Japan 5 - Finale

Japan 5 - Last day in Japan

Highlights:

- tsukiji fish market (the actual market was closed =(( )
- ginza (lotsa galleries/buildings,good shopping)
- sony building
- super autobacs tokyo bay (found tommy kaira dealership)
- odaiba
- palette town
- venus fort
- mega web toyota showroom
- ferris wheel in odaiba
- patched legs (so sore from walking)
- leaving japan (so sad)

Pictures: Japan 5

Random Entry: Tsukiji fish market, ginza shopping, super autobac, Odaiba, and the last supper, Tokyo Japan- Day 9

Danny and I woke up extra early for Tsukiji fish market, got there and found that it was closed (public holiday) so we had our second breakfast of the morning at a cute little joint called 'Tsukiji Sushi Sen'(we had maccas brekky about 15 minutes prior)- no prizes for guessing what we ate! the most devine sushi platter!

with the whole day ahead of us, we decided to walk to Ginza which was only several blocks away and we found our very FIRST fresh fruit shop in Japan... i giggled with delight as i had been missing my fresh fruit so badly... walked in ...2 friggin small mangoes for $120AUD...what theeeeeee? bought an apple fused with steroids no doubt, for bluddy around $4AUD.. it was crazy hectic... i was spinning out..possibly from my lack of fresh produce over the past 9 days or so...









Shopping at Ginza was really good... stopped by the shiseido BUILDING (yes they had a building!) and a small cafe at ground level selling Shiseido cakes! and then the lower ground floor... was an art museum... they didnt let us take any pictures though, then there was the SOny Building - boring! and then...the Hermes Building!! i was in heaven...





















got some stuff at zara, met up with ket and cas... said hi and bye cos i dont think they were too keen on where we went next... danny made me go with him to the nissan building... they've got whole buildings for everything! hung out there.. danny got his thrills with all the nismo stuff again...spent a shitload on bullshit car stuff again and then on to Superautobac for more bullshit car stuff... ate my apple which i had been saving there... what a complete let down... FLAVORLESS!











then off to Odaiba to meet up with the other two...

shopped at Venus FOrte, expensive as f*ck and by which time danny and i were tired as f*ck too! we dragged our feet to the various shops with eyes half closed...

saw a man..walking his PIG...



...crossed over to the Toyota building with their self driving cars and all that shimozzle... i was too tired to try anything out!!









then....

it was time for the Pallette Town Ferris Wheel - scary as f*ck in my honest opinion...

we conjured this elaborate story to cas about how they should sit in a different carriage to danny and i so that we could take pictures of each other haha...luckily cas believed us... the reason why we conjured up this story was because... this was kets absolute last chance to propose in Japan (which was what he had intended to do...propose in japan)...

so while i was freaking the shit out on the ferris wheel, he proposed and she said yes...

i had tears in my eyes by the time we got down... from the fright haha

so for the first time since we hit japan...there was happiness in the air for them...
planned to go out to dinner with them for our last supper and to celebrate...cept they wanted to resign to their room from tiredness...LOL OH YEAH!









so danny and i went and finished off Japan with some marbled beef ....so tender and soft!

Japan 4 - Disney Land & Odaiba

Highlights:

- disneyland (more fun than i thought)
- space mountain was a highlight
- tokyo imperial palace

Pictures: Japan Part 4

Random Entry: Disney Land & Imperial Palace visit, Japan - Day 8

(CATS BIRTHDAY)

Disney Land is an enchanting place... and it was such an awesome experience, even for me...one can easily get sucked into the consumerism of the place because its like a whole new world of its own in there... i even bought Minnie ears!!! and contrary to what one would normally expect at one of these themed type places... the memorabilia was relatively inexpensive...





Whilst Disney Land Tokyo maintains the whole disney movie feel with disney characters bouncing around, with the gorgeous cinderella castle smack bang in the middle as this ethereal highlight... with the spinning teacups and the magic mountain ride.. it somehow maintans a very Japanese feel as well..

this is most apparent in the quirkiness of its visitors, many Japanese students posing with peace signs and GROWN women rushing about and convulsing at the sight of any disney character...

so anyway, we arrived back from Hakone just abit before mid-day and we couldnt check into our hotel rooms back at Kadoya until 2 so we dragged our luggage out of their storage, haphazardly changed and freshened up as best we could and commenced our journey to the world of Disney...

Despite the fact that it was a dreary gloomy grey and rainy day and despite the fact that my shoes got completely drenched and me being paranoid of getting toe rot of some sort, it was such a great day. Even Danny, who was most reluctant to go to Disney Land ended up running after characters he didnt even know... yes, after seeing all the people run after Jimny Cricket, he just HAD to jump on the bandwagon ... he chased the cricket, took pictures with it... then asked me who it was!



SO the rides were literally out of this world, theres this one ride there where you shoot stuff throughout the ride and this other one was this rollercoaster ride in PITCH DARKNESS and then there was the 4-D movie which we initially thought was bodgy and only went in there because we were waiting for the shooting ride... that was also awesome...only because i didnt know it was 4-D and i didnt know what 4-D meant... for those who dont know.. its sight, sound, smell AND TOUCH... had water sprayed at me and the feel of rats running up my leg... to which i jumped and bruised my knee!















anyway it was awesome awesome awesome... as it got dark we grabbed a bite and had MICKEY SHAPED BURGERS.. so cool!



at dusk and night we took pictures in front of the very pictureque castle and got again got suckered into the consumerism inside the castle...(at this point...ket was meant to take Cas up to the balcony and propose...the balcony was closed to visitors...)



....at my request, danny got me a glass shoe (ala cinderella) with my name engraved on it... he got a shot glass for his collection as we both believed that this was another world of its own and was deserving of its own souvenir..i couldnt find my snowdome so i got some little glass figurines instead... what i really wanted...was THIS:



So anyway that night danny and i decided to pay a visit to the imperial palace in Tokyo, Tokyo on the way home... ket and cas were too beat so they went home first...

As it was night time...and as it was the primary place of residence for the emperor and due to high security and the moats (yes they still have MOATS!)...we didnt really get to see much... but, least we can say that we've been there and have seen it when we are old and senile... i can look back on my journal and tell my grand kids! so anyway as i was saying ...the excitement really happened on the way there!





i saw a man pick his nose...and then he delightfully devoured it..then went back for more... no that wasnt the excitement though, that was just gross... the excitement was that i witnessed my first ever japanese fight!!

between a business man and a drunkard...it was so... structured! the businessman's kick was so powerful and accurate but it was sad because he was beating up the old man who was hassling him and wouldn't leave him alone and he was very angry...

danny was just about to jump in to break it up (and disturb the Japanese "wa" in the process - wa is the peace...japanese people do not like disturbing the peace so many of them often mind their own businesses in an effort to not disturb the wa)...anyway fortunately, another guy beat him to it and broke up the fight...

Japan 3 - MT FUJI & HAKONE

Highlights:

- mt fuji (pity we didnt see it, weather wasnt great, but imagine it haha)
- hakone
- yunesen onsen (spring bath) theme park (aweeeeeeeeeesome!!! must seee!!!)

Pictures: Japan Part 3

Random Entry: Mt Fuji & Hakone, Japan - Day 7

...so we joined an overnight tour of Mt Fuji and Hakone because.... how can you go to Japan and not go see Mt Fuji right? haha woke up early that day and headed to the meeting point for to join the other people on the tour...

sat on the bus learnt lots about the history of Japan and Japanese culture ... even learnt how Kanji came about and how to write some words...





stopped by at the Mt Fuji visitor centre and then for lunch at some hotel which served food that didnt get us full at all!! was told to "IMAGINE" Mt Fuji as the day was too misty to see it from afar... was abit disappointed...







As consolation....had my name written in japanese by our tour guide (in my travel journal) ... bumped into some gigling american lady in the toilets who couldnt stop giggling at the heated toilet seats and then on to the 5th station on the actual mountain for some views.... barely saw any views...all misty...

...but it was fun nonetheless with danny and i again getting conned into buying stupid souvenirs (as you do) haha its so funny.. we know it... and we prepare for it ...yet we still get suckered into it.... danny ended up buying Mt Fuji air in a can... yes i know.. 'what theeeeeee?' haha and then we assumed that ket was going to propose to cas that night so we bought a celebratory Mt Fuji cake to save for them... (ket ended up chickening out ..again... and cas didnt want to come to our room to hang out that night and we ended up eating the cake ourselves)... anyway we bought the cake from this hilarious dude...

HIM: "where are you guys from?"

US: "sydney"

HIM: "ahh OrSSss-traaaa-lia?"

US: "yes yes hehehe"

HIM: "G-day!...."

SILENCE SILENCE

we turn to walk away....

......
HIM: ........."MAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYTE!"


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

praps a momentary thing... we thought it was so funny...









anyhoos...onto explore the sulphar site with smoke coming all outta the mountain.. smelt like eggfarts...



then onto Lake Ashi... the lake that never freezes because its made from volcanic activity... awwwwwwwweesome!





and... then the Ropeway!! not before getting conned again.... well danny anyway... i conned him into buying me a traditional musical jewllery box and the shopkeeper conned him into get this stupid magic trick box ... apparently special to Hakone (we later saw some immatations at MBK-Thaliand haha)...

so back to the ropeway... some of the most beautiful views and one of my most scary trips (at the time anyway)...

next the tour guide ditched us at our hotel (Kawaki-en Hotel) with train tickets for our trip home alone the next day...

didnt want to go to the nudist hotspring / public bath in our hotel so danny and i decided to go to the hot spring theme park (yunessen) across the road instead...took a while to convince the other two to come but eventually they joined us...

and am i glad we went.. it was such a wonderful place and such a wonderful experience...

there were all sorts of themed hot springs eg. green tea, red wine, sake, coffee, lavender, turkish baths... one where there are fish who nibble at your feet.... and then there were heated water slides... it was definately a highlight! and then when that side of the place closed, you could venture on to the more traditional public baths eg. single gendered ones... didnt think i could face cas being nude (no offense... im just not built that way hehe)... so i paid more and went to a private one instead...apparently being naked with other naked people was a thrilling experience... i figured it cant be anymore of an experience than the change rooms of the local pools right? call me a prude or whatever but quite frankly...those experiences are ones id rather forget...



























so anyway that was awesome.. danny and i wanted to leave ket to his devices so we had dinner separately...took a stroll down the road to the local convenience store and had a lovely dinner of processed products in our HUGE room... yes the hotel room was so big all i wanted to do was do cartwheels everywhere ...