DESTINATION : ....JAPAAAAN!!!
Thursday 8 April 2010
Day Before
7th April 2010
I'm packed and ready. Dave's still fiddling with his camera and has forgotten to pack socks and pants.
I'm packed and ready. Dave's still fiddling with his camera and has forgotten to pack socks and pants.
Getting nervous. Can't remember any Japanese, don't know what room is so wouldn't be able to ask for one in a hotel without elaborate gestures.
Helsinki
A panicky Korean lady in Manchester gave us sweets and asked me to take a bag on the plane for her.
Dave is failing. His feeble constitution can't handle the rigours of travel. He's a shadow of his former self.
On the bright side though we're in Helsinki, which has free wifi unlike M'chester. We've seen monk dudes in red robes and a lady with those face mask things on.
Dave's off for a nap now, I might find a sandwich or bun.
Dave is failing. His feeble constitution can't handle the rigours of travel. He's a shadow of his former self.
On the bright side though we're in Helsinki, which has free wifi unlike M'chester. We've seen monk dudes in red robes and a lady with those face mask things on.
Dave's off for a nap now, I might find a sandwich or bun.
Arrival
We've arrived at the Shinjuku Washington finally after something like 21 hours of travel. Dave has gone to bed as he's a bit cranky having not slept the night before we set off or on the plane. I was slightly concerned that they might have quarantined him in Narita Airport if he looked too grim but they didn't seem to have noticed. He'll be fine once he has a wee nap and some food.
The Japanese TV in the hotel room is odd. All the shows seem to be based on some kind of chat/quiz show hybrid. Still, they all seem happy and I suppose that's what counts.
Day 1 - Shinjuku, Tokyo 東京
So... I finally came 'round after about 4 hours sleep to catch up on the last 48 hours where I had zero, nil, nada. Spud says that it's my own fault for being too giddy about goin' to Japan. Yeah yeah... whatever.
The hotel is quite cool, it looks really funky from the outside like... some sort of white Nintendo games console... only got a couple of night shots so far...
and here's a pretty good one from the hotel room window:
Just been out for a bite to eat. It took us aaaages before we settled on a place and even dare go in and attempt to order something. I had the Japanese ready for "please may I have some noodles" but we both ended up having Yakitori which is Japanese for fried chicken.
Really wanna take some photos of the Japanese going about their daily business, especially when you see them trying to cross the road!! :o) ...but I don't wanna come across as being a saddo or upset them...
Day 2 - Sleepy in Tokyo 東京
Day 2. We packed a hell of a lot in... a hell of a lot! Absolutely wiped out. Will upload some photos and write up v.soon (hopefully).
Sleep is imminent.... zzzzz
We'll leave you with this bit of cherry blossom which I took earlier in Ueno Park after I took a ton of photos of Japanese people taking photos of other Japanese people.... - ain't it pretty?! Ha!
Day 2 - Metropolitan Government Building No.1 - Shinjuku, Tokyo 東京
First stop yesterday was the snappily named Metropolitan Building No. 1 for the view of Tokyo.
Once we were done being impressed with Tokyo it was a back down to ground level for a quick bit of posing by a sculpture, some breakfast (Dave had burgers, I had five bowls of odd Japanese food with rice which was delicious).
Then it was on to The Electric Town - Akihabara...
When we finally got into the place after circling it searching for the rather understated entrance (it's a public holiday so the main, obvious, entrance was closed) we had a bag search and took a direct elevator to the 45th floor. The view was pretty awesome and to be honest the pictures we got don't really do it justice as they don't convey the sheer size of the city, nor the height we were taking the pics from.
Once we were done being impressed with Tokyo it was a back down to ground level for a quick bit of posing by a sculpture, some breakfast (Dave had burgers, I had five bowls of odd Japanese food with rice which was delicious).
Then it was on to The Electric Town - Akihabara...
Day 2 - Akihabara "Electric Town" Tokyo 東京
Day 2 - Ueno, Tokyo 東京
We walked through the park with the blossom in full bloom, around the lake where Dave managed to get a couple in a boat to give him a thumbs up and also managed to get a girl to shout at him after he took a picture of her picnicking.
When we finally got to the museums they were closed but nevertheless it was a good end to a great, but tiring, day.
Well, not quite the end. Back in Shinjuku we turned the wrong way out of the station, did a massive figure of 8 back to the station, found a hotel that was disguised as ours, and finally got back to our hotel after about an hour. It should have taken 8 minutes. The following morning we found a tunnel at the bottom of the road that leads straight to the station.
Day 3 - Harajuku, Tokyo
Harajuku - the fashion district of Tokyo. The streets were heavily populated with fashion conscious young Japanese and also strange shop names ... such as 'store my ducks'...
Day 3, Shibuya, Tokyo 東京
To be honest this blogging malarkey isn't brilliant when you're out sightseeing all day and (if you can find a bar) drinking in the evening. That's why this post is days late. Shibuya seems to be a business place. The most notable feature we found was the famous Shibuya crossing by the Hachikō exit of the train station.
After seeing the crossing and crossing the crossing we went to find some food. We found a fugu place that seemed to be closed but had some extremely ugly fish in the window. They're even worse if you scare them apparently.
In the end we went in a little bar where we opted for a dish of fried noodles topped with miscellaneous bits of vegetables and seafood. I was quite happy to see that it had little octopus tentacles in it as I'd never tried them before and they were quite tasty.
After we'd slurped down the tentacles it was back to Shinjuku for beer and bed.
After seeing the crossing and crossing the crossing we went to find some food. We found a fugu place that seemed to be closed but had some extremely ugly fish in the window. They're even worse if you scare them apparently.
In the end we went in a little bar where we opted for a dish of fried noodles topped with miscellaneous bits of vegetables and seafood. I was quite happy to see that it had little octopus tentacles in it as I'd never tried them before and they were quite tasty.
After we'd slurped down the tentacles it was back to Shinjuku for beer and bed.
Day 4 - Nijo, Kyoto 京都
It was raining, hard. A dismal start to what was to be a fairly dismal first day in Kyoto, the old imperial capital of Japan. We walked, in the rain, up to the Kyoto Kokusai Hotel from Kyoto-eki. The lobby was amazing when we got there but after then we were asked to wait for a bell boy before we could go to our room I was somewhat less impressed and more so when the bell boy appeared to be waiting for a tip which the guide books tell us is a distictly un-Japanese trait. Sadly we had no 'net connection either so we weren't able to give any updates for a couple of days or to book our next accomodation. What else was there to do but dress up in our robes and pose for the photo above?
That evening we went down into Kyoto to look for a bar. After an age of wandering around and sore feet we finally found a "hole-in-the-wall" bar. This was an alleyway with about 8 small bars down each side partitioned from the main alleyway with funky Japanese-style sliding doors.
The one we went into was run by a middle-aged lady and her mother. When we were seated we got a dish of some miscellaneous food, one part of which was slices of duck meat. After a beer, some cold sake and then some warm sake, we were fairly merry and left very much worse for wear and with lighter pockets. Drinking in Japan gets expensive but it was a good experience trying to communicate with the lady and her Ma and the sake there was the best I've ever had, with a price to match.
Day 5 - Nijo, Kyoto 京都
Kyoto was much less dismal on the second day after the rain had stopped and our fuzzy heads cleared up. Our first stop after a spot of breakfast was Nijō Castle, across the road from the hotel.
The grounds of the castle were beautiful and there's also a walk around the interior of the castle but sadly you can take neither pictures nor your shoes. There were real nightingale floors in the castle, they squeak in a quite melodic manner when walked upon to warn of people sneaking about, stealing things from the fridge in the night and suchlike.
When we were done at Nijō we got the train up to Hanazono for a quick walk up the hill to Ryōan-ji zen temple. There's a quite nice rock garden there and some more beautiful gardens, much more manicured than even the ones at Nijō. Here's some pics and there are some vids on YouTube.
With our feet only slightly aching we figured they could probably stand a train ride down to Kyoto and a short walk to Tō-ji, a Buddhist Temple slightly south of Kyoto-eki. First though we wandered around the station a bit. We'd been through it before but I had never looked up and realised just how huge it is. Right at the top there's a walkway that terrified me while Dave walked on oblivious but it was still pretty awesome despite being ridiculously high. Here's a couple of pics from the station and city and again there's a vid or two on YouTube.
Finally, after a much longer walk (and blog post) than anticipated, we got to Tō-ji. Which was closed. However, Dave's photographer insticts won out and he still managed to get a decent pic of the pagoda from round the back across the road.
And that was it. All done bar the drinking, which we did back at the hole-in-the-wall bars next to the ones we went in the previous night. This time we were given some beans and scrambled egg to eat and some more beans to shell and eat. At least we could identify the food though and I wasn't wondering if either of us would be pounced on by the mother this time.
The grounds of the castle were beautiful and there's also a walk around the interior of the castle but sadly you can take neither pictures nor your shoes. There were real nightingale floors in the castle, they squeak in a quite melodic manner when walked upon to warn of people sneaking about, stealing things from the fridge in the night and suchlike.
When we were done at Nijō we got the train up to Hanazono for a quick walk up the hill to Ryōan-ji zen temple. There's a quite nice rock garden there and some more beautiful gardens, much more manicured than even the ones at Nijō. Here's some pics and there are some vids on YouTube.
With our feet only slightly aching we figured they could probably stand a train ride down to Kyoto and a short walk to Tō-ji, a Buddhist Temple slightly south of Kyoto-eki. First though we wandered around the station a bit. We'd been through it before but I had never looked up and realised just how huge it is. Right at the top there's a walkway that terrified me while Dave walked on oblivious but it was still pretty awesome despite being ridiculously high. Here's a couple of pics from the station and city and again there's a vid or two on YouTube.
Finally, after a much longer walk (and blog post) than anticipated, we got to Tō-ji. Which was closed. However, Dave's photographer insticts won out and he still managed to get a decent pic of the pagoda from round the back across the road.
And that was it. All done bar the drinking, which we did back at the hole-in-the-wall bars next to the ones we went in the previous night. This time we were given some beans and scrambled egg to eat and some more beans to shell and eat. At least we could identify the food though and I wasn't wondering if either of us would be pounced on by the mother this time.
Day 6 - Namba, Osaka 大阪
Travelling around in Japan is surprisingly easy with a Japanese Rail Pass, you just go to the JR office and they'll reserve seats on the Shinkansen for you in seconds. You almost get the impression that they enjoy their jobs and it's a pleasure to serve you unlike in the UK when you will most likely be made to feel that you're imposing on their precious time.
When we got to Osaka we were highly impressed at the quality of our Hotel. Here's a pic from the window, our tea, and a link to the vids from YouTube.
A wander in Osaka revealed probably the most vibrant night scene of our trip so far. There were bright lights and people as far as the eye could see. It's no wonder people say this is more authentically Japanese than Tokyo (though Tokyo was awesome).
We went into "Bird's Bar" which turned out to be a joint where we paid handsomely for the pleasure of being served by Japanese girls wearing cowboy hats. After we sussed that we were in fact paying for their drinks as well as our we cut our losses and called it a night. Barring getting another shot of the view from the room at night, getting drunk on Kirin and sake and blogging while Dave watched Japanese Golf and playing with the toilet of course.
When we got to Osaka we were highly impressed at the quality of our Hotel. Here's a pic from the window, our tea, and a link to the vids from YouTube.
A wander in Osaka revealed probably the most vibrant night scene of our trip so far. There were bright lights and people as far as the eye could see. It's no wonder people say this is more authentically Japanese than Tokyo (though Tokyo was awesome).
We went into "Bird's Bar" which turned out to be a joint where we paid handsomely for the pleasure of being served by Japanese girls wearing cowboy hats. After we sussed that we were in fact paying for their drinks as well as our we cut our losses and called it a night. Barring getting another shot of the view from the room at night, getting drunk on Kirin and sake and blogging while Dave watched Japanese Golf and playing with the toilet of course.
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