Japan 2 - TOKYO

Highlights:

Exploring shinjuku
Roppongi
Dinner at super autobacs cafe
Red light @ kabukicho
Nismo omori factory (a highlight for me)
Crystal store @ chiba
Daikoku parking (thanks daniel)
Stake out at some drift mountain (so dark the pictures didnt come out haha)
Yokohama port
Harajuku (as crazy as they say)
Shibuya
Akihabara
Roppongi Hills -Tokyo City View

Pictures: Japan Part 2

Random Entry: Tokyo, Japan - Day 4

We arrived in Tokyo at about 2.15pm… staying at Kadoya Hotel in Shinjuku just up the road from Shinjuku’s electric street… the hotel itself was not bad… although nothing too flash or special either, just a small business hotel as they call it… we have one of those high tech toilets in the room…with views which looked right into an office building….

Tokyo upon arrival was rather overwhelming, there were people absolutely EVERYWHERE which was a stark contrast to where we had just come from in Kyoto.

There is in your face consumerism with flashy lights and music and people, a short afternoon stroll around the city confirmed that we were indeed… in Tokyo…







Had dinner at SuperAutobac restaurant in Roppongi and then explored Japan’s red light district of Kabuchiko… much to the Ket and Danny’s disappointment… everything was pretty much behind curtains and behind doors …. so we amused ourselves with skill tester games instead. About 1000 yen poorer (each) and NOTHING to show for it cos the machines were bluddy rigged…we next stopped by at a ‘club’ and I use the term club in the loosest sense possible (excuse the pun), when we got upstairs we found a shitload of met sitting around and a shitload of half naked girls dressed up as bunnies… needless to say, being ‘foreigners’ and Cas and I being chicks.. we were promptly ejected from the venue…

So we went home… and ‘drank’ in our rooms instead… not much drinking occurred though ...













Random Entry: Tokyo, Japan - Day 5

This was Danny’s designated ‘car day’. It kicked off well….with a visit to Omori Kaigon, the Nissan Omori Factory aka. NISMO factory. Surprisingly, I was quite impressed by the cars there and had fun… even bought some Nismo keyrings, cos they were all I could afford! And took pictures with the traffic dude who only took off his cap to salute skyline drivers...





Next was our crazy hectic never ending trek to a car parts place in Chiba called Crystal... We caught about a zillion trains and sky monorail trains thingmobobs that were suspended from tracks on top rather than below… had a decent lunch at the Skylark franchise ...









By the time we got back to our hotel that day, it was quite late so we freshened up and had dinner locally at a nice little Japanese restaurant where we could let down the curtains to form an enclosure from other diners.





We then met up with Danny’s mate Daniel Wiseman and his hilarious American mate, Chris who was like 2.5 metres tall...

Daniel drove us to Daikoku Parking lot and yes, I must say...it is as hectic as the documentaries depict it...

There are roads crazier than the orbital which surround and spiral around the actual carpark and then when you actually get there… there are cars lit up like Christmas trees decked out with crazy subs and people dancing the para-para and all sorts of dances… lots of doof – doof and lights and revving competitions….

Very interesting place to go to view the Japanese youth sub-culture... Danny made friends with some guys from the local American army base and couldn’t stop gawking at this chick also a descendent from the local American army base dressed as though she was a cheerleader in some American car racing movie!







Next Daniel took us to Yokohoma Port, this place had absolutely stunning views of the city… we walked for quite awhile along the wooden plank floors arranged all slopey and stuff… to the peak of the pier...



All the while Chris entertained us with all his crazy antics and stories about Japan, told us about the “Ha-test”.

This essentially referred to alcohol breath testing in Japan, if you get pulled over for a random breath test in Sydney, the police person will pull out a tube like thing and a machine and they will get you to blow into it….. or for the more wealthy police stations, they will whip out a machine and get you to count…. The machine then converts the alcohol content into figures and its all technical… well, in Japan, they apply this thing called the “Ha-test”. Basically, if you get pulled over, the police officer determines your alcohol content by the potency of breath…. No joke… imagine a job where you had to sniff people’s stinky breath all day …gross

Anyway, so next Daniel took us to what we fondly refer to as the ‘Drift Mountain’ because that’s what it basically was… a mountain whereby young people go to drift their cars… ala Initial D…

We nestled on a mountain side platform and watched cars drifting… the best one, which we failed to catch on camera was a white Nissan s15 who whooshed by our very eyes, it was awesome!

And then there was a fella Chris fondly nick-named ‘Leopold’- he had a station wagon, burgundy, old and which appeared to be his mother’s, thick glasses and the will, drive and determination of a hungry lion…. He repeatedly practiced his drifting to a muted audience... Several times I had to close my eyes because I thought he was going to fly right off the mountain!!!

That was a highlight, and we got home at 4am despite the intended early start the next day..unfortunately the pics didnt turn out very well so no pics....

Random Entry: Tokyo,Japan- Day 6

Harajuku girls are as hectic as they say. Perused the shopping strip at Harajuku which was nice because of the uniqueness of the place… then paid the Harajuku kids a visit… according to my lonely planets guide…these kids are a “subculture consisting mainly of made up teenage girls from small towns and bedroom communities around Tokyo…. The girls revel in the attention of the paparazzi till dusk, when they hop back on the trains for the slow return to ‘normal’ life in the faceless housing blocks of Chiba and Kawasaki…”

So behind all the dress-up and cos-play, there is a deeper societal problem…..







Pictures: Japan Part 3- Shibuya, Akihabara and Roppongi Hills - Tokyo City View

Onto Shibuya the place that houses the famous big crossing. To our surprise, the crossing itself wasn’t so big, the bigger shock was the amount of people that cross it each time the cars stop! Shibuya also houses the craziest shopping complex I have ever visited…. 109, about 10 floors of screaming girls and women’s clothing…. Only the strong could survive this place…its like Supre times by 100 then add some….. if you want to test out Darwin’s theory of evolution, this would be a good place to start...





Akihabara aka. ‘Electric City’. The city where I discovered Manga Porn, easily accessible at $2AUD a pop from a kiddy machine… I was so shocked, I think this place destroyed my perception of cartoons altogether! My innocence was stripped from me at the ripe age of…uhhh.….. twenty-something… bought Peter T’s Jap chick here….

but besides that…. Electric city was as the name suggests… very electronic, being the technophobe that I am… needless to say I did not invest in anything...



Roppongi Hills – Tokyo City View – I read somewhere that recommended this place over the Eiffel Tower shaped Tokyo Tower… again… amazing views of the city.
How can one visit Tokyo and not take a sticker pic?? So it was here that we took our first and last sticker pic...

Japan 1 - KYOTO

Highlights:

Shimuzu Ryokan
Hiroshima - A- Bomb Dome, Peace Museum
Miyajima
Okonomayaki (Japanese 'pizza')
Kyoto Imperial Palace
Nijo Castle
The Golden Pavillion
Traditional tea ceremony
Kiyomizudera temple (a must see)
Getting dressed in Kimonos
Experimenting with bathhouse
Staking out Geishas in Gion

Pictures: Japan Part 1

Random Entry: Kyoto, Japan - Day 1 - 2



... so its "day two" of our Asia Trip 07 and im STILL on the bluddy plane!! I feel like its the never-ending plane ride!

Arrived at Sydney Airport at 12.30-ish yesterday...and it wasn't until about 4.30pm that we embarked on the first leg...couldnt sleep the whole way to BKK no matter how i tossed and turned ....ahhh the beauty of cattle class!

I vaguely re-call disembarking at BKK only to walk for about 1/2 an hour to o ur connector flight to Osaka. Osaka...............will it EVER come??

Fortunately the second plane wasn't too packed and danny found us some seats which allowed us to lie down.... MY LEGS!! im aching all over ...and MY LEGS!! they're numb and swollen and MY BONES!! they're all achy breaky....i'm craving my bed and im longing for home! i just want some sleep!!! TURBULENCE! Riding through the eye of the storm... they woke us damn early..ive lost all conception of time now... breakfast was served....

omlette...im yearning for Nescafe and my dairyfarmers fresh milk....coffee-mate just doesn't quite cut it im afraid....

...so when will it be until we can sleep again? Fraid not so soon... Osaka --> Kyoto --> Hiroshima ..its a full day and it'll be full steam ahead so that we can take in all that Japan has to offer in a mere 9 days......

Random Entry: Kyoto, Japan - Day 2











...so we're sitting on the bullet train heading back to our Ryokan in Kyoto...just about ready to call it a night...my memories of the day are all abit fuzzy...but im sure the pictures will help remind me when im in a better state of mind....we won't get back until about 10-ish (our ryokan curfew is mid-night...which is also when the transport system stops)... which means we will have been up for just about 48hrs!

It all still seems so surreal and so overwhelming that i have to keep reminding myself "OMG WE'RE IN JAPAN!"...it hasn't quite hit me yet but im sure it will....

I am amazed by the order and how orderly this society is... kids get told off by train guards for sitting on the floor and the kids don't even talk back! But its not just that... its everything!!! all the service people that I have come across have been delightful and amazingly helpful and friendly and polite and professional... its difficult to explain but its like a succint politeness.... we can't really communicate due to the language barrier but somehow, we just get them... and they get us!!

and omg the taxi drivers have rigmorale too... they even wear suits! as their UNFORMS! and they open your doors.... (the have some automatic door opening button! hehe)

so anyway, we're really relieved that our ryokan looked exactly like the webpage we found it off... its down a cute little traditional looking lane, its cosy... and fortunately for us...neat and hopefully clean.. havent really had a chance to fully explore and appreciate the place yet, we literally got off the plane and got on a bullet train for about 75mins to Kyoto...rushed to drop off some luggage, washed out faces, changed and rushed back our to catch another bullet train to Shin-Osaka then Hiroshima.





Hiroshima was indeed quite different to what i had pictured it to be...for some stupid reason i pictured it to be surrounded by green pastuers... visit to the A-Bomb Dome and the peace museum proved to me my ignorance. An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945...theyanticipated that it would take decades and decades before anything in the form of flora could grow... how silly i was to picture grass everywhere! In fact it was quite the contrary, a thriving business district... he visit was very harrowing as the stories that were told and the objects on show were quite visual.

I saw the re-construction of scenes of children whose skin was melting...i saw real preservedskin!! and just really really upsetting images that left me longing moreso than ever before... for world peace...no seriously... it both angered me and made me very sad at the same time to see how human beings could commit such atrocities on one another and for what? Power?.. so that experience in Hiroshima left me overwhelmed for quite a while...

Danny and i were getting depressed...it was abit much for people who had barely had any sleep...

... so next we went to Miyajima... which was like..in the sticks...we had to catch a streetcar (tram) then JR then Ferry, but when we arrived it was so so so worth it!

It was everything cas and I had pictured Kyoto itself to be (but was not)...

It was traditional and it was beautiful... to our surprise, when we stepped off the ferry, we came face to face with a REINDEER! and to our further surprise they were roaming freely everywhere on this lovely island.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time to stick around to explore all the things the place had to offer, but from what i saw and experienced... its a definate MUST SEE.. just for cultural benefits.

Ate their famous maple-leaf shaped cake with green tea inside then had Okonomayaki (japanese pizza) for dinner... apparently the best Okonamayaki are from Hiroshima so we couldn't go there without trying it! Not too bad but not my cup of tea....







Random Entry: Kyoto, Japan - Day 3

Nijo-jo (Shogun Castle) - squeaky wooden floors to warn of intruders, 2 amazing moats
Samurai sword shop
Musical crossings
Westin traditional Tea Ceremony
Kiyumuzuderu temple
Stalking Geishas in Gion
Running for bus from Gion to Kyoto, ket knocked girl on bicycle over -> made bus -> sat on wrong bus for 1/2 an hour!
Tipping bus (their buses tip to the left to let passengers on and off with ease!)
Shijo - first real meal (a hamburger never tasted so damn good!)
Weirdo bar
Washed in the bathhouse downstairs at Shimuzu Ryokan
Dressed up in our Kimonos, in our delirious lack of sleep states of minds...took random pictures in kimonos













Random Entry: Kyoto --> Tokyo Japan - Day 4

...so we're back on the bullet train again making our way to Tokyo. Should take about 3hrs to get there from Kyoto, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji along the way - danny says that might... at about 1.15pm so im waiting... bought a dud coffee on the train from this polite and pretty jap coffee-cart chick...they're very formal here, even the train guards bow to the carriage before making their way to the next carriage... gross coffeee!! miss my nescafe and condensed milk! wtf is coffee creamer anyway... so processed!!! need real milk!

Yesterday was another hectic day as we tried to squeeze in as much as we ould....temples shrines castles palaces..gion! salking and staking out Geishas, tea ceremony with our lovely tea hostess, shopping, bar, cathcing wrong bus, dining for lunch... at a plac run by ex-mamasans! had first non-jap food (bliss).

AMazed by how much faith in people the locals have- leaving bags unattended, leaving bikes unchained, even SHOPS UNATTENDED!

Saw this beautiful halfie baby with her (presumably) grandad on the bus on the way to Kiyumzuder Temple...had the longest eyelashes and when i got up..she tapped me on the back, smiled and waved!! awww!

REALLY REALLY REALLY adored Kyoto and all its quirks and our Ryonkan Shimuzu... was kind of sad to leave it...pictures just will NOT do it any justice.. such a cute place, very clean!

Met a family from Melbourne this morning, very nice people and lovely to hear our local accentin this foreign land.

IM REALLY LOVING JAPAN!

I'll miss the traditional and cultural aspect of Kyoto, but i'm also looking forward to the culture shock that i anticipate i will experience in Tokyo.....