Thursday 15 September 2011

Photo slide show


Here is a link for my photo slide show.

Please, click the "Various Photos Slideshow" part.

It takes about 5 minutes.
Enjoy.



Link is here*
Various Photos Slideshow: Stano’s trip to 日本 was created by TripAdvisor. See another 日本 slideshow. Create your own stunning free slideshow from your travel photos.

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Dinning and food in Japan

Well, to be honest, there is so much to write about this part of Japanese culture. But I will write only few of my experiences, so no worries, it won’t take too much of your precious time.

Japanese people really love to eat and love to try different cuisine. You can see here many French sweets shops and bakeries, Italian and Chinese and other Asian restaurants. On the other hand, compared to UK, I have seen very few Indian foods.

The presentation of food is always very nice and colorful, as you can imagine. It is very important part of dining. And of course the taste, they really know what goes well together, especially with fish. I must say, they also love to experiment with tastes and textures of food. Many times I could say only: “hmmm… interesting…..”.

One of the surprises for me was that they like fat parts of meat and fish and they pay a lot of money for it. It is first time for me to see fat parts of tuna or beef in shops. And the prices… wow…

Another interesting discovery for me is that Japanese people like sweet taste. All of bread and baked products have sweet flavor and are very soft. So it took me time to get used to it. Even now I still shake my head sometimes when I eat it. Of course we could buy imported bread, for example from Germany, which I like, but for 3 slices I would have to pay about 4 British pounds. So … no thank you.
I tried to bake as well, but I couldn’t figure out how to bake with this flour and east they have here. I still have to experiment more. But who will eat the outcomes of my experiments…….. J I wonder…. Poor Mitsuyo… she is so kind to me….

So far I have tried few interesting places for dining. One of the most popular places to go to eat is Izakaya, there are hundreds of them. It is actually place more for drinking than eating, but the food there is so good and varies from place to place. It has a very different feeling from UK pubs, or Slovakian “krcma”. I must say I love it…..
Uma san, now I understand. J

Here is few pictures from one of them… in Atsugi, my favorite so far… わん (wan).

                                                            from outside                                     menu
                                                               from inside
                                                                sashimi (raw fish)                   meat dishes
                                                         Japanese sweets                              sake time
 
Of course, a must go in Japan, a sushi bar. Yummy yummy…… 
Few photos from sushi bar in Shinjuku, Tokyo.



                                                    massive portion of wasabi                    crab miso soup




And another big one in Japan is Ramen shop or Udon or Soba shop. These are different types of noodles. Very nice too. Cold hiyashichouka in summer – pure heaven.
Sometimes you can see such a small tiny little ramen shop in a corner of a street, where only three people can fit. Amazing. They love it here. Also if somebody becomes famous with their ramen taste, you can see people waiting even for 2 hours to get in, in long queues.

                                                              Ramen in small ramen shop in Asakusa, Tokyo

As I said, there is so much more to write about this, I could continue for a long time. Maybe some other time.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Mt. Fuji

     My sister came to visit us for 2 weeks. She is quite an energetic woman, so we have been busy walking, cycling and running (she is training for marathon in Kosice, Slovakia).
     Of course it also means a lot of traveling and photos. Good for you guys….

     The next day after her arrival, we went to climb Mt. Fuji (3776m). We did the full Japanese climb, which means going to see the sunrise from the peak. We booked beforehand a plan with one travel company. It was cheap and great. The price included bus fee from Tokyo to Fuji 5th station, night at the lodge, dinner and breakfast and spa after the climb on the way back to Tokyo, plus 2 discount tickets for lunch at 5th station. 1 person – about 10.000 Yen (80 GBP).     Sugooooooooooi.


     After arriving to the 5th station, we had lunch and got ready for the climb, greeted the Gods at the shrine and climbed from up to 8th station where we stayed for the night. We were very lucky with the weather, no strong wind, and some light clouds, to protect us from the sun rays. Just perfect.

    
     At the lodge we were all quite tired, so after the dinner, which was of course rice and curry, we all went to bed. Unfortunately, there was one man, who snored so loud, it was impossible to sleep. God bless him, so many people hated him.


     So after bad sleep with little oxygen we continued our climb at about 2am in the morning. I must say, it was very strange; cause on the path was so many people that sometimes it was impossible to climb. It was like the whole nation decided to climb there. I have never experienced such a thing in my life. But hey….. Japanese style. What a culture. 


     On the top…. No clouds …. Just cold wind….. and the sunrise…. 


     And of course .... hundreds of happy Japanese people.....  



                                                On the way back down....


     The guide in the bus said, that we are all very lucky, cause it was the best weather in the whole season.....  
     After the spa in a nice onsen we went to Tokyo, had dinner and then finally back home.