True Japan is in ancient culture of Kyoto and Nara but not in Tokyo

Early in the morning a fast train took us away from Tokyo. The trip to Kyoto was quite short and not at all tiring. Instead it took us rather long to get to the hotel. Kyoto is not like Tokyo as there are a lot of great sights. The temples impress and we forget about the Thai Palaces. The Kyoto landscapes definitely prove that the Japanese are also very good at accomplishing and decorating not only designing w.c. rooms. I have never met such magnificence and beauty. It is not worthy trying to describe, you had better look through the photos yourselves. Otherwise not a camera, I present in detail in my blog, can really show the grandeur and the grace of the Japanese landscape. It’s fantastic! There are beautiful ponds full of red carps and gardens with blooming trees and bushes so neat and clean that we were happy to stay here longer than in suffocating Tokyo.
But as we had planned to travel to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan, it was time to leave. Nara appeared a wonderful city but mostly for tourists, particularly Japanese. The color of the ancient city is rich, filled with the group of temples and palaces. They located everywhere: at the mountain bottoms, on the hills over the city and among the trees. Some deer stroll through the city. They put their muzzles into your hands begging for some food and petting without any threat. A lot of turtles swim and then warm on the rocks round the ponds, opening wide their feet. You only guess whether they get warm or dry or both. In an ancient temple we could buy a wooden plate for $7, write your wish on it and hang it on the wall inside there. It is extremely popular with the Japanese. Their requests may often get true I think. Because of that all the walls are covered with these tablets. Now our tablets are there as well, so we wait and see. It is great to watch the city of Nara from the top of the hills. It looks cozy and very beautiful even after a day visit. However to explore every cozy nook of Nara a week can be not enough. Visits to Kyoto and Nara always remain memorable to all tourists.
Rich Hotel Kyoto is conveniently situated in the core of the city. Rich Hotel Kyoto forms a convenient base for the travelers to explore the adjoining areas. Rich Hotel Kyoto gives you the worth of your money spent. There are 108 rooms all of them equipped with the modern amenities of comfort. Proper clean and comfortable rooms, room service at your beck and
call, 24 hours reception are here. Rich Hotel Kyoto is connected well with the airport. It pampers the guests with a clock radio and also a private telephone in the room, cable television, DVD players to watch movies of your own choice. From $54 incl. taxes and service charges.
Kyoto Tower Hotel Annex offers good value for budget conscious travelers. It is conveniently located near the Kyoto station and a shopping/restaurant district. The hotel is a 7-story, apartment-style building with two lifts. The 112 rooms in the hotel are very clean and have standard amenities. From $65 incl. taxes and service charges.
Apa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae is quite convenient to reach the hotel. You can just stroll from the JR Kyoto Station. You can also take the route of Kyoto station from the Kintetsu Line. It will take less than half an hour from Kyoto Minami IC on the Meishin Expressway. There are 192 decorated rooms in Apa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae. The rooms are air-conditioned. Each room is provided with certain facilities: television, telephone as well as internet connection, refrigerator, hair dryer etc. You can taste the tea and sweets also while relaxing in the hotel rooms. For lip smacking delicacies you can visit the in-house restaurant of Apa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae. Timings for checking in is 3pm and for checking out is 11am in Apa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae. You will definitely spend quality time in the Apa Hotel Kyoto Ekimae. From $66 incl. taxes and service charges.
Alpha Hotel in Kyoto is located in the soul of the metropolitan heart of the Honshu Island. This place of accommodation is located in the business center of the Nakagyou-ku prefecture. It earns most of the revenue from the business clients. Room facilities at Alpha Hotel Kyoto comprise of satellite television, music facilities, both electronic and magnetic keys for the safety of the visitors, safety vaults, non smoking rooms, voicemail service so that the visitors do not miss any of their significant information, work desk for the clients on business purpose, television sets for entertainment, mini bar, hair dryer, separate shower and other amenities to indulge the soul of the visitors. From $71 incl. taxes and service charges.
Kyoto Kokusai International Hotel, a western style semi deluxe hotel, one of the best 5 star hotels, promises you a magnificent vacation at this beautiful city of Kyoto. The hotel is located directly across from Nijo Castle. Staying at Kyoto Kokusai International Hotel means indulging in facilities like availing of conference rooms or banquet halls. Rooms are all well-fashioned at Kyoto Kokusai (International) Hotel. Here you will find Japanese restaurant, western restaurant, Chinese restaurant, coffee shop, tea lounge, Japanese style pub (Izakaya) or bar. The hotel attracts you as 5-star service and comfort costs suitably. From $78 incl. taxes and service charges.
Bakpak Japan Kyoto Hostel is Cheap Budget accomodation and backpackers youth hostel centrally located in DownTown Kyoto city. It is in front of the spectacular Kamogawa river. From $21 is not so terrible.

Tourist’s walk on Tokyo: hotels, shopping and restaurants

Our lot was a rather usual hotel: we could not afford the Hilton for that money. It’s not an ad to name the place besides we’ve changed it into a better and cheaper one. The room was not worse than in Bangkok. Truly, you are immediately surrounded with millions of nice and cozy things, the room’s built-in stove made us happy. The wonder of the engineering science – bathroom - impressed us best of all. Of course, we’ve heard about Japanese Hi-Tech, but could not help shooting it with my favorite Sony Alpha 100. If the w.c. pan electronics had not switched on only when you were sitting on it, my wife would have flooded the whole room. But then I realized what to give her as a Christmas present!
We saw nothing much walking around Tokyo. Bangkok’s beloved sights hide the views so the temples and the Emperor’s Palace seemed not more than nice. We felt lack of The Great Chao Praya River but saw only Edogawa River! However the air was much cleaner. The streets were overcrowded and the people dressed mostly in formal suits, looking like robots, tired us. What can be done with the cult of work in Japan! We met plenty of cool tech trifles and did not often understand their functions. Before visiting the parks we had got ready for fantastic, spectacular views but the short walk through some places finished disappointing us a little. They were nice but not stunning. But the local people felt absolutely relaxed here in the parks, lying on the lawns under the trees, reminding dear Barcelona.
Having looked through the menu we were greatly surprised as had been frightened by the stories of very high price. The soup, fish and rice with some salad and fruit juice for a drink cost about $5 for each. Although their English was not good enough and I could not read the hieroglyphs we had no difficulties ordering the meal. There were plastic displays in front of the restaurants representing the dishes served in there. It was enough to point to the ones you wished.
Wandering about we dropped into a supermarket, bought some Japanese snacks to test. They are alike: it looks like triangle seaweed rolls with various fillings inside. They turned out delicious but it was impossible to guess about the filling without speaking Japanese. It could be salt plum, tuna or something egg, etc. All were quite tasty for $1.5. We liked eating them and drinking great Japanese beer.
Later in the evening after a long walk we got very hungry. It seemed the nearest fish restaurant faced the inevitable ruin. It was nothing of the sort. $25 is the price to get stuffed and tired of fish till the end of the trip.

I’d like to present some not expensive hotels, which many tourists refused completely:
Akasaka Yoko Hotel is one of the most luxurious three-star hotels in the city that offers its guests best services at affordable prices. This Hotel is in the heart of the city. There are 245 well appointed rooms that are a cocoon of comfort. It costs from $61 incl. taxes and service charges.
Ryogoku Pearl Hotel is easily accessible. The fastest way to get to this hotel is by boarding the JR Sobu Express Line from the Tokyo Station and then transfer to the JR Sobu Line at JR Kinshicho Station
and finally getting off at JR Ryogoku Station. There are various places of interest near the hotel that include the Edo Tokyo Museum, Ryogoku National Sport Place and other places as well. Ryogoku Pearl Hotel in Tokyo is a brick colored building that stands twelve stories high. It costs from $62 incl. taxes and service charges.
Narita Excel Tokyu Hotel is located very close to the Narita Airport, also has the city of Tokyo in its proximity. The hotel gives the feel of an extravagant resort and constitutes of 712 guest rooms. Hotel has its own swimming pools, Spa club, gymnasium, tennis courts and also a Japanese Garden where you can take a leisurely stroll. It costs from $52 incl. taxes and service charges and it is a better choice for
those who like to fly.
Sky Court Asakusa Hotel offers strong an unequaled built-up location on Asakusa Taito-ku facing the Sumida River close to many other attractions and famous landmarks. This is a four-star hotel that guidelines global status as a sole property that portraying grace and elegance and sophistication of this delightful country. All guestrooms have standard features such as shower or bath, air-conditioning, electronic key card, broadband internet access, in-room electronic safe, and television with satellite. It costs from $48 incl. taxes and
service charges.

Tokyo hotels vs. Baiyoke Sky: it’s time to change Bangkok and Pattaya to Tokyo and Kyoto

It can’t be doubted that Thailand is a wonderful place. It is not good to restrict yourself with the only even so eminent and splendid site, the Kingdom of Siam. For more look through Economy Class Vacation in Pattaya. Although South Eastern Asia is a giant area, concealing fantastic Cambodia with the wonders of Angkor Vatt in utter jungles, my new destiny was super-modern Japan. It also happened thank to Air company special offers. Not only shit happens! The air tickets to Japan were one third of the price.
Fortunately Japan and Thailand Hotel Reservation Services are similar in the Net. So having looked through asiarooms I found a few suitable hotels in Tokyo. Again I followed the rule “we visit a country not a hotel.” Apropos the prices were not so frightening. I could choose among many $50-100 rooms. Still in comparison to cheap Bangkok ones I was not quite happy. The same money was for staying in Kyoto which I could not miss going to Japan.
As a matter of fact the idea to visit Japan had come to me as I was interested in the world traditions of bath procedures. But if I had great personal experience visiting such perfect places as Russian banya, Finnish sauna and Turkish hamman in their native countries, I had known Japanese bath ‘sento’ only going to Japanese-like bath places. For more look through my Banya vs Sauna or Spa blog. Hieroglyphs solely reminded me there of the native country culture and traditions. And even on the customary Japanese giant wooden baths became faintly visible the note: ‘made in China’. I could not miss such a chance. So a visit to the hot springs between Tokyo and Kyoto was not less important than a tour to the ancient capital of the Land of the Rising Sun.
First we intended to have a cool trip: Nara, Nikko Hot Spring in Japan, Kamakura, Yokogama and, of cause, the trek to Mount Fuji. But it is too much for an 8-day tour. We decided to see the two biggest cities and enjoy a short stay at the ocean shore. And then see what happens.
But some of us cried that they would not come back home without mounting the most famous peak in Japan – Fujisan. Still it was not included in our program because of two reasons: you can watch the mount from everywhere and the time was not for Fuji. The best period is from July to August when all the buses and railways work and the routes invite tourists. It is too hard to trek to the height of 3776 meters by yourself. Speaking in advance, I notice that a friend of mine, idiot Fuji-fan, nevertheless, ascended the peak without a camera. He took only a camcorder with low-charged batteries and managed to get lost on the way back. So his feat impressed his girlfriend solely who had to company him everywhere. They had a bad quarrel because she got exhausted. Secondly there were no pictures left.
The Narita International Airport in Tokyo disappointed me. I still remain an old Don Muang fan and even the new Bangkok gates - Suvarnabhumi Airport - don’t touch me much. However Narita service is great. Tourists are given free Tokyo maps which are easy to read and quite useful to find the hotel. Here the transfer from Narita Airport to the Tokyo hotel by train is more expensive than the taxi from Bangkok to Pattaya (or bus to Trat). For more look through: Thai girls have nothing in common with Pattaya girls. or Koh Chang Archipelago’s 52 coral Islands: Maak, Wai, Hood and Kham as residence of snorkeling and lonely hearts and Koh Larn - the easiest way to visit a tropical island and not to leave Pattaya for a long time. It was once we regretted about $270 JR Pass. It happened that JR Pass is valid in JR trains only: in the centre of Tokyo there are Yamanoto, Sobu and Tuo lines. It has an advantage if you travel through Japan from Narita to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Kyoto, Yokogama, Kamakura and Nikko. It’s not valid in Tokyo Metro. And if you are not going to live in the train it’s better to pay for each journey and walk a lot. It’s pleasant even in Tokyo city. The parks are nice but the architecture is quite ordinary. Cycling in Kyoto is the best.