Tokyo Tuttle Travel Pack. Rob Goss
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Название: Tokyo Tuttle Travel Pack
Автор: Rob Goss
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
Серия: Tuttle Travel Guide & Map
isbn: 9781462916306
isbn:
Where Roppongi Hills boasts the Grand Hyatt, Midtown has the five-star Ritz-Carlton (page 60), occupying the upper floors of its main tower. Midtown doesn’t do badly for art either, with the 21_21 Design Sight gallery and workshop, created by renowned architect Tadao Ando and fashion designer Issey Miyake to showcase modern Japanese design, as well as the Suntory Museum of Art and its fine collection of traditional Japanese art.
The result is two cities within a city, standing face to face, combining to create the quintessential contemporary Tokyo experience.
Opening Times Varies by store, attraction and restaurant, but most places within Roppongi Hills and Midtown will be open by 11 a.m. Check the websites below. Getting There Roppongi Station is on the Hibiya and Oedo subway lines. Contact Roppongi Hills: www.roppongihills.com. Tokyo Midtown: www.tokyo-midtown.com.
11 A Visit to Oedo Hot Springs in Odaiba
A traditional bathhouse experience with a little Edo kitsch
I can think of no better Japanese tradition than getting naked with strangers for a long soak in steaming hot water. If you head out of the city, to places like Nikko (page 51) or Hakone (page 54), you’ll have ample opportunity to try a hot spring bath. In Tokyo and other urban areas, it’s an entirely different story. Thank the hot spring gods for Oedo Onsen Monogatori in Odaiba, Tokyo’s largest artificial hot spring complex.
The baths at this onsen (hot spring bath) theme park include a classic rotemburo (outdoor bath) designed to feel as if you are soaking in a mountain rock pool as well as a lie-down massage bath and several other mineral-rich natural hot spring baths said to alleviate all manner of ailment, from stress to arthritis to dermatitis. Away from the main bathing area you can pop outside to the Japanese garden for a walk through its winding 50- meter (164-foot)-long foot bath, which in places is lined with pebbles and jagged rocks designed to massage your feet (admittedly, massage in this case at times means to inflict excruciating pain). If you have the stomach for it, you can follow that with a visit to the “Doctor Fish” foot bath (additional fee), where hundreds of tiny fish swarm over your feet to nibble away the dead skin.
Back inside, in an area designed to look like an Edo era town, there’s a food court with a dozen or so small eateries. There are also several different spa treatments to try, a lounge with massage chairs and a sauna. For children there are traditional games to try and occasional street performances. You could easily spend all day here.
The only real challenge at Oedo Onsen is knowing what you are doing at times. Here are some quick tips. As you enter the lobby, take your shoes off and store them in one of the lockers off to your left, and then go to the reception desk where you’ll be given an electronic wristband with which everything you buy inside will be scanned to your bill. At the next counter, pick up a colorful yukata robe to wear for the day (they have all sizes). Men and women split up here into separate changing rooms and then meet up again in the mock Edo town area after changing into their yukata. Like the changing rooms, the bathing areas (on the other side of the Edo area) are gender separated, too; as you approach the bathing zone, men are in the bathing rooms to the right, women to the left. As for the correct bathing etiquette, see page 86.
Opening Times Daily 11 a.m.–9 p.m. (last entry
7 p.m.). Getting There A several-minute walk from Telecom Center Station on the Yurikamome Line, which can be taken from Shimbashi (subway and JR lines). Contact www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english Admission Fee ¥2,480 weekdays, ¥2,680 weekends and public holidays (as of April 2014). Once inside, everything you eat, drink or buy will be charged to your bill, payable at reception upon leaving.
12 Shinjuku Gyoen Park
Tokyo’s finest park is the perfect respite from the city
In spring, cherry blossoms briefly bathe Shinjuku Gyoen in a delicate pink hue. In summer, lush green foliage is punctuated by varicolored rose beds before autumn brings rich, earthy tones and fallen leaves carpet the sprawling lawns. On the few days of winter when snow falls on Tokyo, the park is quiet enough to hear the frost and snow crunch underfoot. Throughout the year, there really is no finer place to escape the rigors of the city without having to leave it.
Shinjuku’s level of park perfection was a long time in the making. The park dates back to the Edo era when it was part of a daimyo’s residence, and it then became an imperial garden during the Meiji period before opening to the public shortly after World War II. Over those years it has developed into a wonderful mishmash of garden styles, its 57 hectares (140 acres) combining formal French garden designs, traditional Japanese elements, English landscaping and a greenhouse complex that is home to some 2,400 tropical and subtropical species. Encircling the lawns and ponds you can add to all that 20,000 trees, ranging from Himalayan cedars and bald cypresses to the blossoms that make the park’s central lawn a stunning cherry blossom viewing spot in late March and early April.
What’s just as amazing is the location. As you stroll in the peaceful grounds, silence threatened only by birdsong or the hum of summer cicadas, it’s hard to believe you are within walking distance of the heaving streets of Shinjuku (page 37) and one of the world’s busiest train stations. My advice for when Tokyo gets a little too busy for you is to pack up a picnic and a good book and take yourself off to Shinjuku Gyoen for a few hours.
Opening Times 9 a.m.–4.30 p.m. (last entry 4
p.m.). Getting There A 10-minute walk from JR Shinjuku Station (multiple lines) or a five-minute walk from either Shinjuku-gyoen-mae Station on the Marunouchi Line or Shinjuku 3-chome Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line. Contact www.env.go.jp/ garden/shinjukugyoen Admission Fee ¥200.
13 A Hike Up Mount Takao
A taste of Japan’s great outdoors on Tokyo’s doorstep
With more than 70% of the country being mountainous, no matter where you go in Japan a good hike is never far away, even in Tokyo. Mount Takao (aka Takao-san) is a prime example. At 599 meters (1,965 feet), and with the option of taking a cable car or chair-lift more than halfway to the summit, serious outdoor types wouldn’t break a sweat on it, but it’s proximity to central Tokyo and the opportunity it affords to take in a small part of Japan’s stunning great outdoors make it a great day trip nonetheless.
In all, there are seven trails that lead to Takao-san’s peak. While the most commonly used (by those who don’t take the cable car, anyway) is trail #7, opt instead for the quieter trail #6, an at times steep route through forest that leads past streams and a waterfall, in the process revealing many of Takao’s 500 or so types of wild flowers and plants. The reward for your effort—on a clear day, at least— will be majestic views from Takao-san’s summit out west to Mount Fuji. On the way back down, take trail #1 so you can pass through the colorful 8th-century Yakuno-in Temple. In fact, for a very special experience related to the temple, visit Takao on the second Sunday in March for the Hiwatarisai fire СКАЧАТЬ