Kazza the Blank One: August 2010 Archives

As per usual I feel like I have far too many things to do than can possibly be fitted into the next few days.. panicking just slightly...
Attempting typing up a blog entry on my phone. If it drives me too nuts I'll switch to the laptop.

So day 1 started at 4pm Friday when we needed to leave home. We actually managed to organise a lift this time which was so much nicer than a cab!  Uneventful trip to the airport. Checked in but all the planes were running half an hour late due to single track, er, runway working at Sydney airport. So our 17:35 flight was rescheduled for 18:10 and left the gate at 18:24.

In the meantime we went into the Qantas club and had some champagne so that made the time pass quickly :)

It was dark so got to see the lights of Canberra which were very pretty. And a Federal Highway that was bejewelled  with the lights of dozens of cars leaving Canberra :) Had an interesting approach to Sydney airport - flew up from the south-west, across the top of the north-south runways (parallel to the east-west one) then did a 270 degree turn to the right to come in from the south. Felt like a game of Flight Control or something ;)

Our baggage had been checked through so we just had to hop on the Qantas shuttle (aka free Tarmac tour) bus over to the international terminal. Very squee getting up close to lots of planes :):)

So had a couple of hours to kill in Sydney. Think I spent them mostly just reading news feeds.

Sydney from Sydney Airport Qantas Lounge
Sydney from Sydney Airport Qantas Lounge 

So then piled onto our 747. Pretty much the whole back section of the plane was filled with (older) school kids returning home to Japan.  


Back of our plane
Back of our plane

Took off to the north and sitting on the right side of the plane so nice view of Sydney.

Had our dinner then attempted to sleep. Was moderately successful. It was a mostly full moon which made the whole wing glow. It was actually quite beautiful but impossible to document. At one point we had some decent turbulence while passing through clouds. At another point I looked out and saw Orion on his side. There were some very pretty clouds around sunset.

Breakfast came a bit after 5am for Stu - he wasn't awake yet tho heh. Ours arrived a little later.  Food on the plane was ok - the more processed stuff (chicken at dinner and eggs/sausage for breakfast) were nice but the fresh vegetables sides were very overcooked :(

Sausage and eggs on the plane
Sausage and eggs on the plane 

Sunrise clouds
Sunrise clouds 

Flying into Narita
Flying into Narita 

Flying into Narita
Flying into Narita - golf courses rule! 

Flying into Narita
Flying into Narita - can you see my shadow? :) 

Our plane
Our plane 

Arrival at Narita at 7:10am (Sydney time - 6:10am local time).  Heat!!! Waited quite a while for bags to come through but then immigration and customs were a breeze.

Went and got our JR passes validated then caught the 7:33am NEX into Tokyo. Realised at this point that we were hungry but didn't actually have any cash! Oops. Did I mention the heat? So at Tokyo we got some money out before getting some drinks and snacks and jumping on the Shinkansen to Osaka.

Tokyo Sky Tree
Tokyo Sky Tree under construction
Photo by Stu 

Info boards at Tokyo station
Info boards at Tokyo station 

Hikari 507 to Osaka
Hikari 507 to Osaka 

Shiny in hiding
Shiny would have been behind those clouds on the left 

Japan countryside
Japan countryside 

Statue of Liberty Hotel near Kyoto
Statue of Liberty on top of a hotel north of Kyoto - couldn't actually
geo-locate this! 

Tō-ji temple at Kyoto
Tō-ji temple at Kyoto - next time I go to Kyoto I'm going to visit this
one up close! 

Shall I remind you about the heat? It was pretty much unbearable in Osaka. Regretting my decision not to bring shorts (but then would have needed other shoes too).

Wandered down to the hotel but it was still too early to check in, so dumped our bags and went out to find some lunch. Decided to go into a ramen bar near the hotel. The menu was only in Japanese and while I would have been able to pick something off the pictures, Stu could actually understand enough of the menu and the waitress to figure out some more detail. I was very impressed :) And as an added bonus the place was air-conditioned and they had a big jug of ice water. Afterwards we got some ice creams and went for a bit of a wander. Did I mention the heat?

Super tasty ramen in Osaka
Super tasty ramen in Osaka 

Ramen bar in Osaka
The ramen bar in Osaka that we got some super tasty ramen in 

Ice cream!
Ice cream! 

No bicycle parking
The sign says no bicycle parking - so there's a bicycle parked! 

Got back to the hotel and checked in where the first order of business was a cold shower. Unpacked a bit and got online then did this much of this blog post.

Stu collapsed for several hours while I did things like sort out my photos and read news feeds.  Twitpicced some of my photos but got a bit stuck with photos from my big camera.  They're around five mb each, which is painfully slow to upload over the hotel link as well Twitpic has a five mb limit.  The Eee PC doesn't have anything capable of resizing them (paint will open them but it complains it doesn't have the memory when I try to resize them :( ). Might have to do em on Stu's lappy or something.

Eventually Stu got up and we decided to wander into Osaka.  Last time we were here we took the JR lines around to the Namba area, but getting back late at night took an hour and a half because it was three trains.  So thought, screw that this time, we'll take the local subway.  One train and 270 yen each each way and there in about fifteen minutes. 

Subway to Nanba
Subway to Nanba 

Got out of the station and of course we had no idea where we were :)
Decided (like last time) to pick a direction and walk in it.  And by total fluke happened across the Glico man that we were hoping to find (Stu didn't come with us last time). 

Covered walkway in Nanba
Covered walkway in Nanba 

Asahi Super Dry
Asahi Super Dry 

The Glico Man!
The Glico Man! 

Stu in Osaka
Stu in Osaka 

Canal in Nanba, Osaka
Canal in Nanba, Osaka 

Okonomikayi!
Okonomikayi! Actually I didn't even know what this was until some
time later thanks to Lisa

Stu looking at lights in Nanba
Stu looking at lights in Nanba 

Old Ferris Wheel in Nanba
Old Ferris Wheel in Nanba 

Then we went for a wander down by the canal with the thought of going to find dinner.  As we were walking by some dude stopped us and asked us where we from.  This group of people had been on a drinks and food stand for some charity event, so talked us into getting some beers.  They deep fried some chicken for us as well and asked us to sit and join them.  The dude had been to Australia before - he kept going on and on about smoking in Nimbin ;) One of the girls had lived for a year in Australia working at Nando's at Bondi.  And there was another really cute girl who was 32 but looked about 22 :)  So Stu got to practise his Japanese, and they understood enough English for it to be a very fun evening.  Stu might have drank quite a bit :):)  But a good release for him :)

Girls in Nanba
Girls in Nanba. The one on the left is now a Facebook friend of Stu's.
The one on the right worked in Sydney for a year. 

Us looking very hot and a little drunk
Us looking very hot and a little drunk 

So eventually wandered back to the hotel for another cold shower and bed.


Geotagging - Day 1
Geotagging - Day 1

Photos on the Canon: 140
Videos on the Canon: 2
Photos on the Sony: 183
Videos on the Sony: 5
Photos on the iPhone: 21
Photos on the Blackberry: 2
Photos on the Video: 10
Videos on the Video: 18
Steps walked: ? Friday + 8582 Saturday
Yen Spent: 7049
Woke a bit before 8am. Only remember waking up once in the middle of the night so think I slept fairly well.

Got ready and went down for breakfast. This hotel does awesome breakfasts. They even had takoyaki!! Win!! (that's octopus balls for the uninitiated - an Osaka specialty.  Stu first introduced them to me the day I stayed home sick in this hotel last time.  And burnt my mouth on them last night when the locals brought us some to share with them heh).

Takoyaki for breakfast!
Takoyaki for breakfast! 

Small carparks, Japan style
Small carparks, Japan style, near Shin-Osaka station 

Came back upstairs to have a look at the Kyoto map I had done last time. Decided we'd head for the monkeys first and Kiyomizu-dera temple near Gion. And the tower.

So we caught the 10:13 hikari to Kyoto. Just about melted into a puddle waiting though. Have I mentioned how bad the heat is here? The train trip is so short (~15min) that I hadn't finished cooling off before we arrived.

Interior of Kyoto Station
Interior of Kyoto Station 

Astroboy!
Astroboy! 

Kimba!
Kimba! 

Decided we'd go up the tower first. It was actually pretty cool, and it was a lovely clear day for it. Could see all the way to Osaka in the distance. There were too many bits of the tower in the way to do a decent panorama - at least on the top level - the lower level was better - and no people in the way there either heh. Nowhere really to sit though (I've mentioned before the lack of seatage is one major gripe I have with this country).

Kyoto Tower
Kyoto Tower 

Kyoto Tower
Kyoto Tower 

View north-west from Kyoto Tower
View north-west from Kyoto Tower 

View west from Kyoto Tower
View west from Kyoto Tower 

View towards Osaka from Kyoto Tower
View towards Osaka from Kyoto Tower - you can see Osaka in the distance! 

Taxis outside Kyoto Station
Taxis outside Kyoto Station 

Kyoto Station
Kyoto Station 

So headed back down and back across to the station to find a map (I like having them on paper, and I'd stoopidly left the one I got last year at home. Went to the tourist information office (which had moved) and got some maps and the exact location of the Iwatayama monkey park.

Waited about fifteen minutes for a train, which thankfully was air conditioned.

Old steam train near Arashiyama station
Old steam train near Arashiyama station 

Wandered slowly down from the station to Togetsukyo Bridge. Then across it and wandered east along the Oi River. That was actually relatively pleasant as it was shady and there was a bit of a breeze.

Ōi River at Arashiyama
Ōi River at Arashiyama 

Togetsukyō Bridge
Togetsukyō Bridge 

Walk along the river at the base of Iwatayama
Walk along the river at the base of Iwatayama 

Canoeing on the river
Canoeing on the river 

Ōi River
Ōi River 

Canoes by the river
Canoes by the river 

Spent a little while there and had to decide whether or not to climb up to see the monkeys. Because, you know, EPIC HEAT!! In the end we decided we would make the climb. And it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was all in the shade in the forest, and definitely cooler than outside the forest. And when you get to the top they direct you to a "rest room" where they hand out refresher towels! Very cool :)

Walking up Iwatayama
Walking up Iwatayama 

So anyway, inside the building you can buy nuts to feed the monkeys and they sit around the outside with their arms stretched in through the fencing expecting a handout. Some of them took the nuts very gently, others a bit rougher heh.

Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park
Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park 

Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park
Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park 

Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park
Monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey Park 

After we cooled down a bit we went outside to look at the view. They also did a feeding and all the monkeys came from all over to feed.

Cooling off in the pool
Cooling off in the pool 

Looking across to Kyoto
Looking across to Kyoto 

Looking across to Kyoto
Looking across to Kyoto 

Baby monkey
Baby monkey 

Feeding time!
Feeding time! 

Feeding time!
Feeding time! 

Was a very cool place, glad we decided to go. Nat would definitely have gone nuts with photos there hehe :)

So headed back down. It was nearly 3pm by this point and we'd pretty much had enough. So found an airconditioned restaurant on the main road and had some nice food and a couple of very big Sapporo beers (633mL- yipe!).

We decided we didn't have the energy to go to Kiyomizu-dera so just did a bit of a wander up to the bamboo grove. It was very still air though which was a bit unpleasant. I was feeling utterly miserable by this point. I really don't like heat :(

Sagano bamboo forest
Sagano bamboo forest 

Train at a level crossing in the middle of the bamboo grove
Train at a level crossing in the middle of the bamboo grove 

So we hopped in a train back into Kyoto and a hikari back to Osaka and into a cold shower.

Three drivers?
It amused us that there were not one, not two, but three JR staff in the Kyoto trains 

Had some snacks for dinner. Then was quite distressed to find that Stu's laptop has an iec cable which we don't have a dongle for. So only a couple of hours of battery left on it, which is most annoying since I wanted to do some photo stuff on it.

Early night tonight!

Oh, I also fixed the comments on this blog.. so please leave a comment if you're reading :)


Geotagging - Day 2
Geotagging - Day 2 

Geotagging - Day 2
Geotagging - Day 2

Photos on the Canon: 323
Photos on the Sony: 115
Videos on the Sony: 2
Photos on the Olympus: 5
Photos on the Video: 1
Videos on the Video: 44
Steps walked: 16610
Yen Spent: 7400
So I decided it was just going to be too hot and miserable to go to Universal Studios. So I guess I'll never get to go on the Back to the Future ride :( Unless by some miracle it's still there next time we come to Osaka.

Stu did some research last night and thought a nice long air-conditioned train trip would be in order. There are JR lines that go all the way around the Kii Peninsula, a lot of it on the coast so we decided to do that.

Little did we know the whole trip would take thirteen hours and nine trains :)

But since the journey was the destination and the whole point of the day was to sit in relative comfort, the day was a win :)

Warning: the rest of this entry is going to be really boring.. just sayin'

10:00 Our first, shortest, trip was from Shin-Osaka to Osaka. Getting the hang of the Osaka train system and reading the boards so was pretty easy.

~10:10 Our second train was the Osaka loop line. Also easy to find - platforms 1 and 2, and which one you go to determines whether you clockwise around the loop or anti clockwise. There was a train on the platform so we got on that and went clockwise. Never actually been that way around the loop before.

10:42 Our third train was a local train from Tennoji headed for Wakayama. This was going quite slowly so we decided to ditch that one at Otori and swap to a Rapid train (we passed the slow one a little way down the line).

Train #3: Tennoji (Osaka) to Otori
Train #3: Tennoji (Osaka) to Otori 

On the train to Otori
On the train to Otori 

11:26 Our fourth train was a Rapid from where we got on at Otori. We were a little concerned that train was headed for both Kansai Airport and Wakayama, when these are on different branches, but the train actually got split at Hineno! And as an added bonus we were in the correct half of the train so didn't need to move.

Train #4: Rapid from Otori to Wakayama
Train #4: Rapid from Otori to Wakayama 

Canal near Higashisano
Canal near Higashisano 

12:21 Our fifth train was from Wakayama. We were out of the city now but still a lot of built up areas between rice paddies and mountains. Not much in the way of coastline. This train terminated unexpectedly (for us) at Gobo, so we had to sit on a platform in the middle of nowhere until the next train came along.

Train #5: Wakayama to Gobo
Train #5: Wakayama to Gobo 

Looking across Wakaura Bay
Looking across Wakaura Bay. There's actually an amusement park over there! 

Shiotsu
Shiotsu 

Refinery and gas storage at Hatsushima
Refinery and gas storage at Hatsushima 

Mystery building in Oshima
Mystery building in Oshima 

Cute little seaside town of Nishihiro
Cute little seaside town of Nishihiro 

13:47 Our sixth train was a limited express. We were originally going to get off at Tanabe but the place didn't look very inspiring so we decided to stay on till it terminated at Shirahama.

Train #6: Limited Express from Gobo to Shirahama
Train #6: Limited Express from Gobo to Shirahama 

Coastline near Iwashiro
Coastline near Iwashiro 

14:30 Arrival at Shirahama. On the way out of the station we had a look at what time the next train was. It was either 15:17 or 16:52(!) So we decided to just have a quick lunch and then keep going. Which is a bit of a shame cause it looks like it might have been a nice place to spend some time in. Although everything is a fair hike from the station so would have had to take an infrequent bus or a taxi. Oh well, maybe next time.

Where we had lunch in Shirahama
Where we had lunch in Shirahama 

Shirahama train station
Shirahama train station 

15:17 Our seventh train was another limited express "Ocean Arrow". The was probably the best leg of the day. Quite a lot if it was along the coast, although photography opportunities were limited by trees and power lines obstructing the view. This train terminated at Shingu so sat on the platform there (in a little air-conditioned room) for twenty minutes.

Train #7: Limited Express (Ocean Arrow) from Shirahama to Shingu
Train #7: Limited Express (Ocean Arrow) from Shirahama to Shingu 

Coastline near Mirozu
Coastline near Mirozu 

Mirozu
Mirozu 

Beach at Wabuka
Beach at Wabuka
Photo by Stu 

Coast near Tsuga
Coast near Tsuga 

Coast near Tawara
Coast near Tawara 

Coast near Shimosato
Coast near Shimosato 

Coast near Shimosato
Coast near Shimosato 

River in Shimosato
River in Shimosato 

Coast near Yukawa
Coast near Yukawa 

Beach near Shingu
Beach near Shingu 

17:28 Our eighth train was another limited express "Nanki 8". What we didn't realise was that this wasn't a JR train! When the ticket inspector came along he said it was a company train not a JR one.. Major doh!! The fare was 800 yen each, which really isn't too bad for what was to be a three hour trip! Imagine trying to that in Australia you'd be up for $50 or something silly!? There were some pretty towns along this trip, but the light was fading so didn't get to document them. 


Train #8: Nanki 8 from Shingu to Nagoya
Train #8: Nanki 8 from Shingu to Nagoya 

Factory at Udono
Factory at Udono 

Train going through Udono Station
Train going through Udono Station 
20:42 Arrival at Nagoya. So at this point we were both very tired and hungry, and then we went outside to find food and the heat and hurty zapped any remaining strength. So spent nearly half an hour wandering around trying to find food. In the end we ended up back at the station where there was a little alcove of restaurants under the station. Shared a ramen dish (a really tasty tsuke ramen) then headed upstairs to catch what a paper timetable said would be a 21:53 hikari. However the electronic boards said the next one would be a 22:11 .. grunt 


View west of Nagoya from the station
View west of Nagoya from the station

22:11 Our ninth and final train of the day was a Hikari Shinkansen from Nagoya to Shin-Osaka. After having eaten and cooled down in the train and painkillers kicked in I was feeling human again by the time we arrived at 23:10. 


Train #9: Hikari Shinkansen from Nagoya to Shin-Osaka
Train #9: Hikari Shinkansen from Nagoya to Shin-Osaka

So yeah. Super long day.


Geotagging - Day 3
Geotagging - Day 3

Photos on the Canon: 169
Photos on the Sony: 95
Videos on the Sony: 2
Photos on the Olympus: 1
Photos on the Video: 29
Videos on the Video: 48
Steps walked: 5535
Yen Spent: 6200