Japan 2009

In four days we head to Sydney to stay overnight before flying to Japan on Saturday morning.

We're very excited!

Not sure if this should be day one or day zero :)

Left work early. Stu came and picked me up and we came home and finished packing. And fed fish. And watered plants. And cleaned the kitchen. And scrawled down what all the place markers are on all the maps we printed out.

Called for a taxi (since we were completely unorganised and couldn't find anyone to give us a lift.. $55 including tip later.. Oops :/ ). Was a bit stressed when at 45 minutes before final check-in time it still hadn't arrived. But it came shortly after and we got to the airport with heaps of time to spare. Even had time to go into the Qantas club (Stu's a member) and had a free champagne and some nibblies. Saw our plane pull up (Lorikeet) but didn't know it was going to be ours so didn't actually photograph it, and you can't see it from it the terminal so missed out altogether.. Oops.

Sunset from the plane

The flight was about ten minutes late leaving (they couldn't count us - they kept counting 97 on their clicky thing but they knew they had only 87, they did this three time before going back to the old-fashioned way of manual counting ;) ) so went from sunset to dusk and completely impossible to take any photos in quick succession. Could see the Federal Highway and the Hume Highway and the lights of Goulburn before it got too cloudy to see anything.

Shortly after take off they brought round a "light dinner" of chicken rolls (vegetarian roll for Stu) and I had a glass of wine. But just as they finished serving they began the descent and it was time for them to clean up heh. So I was still eating almost up until landing time :)

We came in around western Sydney and around from the north.  We were on the wrong side of the plane to see the city but the rest of the lights were very pretty.

Since we were right up the back of the plane we didn't have much to do after landing except watch them unload the bags off the plane. My bag was the first off! Heh. We saw Stu's and Natto's too and we saw them *throw* Natto's bag onto the trolley. But the dude waved at us watching him so I guess that's ok ;)

Last off the plane and meandered all the way down from the furthest terminal. And arrived just as our bags were coming out. Win!  So got our bags and walked down to the Formule 1 hotel.

Great Heineken ad at the entrance to Sydney airport

Dumped our bags and walked straight across the parking lot to Krispy Kreme for dessert. Was quite disappointed that the machine wasn't running :(  But the donuts were yumm.

Krispy Kreme was just across the carpark from our hotel!

Natto and Andrew at Krispy Kreme

And then finally back up to our room to chat for a while. The hotel is shoe-boxed sized with a double bed and bunks. Andrew's laptop is bigger than the tv!  No actual shower recess so the bathroom is going to get messy and no hand towel. But for what we need it for (a few hours sleep) it's fine.

Our shoebox-sized room at the Formule 1 Hotel - probably the most
cramped room of the trip and it was in Australia!

Finally made it to bed around 11:15. Up at stoopid o'clock tomorrow - 5am eeep!!

More photos from Day 0

Photos taken by me: 50

Alarms went off in sync at 5am. I was sooo not ready to get up, having lain awake for hours last night :(  But I jumped up and had first shower. No actual shower cubicle so water went all over the bathroom floor :/  Good thing I was in there first! :)

Everyone else had their showers and we left the hotel just after 6am. Strolled along in the dark to T2 and checked in with enough time to stop at the Scottish Restaurant for breakfast. That was good but a little rushed as we had to go board. On a lighter note it meant we didn't have to queue to board :)

Airbus A380 coming in to land at Sydney Airport

We were up near the back of an A320, which was very full. Didn't pay for any extras on the domestic leg to Cairns so attempted to sleep. Failed abysmally. The others all managed to get a bit of sleep - doh!

Marrickville

Ashfield

Burwood, including old CIA offices

Wingtip of our A320

Coast north of Cairns

On the ground in Cairns

We were last off the plane in Cairns, but still had to wait a bit for our bags. And then walked around to the international terminal where we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Took nearly three quarters of an hour just to check in.  Customs was a lot shorter and security a lot shorter than that. Silly really. Popped by TRS to get $83 GST back from Stu's camera and then went to find some lunch. The Cairns international terminal had two places that appeared to be selling food. So we went to the one that was selling generic hot food. And waited. And waited. And waited. In the end we decided to just get something that didn't need to be cooked/prepared. But we still only got our food just as they called that we were boarding. So I got them to put my chips in a bag, and took them onto the plane! Ha!

The plane was an A330 this time, and fairly full but not completely so. We got all the "packs" - the entertainment pack, the comfort pack and the food pack.

The food was pretty standard airline fare. A choice of a couple of dishes (I had a pork curry) with a small salad and a bread roll and two squares of Cadbury chocolate for dessert. Then later a meat pie or quiche for vegetarians. Don't think there were any snacks or extra drinks available, and don't think any alcohol.

Our lunch on the plane

The comfort pack was a bit of a waste of money on the daytime trip. It included a blanket, inflatable neck support thingie, earplugs and an eye mask. Didn't use any of it, but they did say we could keep the blankies, so we took it all with us :)

The entertainment pack meant you get a little battery-operated box with a screen and presumably a hard drive loaded with various movies, tv shows, games and music. I'd read on someone's blog that this was a little cumbersome and meant it was difficult to eat because you have to sit it on your tray table, but we didn't get big meal trays so it wasn't so bad. And the screen is actually bigger than the seat-mounted screens you get in other planes. I watched Twilight first up and then The Changeling. Twilight was pretty average, but The Changeling was pretty good. But I ran out of time to see all of the Enough Rope episode that featured Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood. Doh!

Jetstar's in-flight entertainment system

The back of our plane

Sunset over Mt Fuji (we're pretty sure that lump is Mt Fuji!)

So arrived at Narita airport. Were last off plane (again!) :) Customs/immigration were fairly quick and easy. After the nuttyness of Australian customs it's weird to get used to the fact that other countries aren't so paranoid.

Took us a few goes to find the right place to buy the NEX/Suica combo we wanted. Then got the Narita Express into Tokyo, switched to the Yamonote line and headed up to Akihabara. The train was pretty crowded (9pm on a Saturday night) so we'd hate to see it in rush hour!  And according to the announcements on the train it "ahkee-ha-bar-ah". Or something :)

My first beer in Japan - on the Narita Express (NEX) train from the airport!

The NEX has monitors that show you where you are between the airport and Tokyo

Came out of the station and Natto fell in love. She was totally in heaven :) Except we didn't get to stop and look at anything because we were carrying all our bags around.

This is the first thing we saw when we got out of the train at Akihabara

Building in Akihabara

So found our hotel and checked in. It's a shoe-box sized room, but a cute shoebox :)  Planned out our day tomorrow. Now Nat and Andrew are off to explore Akihabara while Stu and I collapse into bed. I swear we're getting too old for this ;)

"Cubicle" bathroom - moulded rooms dropped into
place in the hotel rooms. Most hotels had these.

All the hotel toilets had various wash services built in
Photo by Natto

Steps walked today: 6723
Photos taken by me: 296
Photos taken by Stu: 0

Woke up at 5:26 :(  Got a bit more sleep before getting up at about seven. Spent a while downloading my photos. Eventually 9am rolled around and we headed out for breakfast.

Bridge near Akihabara, which reminded us of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

We decided to play it safe our first morning and have breakfast at Denny's, even though this felt very wrong somehow. I had bacon, sausage and eggs, which was my introduction to Denny's in 1983 and brought back memories. Natto ordered a mixed western/Japanese breakfast. The waitress was quick to point out it had natto and could substitute it for something else, but we said we wanted to try it. It was, well, interesting. Nat tried it but thought it was foul. I thought it was a bit icky but not as bad as I thought it would be. Andrew refused to even try it, so Stu finished it off.

Natto 

Natto eating natto. She thought it was disgusting :)

After breakfast we meandered through Akihabara. We had been planning to walk back to the station and take the train to Ueno, but we were a third of the way there anyway, so just decided to keep going.  Looked at heaps of random stuff and walked up lots of little streets. Soooo much cool stuff to be seen!

Random store, covered in a lot of yellow signs
Photo by Stu 

We saw a few of these car parks with turntables out the front so you
could drive your car out forwards 

Buildings in Akihabara 

Colourful building in Akihabara 

We were impressed at how the Japanese make use of every available
piece of space, filling sidewalks with flowers and vegetables
Photo by Stu 

Alley in Akihabara

Got to Ueno Park and was a little disappointed to see that the cherry blossoms hadn't really come out yet, even though it said online they had come out like a week ago :/

Bentendo over Shinobazu Pond

Wandered through a little market thing, then up to the Temple of Benten. To get to that we had to walk through a run of crazy food stalls. All sorts of weird and wonderful things being cooked, and the most amazing smells.

Cooking octopus balls (we didn't have any of these ones)
Photo by Natto 

Chocolate bananas 

Bentendo (Temple of Benten)

Continued on past the shrine around the lake. Ended up walking all the way around and ended up back by the shrine again.

Shinobazu Pond

Heron (or egret?)

So as we walked back past the food stalls we got a few things. I got a deep-fried potato that had been sliced in a spiral and skewered, and then got it dipped in cheesy powder - nom!!  We also got deep-fried spaghetti (not pre-cooked, so they were straight crunchy sticks, covered in a garlic sauce). Oh so delish!  And a chocolate-covered banana. There were plenty of other things that would have been cool to try, but was a bit too awkward trying to carry everything.

Potato cut into a spiral, skewered, deep fried and
coated in cheesy powder - soooo good! 

Natto with chocolate bananas

So walked up the staircase to the big avenue of cherry blossom trees. Some of the lower blossoms were out on these trees were out which made it a bit nicer. The sides of the path were filled with picnickers. Now this was a serious picnic. Some of them were obviously professionally catered but others not. There was some amazing food and it looked like so much fun. One picnic group had several *kegs*!  Presumably there was plenty of sake, as is the tradition with the cherry watching festival. The park and path was insanely crowded, but had it not been a Sunday it wouldn't have had the *atmosphere* it did.

Cherry blossoms in Ueno Park 

Cherry blossoms in Ueno Park 

Ueno Park 

Picnickers in Ueno Park. Andrew wanted to know how you booked a
particular piece of the park for your picnic.
Photo by Andrew 

They recycle everything in Japan, and Ueno park had bins for everything you
can think of. Some of the bigger ones even had bin police supervising them
to make sure you got it right!

Continued on to find the life-sized blue whale outside the science museum. It was pretty cool.

Full sized blue whale outside the National Science Museum

Then wandered back to find the Toshogu shrine and five story pagoda. Found the shrine, which was surrounded with scaffolding, but the pagoda appeared to be in the zoo grounds so didn't get any good photos of it.

Dudes chanting near Toshogu Shrine 

Flame Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Sculpture Commemorating Japanese
Victims Of WWII

Then we decided we really should head for Asakusa. Got to Ueno station and were debating whether to walk or train. Decided to walk. Walked down one street which had shop after shop of wooded home shrines. Then turned left and walked up a street with shop after shop of kitchen and restaurant supplies. Insane!

This building had tea cups for balconies 

We found a whole series of shops that sold nothing but plastic food for
restaurant displays
Photo by Natto

Eventually (after a pitstop at maccas) found the area of the Sensoji Temple as the sun was nearly setting. It was surrounded by scaffolding as well :(  The whole area was quite nice though and had a crowded but great atmosphere, again with the most amazing smells from the food vendors. The little street market between the gates was pretty crazy too.

Five storey pagoda at Asakusa 

Side of Senso-ji temple 

Lanterns, shops and cherry blossoms (artificial) on Nakamise Dori
Photo by Stu

Finally left and went and found the Asahi Beer Tower with its golden turd out the front. Honestly I have no idea what it's meant to be, although I did read it online once (edit: its a flame). The entrance wasn't particularly obvious, not helped by seeing a "closed" sign inside the doors. But just one part was closed, the skyroom place is open till late. So ordered a few very expensive beers and some insanely expensive cheese/nuts and a teeny tiny pizza. The view was pretty nice though and we had fun taking crazy photos of the lights (like zooming and camera wiggling on longish exposures).

Asahi Beer Tower, Asakusa 

Drinking and view from Asahi Beer Tower. Nice atmosphere but quite expensive.

Beer and nibbles at Asahi Beer Tower. 500 yen for those nibbles and
600 each for the beer.
Photo by Natto

Came back down (and it was *freezing* - so glad I decided to bring an extra jumper along) and went to find a train back to the hotel. Managed to use our suica cards and the abundant maps to get back without any problems.

Back at the hotel, Stu doesn't actually fit under the door!

Watched some of a really freaky show on telly - the Women's Big Stomach Contest - which was actually filmed in Australia. These women could insane amounts of food - 7.2kg of deep-fried fish fillets for one of the challenges. (7.2 KILOS!!!). Freaky!!

Then went out again to wander round Akihabara. Got some nibbles at a convenience store then came back to the hotel.

Walked an insane amount today. Making up for it tomorrow by sitting in a train all day...

Had a very solid six hours sleep last night, but still woke up at 6am not able to get back to sleep :/

After downloading all my photos, went across the road to find something to eat.

A bit after nine we headed to the station and jumped on a train to Tokyo main station.  There we activated our JR passes for the rest of the trip and organised the trip to Hakata (Fukuota).  We weren't able to get reserved seats on a non-smoking car of the Tokyo to Shin-Osaka trip but did for Shin-Osaka to Hakata.  Then popped into Starbucks for a coffee/snack.

Stu on the train between Akihabara and Tokyo stations 

Went then to catch our train.  The unreserved cars were up the front of the train, which meant a very long hike up the platform trying to get past all the people that were lined up in front of the train.  Got in a queue for the second car.  We tried to get two pairs of seats on the right side of the train, but failed.  At least we got one. 

So the train ride was pretty cool.  Very fast and smooth.  The scenery just *whizzed* by!  Even got a decent view of Mt Fuji, although cloud was obscuring its middle.

Mt Fuji from the train 

Bento box we got on the train between Tokyo and Osaka 

At Shin-Osaka we changed trains and then sat somewhat bored for another few hours.  We had a 'silent' car, which meant we couldn't really talk or play cards :(   The link to Kyushu goes under the sea, so that was a little boring.  In fact the second half of the trip was largely in tunnels - boring! heh

Our second Shinkansen (of many) 

The trains look a lot like aircraft on the inside! 

This is a Silence Car! No talking! 

Got to our hotel in Hakata no problems - it's right opposite the station - score!  Somewhat bigger than the last hotel too, and it has internet!!!! hurrah!! ;)

Were just about to down to Canal City for dinner when Natty and Sandra turned up - we ran into them at reception.  So then we stood around for like 3/4 hour trying to decide what to do.  In the end went to Natty's sister's current home town of Kashii for dinner and to see her flat.  Was pretty cool, and Rosie is lovely.  

Natty and Rosie 

Mobile phone recharging stations in Kashii mall 

So then rushed back to Hakata to try and see the fountains before they stopped for the night.  Came in just as the 9:30 show was finishing.  We thought that was it, so wandered around the shopping centre looking at the arcade type stuff.  At 10pm there were more fountaining, but missed those.  

Canal City 

Fountains in Canal City 

Pachinko (?) machine. Some such ball bearing machine anyway
Photo by Natto 

Massive wall of TVs in Canal City 

Eventually wandered back to the hotel.  Where it's now rather late...

Whewf. Another 15k+ step day...!

Got up relatively early (well early for everyone else, normal time for me ;) ). The hotel had breakfast which was useful. No hot food though, except some hard boiled eggs. Took ages to get everyone out the door, but did eventually and left Fukuoka on a shinkansen bound for Kokura.

Got off at Kokura and then hunted around looking for lockers. Found a small batch of them in the station, and then sent out a search party (Stu) to find some more available big ones. Chucked all our bags in lockers then got on a local train to Space World!!  (Stu didn't want to go to Space World so he spent the day wandering around Kokura)

The gang outside Space World

Space World was pretty cool. There were a couple of way cool roller coasters and a third one that wasn't working which was pretty disappointing because it looked awesome. My favourite of the two big working ones was the Venus GP which was spectacular. Went for a full two minutes, over a kilometer long, had an upside down loop, was very fast, not too violent, and was way cool in every way. We went on it in the morning and I spent all afternoon itching to go back on it. I did have another go later in the afternoon, and even managed its last ride of the day just before the park closed. Probably one of my favourite roller coasters *ever* !

Venus GP in front of the Space Shuttle

The other cool roller coaster was the Zaturn. This thing had a magnetic propulsion system that went from zero to 128km/h in like a second. It was freaky! So it shot you along and then 65m straight up into the air where you went over the top and then came straight back down. You barely have time to be scared cause it's over so fast :) (and not much time to enjoy the view at the top either heh). It was a bit more violent though so left going back for a repeat run until right at the end of the day. But the queues were so short I actually managed to get two more rides in :)

Zaturn roller coaster

The rest of the park was pretty standard. We went on a very wet-making water coaster (which was actually pretty good - it got out of the water for a bit and did some roller coaster stuff in the dark before the big drop at the end) and one similar to the Snowy River Rampage at Australia's Wonderland, a couple of small roller coasters, and saw a couple of "show" rides. One of the 3D shows was pretty good because the story worked without commentary. Another one was an actual space show which was 3D as well and very pretty, and was talking about the enormity of space and the Voyager probes.. at least we assume it was, because it was only in Japanese.. Doh!

Adventure Cruise - we got very wet in this!

I want a room with all these lights!

Space Eye ferris wheel (Ferris wheels are very popular in Japan)

Alien-themed toilet signs 

Boogie-Woogie Space Coaster (aka "Cute Little Roller Coaster"),
Cosmo Fighter Dome, Zaturn 

Venus GP and Space Shuttle 

Zaturn roller coaster 

Saying goodbye to Space World

Finishing off with the three big coaster rides was super awesome, was glad I was able to. Got our day packs out of the locker (they are only one-use lockers for 200 yen for the little ones) then walked back to the train station and caught a train back to Kokura. Stu was waiting for us and then we went for a walk to look for dinner. There were all these really cool alleys of shops and tiny restaurants in the area next to the station. But we didn't end up getting anything from those - we ended up at Mos Burger. We really are planning on eating more "real" Japanese food - honest!

Alley in Kokura

So went back to the station with the intent of catching the 19:52 to Hiroshima. But the Nats wanted to find the 100yen shop they'd been told about. So we left them to catch the next train and went on without them heh. (But they made it without any troubles, so all good ;) )

Station labelling - colour coding for the types of trains

The bed in this hotel is almost as hard as the floor, so not sure how well I'll go sleeping on it.. Hrmmmm....

Well I knew one full day wasn't really going to be enough time here.  I was right. 

The plan was to be out the door by nine, but we were late (as usual). 

Hiroshima trams
Photo by Stu

Caught the JR train to Miyajima-guchi, as we'd already paid for that, and it's only 25 minutes instead of nearly an hour for the tram.  Then walked down and hopped on the JR ferry across to Miyajima (we were all set to buy tickets but the ticket dude said it was free with a JR pass.. score!).

Sculpture outside the ferry terminal at Miyajimaguchi

On the ferry over to Miyajima

Itsukushima Shrine and Tori

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

As soon as we got off the ferry we met the local deer population.  Natto wanted to be friends with all of them.  Or at least take photos of them all ;)  They *were* pretty cool.  Had a look at the map before wandering around to see the Itsukushima Shrine tori.  Walked up to see the five storey pagoda.  Then wandered round the back of Itsukushima looking at stuff.  We might have gone in but we didn't really have the time in the end.  We all took heaps of photos of the stuff that we did see heh.  Didn't get time to look at everything that was there either. 

There were lots of deer at Miyajima

Itsukushima Shrine's Stone Torii

Deer joined in on this group photo!

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

Itsukushima Shrine

Cherry blossoms in front of the Five Storey Pagoda 

Five Storey Pagoda 

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

Itsukushima Shrine

We could easily have spent the entire day there.  But we really needed to get back to Hiroshima to see everything else we wanted to.  So hopped on another train back (after popping into 7 eleven to pick up some lunch to eat on the train).

Got back to the station then jumped on a tram down to the A-bomb Dome.  It was one of the few buildings left standing after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. It was really sad standing there at basically ground zero.  The boys got talking to a guide that was there who was a hibakusha (a-bomb survivor) who was in-utero when the bomb went off, making him one of the youngest survivors. 

A-Bomb Dome, formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall 

Top of the A-Bomb Dome 

This dude is credited as one of the youngest survivors
of the Atomic bomb - he was in utero when it happened 

Wandered around the Peace Memorial Park, looking at some of the monuments. 

Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students 

Origami paper cranes 

Cherry blossoms on the river bank 

Children's Peace Monument 

Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound
Holds the ashes of 70,000 bomb victims who were unidentified or had
no living relatives to claim them 

Flame of Peace
It is said that the fire will burn until the last nuclear weapon is gone
from the earth

Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims

Then headed up to the Peace Memorial Museum.  It had quite a lot of info about Hiroshima before, during and after the bombing, and didn't try to blame anyone, but was more about the message of peace and anti-nuclear weapons.  We spent two hours there but could easily have stayed longer if we'd had the time/energy. 

Watch that stopped when the atomic bomb went off 

Model of Hiroshima before the blast 

Model of Hiroshima after the blast

Hypocentre of the atomic blast

By this time it was raining relatively heavily, and it was getting quite late, so we abandoned plans to go see the castle and caught a tram back to the hotel. 

After drying off for a bit and resting, we headed out to try and find some dinner.  Found a place called Nakau's which was warm, dry, brightly lit, had lots of seating, and even an English menu.  So had a decent Japanese meal there :)

Then back to the hotel to do computery stuff..

Steps walked today: 13492
Photos taken by me: 350
Photos taken by Stu: 206

Last night I decided that if it was clear I'd go on a trek to Hiroshima Castle. So this morning it was clear, so Sandra, Natty and I hopped on a tram back down to the A-bomb Dome station. From there we walked north to the castle and had a look around. Hopefully got some nice photos from the south-western corner. 

The plan was for a relaxed start and a 9:30 exit from the hotel. Except the slow starters held things up.. Hrmmm :)

Managed to figure out the Osaka train system and ended up on the right train to Nara. We didn't have too much of a plan for the day, so did a lot of wandering between temples and shrines. It was all nice enough and all the deer were exceptionally cool - I even shelled out 300 yen to get a little bundle of "deer cakes" - like a cross between pancakes and cookies - to feed them. My cousins had told us about the free Goodwill tours and I'd been meaning to book one, but suddenly the time had come and we hadn't done it :(  So it meant we didn't know much about the significance of the places we were looking at, and so therefore probably didn't get as much out of the day as we could have :(

Stu playing a drum machine in Sega World

Eastern Golden Hall and Five Story Pagoda of Kofukuji

Deer getting up close and personal 

Feeding a deer in front of the Five Story Pagoda
Photo by Andrew 

Deer chasing a girl
Photo by Stu 

Pair of deer 

Dude on the way to Todaiji 

Nandaimon Gate 

Entrance gate and top of Todaiji 

I was impressed with this photo because of its timing.
He managed to get the deer to rear up at the exact moment
there was a break in the massive crowds along this path
(see above photo) 

Todaiji Temple
World's largest wooden building 

Daibutsu - Japan's largest bronze Buddha 

I pondered the reasoning behind a solitary bucket
of water at the side of the temple 

Inside Todaiji Temple
Photo by Natto 

We couldn't resist a group photo in front of the "No Group Photos" sign
Photo by Stu 

Natty and Sandra at lunch in Nara
This was a great meal, one of the better and more authentic meals we
had in Japan (and Natto and Andrew missed out cause they didn't want to try it!)
 

Lanterns in Kasuga Taisha 

Kasuga Taisha 

Lanterns in Kasuga Taisha

We decided to stop by Horyuji even though the grounds were going to be shut in the hopes of at least seeing it. Well we managed to see it with about thirty seconds to spare - they were just locking up the grounds as we got there. So we managed to get a couple of photos from a distance. Also stopped in at a local supermarket on the way back to pick up some supplies.

Horyuji Temple - built in the 7th century - the world's oldest wooden buildings

And then finally back to the hotel. Where we collapsed in a heap, and I drank a few beers :)

Steps walked today: 14790
Photos taken by me: 278
Photos taken by Stu: 212

Well the weather forecast was for rain today, so we decided to do some local "indoor" things.

First stop was the Umeda Sky Tower. 700 yen entry but there are plenty of places that have discount vouchers which made it only 630. Stu looked at the glassed escalators and lifts and decided to give it a miss heh. The rest of us went up and it was pretty cool, but it was very hazy so couldn't see much into the distance.

Umeda Sky Building 

Windows in the Floating Garden Observatory of the Umeda Sky Building 

Escalators in the Umeda Sky Building 

Bridges over the Yodo River 

Osaka (Kita) buildings 

Yodobashi Camera
Most of this building is a massive department/electronics store

Came back down and picked up Stu who was waiting in the garden below and then went to Yodobashi Camera which was next to Osaka station. Spent quite a bit of time in there drooling over camera equipment but they have every other electronics product you can imagine over about six floors. Was way cool. Wish we had stuff like that in Australia. Decided that compact flash memory was too expensive (can get it a lot cheaper in Australia), but did end up getting another USB stick for downloading our photos to.

Gardens outside the Umeda Sky Building 

Andrew looking through a 874k Yen lens (the 1.5M yen lens was in a cabinet next to it!) 

Rows and rows of capsule machines

It was well after 2pm by this point and we hadn't eaten and we all had sore feet/legs. In the end we went to Bentencho where we had to change trains, and there we found a Scottish Restaurant. So blood sugar levels were restored :)

After eating we went up to tackle the non-JR ticket machines. Even with English instructions it wasn't clear what we had to do, so in the end an American dude who was getting a ticket next to showed us how to do it :) Turns out we just had to put enough money in to cover the fare, then hit the button matching the fare as indicated on the big station boards above the machines. Easy if you know how heh.

Pondering the ticket machines at Bentencho

So ended up at the Osaka aquarium (Kaiyukan) around 3pm. The aquarium was insanely over crowded which made the whole experience quite distressing. Couldn't get near the glass without a lot of jostling :(  We all got separated quite quickly. The displays were pretty good though, although they repeated themselves several times as you spiralled down and saw the same tank further and further down. The biggest tank was basically in the middle and you spiralled down around it. Their whale sharks were very cool. But I couldn't help comparing the place to the Sydney Aquarium, and thinking the Sydney one is quite possibly better. The aquarium is open fairly late (like 7pm or 8pm), but at 5pm they turned the lights down in the tanks, which made photographing things more difficult :(  Not that I should have worried - Natto's camera is about a thousand times better than mine, and as soon as I saw her shots I thought well why bother taking any on my camera heh.

Osaka Aquarium 

Fish in Osaka Aquarium 

Otters?
Photo by Natto 

Crowds at the aquarium - made seeing things very hard 

Penguin 

Tropical fish (discus and tetras)
Photo by Natto 

Whale shark 

Dolphin
Photo by Andrew 

Sunfish 

The two whale sharks 

Turtle 

Spider crab
Photo by Andrew 

Jellyfish 

Jellyfish 

Up close and personal with a penguin 

Andrew patting a sting ray 

Sharks outside the aquarium

After leaving the aquarium we made our way back to Bentencho where Stu caught a train back to the hotel and the rest of us headed for Namba (after stopping at an Italian place for dinner). We didn't have much of a plan for this area other than a Super Potato 7 store that was somewhere in the area but we didn't have a good map of where it was. So we just thought we'd go for a wander. Wandering in Japan is so much fun, you see such random stuff. We headed east through the underground Namba Walk. This was amazing all by itself. Just this underground string of shops, much like the ones under Town Hall station, but it went on for *ages* between all the Namba stations. And this country is sooo user-friendly in terms of maps on every other pole. It's very had to get lost here! Anyway, after walking through the underground stuff, we went aboveground and headed for the lights. It was fricken awesome. Alleyways had been covered over and turned into walking malls. And every so often you'd end up outside next to whole buildings covered with lights. It seemed endless. It was only the fact that we were ready to collapse with exhaustion that we decided to head back to the station. It took three trains to get back to the hotel, and a lot of standing around :/

This art would be graffittied in about three seconds in Australia 

There were *fish tanks* in public thoroughfares!
Photo by Natto 

The Glico Man. Supposedly famous.

Had a quick team meeting about tomorrow. The others want to go to Kyoto tomorrow but we're not sure we're up for another exhausting day. We may have a quiet day and go to Kyoto on Monday. I also have a sore throat which I'm not too happy about :(

Steps walked today: 17743
Photos taken by me: 622
Photos taken by Stu: 79

So this morning my throat was still feeling sore :(  Definitely not happy Jan :(

Went down for breakfast at 9 (and was first one there heh) and everyone else came down and we discussed what we all planned to do. Stu and I needed a quiet recovery day. Sandra did too. Natty decided to go to the zoo and so Sandra decided to go with her. Natto and Andrew were all set to go to Kyoto, but at the last minute decided not to, and they ended up going to Universal Studios.

So I spent the morning moaning and feeling like crap. However I did manage to do a bit of Kyoto research and even came up with an itinerary that I thought Stu and I could manage. Stu went out to Umeda for a couple of hours on a mission to find a book store he'd read about somewhere. He came back later with a box of octopus balls - supposedly an Osaka speciality.

A bit before 3pm I finally dragged myself out of the hotel and we went on an excursion to Kobe. Hopped on a shinkansen and were there in fifteen minutes. Decided to walk down the hill to Sannomiya and from there got a local JR train to Maiko. The train line was right next to the ocean for a while, it was very nice, and could see the bridge coming in advance. Walked down to the bridge and took a bunch of photos. In the northern pylon there is the "Marine Promenade" which lets you go up to the underside of the bridge deck. There's a walkway and even a whole visitor's centre with telescopes, cafe and gift shop! Makes for some cool photos of the under side of the bridge. Afterwards we went back outside and took more photos in the setting sun.

Looking down towards Sannomiya from Shin-Kobe station 

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
At 4km long, the world's longest suspension bridge 

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge 

Maiko Marine Promenade underneath the bridge 

Stu in the Maiko Marine Promenade 

Looking through the middle of the bridge 

Visitor's Centre in the middle of the bridge 

Stu controlling a camera atop the bridge 

Flowers in front of the bridge 

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge through the möbius stone 

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the möbius stone 

The möbius stone 

Sunset over the Akashi Strait 

Visitor's Centre in the bridge 

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge 

We took about six photos before we got one we liked

Got the JR train back to Sannomiya and paid for the subway train back up to Shin-Kobe. Found a place to have a sit-down dinner. I had a big kirin which helped slightly numbing the general pain in my body, and we both had a fried pork curry then we hopped on a shinkansen back to Osaka.

We had hoped for an early night but as the others came back from their days they came and dropped in on us, so we had the team meeting for tomorrow and I showed them what I'd come up with for an itinerary, and crazily enough everyone was happy with it - weird!! :)

Impromptu team meeting in our room
Photo by Stu 

Steps walked today: 5545
Photos taken by me: 202
Photos taken by Stu: 185

Had a relatively crap night's sleep. Kept waking up with sore throat but not wanting to cough and wake up Stu.

Headed out of the hotel a bit after nine and jumped on a shinkansen to Kyoto (it's a fifteen minute trip - it's much easier to get to Kyoto than the other side of Osaka!).

Interior of the shinkansen to Kyoto - looks like an aeroplane!

First stop was a two-station JR ride to Inari to see Fushimi Inari. Hundreds of torii all lined up to form a long archway up the side of the hill. It was very cool. And quite photogenic, although the lighting conditions made photography a little tricky.

Gate near entrance to Fushimi Inari Shrine 

Garden near Fushimi Inari Shrine 

Freaky stone dog thing at Fushimi Inari Shrine
Photo by Stu 

Fushimi Inari Shrine 

Stu taking photos in Fushimi Inari Shrine 

Fushimi Inari Shrine
Photo by Andrew

The next stop was meant to be Nijo castle. So we got the JR train back to Kyoto and changed trains to the other JR line to Nijo. Except we forgot to get the daily bus pass tickets from Kyoto first :(  So we wasted about ten minutes debating whether we should go back and get them or just carry on and pay each ticket manually. The passes were 500yen, and we had planned to take four bus trips of 220yen each. Not exactly a whole not more, but just more difficult in terms of getting the right change. So after getting grumpy with each other we ended up going back to Kyoto to get the passes. By the time we got back to Nijo an hour had been wasted, which we couldn't really spare with so much planned for the day :(:(

Kyoto Tower. Would have been nice to go up if we'd had time 

Cool mosaic near Nijo station

So we went and looked at Nijo Castle, which was 600yen entry, but not castle-like at all. In fact it was just a few wooden buildings. Which were pretty enough and all but don't know that I would have put it in the itinerary if I'd actually bothered to do any real research on it *sigh*.

Ninomaru of Nijo Castle 

Girls at Nijo Castle
Photo by Stu 

Moat and gardens of Nijo Castle

Next stop was Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion), which required our first crammed bus ride of the day. The pavilion itself was so shiny though! Very pretty, we enjoyed it a lot.

Kinkakuji - the Golden Pavilion 

Kinkakuji - the Golden Pavilion 

Golden bird atop the Golden Pavilion
Photo by Natto

At this point it was well after 3pm and all we'd had for lunch was an ice cream each. So we decided to skip trying to see the Imperial Palace and go straight to Gion. So what followed next was a thoroughly horrendous bus ride from one end of Kyoto to the other. Not that I can complain - near the beginning two people next to us got off which meant Stu and I got a seat. The Nats had to suffer the bottom sardine-can level and people trying to push past. Natto swore she'd never get on another Kyoto bus and was wanting to walk back to Kyoto station later - it was that bad!

By the time we got to Gion it was around five o'clock, so first order of business was dinner. Wandered around for a bit before finding an ok looking place in a back alley. They had an english menu and a toilet, so we went in :) It turned out to be a tappan-yaki restaurant so we got a bunch of dishes and some beer. It was all awesome :) Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yasaka Shrine in Gion 

Teppanyaki restaurant at the back of Gion Corner 

Food in the Teppanyaki restaurant

After dinner we went wandering again, but it was getting dark, so not easy for photos. We tried to find the actual location of Gion Corner because Natto wanted to see one of the shows they do. But she didn't actually know where it was and instructions given by several different people didn't seem to get us any closer :( So in the end she gave up. But in our wanderings we did see several geisha. They were so pretty (in a done-up sort of a way), but I felt so sorry for them because they had to run the gauntlet of the tourist papparazzi just to go about their daily lives.

Gion Corner. The tragedy of this is we actually went looking for
it later on, and we'd walked right past it but didn't realise!! 

Geisha in Gion
Photo by Natto 

Yasaka Shrine in Gion
Photo by Stu

So Natto gave up on the show idea, so we hopped on a couple of buses back to the station and then back to Osaka.

Kyoto Tower 

Astro Boy!

Was going to go to bed early, but had to stay up late doing the washing. Not sure will have internet access again before the end of the trip, so this may be last blog entry for a while..

Steps walked today: 9472
Photos taken by me: 211
Photos taken by Stu:

Had to wake up pretty early as we had an 8:13 train. Went down to breakfast at seven and had to deal with early morning epic breakfast queue. So had no choice but to wait. They had the asparagus wrapped in bacon again, which they hadn't had since the first morning, so had six of them :)

Managed to check out ok and hobbled slowly to the station (Stu was feeling quite sick from medication withdrawal :( ). Didn't get very good seats on the train. Oh well. Trip was otherwise uneventful. Got to Odawara and found the Hakone Tozan info centre, where we bought our Hakone Free Passes (3900 yen for a two-day pass). Except for Stu who decided in advance he wasn't going to go on any of the cable cars etc, so he just got a bus ticket (which you take a ticket for when you get on the bus and pay the appropriate amount when you get off - which to Moto-Hakone was 1150 yen). The bus trip up into the mountains was very cool, but pretty much impossible to photograph due to the number of trees next to the road. They also don't have anywhere for luggage, so we had to have it all in the aisle of the bus - not terribly convenient for everyone else trying to get on and off. So we sat right up the back to minimise the annoyance.

I read someone's blog that called this bus the "bento bus" because of how crammed it was - they weren't kidding! 

Arrived in Moto-Hakone about forty-five minutes later and found the hotel without any trouble. Dumped our bags and then did the whole tourist circuit which involves a boat trip on a pirate ship (!), two different "rope ways", a cable car, a train and a bus.

Had about a five minute wait for pirate ship - a motorised "tall ship" which puttered up Lake Ashi in about half an hour. Very kitsch but very cool. There was a dressed up pirate on board, although he said no photos (cause they charge to have a photo taken with him).

Pirate ship on Lake Ashi 

Our hotel and Moto-Hakone from the ship on Lake Ashi 

Hakone Shrine tori 

Another Pirate Ship on Lake Ashi 

Togendai and the ropeway to Ubako

Arrived in Togendai and caught the first rope way up to (Owakudani, 1044m) where we got off and were hit by sulphur fumes!  This part of the mountain had active volcanic stuff happening, and further down the mountain there appeared to be a sulphur mine. Wandered up the hill to where all the active stuff was happening and got some of the black hard-boiled eggs. These eggs are just ordinary eggs that they hard boil in the boiling water from the ground. The chemical reaction with the minerals in the water turns the egg shells black. Looks quite spectacular but inside the eggs are perfectly normal and taste just like eggs. Apparently eating one will increase your life by seven years. Not that you can buy just one, you have to buy a bag of five of them for 500yen hrmmm. Everyone except Andrew had one. And these things were still *hot* !

This is what we *should* have been able to see from the ropeway 

Lake Ashi from the ropeway 

Mountainside at Owakudani 

Natto next to a black egg at Owakudani 

Hot springs 

They boil the eggs in the natural springs 

Black eggs turned black by minerals in the water 

But the eggs are perfectly normal on the inside!
Photo by Andrew 

Ropeways at Owakudani 

The Nats wanted to ride the little train! 

Sulphur deposits

This bit of the mountain would have had a spectacular view of Mt Fuji, except it was hiding behind a screen of clouds and haze :( So was a little disappointing, but not unexpected.

Got the next rope way down to (Sounzan) where we changed to the cable car. And at the bottom of that changed to a train. It was a cute little train line with pretty scenery and amazingly tight turns on the tracks. We only stayed on the train for two stops, but I'd liked to have stayed on longer. Definitely need to spend more time here next time. Finally we caught the bus back down the hill to Moto-Hakone.

Hakone Tozan Cable Car

Checked into the hotel properly - biggest room ever! (in terms of Japan hotels heh). We got a lake view western style, Nat and Andrew got a mountain view western style and Natty and Sandra got a lake view Japanese style room. We'd not had one before so all piled into their room to have a look :) (taking shoes off first of course heh).

Sandra and Natty in their room

Nat and Andrew needed to go to the 7-eleven to get some cash so I tagged along to see if I could see Mt Fuji - as the clouds had mostly cleared. And saw it we did, right on sunset!  Was very pretty, but there was so much haze the view was just of a silhouette.

Lake Ashi and Hakone Shrine Tori (view from our room!) 

Sunset over Lake Ashi 

Mount Fuji!!

Came back in time for dinner at the hotel. It was a set menu of Japanese entrees (which were "interesting" and met with mixed response from the others), a chicken and mushroom hotpot (exceptionally nom!) and two massive plates of crab claws (!). Andrew is allergic and the Nats turned their noses up at them, so Sandra, Stu and I spent like half an hour shelling the silly things heh. So much effort for such a little bowl of crab meat heh.

Crab legs times lots!

Didn't do much with the rest of the evening yet it's still quite late. And we want to be up very early tomorrow to see if we can see Fuji-san .. oops...

Steps walked today: 8401
Photos taken by me: 243
Photos taken by Stu: 121

What a day!!

Got up at really really stoopid o'clock (5:45 am) with Natty and Sandra to go see Mount Fuji. It was very hazy but at least we could see it. So we thought that was exciting. We walked up to Detached Palace Garden and went down to the Observation Point (which said it didn't open til 9am, but it looked pretty open to us!). The view of the mountain from there wasn't really any better than from the lakeside because you couldn't see as much of the water. Came back down the 200 stone steps then went across to walk back down the cedar plantation down the old highway. It was all very peaceful at this hour of the morning and we didn't see any other crazy people so had all these places to ourselves :)

Mount Fuji at 6am. We thought this would be as good a view as we'd get. 

Hakone Detached Palace 

Sandra on the Two Hundred Stone Steps 

Remains of the Cedar Highway between Moto-Hakone and Hakone-machi

As we came out of the cedar walk, we saw Mount Fuji again, and it was even shinier because the sun was getting stronger on it. Smsed Stu to get him to come have a look.

Shiny!! Mount Fuji from the Cedar Highway

Then we made our way back to the hotel for breakfast. Our table all got these ham/cheese rolls, which were nice enough, but the other two tables got full on cooked breakfasts. We thought it was all very odd, and that maybe they could have alternated meals so people could choose which meal they'd prefer. Shrug.

After breakfast all of us except Stu went back up to see how clear the view was, and the mountain was even shinier! The Nats immediately wanted to back up the cable cars but I was worried about making Stu have to wait around for us :(  Stu said it was ok though, so the others quickly checked out, and we raced up for the 10:10 pirate ship. The view on the lake was lovely for the first five minutes until it hid behind the caldera rim :) Arrived at the north end and hopped on the rope way.

Shiny!! After breakfast the mountain was shiny so we decided to go up the cable cars again 

Hakone Shrine Tori 

Mount Fuji and Lake Ashi from the pirate ship

Shiny!!

Mount Fuji behind a cable car at Owakudani 

Mount Fuji from Owakudani

From this point on (actually it was really earlier heh), Fuji became known as Shiny :)

The view just got better and better as we went up the mountain to the highest point (1044m). It was sooo pretty (altho still hazy). Took a bunch of photos from a few locations before heading back down the cable car and onto another pirate ship (actually the same ship all three times heh).

One of the pirate ships on Lake Ashi 

Mount Komagatake up from Hakone-en. You can get a chairlift up there,
but it's not part of the Hakone Free Pass. 

One of the many bird photos Stu took while we went up the mountain
Photo by Stu 

Mount Fuji from the Detached Palace gardens
Photo by Stu

Came back to collect Stu and our luggage and talked to the hotel manager (Mac) who was also the waiter, and a funny dude. Got him to take a group shot of us.

Mac the hotel owner and his bonsai 

Second of our two group shots, taken by Mac

Walked up to the bus stop. We took an express to Hakone-Yamoto because the slower more touristy bus would have been too hard to get us and all our luggage onto. From there we got the little train to Odawara. And from Odawara a shinkansen to Shinagawa.

Natty and Sandra went on to Tokyo station to locker their bags, while we went to our hotel to dump ours (epic king sized bed! and most exclusive hotel yet). Hopped back on the Yamonote line to get to Harajuku. The idea was to meet the others at the Scottish Restaurant there before going to the 100 yen shop (the Nats were desperate to go heh). We did actually find them which was most useful as neither of them had phones and none of us had ever been there before :) So had a crepe to keep us going (it was about 4:30 and none of us had had lunch yet) and went to the 100 yen shop next door. Now this is supposed to be a big/famous 100 yen shop, but was really boring. Pretty much all of the junk there can be found in Australian $2 shops. The one we went to in Akihabara last week was better, even though it was about one tenth the size. (Apparently the one in Kokura that the Nats stayed back for was much more betterer)

Take-a-shit-a Street .. :) (Takeshita Street) in Harajuku 

100 Yen shop in Harajuku - it was pretty lame

Cosplay shop in Harajuku

Wandered up and down Takeshita Street a bit more and then went to the Scottish Restaurant for a light dinner before continuing on. We decided to go to Shibuya to see the crazy scramble pedestrian crossing. Way cool! :) We criss-crossed it several times just for fun :) Then we just wandered mostly at random for a while, looking at all the pretties and shops.

Shibuya - the Times Square of Tokyo 

Dog mural in Shibuya 

Hachikō statue in Shibuya 

Shibuya crossing from above

After our (well, mine) legs were about to drop off, we hopped on a train back to Shimbashi and "home". Popped out again to get some food for Stu and then collapsed in a heap.

Set an all-time records on the pedometer - 23058 steps!!  Feet are really really achy, will have to try and find some sitty-type activities tomorrow...

Steps walked today: 23058
Photos taken by me: 373
Photos taken by Stu: 123

Didn't get a good sleep last night. Stubie was very sick and didn't sleep well :(

Slept til 8:30, but then taking care of Stubie and organising breakfast and trying not to hold up Nat and Andrew too much. So not a good morning. Got out the door around 11:30 with Nat and Andrew and we walked up to the Sony building to look at all the shinies. Then came back to the hotel to pick up the random camera and see how Stubie was going.

Fujiya Building, Ginza

Headed out again, this time trying to find the other Shimbashi station for the Yurikamome line. Got sent on a very convoluted route by the underground signage. Found the station eventually and caught the elevated driver-less train over the Rainbow Bridge out to Odaiba.

Rainbow Bridge from the train to Odaiba

Nat saw a building with Sega on it so went on a mission to find it. I saw a building with Golden Arches on it and went on my own mission heh. They actually got back very quickly because they needed entrance fees just to get in.

Nat and a Cat :)

After lunch walked down to the Statue of Liberty clone and looked out at the Rainbow Bridge, before walking through the Star Trek-like promenades between the buildings. I came back early while the others continued their day on their own.

Statue of Liberty and Rainbow Bridge 

Odaiba promenade 

Plane coming into land at Haneda airport, with the Telecom Building and the Flame of Freedom 

Fuji TV Headquarters 

Daikanransha - one of the world's largest ferris wheels, 115m high, at Palette Town

Got back to the hotel, and then went out with Stu to the doctor to get some more medication to replace what he lost. Expensive loss that was :( Hopefully he'll have a better night tonight.

That was at Harajuku. Went for a little walk to find somewhere to sit down in the big park, but no seats were to be found after ten minutes walking :(  Ended up sitting in a gutter just outside Meiji Jingu shrine. Seriously Japan, what's with the lack of seating around??  It's one major gripe I have with this country.

Tori at entrance of Yoyogi Park, Harajuku 

Sake barrels? in Yoyogi Park 

Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park

Had a very quick look at the shrine, then came back to Harajuku and caught a train up to Shinjuku. We actually arrived there at 6pm. So getting through the busiest station in the world at the busiest time of day. Was pretty crazy :):):)

"Eye" in Shinjuku subway area. Given the sheer numbers of people walking past this,
I was impressed to be able to get this photo at all!

Followed the signs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, and the north tower observation deck. It was just getting dark so got to see all the pretty lights. Smsed Andrew to see if they wanted to join us, so they came over from Tokyo as well. Ended up being up there for two hours - whoops!

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office 

Moorise over Tokyo from the Metropolitan Government Office
Photo by Stu 

Park Hyatt Hotel (where they filmed Lost in Translation)

Came back down and Nat wanted to go to Sizzler (we told her we'd passed one on the way to the towers). So we went and found that. Strangely enough it was quite probably the healthiest meal we've had all trip!  Heaps of vegetables that we'd been missing out on by eating at fast food places and generally eating badly. Natto ate heaps more than Stu which was scary heh ;)

And finally wandered back here very late...

Station signs in Shinjuku station. I'm kicking myself I never got a recording of the train
announcements that told you which lines to get for which trains..!

This is the emptiest we ever saw a Tokyo train!

Steps walked today: 19417
Photos taken by me: 158
Photos taken by Stu: 47

Soo sleepie...

Got up slightly earlier than yesterday (8am). Tried to catch up on news feeds and downloading of photos. But didn't do any sort of day planning or blog entry posting :(  Met up with Nat and Andrew to decide what to do with the morning. Went and grabbed some food for the Stubie then we headed out. Decided on Maccas because that always seems like a safe place for breakfast :) But their bacon and egg McMuffins aren't actually muffins - they are these sweet rolls and they call them McGriddles. Weird :)

C11-292 Steam locomotive outside Shimbashi Station

Then hopped on a train one stop to Hamamatsucho. Went and found the Pokemon Centre but it wasn't open yet. Nat was very sad heh. So turned around and wandered in the direction of the Tokyo Tower. This led us through Zojoji temple so got some photos of the temple with the tower behind it :)

Zojoji temple and Tokyo Tower 

Closeup of the upper observation deck of Tokyo Tower 

Tokyo Tower

Got to the tower. It's 820 yen to go up to the "Main Observatory" (150m), but on the fine print it says you have to pay extra to go to the "Special Observatory" (250m) but they don't actually tell you how much it is. Sneaky bastards. Anyway we paid the 820 to go up and asked how much it was to go to the top (another 600 yen). Got up to the main deck and were amazed that we could see Shiny!!!  Were pretty excited about that :) Paid the extra 600 yen and went to the top. This was actually really good. Beautiful 360 degree views and easy panorama making :)

Shiny!! from Tokyo Tower 

Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba 

Looking across to Shinjuku 

Tokyo and Imperial Palace Gardens 

Looking straight down from Tokyo Tower. Stu would not have liked this!

After we all took our fair share of photos we wandered down and then realised just how late in the day it was. So hurried back to the station and met up with Stu at Shimbashi. Went up to Kanda and transferred to the Chuo line for Kichijoji. It was (as usual) quite a while after lunch, so grabbed some food at an ampm - I had a bit of KFC-like chicken and some fruit salad in jelly.

Inokashira Park 

Artist in Inokashira Park
Photo by Stu 

Petal snow!!

Then made our way to the Ghibli Museum. You have to book in advance to see this place, and from your own country I believe. So Nat had organised this weeks ago. It was a pretty cool place, although frustrating because no photography allowed inside :( I've only seem two Ghibli movies, so really must see more of them. There's actually not too much content in the museum, but there's every chance we missed a whole section, as essentially it's just a random series of rooms with no way to be sure if you've seen them all. What was freaky is they seem let you touch a lot of the stuff. So the artists studio recreations had tonnes of interesting english-printed books and I couldn't help but pull some of them out to have a look :) There's no way you'd ever get to do that in an Australian museum!!

Ghibli Museum 

Ghibli Museum

So we spent a couple of hours there, then wandered make to Mitaka Station and back to Tokyo.

Dropped Stu off and Shimbashi, then went back to the Pokemon Centre at Hamamatsucho. Nat drooled over heaps of things there, but in the end only bought one thing :)

Pokemon toilet paper (!?) at the Pokemon Store
Photo by Natto

Then trained it around to Shinjuku again. Andrew and I were both tired and grumpy from lack of food (by now it was 8pm and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch) so put Nat in charge of finding dinner (she being the fussiest eater of the group ;) ). She found an Italian place outside Yodobashi so that's where we went. It was really good! ;)

After dinner we felt much better so went through three of the multiple *buildings* of Yodobashi. I had to resist the very strong urge to buy more storage (a cute little bus-powered usb hard drive would be soooo cool! ;) ). Looked at all sorts of shiny things.

Yodobashi Camera building in Shinjuku

Finally wandered back here quite late.. Again..! Heh

Using your phone is almost a compulsory activity sitting on a train!
Photo by Natto 

Friday nights mean taxis as far as the eye can see outside every station in Tokyo

Steps walked today: 16491
Photos taken by me: 143
Photos taken by Stu: 32

Quite a bit better night last night. Stu definitely recovering.

Went out for Maccas again this morning. Seems that they do in fact have McMuffins. Who knew? :)

After breakfast we split up. Stu and I went up to Ochanomizu because Stu wanted to check out the musical instruments stores and the book stores. Had a little bit of a look around. Then sat down at a cafe for half an hour to get a coffee for Stu.

Music store in Ochanomizu
Photo by Stu

Wandered back to the station the got a yellow train one station to Akihabara. Felt kinda funny to back there again, it was almost like coming home :)

Bridge from the Chuo/Sobu line of Ochanomizu station

The reason for going was that Vic was in town! I'd mailed him last week but he only just saw his email. So he mailed me this morning followed by a phone call to see if we wanted to meet up. So organised lunch in Akihabara. Anyway so met Vic at the station then we wandered around looking for food, with noone making a decision (story of our trip ;) ). Eventually we came to the green harbour bridge so Stu suggested Denny's. So went there. Sat in the next booth to where we had our first "Japan" meal heh. Well their lunch menu was a lot more extensive, and included a lot of Japanese food. I picked something that looked like it had cheese and tomato in the picture (no English subtitles), and it turned out to be lasagna!  So it was very cool catching up with Vic, as had not seen him since I left Sydney. He was on a photography tour which sounded very cool, and with a Japanese-speaking guide, so he got to eat and drink in some interesting places :)

After lunch, Stu and I trained it to Tokyo station and wandered out to look at the Imperial Palace gardens. We didn't get to see it all though, because it was nearly 4:30 and they started kicking everyone out (that, and we'd been sitting around for a while). Went and found the entrance bridge (I'll look up its name when I have my maps out again), and while we were there this old Japanese dude came and started talking to us. I think he wanted to practise his English (which was pretty good). He thought we were joking when we said you often have to pay for toilets in Europe. And we were trying to convince him that Japanese people are very polite (except in crowds) and the place was very clean. He said that older people think the country has gone downhill heaps in the past fifty years heh.

Tokyo Station was being renovated 

Flowers in Wadakura Fountain Park, near the Imperial Palace 

Wadakura Fountain Park 

Swan in the moat of the Imperial Palace 

Imperial Palace Gardens 

Imperial Palace Gardens 

Tokyo Tower from outside the Imperial Palace 

I was amazed at how much wide open space there was outside the Imperial Palace 

Nijubashi Bridge in the Imperial Palace grounds

Pressing on, we went to find Godzilla. We had better luck than Nat and Andrew (who tried unsuccessfully to find it a couple of days ago - no thanks to Dave O's inaccurate place marker on our google map - or maybe it got moved by accident at some point). Anyway, that was pretty cool.

Godzilla!!

Hopped on a train back to the hotel to get my jumper, although we should have walked, we were most of the way there anyway, and probably walked just as far getting to/from stations heh.

Smsed the others and organised to meet up at Shinjuku for dinner.

Found them outside Yodobashi, and then began yet another hunt for food. You'd think that with multiple food vendors on every block this would be easy, but everything was either too expensive or not to people's taste. So we just wandered aimlessly for ages. Eventually ended up at another Italian place. Ordered three pizzas and most expensive beer ever (2500 yen for a jug) and most expensive garlic bread ever (150 yen for the tiniest piece you could imagine). Still, pizza was pretty good.

Buildings in Shinjuku 

Most expensive garlic bread ever!

Went back to find the 8-bit cafe that Nat wanted to see, but it was really just a little night club, that wanted a 2000 yen cover charge, and all the locals there were laughing at us, so we didn't go in.

Wandered back to station, then went to Shibuya so Stu could see Hachiko and the crazy crossing. But after two crossings, I crossed again but noone followed me :( So stood around looking stoopid until eventually Stu came and found me. *sigh*

Starbucks in Shibuya, where they discreetly filmed Lost in Translation
Photo by Stu

Then headed back to hotel to crash.

Steps walked today: 19982
Photos taken by me: 125
Photos taken by Stu: 206

Shinkansen and view from our hotel room in Shimbashi

Tried to get out the door early (by 9am).  It didn't work.  Was more like twenty past by the time we checked out.  We'd decided to go to Tokyo to dump our bags for the day, but this meant not stopping in at Maccas for breakfast.  So we got to Tokyo and dumped bags, and made reservations for the NEX, but then couldn't find any food.  That's not to say there was nothing there (there was heaps), but Stu was feeling overwhelmed and of course there's the fussy eaters heh.  So we ended up wandering aimlessly around for about an hour.  Was really not fun.  In the end decided to go to Ueno, and we got some pretty crappy food in the park. 

First stop was the science musuem.  It was 600 yen, but they also had a dinosaur exhibition, which was 1500 yen for entry to both.  Decided to give that a miss as 900 yen seemed an awful lot just for dinosaurs.  Had a bit of fun wandering around the science musuem.  Their 360 degree theatre was pretty cool.  The exhibits weren't too bad, a bit like a cross between the Powerhouse Museum and a natural history museum.  But it was a little bit jumbled up in terms of layout, and very little in the way of English subtitles (aside from computer screens here and there which had translations).  We didn't have time to see the Japan exhibit building, just the global building. 

Automatically opening umbrellas 

Animal display in the museum 

Tasmanian Tiger!
Photo by Natto 

WWII aeroplane 

This circular room represented all forms of life with a "tree of life" on the
ground showing how they were related/evolved/separated 

Dinosaur 

T-rex!
Photo by Andrew

Wandered back to the station and then headed across to Harajuku, because Stu and Nat wanted to check out the cosplay kids.  "Meh" was about my reaction to it ;)  It was very crowded and not that interesting. 

Cosplayers in Harajuku 

Stu getting a free hug

Then headed back to Tokyo to get our bags and hop on the NEX.  Was kinda sad saying goodbye to Tokyo.

On the Nex to Narita airport. I was really sad to be leaving at this point

At the airport we spent the last of our yen on bits and pieces and massages in the airport's way cool massage machines (still 200 yen for ten minutes hurrah!).  Finally left Japan about half an hour late.

Relaxing in the massage chairs at the airport
Photo by Stu

I decided I wasn't going to try and sleep, so watched "Bolt" first up (not too bad) and then Frost/Nixon (pretty good).  At this point I thought I could maybe doze a little, so slept for maybe an hour or two.  They turned on all the lights at 3:45 Japan time which cut into my sleeping :(  Over "breakfast" (of a couple of small danishes), finally got to watch the other half of Enough Rope that I started watching on the way over. 

Transferred planes at the Gold Coast.  Decided their duty free prices were pretty good.  Although they only had one bottle of cointreau in the entire shop :(  Immigration at Sydney took about three minutes, and customs we just walked straight through, no inspections no nothing.. boring! ;)  (although Stu did get a quick pat-down search at the Gold Coast). 

Outbound and inbound planes at the Gold Coast 

Sydney Harbour 

Paramatta Road totally deserted early Easter Monday

Checked in at the Qantas domestic checkin at the International Terminal (and got the grumpiest check-in attendant ever, which didn't help my already tired/hungry mood >:( ), which let us get their free bus across to the domestic terminal.  So tarmac tour for free! :)

767 on the "free" tarmac tour between terminals

Went in with Stu to the Qantas lounge for a few pieces of toast and orange juice, before getting a Dash-8 down to Canberra.  Melita picked us up at the airport and we came home.

Leaving Sydney airport 

Sutherland 

Ansto at Lucas Heights 

Federal Highway - nearly home! 

The Dash-8 we flew back to Canberra in

And that, as they say, is that :)

Steps walked today: 9692 (plus 6140 Monday)
Photos taken by me: 299
Photos taken by Stu: 72

View from our hotel in Akihabara


Ueno Park, Tokyo


Miyajima


Todaiji Temple, Nara


View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka


View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka


View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka


View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka


Nijo Castle, Kyoto


Lake Ashi, view from our hotel room in Hakone


Tokyo Harbour and Rainbow Bridge


Tokyo Tower 360
Photos by Nat


Tokyo and Imperial Palace wide open spaces