Japan, day 4 - matsuri and train
Day 4
The next day started with us off to Shinjuku for a matsuri, day 1 of the Tori no Uchi matsuri. Properly speaking, the matsuri began at 12am, but we weren't going to stay up for that one, so we just went in the aftermath to get some food and experience a festival in the middle of Tokyo.
The shrine's Tori gates.
The line to pray. It looks long, but it moved fairly quickly. Shrine staff were organising it into multiple columns and ensuring thoroughfare could occur.
One thing I hadn't seen before is because the festival was so large, the stalls actually spilled out of the shrine's grounds onto sidewalks against the more regular skyscrapers and office buildings in Shinjuku proper. Don't really have any pics of that though.
My favourite festival food bar none is the good ol' giant hunk of meat on a stick. These are actually fakes used for advertising though.
I will have to look this up later, but a large portion of the festival was dedicated to selling what seemed like flower arrangements and whenever someone would buy them, a load of the stall managers would gather around and chant and applaud with wooden clappers. Not sure what that tradition is.1
Grilling dango. One particular aesthetic I always like is doing things with modern conveniences but trying to give the vibe of traditional methods. This brazier is undoubtedly gas-powered, but doesn't it look neat?
These fish look delicious in anime, but I thought it was gross af to actually eat. A rare JPN food L.
From there, we were travelling to Hakone for our first ryokan experience. There's a specific ticket for Hakone, the Hakone free pass, which I recommend highly if you're going to be in the area for 2-3 days; like most travel passes, local transport is free, but this one throws in a return trip to Hakone direct from Shinjuku station, which is handy.
We didn't take the bus from the Hakone station, instead opting for a crazy combination of rail, cable car and double ropeway. Thankfully we kept our luggage light for this one, with just our backpacks and one small suitcase. Very exhausting journey, probably about 3-4 hours; we made it to our ryokan just before sunset.
The view from our room just after checkin.
Dinner was a buffet, which made it easy to overeat. The place's onsen was really nice, too - I forgot how much I love them, and I think I've largely shed the naked-in-front-of-other-people embarrassment because frankly nobody else gives a crap. Just remember to wash yourself off before you get in the baths and you're golden. No ping-pong tables though.