The Bund

The Bund is arguably the most famous area in Shanghai. It is a waterfront area with a view that resembles the ones in Avenue of the Stars in Hong Kong and Osanbashi pier in Yokohama, Japan. Like those two spots, the Bund may be visited during the day, but it may be better to check it out at night.

There's no train station that's exactly on The Bund, but I think the nearest one would be East Nanjing Road of subway Line 2, though I never really had to take the train going there since our hotel, Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, was fairly close to the area. It was just a 15-minute walk along Jiujiang Road, and I saw the said train station along the way. Anyway, the area is like a park, so there's no need to pay any admission fee, though there's really an actual park, Huangpu Park, on the northern side of the area. I wasn't able to go there as I was satisfied with the view of the Pudong area from the viewing deck. There's also a pedestrian tunnel through the river, but since it was New Year's eve when I was there, there were really too much people for me and I just decided to go back to the hotel before the actual New Year festivities started. Here are my pictures of The Bund.

Tobu World Square (東武ワールドスクエア)

Tobu World Square is a theme park located in Kinugawa Onsen (鬼怒川温泉), Tochigi prefecture (栃木県), close to Nikko (日光市). As its website describe it, the park contains 1:25 scale replicas of the UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage sites. It is accessible via bus from Kinugawa Onsen station (鬼怒川温泉駅) of the Tobu line (東武線). The one-way bus ride costs JPY200 each for adults and JPY100 for children, and the park's admission fee is normally JPY2,500, but since we got the Kinugawa Theme Park Pass, the bus ride was free and the theme park ticket was already included in the pass. We just had to claim the actual ticket from the ticket counter. Anyway, like other usual tourist destinations in Japan, there's a discount coupon available from the official website. The direct link is found at the bottom of this post.

The ticket came with a guide that showed the different areas of the park. I think the park can be covered in 2 hours, though when we went there, we only had a little over an hour but still got to see all the replicas. First on the guide is the Modern Japan zone, then the America zone, followed by the Egypt zone, then the Europe zone, second to the last is the Asia zone, and completing the list is the Japan zone. Following are some of the pictures that I took.

Modern Japan:

Japan's National Diet Building

Tokyo Dome

Tokyo Tower

America:

World Trade Center and the Empire State Building

 Egypt:

The Great Sphinx with the Pyramid of Khafre

 Europe:

Parthenon

St. Peter's Basilica

Neuschwanstein Castle

Buckingham Palace

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris

Arc de Triomphe

The Tower Bridge

 Asia:

Taj Mahal

Forbidden City

 Japan:

Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)

Links:
Tobu World Square official website
Online coupon for ticket discount
Tobu Special Passes

1-Day Tour: Hato Bus Tour - Dynamic Tokyo

This is another 1-day, company sponsored bus tour, so there are no transportation details in this post. Like other bus tours that I have joined, everything has been prearranged. Here's the itinerary for this one:

Time: 9:00-17:00
- Tokyo Tower (東京タワー)
- Happo-en (八芳園), for Japanese tea ceremony
- Chinzan-so (ホテル椿山荘), for Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) lunch
- Imperial Palace Nijubashi Bridge (二重橋)
- Sumida River (隅田川) Sightseeing Tour
- Senso-ji Temple (浅草寺) and Nakamise Street (仲見世通り)

This whole day tour costs 12,000円 for adults and 8,000円 for children, and it can be booked via Hato Bus Tour's website (link at the bottom of this post). This is arguably the best English-guided tour around Tokyo, so expect to be around people of various nationalities - as we were when we had this tour.

It was a rainy Sunday, so the circumstances were not perfect, but we still tried to make the most of the tour. First stop: Tokyo Tower. After the bus parked right beside the huge, orange Tokyo landmark, we were directed to the entrance where the tour guide gave our tickets. We were given around 40 minutes to enjoy the view from the observatory.

From Tokyo Tower, the bus ride to the next stop, Happo-en, took just around 10 minutes. We were divided into 2 groups since the place for the tea ceremony was quite small. While one group was having their tea, the other group was allowed to stroll around the garden that has some of the oldest bonsai trees. If I remember correctly, one was even 523 years old.

After the tea ceremony was the Teppanyaki lunch at Hotel Chinzan-so. It was around 25 minutes from Happo-en. The lunch felt special because the staff assisted us in every way they can, and I think the food also tasted good, but the only downside was that it's a set course. The drinks were also not included, so if you wanted one, you had to pay separately.

After lunch, we went to the Imperial Palace, but not exactly inside the palace. The guide said that ordinary people can go in only twice a year, so people who join the tours have to settle with the view of the Nijubashi Bridge. This was also probably the quickest stop in the tour.

From the Imperial Palace, we were brought next to Sumida river for a river cruise towards the Asakusa (浅草) area, the last stop of the tour. After our drop-off from the river cruise, we were just given instructions to be at the bus behind the temple at a certain time, so we were free to walk around the Asakusa area and check out the stores at Nakamise street. At the end of that street is the Sensoji temple, one of the most popular temples in Tokyo.

From Asakusa, we were asked if we wanted to get off at Ginza area or at Tokyo station to end the tour. Since we were also going to Roppongi, we chose Ginza so that we'd only have to take the Hibiya line. Although the tour was on the pricey side, I think it was all worth it. Besides, we got it for free, so no complains here.

Hato Bus Tour official website