1-Day Tour: Umihotaru (海ほたる), Komatsudera (小松寺), Tokyo German Village (東京ドイツ村) & Other Autumn Activities

This trip was another company-sponsored bus tour, and like the trip to Yamanashi, everything was prearranged. Here's the itinerary of that trip.

09:00 - Departure from Shin-yokohama
        - Umihotaru (海ほたる)
        - Komatsudera (小松寺)
12:30 - Seafood Buffet Lunch (浜焼市場きよっぱち)
        - Fish Market (お魚市場きよっぱち)
14:30 - Mandarin Orange Picking (みかん狩り)
16:30 - Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu (三井アウトレット木更津)
18:00 - Tokyo German Village (東京ドイツ村)
20:30 - Arrival at Shin-yokohama

The first stop was Umihotaru, a man-made island in the middle of Tokyo Bay (東京湾). It's the tunnel-meets-bridge point of the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line (東京湾アクアライン), the highway built to connect Kanagawa and Chiba.

After that very quick stop-over, the next stop was Komatsudera, which is supposedly known as the Maple Temple. It was autumn, and maple is very much associated with that season, so it should be one of the best destinations. But based on my last bus tour to Gunma, where we should have seen the "Niagara Falls of the East", branding places covered by bus tours may lead to disappointments, so I didn't really expect a nice autumn foliage scenery.

Komatsudera was a relatively small temple, though I could say that for a temple that small, there were quite a number of visitors at that time. Next was lunch at Kiyopachi (浜焼市場きよっぱち), advertised as seafood buffet, though I think I ate more pork than fish. After lunch was a quick tour to their seafood market (お魚市場きよっぱち).

After lunch was the orange picking activity. Anything eaten within the plantation was free, and from what I remember, oranges taken outside cost 300 yen per kilogram.

Next was a 50-minute stop at Mitsui Outlet Park, a famous chain of outlet stores in Japan. Time was limited, and there were more choices compared to other Mitsui Outlet Park branches, so I didn't have time to take some pictures. After running all around the place and shopping for some items, we were off to the Tokyo German Village, in what should be the highlight of the tour because of the illumination event at that time. That didn't disappoint, though I wish we could have spent more time there. Anyway, it was all free, so no complains here.

Links:
Umihotaru official website
Komatsudera official website
Kiyoppachi official website
Mitsui Outlet Park
Tokyo German Village

Kobe Port Tower (神戸ポートタワー)

10 minutes. That's how long we stayed at Kobe Port Tower. It was originally in the itinerary and I made plans to go up the observation decks. But staying too long at Nara, traveling all the way across Osaka, and running late for the Tokyo-bound Shinkansen from Kyoto, made a 10-minute stay possible.

As impractical as it may seem, the trip to Kobe Port Tower started from Nara. From Kintetsu-Nara station (近鉄奈良駅), we took the Kintetsu Nara Line Rapid Express train (近鉄奈良線快速急行) bound for Hanshin Sannomiya (阪神三宮行). From there, we transferred to the Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line Local train running on the Hanshin Main line (阪神本線) in the direction of Sanyo Himeji (山陽姫路行). We alighted at Motomachi station (元町駅). Though that ride was free care of the Kansai Surutto Pass, that was also around 90 minutes of travel time.

Getting to the Port Tower from Motomachi station took another 15 minutes. We had to pass some side streets through a shopping district (商店街), a very small park, and after crossing what seemed like the main highway, we saw the tower right behind the Port Tower Hotel and Notre Dame Kobe.

The 10-minute mark started right after passing Port Tower Hotel. At that time, we were already at the base of the tower. Towards the left was the Kobe Maritime Museum which looked like an amusement park ride. On the right, I saw a Mosaic Mall across the bay. We also passed by a radio station. After some really quick pictures, it was time to go back to Kyoto for the bullet train (新幹線) back to the Tokyo and Yokohama area.

Nara Park (奈良公園)

Nara Park, famous for its deers that wander around freely, is home to some of Nara's famous tourist spots. Although we technically got into the most famous one, the Todaiji (東大寺) or Great Eastern Temple, we weren't able to see the big Buddha at Daibutsuden (大仏殿). But it really didn't lessen the experience of visiting Nara, with the colorful autumn trees around, and the deers that entertained the people.

Coming from Kyoto, Nara Park is actually just a singe train ride away. You can use either the JR Nara line (JR奈良線) with its Rapid services, the limited express service of Kintetsu Railways (近鉄特急), and in our case, the normal Kintetsu express train, which actually runs in 2 lines, the Kintetsu-Kyoto Line (近鉄京都線急行) until Yamato-Saidaiji (大和西大寺) that connects to the Kintetsu-Nara Line (近鉄奈良線) bound for Kintetsu-Nara (近鉄奈良行). I chose the latter because it's cheap, it was actually free using our Kansai Surutto Pass. For the Kintetsu limited express train, the base fare of 610円 is free with the Kansai Surutto Pass, but the express charge of 500円 is not. I haven't tried the JR line, but I think it's included in many JR passes available.

Walking to the park took us around 30 minutes from the train station. Signs and maps were all around, so it wasn't really difficult. Google Maps was also a very good friend, though it led us not to the main entrance of Todaiji, the Nandaimon Gate (南大門), but somewhere on the side of the Daibutsuden. Anyway, it was the shortest path, so there were no complains.

As we approached Todaiji, there were some smaller temples and gardens, but they were not quite interesting, so we just went on towards the Daibutsuen. Deers were already all around, though I think the ones in between Daibutsuen and Nandaimon were friendlier. You can actually buy rice crackers and feed them. That was also the time that I thought getting inside the Daibutsuen would take too much of our time because of all the people trying to get in.

Daibutsuden

Nandaimon

After taking some pictures, we just walked around the park and enjoyed its beauty. On our way back to Kintetsu-Nara station, we took the other path, starting from Nandaimon towards the main road, which led us directly to the train station. Given more time, we could have visited other temples, but walking around the park was already satisfying for me.