Jan 16
Today was our last proper day in Japan, and we spent it by visiting Disney Sea with Ellen's friend Honami again with us (which was fun ^_^). While Disneyland was whelming, Disney Sea was freakin' awesome. It's the most expensive theme park ever built, and it shows, because the atmosphere and detail is sensational. It's exclusive to Japan, and because it's set on Tokyo Harbour, all seven areas take on the theme of different water areas from around the world; there's an Arabian oasis type area similar to Aladdin, a Mermaid's Lagoon area like the Little Mermaid, an Aztec jungle river area like the Emperor's New Groove, an Americann harbour area, a Venice harbour area, a Jules Verne area (inspired by his books) and another area too I think that I can't really remember right now. Only one ride was closed (Indiana Jones Ride, but like the Disneyland closed rides I'd been to them in LA so I wasn't too upset) and even though it was cold, the lines and crowds were a bit insane.
The park opened at 10am, and we got into the park, headed straight to the Tower of Terror at 10.40am (after taking the Mickey Mouse-themed monorail from the station to the park), and found that all of the Fast Passes had been given out for the day. FML. We managed to get some to Journey to the Centre of the Earth and the looping rollercoaster though, and met Stitch, Aladdin & Jasmine, and saw a few others. After a two hour line up we rode the Tower of Terror (WHICH WAS AWESOME and COMPLETELY worth the wait). We wanted to do it again but didn't want to spend all that time lining up again, so enjoyed walking around the park as the sun set and it got all dark and pretty-like with the atmospheric lighting.
I kind of realised that even though the atmosphere and set design at Dreamworld sucks, its rides are really awesome in terms of thrills, because even Disney Sea's weren't as easily given, with maybe only one drop on roller-coasters, with the drop not all that scary.
We went out for ramen with Ellen as snow began to fall over Ikebukuro. Tomorrow we fly out for home in the evening, and arrive back in Sydney just after lunch time on Thursday. It's been an awesome trip, and I'd love to come back to Japan (but maybe this time in spring or autumn).
Jan 15
Disneyland!! Despite heavy rain forecast and it being a Monday, the park was relatively busy, far more so than when we went in LA back in January 1999 as a family. My memory as a child was obviously a lot more awesome, but as Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion were closed, Disneyland wasn't that magical. After rain stopped Big Thunder Railroad from running, Space Mountain was the only ride left that was any decent, which meant that it was incredibly busy to get into. The rest of the rides were kind of tame. It was still fun though, but the rain was a huge damper (literally... lawl) on the day. We got a bit soaked and it was freezing cold. We had our last beef bowl in Japan for dinner, which will surely be missed, as it's cheap and amazing.
Jan 14
We started the day in Harajuku, which was quite packed, wondering around its streets looking at the clothes shops (but crowds and prices stopped us going in or buying anything). We visited Meiji Jingu, a beautiful and famous shrine in the region, and because it was a Sunday and Valentine's Day, saw three wedding ceremonies and at least one other bride walking about... which was pretty cool. Meiji Jingu is Tokhyo's other cultural attraction apart from Senso-ji at Asakusa). We had yummy crèpes, and then met up with Ellen's friend Honami and her sister. We had pasta lunch and then headed for the Jinju Bridge and watched/filmed some of the crazy fashions from teenage (and weird adult) cosplayers. Ellen went home as Prudence and I headed to Shinjuku, where she finally bought her Final Fantasy necklace. At night we bummed in the hostel.
Jan 13
We went to Odaiba, a 'reclaimed' (man-made) island on Tokyo Bay, however the day was pretty miserable and wet. We saw the Rainbow Bridge, Fuji Building and an awesome shopping centre and arcade. Ellen's friend Ayaka met up with us, and we took some pretty awful purikura from a really dodgy machine (fail) before re-trying at a glitter one... win! At night Ellen, Prue and I went out for karaoke again, with the two hours flying by. Karaoke will be missed. =/
Jan 12
We slept in until noon after going out to Gas Panic, and headed into Asakusa to see the famous Buddhist temple Senso-ji, however it was under construction outside so we could only see the shrine inside. After exploring Ginza and seeing the famous kabuki theatre that's about to be torn down and re-built, we headed out to have dinner at Ellen's host great uncle's restaurant with her family. It was tempura with soba, which tasted awesome. After watching the Music Station Super Live (or whatever it's called) 1000th anniversary show, we bid the kotatsu at Ellen's house and her host family farwell. They were both pretty awesome.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Jan 11
Today me and Prue had the day in Tokyo to ourselves (Ellen was off with her host family in Disneyland for the public holiday, which was likely hellishly busy), so Prue went off to visit the suburb where the Digimon kids come from while I wondered around Shibuya for a bit. It was kind of an easy day; we bought our Disneyland/Disney Sea tickets for Monday and Tuesday, wondered around the east side of the station for a bit, and headed back for the hostel. When Ellen gets back later tonight we'll go out to the Roppongi for cheap drinks at Gas Planet (and probably come home at 5am when the trains start up again).
Jan 10
We headed for Nikko, renowned for being the most cultural place in Japan that's within easy reach of Tokyo. After the warmth of Tokyo compared to Sapporo, we never really thought to check the weather, forgetting that on average Tokyo is ten degrees hotter than its surroundings due to the warmth generated by the city itself. We got off the train, and stepped into a misty and freezing cold town. There was snow left over on the ground and you couldn't see more than thirty metres ahead of you due to mist generated off the river that flows through the town.
In Nikko we saw Shinkyo, a sacred very old bridge, as well as countless shrines and temples, and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (massively powerful Japanese warlord and eventual leader of the country; he and his family maintained control from the 1600s until the Meiji Restoration of 1868). On our way home there was a group of maybe 7 Australians, with a guy dishing out riddles to keep us occupied. They were hard. >_<" In the evening we explored the area around Ikebukuro (where we're staying), going to a few arcades and Book Off. Hooray! Book Off is awesome.
Jan 9
We started the morning by taking the train to Jujo and visiting Ellen's school (university I guess) where she's on exchange; turns out that it's all female and I wasn't allowed in until one of the staff who's a friend of Ellen got me in. We looked around for a bit and shared some juice with her (American) English Literature teacher, before grabbing some taiyaki (the fish-shaped dessert thing) that was actually cooked properly this time and was delicious.
We headed for the area around Tokyo city itself, heading through Shinjuku (busiest train station in the world; over three million passengers pass through it each day - it's insane) to Tokyo tower, with Ellen waiting down the bottom as we took the elevator to the top and looked around. It was a really clear day so we had really extensive views; we got a vague glimpse of Mt Fuji in the distance through haze. After that we headed for the Pokémon centre in the next metro station over (5 of 5 done, yay!) before going back to Ikebukuro.
At night we went out for karaoke in Ikebukuro (yay!) which was awesome fun; Y2000 each for two hours of karaoke with free soft drinks (we snuck in a bottle of vodka after pre-drinking - about $7 for a 375mL bottle - dirt cheap!) and sang loudly and terribly to the Spice Girls, Metro Station, Fall Out Boy and other stuff. It was great. =D
Today me and Prue had the day in Tokyo to ourselves (Ellen was off with her host family in Disneyland for the public holiday, which was likely hellishly busy), so Prue went off to visit the suburb where the Digimon kids come from while I wondered around Shibuya for a bit. It was kind of an easy day; we bought our Disneyland/Disney Sea tickets for Monday and Tuesday, wondered around the east side of the station for a bit, and headed back for the hostel. When Ellen gets back later tonight we'll go out to the Roppongi for cheap drinks at Gas Planet (and probably come home at 5am when the trains start up again).
Jan 10
We headed for Nikko, renowned for being the most cultural place in Japan that's within easy reach of Tokyo. After the warmth of Tokyo compared to Sapporo, we never really thought to check the weather, forgetting that on average Tokyo is ten degrees hotter than its surroundings due to the warmth generated by the city itself. We got off the train, and stepped into a misty and freezing cold town. There was snow left over on the ground and you couldn't see more than thirty metres ahead of you due to mist generated off the river that flows through the town.
In Nikko we saw Shinkyo, a sacred very old bridge, as well as countless shrines and temples, and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (massively powerful Japanese warlord and eventual leader of the country; he and his family maintained control from the 1600s until the Meiji Restoration of 1868). On our way home there was a group of maybe 7 Australians, with a guy dishing out riddles to keep us occupied. They were hard. >_<" In the evening we explored the area around Ikebukuro (where we're staying), going to a few arcades and Book Off. Hooray! Book Off is awesome.
Jan 9
We started the morning by taking the train to Jujo and visiting Ellen's school (university I guess) where she's on exchange; turns out that it's all female and I wasn't allowed in until one of the staff who's a friend of Ellen got me in. We looked around for a bit and shared some juice with her (American) English Literature teacher, before grabbing some taiyaki (the fish-shaped dessert thing) that was actually cooked properly this time and was delicious.
We headed for the area around Tokyo city itself, heading through Shinjuku (busiest train station in the world; over three million passengers pass through it each day - it's insane) to Tokyo tower, with Ellen waiting down the bottom as we took the elevator to the top and looked around. It was a really clear day so we had really extensive views; we got a vague glimpse of Mt Fuji in the distance through haze. After that we headed for the Pokémon centre in the next metro station over (5 of 5 done, yay!) before going back to Ikebukuro.
At night we went out for karaoke in Ikebukuro (yay!) which was awesome fun; Y2000 each for two hours of karaoke with free soft drinks (we snuck in a bottle of vodka after pre-drinking - about $7 for a 375mL bottle - dirt cheap!) and sang loudly and terribly to the Spice Girls, Metro Station, Fall Out Boy and other stuff. It was great. =D
Monday, February 8, 2010
Tokyo!
Jan 8
Today we went for a visit to Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city and more or less a giant merged metropolis with Tokyo. We met Ellen at the station again after dropping our luggage off at House Ikebukuro (we arrived back in to Tokyo at around 10am, and could see snow and cloud-covered Mt Fuji in the distance from the final train home). Fanta World U.S. Hip Hop is a vile drink and nobody should try it. >_> In Yokohama we wondered around Chinatown (the largest in the world), walked past a beautiful-looking temple and through a park nearby. We tried some fish-shaped fried desert thing (not actually made of fish, but pastry filled with sweet filling in the shape of a fish) which was not actually cooked yet but still delicious, and had a baked round dumpling thingie that I can't remember the name of for lunch, as well as semi-gross bubble tea.
After that we wondered to the Yokohama Landmark Tower and the shops beneath, went into the Pokémon Centre (4 down, 1 to go!) and H&M, had a break at a nice, cheap and fast-serving café, planned the rest of the week, and then came home. Finally got our washing done, and are temporarily staying in a room which is basically a bunkbed inside a glorified linen closet (half the price though) before our normal room is given to us for our last 8 nights in Japan. Tomorrow: Tokyo tower/city area (and the last Pokémon Centre we're visiting =P) and then karaoke at night.
Oh, and I finally bought fogbag, the bizarre spray on hair wax that looks like it's in an eyeglasses case, so will see how that goes.
Jan 7
Our second day in Sapporo was spent getting up in the morning, struggling to find a locker to put our stuff in, and then catching a metro train to a nearby suburb which houses an awesome and incredible CHOCOLATE FACTORY. This rivaled Koyasan as my favourite leg of our trip. Even though the building can't be over 200 years old, it was incredibly opulent and old-fashioned, and looked exactly like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory from the Gene Wilder movie from the outside, complete with wrought iron gates, massive CHOCOLATE FACTORY lettering above it, and covered in snow and Christmasy decorations. It looked magical. Inside it smelt AMAZING, and had a beautiful water fountain, ceiling frescos, stained glass windows, huge collections of old hot chocolate china from loads of different countries, old chocolate ads and packaging from worldwide, a pretty awesome history of chocolate display, views of the factory, and ended with a shop that had INCREDIBLY intricate and fiddly cake decorations you could buy, cakes to order, and a posh little café/restaurant complete with expensive-looking pianola. After that was an awesome toy museum, with toys ranging from a century or so ago to toys from our generation as kids. Outside were miniature houses of different themed outside. The whole experience was amazing, the chocolate cookies and chocolate milk they produced were DELICIOUS, and I want more.
After heading back to Sapporo, we caught a train to Otaru, a resort-style town nearby that's famous for its canal and seasideyness in summer; however it was freezing cold, and while the lanterns made of snow were kind of cool, there wasn't much to do. We headed back, bummed around some more in the department stores around the train station, and then caught the 12 hour night train ride of death home, complete with ridiculously over-heated (again) train carriages. Blurgh.
Jan 6
It was cold. It was constantly snowing. It was the second day of the Sapporo Snow Festival. Did I mention that was it cold and constantly snowing? Well, it was freezing and snowed a lot. Just as we headed into department stores to warm up, the snow stopped, and just after we wondered outside again, the snow started. Joy. It was heavy. And cold. And snowy. ARGH!! After having a breakfast of soup, tea/coffee and bread pastry things at the hotel, we headed out to view everything. There were ice and snow sculptures everywhere, and lots of crowds, but it was pretty awesome to watch. We did a fair amount of shop browsing/buying (Pokémon centre 3 of 5!), took some awesome snow-themed purikura, and that's it really. Lots of photos. At night we had a massive bowl of soy ramen for Y380, possibly the most amazing value meal I've ever bought. On the way home we looked at the ice sculptures all lit up, which were really nice.
Jan 5
Sapporo! We took 10 or so hours' worth of travel to get to Japan's northern-most major city, fifth largest in the country and the most logically laid out as its relatively new and was a planned development. The train's were ridiculously over-heated but the journey was pretty nice otherwise. We checked in at 10pm, had some food and headed to bed after watching a dodgy as hell yet hilarious Japanese soap that involved the hero fighting off something akin to the crazy 88 from Kill Bill before they chased him down the wedding aisle where he stopped his love from marrying a sadomasochistic old man. The old man handcuffed the bride to him; she started slapping him (which he enjoyed), and so she used her magic to bring down the church. Hilarious and full of WTFness, and Prue's quite sure that the hero is one of the Arashi boy band members. We went to sleep in preparation for the Snow Festival viewing the next day.
Jan 4
We got up in the morning and met Ellen at Ikebukuro station (after going to the wrong gate) and headed for Kamakura, famous for its massive Daibatsu Buddha statue amongst other temples. The Daibatsu's by the coast and used to be in a temple, but the temple got destroyed in a tsunami in the 1600s and so the Buddha remains alone, its copper turned to green while it sits serenely. It's smaller than the one in Nara but its pose and artistry is more highly regarded. We had our photo taken in, I went inside of the statue quickly, and then we headed for another temple in Kamakura. I can't remember its name, but its gardens were beautiful, with lots of waterfalls, ponds and koi everywhere. We explored a small cave beside it full of icons of a chief goddess, and then walked up the steps of the temple for a nice view of Kamakura's bay. The steps were lined with icons, apparently of the goddess for miscarried/aborted babies - if each icon represents a life lost then that's quite sad. We took the train back into the main tourist strip of Kamakura, had some sweet potato/vanilla ice cream, ignored the rickshaw vendors trying to pull us in and headed back to Tokyo for Shibuya.
Shibuya is insanely busy, making you feel like an insignificant spec, with its world-famous scramble crossing really fun to watch and participate in. After taking photos at the Hachi statue (with a story like Greyfriar's Bobby in Edinburgh but a Japanese Akita) we met up with some backpacker friends of Ellen's, explored H&M in Shibuya and then sat up in the Starbucks located above the crossing for about an hour and watched/filmed all the people scrambling across. We had yoshinoya again (I wish this place were in Australia) and then headed out for drinks at Gas Panic, with Thursdays offering awesome Y300 drinks. After getting a bit drunk, we did the whole Maccas thing (BUT IN SHIBUYA off the crossing!!!, took some purikura (which didn't turn out all that bad), hurried for the last few trains and then ran back to our hostel before midnight curfew.
Today we went for a visit to Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city and more or less a giant merged metropolis with Tokyo. We met Ellen at the station again after dropping our luggage off at House Ikebukuro (we arrived back in to Tokyo at around 10am, and could see snow and cloud-covered Mt Fuji in the distance from the final train home). Fanta World U.S. Hip Hop is a vile drink and nobody should try it. >_> In Yokohama we wondered around Chinatown (the largest in the world), walked past a beautiful-looking temple and through a park nearby. We tried some fish-shaped fried desert thing (not actually made of fish, but pastry filled with sweet filling in the shape of a fish) which was not actually cooked yet but still delicious, and had a baked round dumpling thingie that I can't remember the name of for lunch, as well as semi-gross bubble tea.
After that we wondered to the Yokohama Landmark Tower and the shops beneath, went into the Pokémon Centre (4 down, 1 to go!) and H&M, had a break at a nice, cheap and fast-serving café, planned the rest of the week, and then came home. Finally got our washing done, and are temporarily staying in a room which is basically a bunkbed inside a glorified linen closet (half the price though) before our normal room is given to us for our last 8 nights in Japan. Tomorrow: Tokyo tower/city area (and the last Pokémon Centre we're visiting =P) and then karaoke at night.
Oh, and I finally bought fogbag, the bizarre spray on hair wax that looks like it's in an eyeglasses case, so will see how that goes.
Jan 7
Our second day in Sapporo was spent getting up in the morning, struggling to find a locker to put our stuff in, and then catching a metro train to a nearby suburb which houses an awesome and incredible CHOCOLATE FACTORY. This rivaled Koyasan as my favourite leg of our trip. Even though the building can't be over 200 years old, it was incredibly opulent and old-fashioned, and looked exactly like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory from the Gene Wilder movie from the outside, complete with wrought iron gates, massive CHOCOLATE FACTORY lettering above it, and covered in snow and Christmasy decorations. It looked magical. Inside it smelt AMAZING, and had a beautiful water fountain, ceiling frescos, stained glass windows, huge collections of old hot chocolate china from loads of different countries, old chocolate ads and packaging from worldwide, a pretty awesome history of chocolate display, views of the factory, and ended with a shop that had INCREDIBLY intricate and fiddly cake decorations you could buy, cakes to order, and a posh little café/restaurant complete with expensive-looking pianola. After that was an awesome toy museum, with toys ranging from a century or so ago to toys from our generation as kids. Outside were miniature houses of different themed outside. The whole experience was amazing, the chocolate cookies and chocolate milk they produced were DELICIOUS, and I want more.
After heading back to Sapporo, we caught a train to Otaru, a resort-style town nearby that's famous for its canal and seasideyness in summer; however it was freezing cold, and while the lanterns made of snow were kind of cool, there wasn't much to do. We headed back, bummed around some more in the department stores around the train station, and then caught the 12 hour night train ride of death home, complete with ridiculously over-heated (again) train carriages. Blurgh.
Jan 6
It was cold. It was constantly snowing. It was the second day of the Sapporo Snow Festival. Did I mention that was it cold and constantly snowing? Well, it was freezing and snowed a lot. Just as we headed into department stores to warm up, the snow stopped, and just after we wondered outside again, the snow started. Joy. It was heavy. And cold. And snowy. ARGH!! After having a breakfast of soup, tea/coffee and bread pastry things at the hotel, we headed out to view everything. There were ice and snow sculptures everywhere, and lots of crowds, but it was pretty awesome to watch. We did a fair amount of shop browsing/buying (Pokémon centre 3 of 5!), took some awesome snow-themed purikura, and that's it really. Lots of photos. At night we had a massive bowl of soy ramen for Y380, possibly the most amazing value meal I've ever bought. On the way home we looked at the ice sculptures all lit up, which were really nice.
Jan 5
Sapporo! We took 10 or so hours' worth of travel to get to Japan's northern-most major city, fifth largest in the country and the most logically laid out as its relatively new and was a planned development. The train's were ridiculously over-heated but the journey was pretty nice otherwise. We checked in at 10pm, had some food and headed to bed after watching a dodgy as hell yet hilarious Japanese soap that involved the hero fighting off something akin to the crazy 88 from Kill Bill before they chased him down the wedding aisle where he stopped his love from marrying a sadomasochistic old man. The old man handcuffed the bride to him; she started slapping him (which he enjoyed), and so she used her magic to bring down the church. Hilarious and full of WTFness, and Prue's quite sure that the hero is one of the Arashi boy band members. We went to sleep in preparation for the Snow Festival viewing the next day.
Jan 4
We got up in the morning and met Ellen at Ikebukuro station (after going to the wrong gate) and headed for Kamakura, famous for its massive Daibatsu Buddha statue amongst other temples. The Daibatsu's by the coast and used to be in a temple, but the temple got destroyed in a tsunami in the 1600s and so the Buddha remains alone, its copper turned to green while it sits serenely. It's smaller than the one in Nara but its pose and artistry is more highly regarded. We had our photo taken in, I went inside of the statue quickly, and then we headed for another temple in Kamakura. I can't remember its name, but its gardens were beautiful, with lots of waterfalls, ponds and koi everywhere. We explored a small cave beside it full of icons of a chief goddess, and then walked up the steps of the temple for a nice view of Kamakura's bay. The steps were lined with icons, apparently of the goddess for miscarried/aborted babies - if each icon represents a life lost then that's quite sad. We took the train back into the main tourist strip of Kamakura, had some sweet potato/vanilla ice cream, ignored the rickshaw vendors trying to pull us in and headed back to Tokyo for Shibuya.
Shibuya is insanely busy, making you feel like an insignificant spec, with its world-famous scramble crossing really fun to watch and participate in. After taking photos at the Hachi statue (with a story like Greyfriar's Bobby in Edinburgh but a Japanese Akita) we met up with some backpacker friends of Ellen's, explored H&M in Shibuya and then sat up in the Starbucks located above the crossing for about an hour and watched/filmed all the people scrambling across. We had yoshinoya again (I wish this place were in Australia) and then headed out for drinks at Gas Panic, with Thursdays offering awesome Y300 drinks. After getting a bit drunk, we did the whole Maccas thing (BUT IN SHIBUYA off the crossing!!!, took some purikura (which didn't turn out all that bad), hurried for the last few trains and then ran back to our hostel before midnight curfew.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Jan 3 - Tokyo and ELLEN at last!
We left Nagoya at 11am and arrived in Tokyo at 1.45pm, with the bullet train journey feeling far quicker than 1.5 hours. We met ELLEN (^_^) at the station, had delicious cheap ramen and dumpling things in Ikebukuro, got the obligatory purikura from an arcade, headed back to the hostel for some catch-up time before Ellen headed home for dinner, and here I am writing this. Tomorrow we head to Kamakura for a day trip with one of Ellen's friends and will explore Shibuya in the night. It's not as cold as Osaka, despite some snow on the way up from Nagoya, so hopefully we'll be able to explore a bit more comfortably in the coming weeks as winter draws to an end.
Jan 2
We headed to Nagoya by shinkansen in the morning from Shin-Osaka, arrived at our hostel and traversed the steep stair case of death (Japanese stair cases are dangerously steep) with our luggage before heading out.
Basically all of our time in Nagoya consisted of shopping, as its castle and museums weren't all that appealing with everything else we've seen. Y1400 later we left an arcade, and then visited the Pokémon Centre (2 down, 3 to go) in the Oasis 21 building, a shopping centre built in 2002 that Stewart had visited before; it's built underground, with its roof towering above kind of like a UFO, with water streaming over glass in a roof-top rock garden that you could see the ice-skating rink in the shopping centre below from.
After trying out some pretty awesome cheap rice meals, kinda like the rival company to where we'd gone in Osaka, we headed to Book Off, picked up some second-hand CDs I'd been wanting for a while, and headed back to the hostel.
Jan 1
We finished off our last proper day in Osaka with the Bay Area and Aquarium, and although no snow came as forecast, the rain put a damper to the day. We headed for the Bay Area by the wrong transport system, and ended up on the opposite side of the harbour, before heading back via subway, hating the rain, bumming around in an arcade and then going into the aquarium itself.
The aquarium is gigantic (8 floors tall) and puts Sydney's pretty awesome aquarium to shame. You take an elevator from ground floor straight to the top, and gradually spiral downwards through each level, seeing a lot of the same tanks from different angles. The whale shark tank was incredible, with dramatic music to match, but I also loved the sea otter and seal tanks. A little girl stood at the bottom of the seal tank waving a metal toy around, and the seal followed her hand like a dog to a ball, which was kinda cool.
At night we had dinner at a cheap (and kinda dingy but the price was awesome) noodle bar before heading home early for the next day.
We left Nagoya at 11am and arrived in Tokyo at 1.45pm, with the bullet train journey feeling far quicker than 1.5 hours. We met ELLEN (^_^) at the station, had delicious cheap ramen and dumpling things in Ikebukuro, got the obligatory purikura from an arcade, headed back to the hostel for some catch-up time before Ellen headed home for dinner, and here I am writing this. Tomorrow we head to Kamakura for a day trip with one of Ellen's friends and will explore Shibuya in the night. It's not as cold as Osaka, despite some snow on the way up from Nagoya, so hopefully we'll be able to explore a bit more comfortably in the coming weeks as winter draws to an end.
Jan 2
We headed to Nagoya by shinkansen in the morning from Shin-Osaka, arrived at our hostel and traversed the steep stair case of death (Japanese stair cases are dangerously steep) with our luggage before heading out.
Basically all of our time in Nagoya consisted of shopping, as its castle and museums weren't all that appealing with everything else we've seen. Y1400 later we left an arcade, and then visited the Pokémon Centre (2 down, 3 to go) in the Oasis 21 building, a shopping centre built in 2002 that Stewart had visited before; it's built underground, with its roof towering above kind of like a UFO, with water streaming over glass in a roof-top rock garden that you could see the ice-skating rink in the shopping centre below from.
After trying out some pretty awesome cheap rice meals, kinda like the rival company to where we'd gone in Osaka, we headed to Book Off, picked up some second-hand CDs I'd been wanting for a while, and headed back to the hostel.
Jan 1
We finished off our last proper day in Osaka with the Bay Area and Aquarium, and although no snow came as forecast, the rain put a damper to the day. We headed for the Bay Area by the wrong transport system, and ended up on the opposite side of the harbour, before heading back via subway, hating the rain, bumming around in an arcade and then going into the aquarium itself.
The aquarium is gigantic (8 floors tall) and puts Sydney's pretty awesome aquarium to shame. You take an elevator from ground floor straight to the top, and gradually spiral downwards through each level, seeing a lot of the same tanks from different angles. The whale shark tank was incredible, with dramatic music to match, but I also loved the sea otter and seal tanks. A little girl stood at the bottom of the seal tank waving a metal toy around, and the seal followed her hand like a dog to a ball, which was kinda cool.
At night we had dinner at a cheap (and kinda dingy but the price was awesome) noodle bar before heading home early for the next day.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Jan 31
Today we had an easy day visiting Kobe, a city where we arrived and realised there wasn’t really that much to see. It was our second-last day in Osaka today, and we wanted to have a bit of a relaxing day before the travelling we’re going to do over the next week between Nagoya, Tokyo, Sapporo and back to Tokyo again. Though Kobe’s quite a big city, there’s not a lot of touristy things to do, apart from a Bay area (which we’ll do the equivalent of in Osaka tomorrow), a Chinatown (which we’ll do instead with the biggest one in Japan in Yokohama) and an area of older Western-style diplomat’s houses from back when Kobe was the major trading port of Japan (houses which we’ve both pretty much seen back at home and in Europe). We didn’t much like the idea of visiting museums, monuments or temples again… so we spent most of the day shopping.
Lunch was a delicious Western kind of style (well, a Japanese interpretation of it anyway) in a café in the basement of a department store, with potato gratin and a mini bread cob pasta dip thing for me, while Prue had a kind of hamburger steak with soup, cheesey pasta and a custard pudding that we shared. While the atmosphere was really nice, the music played was eclectic and bizarre, all Western and ranging from top 40 rap, hip-hop, to pop, RnB, country, death metal and 80s. I don’t know what kind of atmosphere they were trying to create but it was pretty entertaining anyway wondering what their impression of Western café culture is.
There was a jacket I kind of liked in 0101 that was a bizarre mixture of hoodie and formal suit jacket, but I didn’t really like the price tag so will think about it and hope to see it in another city… Japan’s department stores are really odd, with lots of smaller stores each on the same floor. You can’t really tell where one ends and the next begins, and you have to remember where you picked something up from to figure out which counter to pay for it at. Confusing for Prue when she grabbed something similar from two stores next to each other which both had the same stock. Shoplifting would be a nightmare if their culture wasn’t so honest. On a side-note, the day we borrowed bikes from Himeji, we didn’t have to give them any proof of identity at all. We could’ve given a fake name, address and contact number and stolen two bikes easily. Would never happen in Australia.
After blowing too much money again on UFO/gaming machines (I finally won a mystery Lilo and Stitch bag, to find that nothing inside it was in any way related to Lilo and Stitch) and getting tired of walking around for the fourteenth day running, we got a train home to have an easy afternoon. Prue bought Pokémon Soul Silver for her DS which she’s happily playing, we had Mr Donut for dinner, I’m writing out some postcards and that’s about it. Tomorrow for our last day in Osaka we’re taking on the Bay Area and Osaka Aquarium, a world famous aquarium that’s 8 floors high and has the largest shark enclosure in the world, which has loads of different sharks in it including WHALE SHARKS!!! There’s light snow forecast for tomorrow afternoon as well so it’ll be nice to see the city covered in white. We saved the best in Osaka til last, and I can’t wait!
Today we had an easy day visiting Kobe, a city where we arrived and realised there wasn’t really that much to see. It was our second-last day in Osaka today, and we wanted to have a bit of a relaxing day before the travelling we’re going to do over the next week between Nagoya, Tokyo, Sapporo and back to Tokyo again. Though Kobe’s quite a big city, there’s not a lot of touristy things to do, apart from a Bay area (which we’ll do the equivalent of in Osaka tomorrow), a Chinatown (which we’ll do instead with the biggest one in Japan in Yokohama) and an area of older Western-style diplomat’s houses from back when Kobe was the major trading port of Japan (houses which we’ve both pretty much seen back at home and in Europe). We didn’t much like the idea of visiting museums, monuments or temples again… so we spent most of the day shopping.
Lunch was a delicious Western kind of style (well, a Japanese interpretation of it anyway) in a café in the basement of a department store, with potato gratin and a mini bread cob pasta dip thing for me, while Prue had a kind of hamburger steak with soup, cheesey pasta and a custard pudding that we shared. While the atmosphere was really nice, the music played was eclectic and bizarre, all Western and ranging from top 40 rap, hip-hop, to pop, RnB, country, death metal and 80s. I don’t know what kind of atmosphere they were trying to create but it was pretty entertaining anyway wondering what their impression of Western café culture is.
There was a jacket I kind of liked in 0101 that was a bizarre mixture of hoodie and formal suit jacket, but I didn’t really like the price tag so will think about it and hope to see it in another city… Japan’s department stores are really odd, with lots of smaller stores each on the same floor. You can’t really tell where one ends and the next begins, and you have to remember where you picked something up from to figure out which counter to pay for it at. Confusing for Prue when she grabbed something similar from two stores next to each other which both had the same stock. Shoplifting would be a nightmare if their culture wasn’t so honest. On a side-note, the day we borrowed bikes from Himeji, we didn’t have to give them any proof of identity at all. We could’ve given a fake name, address and contact number and stolen two bikes easily. Would never happen in Australia.
After blowing too much money again on UFO/gaming machines (I finally won a mystery Lilo and Stitch bag, to find that nothing inside it was in any way related to Lilo and Stitch) and getting tired of walking around for the fourteenth day running, we got a train home to have an easy afternoon. Prue bought Pokémon Soul Silver for her DS which she’s happily playing, we had Mr Donut for dinner, I’m writing out some postcards and that’s about it. Tomorrow for our last day in Osaka we’re taking on the Bay Area and Osaka Aquarium, a world famous aquarium that’s 8 floors high and has the largest shark enclosure in the world, which has loads of different sharks in it including WHALE SHARKS!!! There’s light snow forecast for tomorrow afternoon as well so it’ll be nice to see the city covered in white. We saved the best in Osaka til last, and I can’t wait!
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