I will find a card reader somewhere, and then I will upload the good ones.

27/10, Tokyo

Today we went to a long walk in Ginza, Tokyo. Huge buildings, wide roads, strange traffic lights (for cars the lights are located one next to the other in a row). After quick breakfast at starbucks through the very small and authentic streets of the neighborhood we have found the famous Sony building. Inside the latest developments of the company are exhibited, and sold for unbelievable prices. Dancing robot, and similars.
Havy rain most of the day.
A car sprayed water from a puddle. I jumped aside. Well, on my right there was a pool of water of a building entrance. In the last second I succeeded to avoid the "accident" - keeping my balance. I almost landed there :)
After the below mentioned lunch (prev. post) we took the metro to Asakusa. Traditional market of candies and other local specialities. Bought. A lot :) . Very tasty.
We saw the Sinso-ji and the 5-store pagoda from outside only, but today we plan to come back there. The rain stopped until we came back to Ginza.

My first *real* sushi experience:
Well, dear reader, with all the respect, I must tell you that most probably you do not really know what sushi is. Or actually how it tastes. I do. :)~
The salmon and the tuna are SO fresh that it is hard to find the words to express. We could not see the rice, because they give so much fish that it covers it as is. This was around 2:30 am. Naturally the restaurant was open, and we were not the sole guests.
We ate really a lot. Then expected for an extremely high-sum check, but it did not come. We payed around 90 NIS each.

signs of life

We sat in a restaurant for today lunch. At the next table sat two young: a girl and a boy. We were in the middle of our meal when they got their soup. They looked at the soup with a wide smile and happy face. From the soup something wanted to escape. It moved its body all around the plate inside the liquid. We don't really know what it was over there. We just saw that it made them very happy and they ate the soup with a great pleasure.

We looked very well into our soup trying to find signs of life.

Fortuntatelly there was not any. Well, I don't decline anything tasty, but this is still... a bit hard to me.

Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Arrived sucessfully.Yesterday flight to Rome - cheese and toscana wine
Flight to Hong Kong - pancake with bananas.
Flight to Tokyo - tourist info, train pass, tokyo station, change to Shimbashi.
Asking someone where the hotel is...　he was fluent japaneese. I wonder how he learned such a difficult language. But no English there of course. I identified the hotel from its fronｔ view, which I saw on the internet. 29th floor, huge twin room, view on Ginza business district.Then we went around about 2 hours walk in Ginza.Too tired now.

הרפתקאות היום-יום

לא קרה שום דבר. סתם.
אההה... למה שוב התעצבנתי? אספר לכם!

נכנסתי לתומי לניו-פארם לקנות מברשת שיניים, כופסת פלסטיק למברשת, ותיק רחצה קטן. לא משהו מסובך נכון?

אז זהו...
לא מצאתי מברשת שיניים נורמלית שהיתה נכנסת לכופסת הפלסטיק הכי גדולה שמכרו בחנות. ניסיתי אחד-אחד. לשווא.
לאחר מכן חיפשתי תיק רצחה פשוט כזה מבד או מניילון.
היו תיקים במגוון צבעים וצורות.
אך לא היה תיק אחר אשר בו היתה נכנסת מברשת שיניים סטנדרטי. פשוט היו קטנים מדי.

יישר כח! עתיד מזהיר.

--א

Hat ilyen nincs. Az agyam ketteall.
Bementem a drogeriaba hogy vegyek magamnak egy fogkefet, egy kozonseges muanyag dobozt a fogkefe tarolasa celjabol, es egy akarmilyen kis piperetaskat amibe mindez, egy szappan kisereteben befer.
Eddig egyszeru... most jon a neheze.
A legkissebb felnott fogkefe nem fert bele az uzletben arult legnagyobb muanyag dobozkaba.
Ezen kivul egy kozonseges fogkefe az egyik kis pipere taskaba sem fert bele hosszaban, kilogott es nem lehetett becipzarazani.
Remek. Nem?

הסירנה השכונתית

אתמול בערב הגעתי הביתה בשעה מאוחרת למדי. בשכונה אי שם במקום לא ידוע התחילה לפעול סירנה של מכונית או של חנות. בהתחלה לא כל כך שמתי לב. כעבור כעשרים דקות התחלתי לתהות מה זה יכול להיות. עברו עוד עשרים דקות כאשר העניין כבר עיצבן אותי למדי. אני אדם סובלני, אבל נשברתי במהרה כשהבנתי שהבעיה לא תיפתר מאליה.
חייגתי 100 כדי לדווח למשטרה על המטרד השכונתי. צלצל הטלפון במשטרה, צלצל וצלצל במשך כשלוש דקות. אז ניתקתי. כעבור דקה ניסיתי שוב, חייגתי 100, צלצל וצלצל הרבה מאוד זמן (דקות), אך לשווא, כי איש לא היה מעוניין לדבר איתי בעברו השני של הקו. תוך טיפוח אשליות ובציפיה דרוכה צלצלתי בפעם השלישית, כשסוף כל סוף הבנתי שהיום הם לא יענו לי במשטרה. למה? ככה. סתם. מזל שלא היה איזה מצב חירום (קטטה, אונס, שוד או גניבת רכב).
באיזשהו שלב הפסיקה הסירנה. אני הלכתי לישון, אך לא שקטתי.
יכול היה להיגמר אחרת, השודדים בורחים, האנס נמלט, נסים כל מפרי החוק, והטלפון במשטרה אי שם עודנו מצלצל...
לילה טוב.

--א

תלאותיה של לטאה

הבוקר כשנעלתי את נעליי, יצאה לפתע לטאה קטנטנה מתוך נעל ימין. אחוזת אימה רצה המסכנה - הישר אל עבר האמבטיה. בקפיצה קטנה היא מצאה את עצמה בתוכה, ובתוך שניות ספורות נעלמה בחור הניקוז... לא שבה עוד. שם היא קיוותה להסתתר. עצוב, לא?

--א