Tokyo - Visiting Owl Cafe

FRIDAY JANUARY 24TH, TOKYO

The night before Henkka's birthday. Tokyo, Japan

It was Henkka's birthday morning and our couchsurfing host made all his guests sing happy bday song to Henkka. Our awesome host also gave him 1000¥ as a birthday gift. We had breakfast, packed our backpacks and headed to Tokyo city center to meet our friend Natsuka. We went to a kaiten-zushi place and ate a little before the birthday surprise the girls had planned.

Our couchsurfing host Tomo, Emmi and Henkka at Tomo's place in Tokyo.

Natsuka had made a reservation for us to visit owl cafe 'Owl No Mori' which is a place where you can see, pet and even hold living owls on your arm. There are certain times when guests are allowed to hold the owls so we were lucky to get there right on that time. The admission fee was 860¥  per person which is less than 8 euros and it includes one free soft drink, coffee or tea. There were about 30 different type of owls to admire. You can't take video but you can take as many pictures as you want without flash.

Owl Cafe's sign.

Our friend Natsuka holding Owl Cafe's rules.

Henkka petting the first owl that we saw.

Emmi holding one of the smaller owls.

Emmi petting a barn owl.

Henkka holding one of the biggest owls at the cafe.

A tawny frogmouth didn't really look like an owl.

The owls were tame and calm even though they flew away occasionally.

You could put a small hat on their head if you wanted to.

Both of us liked the the owls very much.

Countlessmilesandsmiles recommends Owl No Mori because the price is good compared to what you get out of the experience especially if you go there when they let people hold the owls. We advise visitors to call and ask when they let people to hold the owls because they only do it certain times and only for an hour at a time.

Hey there!

Henkka wanted to take this little fella with us.

The staff let us hold as many owls as we wanted.

Our experience at Owl No Mori was unique and unforgettable. The place was clean and staff was friendly and hospitable and they could speak little English which is rare in Japan. Visiting Owl No Mori was awesome and it's hard to break into the top 5 experiences of our trip. We rate Owl Cafe Owl No Mori 5/5 and it goes to the top 5 among the other best experiences so far. 

They got a little sleepy after all the petting and holding.

ZZZZzzzzzz....

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Memi & Henkka

Tokyo - Zojoji Temple

SUNDAY JANUARY 22ND, TOKYO

We woke up early and headed to Zojoji temple which is in the Shiba neighborhood of Minato, Tokyo. The history of this temple is fascinating and you'll hear about it in this blog.

Zojoji Temple, Minato, Tokyo

Zojoji Temple was founded in 1393 as a special meditation school for Jodo Buddhism in the Kanto region. Zojoji was relocated to the present site in 1598. When it became the family temple of the Tokugawa family the grand cathedral was also built. Zojoji was also a center of religious studies and activities of Jodo Buddhism. In those days its precincts overall coverage was 826000 square meters. It contained 48 smaller temples and about 150 grammar schools.

Back entrance to Zojoji.

We found a pot of good luck so Henkka is taking some luck with him.

We found ourselves in the middle of a wedding seremony.

The monks threw these on top of the soon to be married for good luck.

Sangedatsumon which is the main gate of Zojoji is 21 meters high, almost 29 meters wide and almost 18 meters deep. It was built in 1622 and today it is the only architectural reminder of the early days of the Edo Period when the original Zojoji was constructed. Its name Sangedatsumon means a gate (mon) getting delivered (gedatsu) from three (san) states of mind: greed, anger and stupidity.

Daibonsho was built in 1673. This giant bells diameter is 1,76 meters, it is 3,33 meters high and it weighs 15 tons. The bell is tolled twice a day to purify people from 108 eartly passions.

Daibonsho bell at Zojoji.

This in the entrance to Mausoleum of Tokugawa Shoguns. Inside are the tombs of six Tokugawa Shoguns, Imperial Princess Kazunomiya and wives and children of the Shoguns.

Next to the Mausoleum are rows of stone statues of children that represent unborn children including miscarried, aborted, and stillborn children. Parents can choose a statue in the garden and decorate it with small clothing and toys. Usually the statues are accompanied by a small gift for Jizō, the guardian of unborn children, to ensure that they are brought to the afterlife.

Rows of stone children at Zojoji Temple.

2500 years old Buddhism is the teachings of India's Buddha. It came to Japan from India around A.D. 538. In this process teachings of Jodo (pure land) Buddhism emerged and evolved in Japan. Jodo Buddhism was founded by Honen Shonin in 1175. The purpose was to widen Buddhism to bring equal salvation to all people.

The view from the main stairs of Zojoji Temple.

Countlessmilesandsmsiles recommends to visit Zojoji temple if you are interested in history and buddhism. It's a nice way to spend an hour or two at the temple area because there are lot of thing to see. We rate this place 4/5. 

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Memi & Henkka

Tokyo - Finally

We are at the destination we both have been waiting for the most - Japan. There are many reasons Japan is a fascinating and interesting country to visit. We are here for history, culture, food (sushi) and to visit our friends.  

Tokyo is the world's second best shopping destination (ranked by CNN travel) so if we didn't have our backpacks already full we'd definitely fill them up here.

Our first impression of Japan came up to our expectations. People are extremely friendly and polite even though they don't speak English. It's clean and neat everywhere even in the subway and public restrooms. Sushi is fresh and delicious and you can get it for decent price if you know where to go.

These cool looking vending machines are all over Tokyo.

For the first night we had booked a hotel which included a free shuttle from Narita Airport to the hotel. After almost a 10-hour flight both of us were ready for shower and bed which was luxury after 8 nights in a car in Hawaii.

We bought some weird/cool looking stuff to eat for breakfast.

FRIDAY JANUARY 20TH

Next day we headed to Shibuya where we met Emmi's friend Niki and had a delicious late lunch with him in a kaiten-zushi place. The prices were from 108¥ - 500¥ per plate which is a decent amount to pay fresh sushi.

There was Hello Kitty tourist information at Shibuya station where we went to ask about internet and manga cafes since most of the websites are in Japanese so it's a struggle to us to try to find one ourselves since neither of us is able to speak or read Japanese.

Hello Kitty tourist information train cart at Shibuya station.

Henkka at the tourist info. Tokyo, Japan

Internet / manga cafes are one of the traditional Japanese things you should experience. The clerk at the information desk told we should go to Shinjuku which was 3 train stops away from Shibuya since she said there wouldn't be any cafes near by. We took a train to Shinjuku and asked about the cafes where we planned to spend that night since they are open 24/7. We got one address (Media Cafe Popeye) which was near the station and once we got there we were surprised about high prices because we read online that it would be cheap to stay at those cafes. Apparently the prices are much higher at weekends and the hour deals they offer are worse during the weekend than week. The price is also per person not per booth/room.

There was a computer, tv and two pillows at the room we got and unfortunately the operating system on the computer was in Japanese and the staff couldn't  chance it in English so Henkka had to play poker on our own tab for the first time since Jamaica.

Emmi in our little booth at the internet cafe.

The experience was ok but for that price we wouldn't go to Manga Cafe Popeye again. Restrooms were clean and it was nice to get unlimited soft drinks, coffee and tea which was included in the price. We should have payed extra for using shower and it felt unfair the staff didn't explain us what is included in the rip off price we paid for. That might be because they didn't speak much English but when Emmi asked how does this all work she got an instruction file in English which had some info about the Cafe.

At least the drinks were free.

Henkka at the internet cafe.

Time to get up and leave.

At first we booked a booth for 9 hours for 1900¥ and because wasn't enough we booked the same small booth for 5 more hours for 1700¥. The prices are for one person.

We don't want this to be our only internet cafe experience since we are sure there are better and cheaper places to visit so you'll hear more about these cafes in the future.

Countlessmilesandsmiles rates Manga Cafe Popeye 2/5. 

SATURDAY JANUARY 21ST

We found a place to stay for 3 nights on couchsurfing which is 45 min walk from Shibuya station.

Our host turned out to be awesome and he requested us to stay longer because we got along so well. It seems we are staying in Tokyo until 24th and then we head to Nagoya with our Japanese friend Natsuka.

We walked to Shibuya and went to eat at Genki Sushi which we tried first time in Hawaii.

Henkka in front of Genki Sushi. Tokyo, Japan

Done for now. Genki Sushi, Tokyo, Japan

Genki Sushi is a Japanese kaiten-zushi chain restaurant which has decent prices. surprisingly there were two internet / manga cafes next to it even though the clerk at the tourist info had sent us to another city center the night before because she said there were no internet cafes in Shibuya. These cafes located 150m from the tourist info spot she was working at.

Internet cafes in Shibuya.

The yellow thing behind is called Gudetama which is a very lazy egg yolk.

Real life Mario Kart. Only in Japan.

After a nice day in Shibuya we walked back to our hosts place and slept a good night sleep. Henkka got up at 4am to play poker because the best tournaments start around that time here in Japan. 

Thanks for reading! 

Emmi & Henkka 

Hawaii - World's Most Breathtaking Wilderness Lies Beneath The Waves

This is our last night in Oahu Hawaii and we wanted to write a post about snorkeling since that is what we have been doing a lot during the last week. There wont be any pics underwater because Emmi's 'waterproof' phone broke while we were hiking in waterfalls in Jamaica. We didn't want the new phone to end up broken as well. Enjoy the post! 

Oahu has some beautiful sunsets. We still prefer Arizona on sunsets over any place so far. 

We are interested in snorkeling and we had a chance to do it first time in Negril in Jamaica. We tried to find a store that sells quality snorkeling gear but they didn't have anything but crappy equipment so we decided to rent the gear in Jamaica and buy our own equipment here in Hawaii. We did some research online and found a good package deal that included all the gear we needed. It had a great quality-price ratio and it had got great reviews on http://www.diverworld.info/the-best-snorkel-gear-mask-fins-reviews/. Poker, sports betting and any kind of gambling is illegal in the state of Hawaii so we can't play poker here. Instead of hitting the tables we have been hiking and snorkeling a lot. 

Emmi's snorkeling gear is of course purple.

HANAUMA BAY, EAST OAHU

Hanauma Bay is located in Southeast Oahu and it is advertised in many local travel magazines and online. It's open daily from 6am-6pm. You should go early to get a parking spot and as a first time visitor prepare to watch a mandatory video about Hanauma Bay and its marine life. The video includes guidelines for snorkeling and safety tips in Hanauma Bay.

In our opinion Hanauma Bay was a tourist trap and 99% its coral had died due to harmfull and selfish behaviour of humans. We saw plenty of fish and only 3 alive corals which were all damaged. This bay is a perfect example of how people destroy nature and even though we had a nice day and learned a lot about the marine ecosystem both of us felt sad about the condition of the reef. We think there is nothing humans can do to save this dying reef since it's almost completely destroyed. We recommend Hanauma Bay for snorkeling rookies but we want to highlight that there aren't healthy living corals left but you will see some fish.

The parking fare is $1 per vehicle and the admission fee is $7,50 per non-resident visitor.

TURTLE BAY, NORTH OAHU

Turtle Bay is a resort located in North Oahu. Usually the word resort means the same as a tourist trap and that's what it was. We saw a review about Turtle Bay and decided to give it a shot, but as soon as we got to the beach we realized we didin't want to go to snorkel with all the noisy kids there were in such a small bay so we dialed our gps to guide us to another beach called Pupukea and ended up spending the rest of the day there.


PUPUKEA, NORTH OAHU 

There is a small bay at Pupukea beach in North Oahu where the parking and entrance is free of charge. There were lot of fish and some living coral to see but like the previous spots that one was crowded too.


KANE POINT, WEST OAHU

We stopped by this place because we found a good review of it online. We only snorkeled there for a while because the waves were a bit too rough and water blurry so we couldn't see a lot of sea life there. This spot is better for more experienced snorkelers.


KO'OLINA LAGOONS, WEST OAHU

Come early because the parking is always full. There are four decent sized lagoons for snorkeling, swimming and sunbathing. The area is really clean and convenient place to snorkel. This is also a resort spot so be prepared for kids and tourists. Good snorkeling spot for beginners and everyone else because there are a lot of fish to see.

One of the lagoons at Ko'olina Resorts. Oahu, Hawaii

There are many snorkeling spots here in Oahu which you can find from this link: http://www.tropicalsnorkeling.com/oahu-snorkeling.html

Countlessmilesandsmiles encourages to find out about sealife in coral reefs in advance. It's good to know the basic information for your own safety before heading to the ocean. It's really important to do some research about sealife and corals so that you wont harm them. We highly recommend to buy your own good quality snorkeling gear since renting a set might cost even a half of the price you'd pay for your own gear. We haven't been lucky enough to get quality rental gear before we bought our own. Most important thing is to have a snorkeling buddy to go with you if something happens at sea. It's also more fun to have a friend sharing the best moments beneath the waves!

Our last night in Hawaii. Tomorrow we are going to have an almost ten hour flight, but where? Barber's Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii

Mahalo for reading!

Emmi & Henkka

Money Is Flat And Meant To be Piled Up!

It's obvious that you have to have money to travel and do things you like. So, 'How can you afford traveling many months in a row?' It's actually surprising how rarely this question is asked from us, but we know that's something many of you are wondering.

In this blog we tell you what kind of changes we've had to make in our daily life back in Finland to save the money. You'll also find out what kind of life hacks we use on our trip to make this all decent for our wallets.

Life is full of choices when it comes to saving money. We got married in July 2014 and have spent time and effort on our honeymoon ever since. We were sure it wouldn't last two weeks on a luxury cruise in the Caribbean and we didn't want to pick up just one paradise resort and pay thousands of euros per person since it would have been a struggle to choose only one destination among many interesting ones. There were way too many options and nothing could hold us from not leaving for months. 

How we saved money before our trip?

We reduced eating out and cooked at home. Henkka cooked a lot of vegetarian food which is cheaper than food that includes meat. When we bought chicken or meat it was always at night when it was at least -30% off regular price. We didn't go out to drink. Henkka started to instruct Les Mills classes because he would go to the classes anyway and now he would get paid to do so. We also sold a lot of our useless and left over stuff such as furniture, clothes, fragrances, sports equipment and kitchen ware. We rode bikes and walked anywhere we could and used our car less. All in all there were a lot of small acts of saving that combined into a huge amount of money.

Hawaii is an expensive place to visit but there is a lot to do for free. This picture is from the top of the Koko Head Trail. Oahu, Hawaii

Here you can find tips how to reduce your travel costs.

1. This one is where you can save the most money - Travel during the off season! For example if you are going to a beach destination travel in the late summer or early fall. When booking flights be as flexible as possible and fly midweek instead of the weekend; fly with stops instead of direct. 

2. There is a coupon for almost everything and anything especially in the US. You just have to make an effort to find it. Always check Groupon!

3. Compare hotel/accommodation deals. Countlessmilesandsmiles uses hotwire.com, priceline.com, Airbnb and Couchsurfing to find a place to crash in. Ask yourself do you have to stay in the city center or could you walk or take a bus to a cheaper stay. 

4. In the US shop at ROSS Dress for Less, TJMAXX and Marshall's to get quality clothes and goods for less money.

5. There is always free stuff to do you just have to put effort to find the options. Here are some activities we have done for free: hiking, snorkeling (we have our own gear), swimming, sightseeing and street workout. Some museums, historic sights and galleries are free on specific times or weekdays. Check online!

Every day the first 1300 visitors get these tickets to USS Arizona Memorial for free. Otherwise these would have been $7,5 per person. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

6. Walk around! That's how you get to know the area but if that's not your thing always try to use public transportation but if it's not possible look for Uber or Lyft. Take overnight buses and trains when you can. To get around download free HereWeGo app which has a gps that works offline. 

Sightseeing by yourself is always free! Kaena Point, Oahu, Hawaii

7. Get local currency from ATMs. The exchange rate is usually best that way. 

8. Bring your own snacks for the time at the airport and on flight. When you fly with budget airlines they don't include meal in the basic fares. Some airlines charge you extra for using their headphones, pillows and blankets so better have your own. 

9. Always check your receipt for coupons and deals. Many companies offer discounts if you give them feedback online. You should also make an e-mail address to give when asked at the counter because you might get discount on your purchase. That way your personal e-mail won't receive junk mail from every place where you sign up for discounts. 

With deals like this you will save a lot of money in the long run.

10. Avoid eating in a tourist area or right in the city center. Just walk a few blocks and find much cheaper local places to eat. If you are not sure about the place where you might eat there is one simple way to find out if it is worth trying: if there is a line it is prolly a good place.

Countlessmilesandsmiles thinks that saving is an everyday act which is good to keep in mind at all times when planning a trip and during the trip. 

Free hike, free sight! Makapuu Lookout, Oahu, Hawaii

Mahalo for reading!

See you soon!

Memi & Henkka