Japan

 

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Saturday 21 November 2009

Checked out around 11am then caught the bus to Kyoto station ready to head out to Mt Fuji.
Had intended to put our luggage in some lockers so we could go check out a nearby flea market, but all the lockers were in use so we ended up just going to one of the souvenir shops and buying a few things. I got a maiko hair ornament which I think is lovely, but have no idea where I'd wear it!

Caught the Shinkansen again, had to change trains 3 times and by early evening we were on the Fuji express which eerily enough was decorated with all Thomas the Tank Engine motifs inside.
Once at Kawaguchiko station we rang the hostel to get our free pickup service. They were there in a flash and we were soon checked in to a lovely hostel. We had stayed in a K's Hostel in Tokyo and both hostels have been some of the cleanest and most organised hostels I've ever stayed in, so they were pretty impressive.
Went on the net a bit before heading out to find some food. Decided on the easy option of Mos Burger which is just a takeaway joint. Afterwards we went to a supermarket and bought some wagyu beef, seafood, noodles and some other stuff to cook a big feast the following night.
Went back to the hostel. Room was absurdly hot when I got in there so I turned off the heating before going to sleep.


Sunday 22 November 2009

Got up at about 7.30am and walked down to the lake by myself to see if Fuji was out. The mountain is notorious for being hidden by clouds and that morning was no exception. Went back to bed.
Got up around 10am and decided to hire some bikes. First stop was 7/11 up the road to buy some gloves and breakfast. I also bought a beanie type thing as well. It was pretty cold, we were in the mountains afterall.
Biked down to the lake for a quick picnic breakfast. Could see a tiny bit of Fuji but not a lot.
Set off cycling along the lake edge intending to go to a kimono museum that seemed like a short ride from the hostel. 2 hours later we finally found it.... on the other side of the lake! Map not to scale and not accurate! Got to see some nice scenery along the way though and came across an Autumn Festival that had all these stalls with all different foods on a stick. Joel and I got squid and it was pretty tasty. Walked down to the lake and Mt Fuji was finally showing herself! Took many photos, tried to get some pics with the autumn leaves in the foreground.
Went back in search of the kimono museum, ended up in a beautiful garden which had the museum up the back. I didn't want to subject Joel to something he probably wouldn't be interested in, so he stayed outside to take pics in the garden. Inside I found a very expensive gift shop with lots of pretty purses
I wish I could have afforded.
Went to the museum area and it was just stunning. About 30 kimonos were hung on walls in a square room.
Each kimono pattern blended into the next and went through all four seasons. It was absolutely beautiful.
Took a few sneaky pics as you weren't supposed to take photos. Then went back to the giftshop to buy a few not-so-expensive things.
When we left it was quite dark so now a lot of the big trees that lined a dry waterway were lit up with big spotlights and also with little lanterns at the base of each tree . There were a lot of people out just walking the path on each side of the waterway looking up at the illuminated leaves.

We walked our bikes down the path and ended up back at the lake. From here we found a short-cut back to the hostel and gladly handed our bikes back. I later checked on google maps and found we'd done about 12kms. Seemed like 30kms.
Went back to my room while Joel went on the net downstairs. Met a new room-mate who I'd given a quick nod to when I woke up that morning. Mandeep was from London and doing a quick Japan trip to use up some annual leave. Had a good chat before going to sleep.



Monday 23 November 2009

Checked out at 11am and caught the bus to an area across the lake. Got some lunch in a restaurant, more katsu.
Then bought some souvenirs before catching a cable car up the mountain to see if Fuji was out.
It wasn't. After a bit I could see parts of it, but it was mostly covered in clouds.
Walked back to the hostel and got the shuttle service to the train station to take a bus back to Tokyo. Bus got caught in some major traffic jam and it took us about 3 hours to get to Shinjuku station instead of the usual two.
Caught the Yamanote line to Shinagawa, which is quite a big station so it took us awhile to find the hotel which was just outside the station.
The hotel was occupied on the 26-32 floors in a large office building. On the reception floor it looked like a normal 5 star luxury hotel, very impressed! We were given our own swipe keys then taken to our rooms by a porter.
Oh the room, oh the giant fluffy king size bed with four normal, big pillows! I even had a nice view.
Bathroom had a bath and shower, multi-functional toilet and toiletries.
That night we went to a nearby New York style restaurant. Starting to get over Japanese food.


Tuesday 24 November 2009

Got a nice sleep in, chatted to some people online with the free internet connection, then we headed out to Tokyo Disney. Made a pit-stop at a place called Queen Isetan which was a gourmet supermarket. Had the best assortment of food. I bought a few little dishes to sample, wasn't sure what they were but they looked great and I identified prawns in one.
Caught the train to Tokyo station and then out to Tokyo Disney. There didn't seem to be a lot of people about but inside it was quite packed.
Had a bit of a look around. Just about every single ride had a massive line out the front. We found a board with all the rides on it and their waiting times. It wasn't uncommon to see 120 or 150 minute waiting time for some rides. I saw they had the haunted mansion which I'd been to at Anaheim Disney, so I wanted to go see that but the waiting time was 120 minutes!
Bought some mouse ears and wore them. Might as well fit in. Everyone had some Disney character hat or mouse ears going on.
Saw an absence of line going into a Lilo & Stitch show so figured we'd go have a look. A crowd soon developed behind us and we waited a bit before we were finally led inside. There were all these birds hanging from the ceiling and they were moving randomly around. In the middle was a big pot and everything was decorated in Hawaiian décor.
Music started and suddenly the birds were singing and talking. Bird of Paradise flowers in the corners where singing as well, as were masks on the doors. Weird, but entertaining. Everything was being sung in Japanese and suddenly Stitch appeared out of the pot and started singing and playing guitar. Then it was over. The teenage Australian boy sitting in front of me could not get out fast enough. On the way in I had said to him “Kill yourself now while you still can!” hahaha.

Wandered on and found the haunted mansion. Still a massive wait. Looked through some shops, bought a Minnie Mouse geisha. Smelt something nice in the air and followed it to buy this thing that looked like a churros but was made
out of a softer pastry and had chocolate inside. It was reaaaally good.
Checked out Toon Town. Boring. Realised Disneyland wasn't that great at 28 as opposed to being 10 years old when I last went.
Joel and I decided we'd do the mansion thing then leave. I went and lined up while he went and got us caramel popcorn for the wait. Meanwhile a parade was going right past the mansion. I made a break across the lines and found the wait had decreased to 70 minutes. Along with the parade going on I cleared most of the queue in no time! Joel came back with the popcorn right as I was passing the area that was just about to head inside which was great timing. In all I think I was only in line for 30 minutes.
Were ushered inside where we piled into a room. Some special effects went on until we went into an area that had the little ride that goes around on a track and you get your own little booth thing. Awesome!
Finally got to see the hologram things that look like ghosts that I'd seen at the original Disneyland. I think they're so cool.
Headed off after stopping at a giftshop for some last minute items and various photo ops.
Decided to go to Asakusa to get some souvenirs. The road leading up to the temple there has some great souvenir shops and I particularly wanted to get some Ukiyo-e prints.
Ended up buying one of Ueno Park, one of some geishas and a small but actual wood-cut print of Hokusai's The Great Wave which I had liked for quite a while.
Bought some purses in a little shop. They specialised in kimono's and inside where 3 old shop assistants. One spotted a little bunny I had bought earlier that was wearing a kimono, in my bag. I took it out and she said “Ooooh cute!!' and the 2nd old lady joined in. They then showed the 3rd and they all had a good look at it remarking on it's sandals and traditional bag.... and the giant strawberry it was carrying. One did a little pose with one hand in her hair saying “oooh bunny” I said the kimono wearing one must be the original Playboy bunny and they all laughed. I mentioned it was 'kawaii' and they all 'oooh''d again at the gaijin speaking Japanese. It was very amusing. I bumped into one of them a few shops down later on and she slapped me on the back like an old friend and laughed with me as I was looking at more purses.

Feet were beginning to really hurt by this stage. Joel and I decided to see what Japanese KFC tasted like as I knew there was one around the corner. Ordered a crispy strips meal with something that looked like a croquette.
Turns out it was a cup of chowder with pastry baked over the top. Interesting. The crispy strips tasted different but still good. Was more like a tempura batter with the 12 secret herbs & spices.
Then headed for Shinjuku. We were on the hunt to find a school-girl panty vending machine. Took us awhile to find the seedy area. Ended up playing games in a Timezone type place for awhile. Their skilltesters are really hard but
I saw one guy get 4 giant pillows out of 2 machines. He was on a roll. I was a bit scared to think what he might end up doing to those pillows as they had the usual sexy anime cutsie girls on the front.
I played a few different machines but finally found one that had goth kittehs in it. I wanted a goth-kitteh. Took me awhile but I finally got one! Joel also got a prize that he wanted as well, so we went on our way.
Walked around some more and eventually found the red-light district, although it's more like the giant, flashy, neon-light district. Searched and searched but the only vending machines we found were drink or smokes ones.
Defeated we caught the train back to the hotel. Soooo tired, but bed was soooo nice.


Wednesday 25 November 2009

Down at reception this morning as we checked out of the sexy 5 star hotel, we met Ben who was a Concierge there, but originally from the Gold Coast. Had a chat with him about the Japanese and all the cool things to do.
Checked our bags into storage and went to the train station, stopping off at Queen Isetan for breakfast and more sugar coated rice crackers, they're addictive! They had a deli section which had a massive assortment of pre-made
food in little containers, there was a thai section, italian section, sushi, katsu, salads, pastries, breads, anything you could hope to buy. I bought these odd well... things. I'm not sure what they were I can only describe them as some sort of meat, either chicken or pork with a slice of water chestnut in the middle, covered in breadcrumbs and fried.

After our culinary expedition we caught the train out to the Ghibli Museum which was on the outskirts of Tokyo.
On the train we sat opposite a young girl who had fallen asleep on the train. I soon realised she was very intoxicated as she tried rolling over on the seats and nearly falling off them. She was oblivious to the fact she had completely exposed her pink knickers to the whole carriage. Once we'd reached our station, which was also the end of the line, I saw some women try to wake the girl up but she shoo'd them off before going back to sleep with the train going back in the direction it'd come.

Joel and I headed off to find the Ghibli bus that would take us straight to the museum. I called it the Cat-bus.
I wasn't quite sure what cat-bus was at that stage but I already liked it.
Unfortunately the Ghibli bus was just a normal yellow bus. No magic kittehs.
Once we were dropped off at the museum we handed over the vouchers we had bought on the net and were given an entry ticket that happened to contain 3 animation cells from a Ghibli movie.
For those that don't know about Ghibli, it is a very famous Japanese studio that has been around since the 80's and has created well-known movies such as Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo, and Howl's Moving Castle.
Once inside we saw a room that contained many things that showed the whole animation process. One included a cylindrical floor to ceiling piece that contained a robot character, arms outstretched to the sky as hundreds of birds flew around him. It was really quite captivating.
Another was like a carousel with cutouts of characters in different poses. When it spun around a strobe light flashed on it which then made it look like animation. This was where I first saw cat-bus. It was, well, a cat, that acted as a bus, pretty self explanatory. However, I wasn't expecting the odd, slightly manical look on its face, nor the 8 legs that scurried beneath it.

We then lined up at their mini cinema to watch a short film. It was the cat-bus film! It was so freakin hilarious!
Words cannot describe the funny in it. Unfortunately the museum is the only place where they show it and as yet I've been unable to find it online. In short, it is about a young girl who has some caramels. Out in a field on a gusty day a small whirlwind comes along and tries to take one. The girl chases the whirlwind to her house where she traps it in a room. When it stops spinning around it turns into a cat. The cat goes nuts as it tries to get out of the room. The girl then gives the cat a caramel and the kitteh looks very odd while chewing on it. She then lets it go.
Later that night the cat returns, hovering at the window she realises that there is a massive space on the cats back for her to climb into. She does and cat-bus roars out of the house and flies over fields where it then comes across a very massive, older cat-bus taking all these weird things to a forest. It then shows heaps of these cat-buses and even a cat-train converging in this forest. All the weird black things get out and march to a central point where they find a creepy, skanky, old cat. The young girl spots a 'thing' she knows and he takes her to the head of the creepy, massive cat. She gives him a caramel, he chews with limited grace and then flops down and stops breathing.
The little girl thinks she has killed him but then the cat opens its eyes and starts laughing and then everyone laughs and that's pretty much it. Funny, but odd. I lol'd on many occassions, especially at one point where little cat-bus was flying and the 'camera' looks upward and see's a massive cat-bus flying overhead, complete with massive cat-balls.

After this we checked out some more exhibits before going to the gift shop. I bought a fluffy cat-bus toy amongst other things. The place was packed and hard to get around with a backpack on so I was glad to get out.
Joel and I then went in search of a big giant robot statue that I'd seen in my brother photos. We found it in a garden on the roof and stood in line before getting our photos taken with it.

Headed back to the train station and caught the train back to the hotel where we picked up our bags, said bye to Ben, the Concierge, and then headed to Tokyo station to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka which was about 3 hours away.

It was dark by the time we arrived in Osaka. I had no idea how to get to the hotel so decided to catch a taxi.
Driver knew limited English so I said "Big Yen or Little Yen?". He got the point and said it would be about 1300 Yen which is about $15AU. Sold!

At the hotel, which looked very posh and nice, we decided to upgrade to a club lounge suite. We thought it was just going to be an extra $10 but later found out it was an extra $60 a night.
In our room we even had a desk! I was impressed. Luxury bath, robes, pajamas and toiletries polished off the room nicely.

Headed out to find some dinner, eventually settled on an Outback Steakhouse which was pure crass. They tried passing off an african-american guy as an aboriginal, hilarious. Food was good though and they even had a Onion blossom I had been on the lookout for. It was a whole onion, cut in a way that it opened out and looked like a chrysanthemum flower, then it was dipped in batter and fried. It was awesome. Got a steak to go along with this Was very well cooked.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and crashed.


Thursday 26 November 2009

I was over being a tourist and spent the whole day in the hotel sleeping. Went down to the club lounge though to make use of a free buffet breakfast, it wasn't too bad. Then I slept while Joel went exploring.
That night we took advantage of the free cocktails and hor d'oeuvres in the club lounge. They had these awesome macaron biscuits that just melted in your mouth, along with mini corn-dogs and various other stuff. Snuck out some
drinks to take back to the room.


Friday 27 November 2009

Today is my last day in Japan!
We decided we would check out Osaka Castle before coming back and heading off to the airport.
Took us 2 trains and a mini-trek to get there. The castle was situated in the middle of a big park full of autumn coloured leaves, surrounded by a wide moat and 100m high white stone walls. We crossed the bridge to a giant gate,
behind the gate was a beautiful tree it's branches hanging with golden leaves.
Inside most of the ground was cobblestoned and various 6m high arches directed us through the maze of orange and yellow trees. Heading to its centre, we came across another moat flanked by another bridge, with more sky high
stone walls. In this area was a giant courtyard, rimmed by small wooden stalls selling Japanese trinkets and in the middle sat a giant ginko tree which were popular in Osaka. Its flat, yellow leaves shone in the sunlight, looking like a golden shower flowing down its branches (no pun intended).
Nearby I found a tiny photo booth that took your photo and inserted it into a Japanese scene. I chose 2 geisha poses in elaborate kimonos and pretty parasols. Joel had his photo in a casual samurai pose. In the souvenir store next door we had gold coins made that stamped your name into it, and the date. On the other side was an etch of Osaka Castle.
The real-life castle overlooked the area, sitting on a raised stone foundation. It's green, pointed gables highlighted with gold details against white walls. To the side there was an area that overlooked the park below.
We took photos and I started chatting with some old Japanese guy who wanted to practice his English. He was so nice and he taught me some local Osakan dialect while we discussed the differences between our nationalities.
It was getting nearer to the time we had to leave to get back to the hotel, grab our stuff and head to the airport.
Joel and I started walking back, but then I spotted something small, green and scaly on the ground... on a leash! It was a tiny, baby, iguana. I squealed in delight and ran over to it. People were taking photos and a guy nearby asked if I wanted to hold it. I only had to be asked once. The photos of me at this point show me absolutely elated with a massive grin on my face.
I then spotted another, though very large, Iguana nearby. This one was wearing a little leather jacket. I held this one too. It was very placid though I still received some little scratches on my arm. Another lady nearby had a bunny. Although not as exciting as strange reptiles, but equally as cute, I followed it around taking pics as it bounced around. At one point it tried to make a break for it but I corralled it back to its owner.

Joel and I trekked back to the train station, through the city with it's ginko lined avenues as the sunset reflected on the office buildings along the river.

Back at the hotel, we collected our things, said goodbye to opulent luxury and caught a cab to a nearby airport bus terminal. Just over an hour later we were at Kansai International Airport. One last grab at tacky souvenirs and a handful of green tea kit-kats, a quick meal and we were soon flying back to Australia.