Oshino Village, Nigori-ike pond and the Shinnasho-gawa river

The previous post in this series is here..

After coming back from the shrine, we got back to the van and drove to teh Oshino Village.

It is a village that is preserved in its original state. This place reminded us of Ballarat in Australia for many reasons.

The ponds, the huts, the little details all transported us to a different place and time. Then we walked behind the village along bamboo fences to the river banks lined with Cherry trees. The blossoms were just amazing!

The river was flowing gently and the flower petals were everywhere on the gently flowing water. It was an amazing experience.. We also got to eat large Fuji apples.. the original! They were delicious! The rest of the group had a peach tea also which they loved.

Here are the photos from this leg of the trip..

and a video highlights reel..

Our driver said there was one more stop before lunch and we had to rush a bit if we wanted to get back to Tokyo before getting stuck in traffic. So off we went to the next stop.

Tokyo Day 6- Ueno park and Akihabara Electric town

The previous post in the series is here..

We checked into the Tokyo Dome hotel, had chai in our rooms and came out to go back to Ueno Park. It was around 4PM. We walked through the same path we missed the previous evening. Turns out there were no blossoms. We had experienced the best of Ueno park the previous evening at golden hour.

The rest of the group gave me a look that could simply be summarized in one word “Thoo!”. Well, they did not want to disappoint the photographer. I made my apologies and we were deciding where to go. Our walking buddy had called us and asked if we went to the electronic city where there are all electronic stores.

We had no idea, did some googling and found that it was actually where we had stayed the previous day!

We took a cab to Akihabara area and found this LED lit crossing where they sold electronics and video games. Interesting crowd of people all with hair died in all kinds of gold and blue and purple like in video game ads. There was a large electronics store. We walked through all the floors and decided that they were as pricey as the US. We needed some power banks. So we got a power bank each and that was that.

A video highlight reel

When we came out of this area it was already starting to get dark. So we decided to go from here to the main attraction of the evening..

Dragon Mountain hike

In what seems to be an eternity ago (in reality exactly two weeks), a bunch of us hiked Dragon Mountain aka Thien Long Song in Milpitas. We never knew about this place till some recent facebook posts. It is not a tough hike or a long hike, but an amazing hike. All said and done we walked or hiked 2+ miles from a parking lot at the base of the hill instead of driving up all the way.

It was peak allergy season and I had a 102 fever the previous day and had actually come home from work early to lie down after taking Tylenol. I was sold on “prayer” on a mountain. When we got to the base and started walking (mask on) I was not exactly sure what the prayer was for.. my cold to pass or for me to pass on to the next world with the Buddha.

The sunset did not disappoint though. After huffing and puffing through the mask, somehow I felt better on the way back. It was either that or the maggi noodles I made to cheer myself up after reaching home. Maybe it was my wife and her happy smiling face. Either way, a win-win.

Here are the pictures. San was very happy that I did not protest too much and went with the flow.

More photos..

A very short video highlights reel

Definitely recommend this place for a sunset view.. It is not that far away. So if you expect a lot of clouds and a glorious sunset, drive up and start hiking..