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| Beautiful Shirakawa-go at every turn |
Wishing to make the most of our short stay in Shirakawa-go, we woke up early to capture some sunrise shots of the gassho-style houses. Unfortunately, it was raining so hopes of getting sunrise colours were dashed. Nevertheless, we braved the rain and ventured out.
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| Shirakawa-go on a misty morning |
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| Breakfast at the hotel |
We later returned to our hotel for a sumptuous breakfast. As our bus was scheduled for 10.25 a.m., we were able to laze around in the room for a while before checking out and walking the very short distance (3-minute walk) to the bus terminal. Upon checking out, we were slapped with a ¥150 each for onsen tax, which I thought was rather unfair. It had not been clearly stated in the hotel conditions, and bearing in mind that all rooms did not have an ensuite, guests would be compelled to use the onsen.
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| Boarding the bus |
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| My most yummy prawn broth ramen |
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| Derrick's pork bone broth ramen |
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| This is the ramen gem that we stumbled upon |
We arrived at Kanazawa Station at 11.34 a.m. (15 minutes ahead of schedule) and we had about 2 hours to kill before catching our bullet train to Tokyo. Wandering around Kanazawa Station, we stumbled upon an excellent ramen restaurant, Raumen Samurai-no Samurai. My ramen in prawn broth was simply ooh-la-lla! Definitely the best ramen I've ever had. Derrick tasted my ramen soup and had to concede that it was tastier than his pork bone broth, which was also yummy. Our lunch came up to ¥1750 for both of us.
At exactly 1.56 p.m., our Hokuriku Shinkansen Hakutaka No. 566 departed for Tokyo, travelling a distance of 450.5 km in 2 hours and 56 minutes. This was a tick off my bucket list as riding the shinkansen (bullet train) has always been on the list of things that I want to do after learning about it in my Geography lesson. It definitely was not a cheap ride as it costs about RM500 each, but it is worth the experience.
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| Leading the way to board the shinkansen |
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| Our shinkansen pulls in |
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| Lovey dove on the shinkansen |
After arriving at Tokyo Station, we made our way to the Chuo Line and stopped at the Ueno Station. Our sole purpose of doing this was to get to the Hard Rock Cafe shop to add to our collection of Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts. After that, we hopped back onto the train and headed for the Shinjuku Station.
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| Such a convenient Hard Rock Cafe shop! |
Emerging from the Shinjuku Station, we had our first glimpse of Tokyo from above ground. Tokyo is definitely warmer and bustling with people. The temperature was about 15 degrees Celsius but it felt like 23 degrees! We had to jostle our way for about 650 metres to get to Ibis Tokyo Shinjuku, where we were spending the night.
After dumping our bags and freshening up, we walked out in search of food. There were tons of choices available but we finally settled for a tiny shop located 2 floors below ground level. What an experience! It was our first time entering a doorway and then climbing 2 flights of narrow winding stairs DOWN to reach this tiny eatery. Japan is definitely full of new experiences for us to try. Derrick chose a rice bowl topped with ginger-fried pork (¥840 for a large bowl) while I ordered the katsudon (a deep fried pork cutlet rice bowl ¥630).
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| Let's venture down! |
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| Tired face after all the travelling |
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| Christmas festive air in Tokyo |
Before returning to our hotel, we located the Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal as on the next morning, we would be catching an early morning bus there to our next destination. But for now, it's Oyasumi nasai (Good night) after a long day of travelling.
