Posted by leeane on October 28, 2008
under odd stuff
Our holiday is coming to a close now as we await to fly back home to Perth. Thanks to everyone who has read and commented on this blog. It has been hard at times to keep motivated to keep writing on it, but there was always the well-timed comment from someone to inspire us to keep going.
We have had an amazing time traveling around the USA and Japan and this blog will help us remember everything we have done over the last 4 months.
So now here is a bit of a summary of the places we have enjoyed most etc.
USA
City you enjoyed most
Rob: Kerrville, Texas
Leeane: Chicago
“Experience” you enjoyed most
Rob: Niagara Falls
Leeane: Grand Canyon
Favourite food
Rob: All of Wiley’s food and Uncle Bob’s gumbo
Leeane: Any American pepperoni pizza and Quizno’s subs
Least favourite food
Rob: None
Leeane: Raw mince
Things you will miss the most
Rob: Uncle Bob, Chicago mob and cheap beers.
Leeane: Duffy and Walmart
Things you wont miss at all
Rob: The beers at Heartland brewery, tipping, bums and beggars.
Leeane: Tipping, fatty carts and “shrimp on the barbie” comments.
Japan
City you enjoyed most
Rob: Osaka
Leeane: Osaka
“Experience” you enjoyed most
Rob: The last night with Tudes and co.
Leeane: Ditto
Favourite food
Rob: Yakatori
Leeane: All udon noodles dishes and McDonalds McGriddle breakfast
Least favourite food
Rob: Chicken knuckles
Leeane: Whale bacon
Things you will miss the most
Rob: Politeness and general craziness.
Leeane: Bowing to people and vending machines everywhere
Things you wont miss at all
Rob: Sewer smell on some streets and getting stared at for being white.
Leeane: Shopkeepers shouting “summeeeemassssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnn” to everyone walking past their shop.
Thanks again and hopefully we can do a similar thing for our next trip… whenever that might be!
Posted by rob on October 28, 2008
under japan, tokyo
With just a couple days left on our trip we decided that we didn’t want our last memories of Japan to be of another crowded city block, so we bought a day pass and headed to Hakone which is a scenic spot a couple of hours from Tokyo.
Hakone is apparently the place where Tokyoites go to holiday when they want to see buildings with no second floors, lush rolling hills, flowing creeks and massive lakes.
The day pass came with a recommended guide to see all the sites of Hakone which requires 5 different modes of transport. First up though is a standard one and a half hour train commute on the Odakyu line followed by a connecting line for a couple minutes to Odawara and finally a forty minute ride on a bus that I swear was too big for the lane it was driving in. That is to say, ‘when’ he was driving in it, the largely uphill journey was full of hairpin turns which leads me to believe that buses were an after thought when they built the road.
A short walk along the river later we arrive at a wharf where a big pirate ship picked us up and very slowly delivered us to the ropeway cars to take us up one of the bigger hills. The pirate ship does look a bit strange in the middle of a lake in Japan – but hey, whatever floats their boat… so to speak.
Ahoy there!
Pirates on the pirate ship
The ropeway system is quite unique in the fact that you have a series of stops along the way where people can get on and off as they please.
The ropeway
From what we could gather though the only real attractions at the stops on the way up were hotel stops. The final stop on the crest of the hill is a smelly sulfur geiser which is actually part of an active volcano. Here, they sell equally smelly black eggs. The eggs are just normal eggs boiled in the sulfuric hot springs, however, each egg you eat gives you seven more years longevity. I dunno, sounds pretty dengerous to me…. that’s right, dengerous!
Dengerous!
I thought “engrish” was only in China, but there are a few more funnies on this sign as well (click it to enlarge).
Engrish??
Someone farted..
On the volcano
Side of the volcano
After smelling rotting eggs and watching people eat what look like to be rotten eggs we caught the ropeway car down the hill and then hopped on a ‘cable train’ to a connecting train station where we caught a ‘Romance Car’ equipped train back to Shinjuku where our hotel is. Confused? Welcome to our world!
Anyways, here are some scenery shots we managed to get. It was a very beautiful place and probably the highlight of all our time spent in Tokyo.
Posted by leeane on October 26, 2008
under japan, tokyo
Today we went to Harajuku which has the promise of being a popular hangout for the youth of Japan. And in particular, for some freaky fashion.
After walking up the main street, we were met by a stampede of people on some sort of a Halloween parade. We avoided the stampede by ducking into some souvenir shops.
Stampeeeeeeeddeeee!
Not sure who this guy is dressing up as...
We then managed to find the freaks, hanging out by the park. These people are seriously delusional. I can only imagine what their parents must think of them. Thankfully they are harmless.
Freak 1
Freak 2
Freak 3 and 4
Super Freak 5
Super Emo Freak 6
I got some bad news from home today, so looking forward to getting back home and seeing the family next week.
Posted by rob on October 23, 2008
under japan, tokyo
When in the states, staying with Uncle Bob we got hooked on a Japanese TV show called Ninja Warrior (called Sasuke here in Japan). It involves 100 contestants having to negotiate a series of physically challenging obstacle courses, each made up of 7-8 obstacles.
Before we touched down in Japan we found out that there is a place, a magical place where they have recreated a section of one obstacle course for the common man to try and that place is aptly named – ‘Muscle Park’.
I have to be honest, I’ve been thinking about Muscle Park for a while now or more appropriately, I’ve been thinking about conquering Muscle Park for a while but unfortunately the gods weren’t smiling on me that day.
Leeane recorded my entire first attempt which you can laugh at below.
First up, the arm bike. This one is pretty straight forward, just hang and pedal with your arms and make it to the other side without looking like some acid tripping monkey.
The second obstacle – the cliff hanger is by far the hardest, the arm bike gets your forearms and grip strength slightly worked up, then the cliff hanger tests you to make your way across a 10 metre expanse hanging only by your fingertips. I really thought I would do ALOT better on this but you can see by the wear and tear on the inch-thick ledge that I’m not the only one to bomb out. Honest!
The Salmon Ladder is just plain nasty! You have to be able to hold a chin-up position and then use your body weight to thrust the bar onto the next set of rungs – 4 times. As you can see I only managed half a rung before my foot hit the ground and disqualified me. At least that’s what I think he said.
Ahhh the arm rings obstacle. If this had been the first obstacle I reckon I would have clocked it but by this time my forearms were burning and realistically, even if I did reach the end, it’s not just a simple let go of the rings and onto the steps to finish, you have to somehow swing off the rings and leap onto the step.
I had another crack at the course a bit later, where I did worse on the cliffhanger ( if that’s possible ) but slightly better on the rings. Great time.
One thing I knew I could dominate was the Monster Burger they dish up at the park.
The great unveiling...
It’s more of a sandwich than a burger, made with 3 different ‘meats’ and what looks to be about a loaf of bread. In reality it is just like eating 3 sandwiches, which is no problem for this Stomach Warrior.
More sandwich than burger, twisted and evil.
Putting on a brave face for the press
Muscle park is in a place called Odaiba, a harbour city. Real nice area, just a shame about the rain.
Muscle Park, Odaiba
Writing this the next day, I know I have shamed my family by failing the Sasuke Challenge as I have been cursed with sore biceps and forearms. Hopefully I’ll regain my honour next Wednesday when the real challenge begins – lugging 50 kilo of luggage around the subway systems of Tokyo.
In other news, we got up this morning at 4 am to goto the world’s largest fish market in Tsukijo. Apparently it is a major tourist attraction but I think it is just something other tourists say who feel bitter about getting up at 4 am only to be shouted out by ticked off fisherman.
Frankly i don’t blame the workers for getting mad, the place is not made for tourists since there are little fish mongering buggies driving everywhere and in every direction. On top of that you have big trucks dropping off massive loads of a fish and furthermore it was pelting down rain. Don’t get me wrong, the whole place is interesting if you want to see the working class in Japan, just not the ideal place for your typical dawdling tourist.
I would discourage people from visiting this place only because as a programmer, I imagine it would be like having someone mash on my keyboard as I’m trying to work. That would REALLY tick me off!
Posted by leeane on October 22, 2008
under japan, tokyo
Tokyo is a bloody busy place. There are just people everywhere.. and at all times of the day and night. When you find yourself going the opposite way to a wave of businessmen in black suits it can be quite an “oh shit” experience.
We are staying in Shinjuku, which is a pretty happening place. However, just a couple stops away is a place called Shibuya which has the honour of having the “busiest intersection in the world”. Except, if your thinking its the busiest intersection because of cars.. you’d be wrong. Its because of people! Every minute when the little man goes green, people swarm across the intersection like nothing we have seen before. Then it clears up… and a minute later it happens all over again. We sat in a Starbucks overlooking it all for a while – and took some snaps. Remember, this is a 2pm on a weekday – can you imagine what it would be like at peak hour?!?! We might have to go back just to see it with our own eyes.
Shinjuku intersection
While we were there we visited the NHK national television studios. For 200 yen ($2) we got into the “studio park” where we walked through a maze of hallways with information and games which were all in Japanese. But that was fine because the main reason we went there was to see all the “Domo” merchandise in the gift shop. Domo is the character of the NHK TV network – and Rob and I have a weird fascination with the little guy.
Rob with Domo
DOMO!! RARRRR!
After that we went to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens which is a huge area right in the middle of Shinjuku. The biggest worry in there is that the flora can get so thick that you have to try and avoid the massive spiderwebs along the pathways.
Ahh...more serenity
Admiring the sculptured gardens
We also managed to go up one of the local buildings (for free) to the observation deck for a night-time view of Tokyo. This was after going to the wrong floor and getting shouted at by a security guard.
The view was pretty good – my camera didn’t do it justice unfortunately.
The Megalopolis
The next day we checked out another temple – probably our last one as we are a bit templed-out now. This one was Sensoji Temple and is the most lavishly decorated one in Japan. The laneway leading up to it is lined with souvenir shops for as far as you can see.
Souvenirs, novelties... party tricks
Sensoji Temple
The big red lantern (which doubles as a hat)
And lastly, amusement game stores are everywhere in Tokyo. Sadly we haven’t been able to find any girl’s used panties Skill Tester games, but we did manage to find a Rambo game which Rob had to play ofcourse.
"Its Never Over"
Rob taking a breather after getting a break from the sea of people
So we still have a fair bit to get through in Tokyo. We have a couple days of rain coming up so we will have to see how we go with our “todo” list.
You can’t help but notice the abundance of vending machines at every street corner, t-junction or speed hump when wandering the streets. They provide a constant temptation for me, especially the hot coffee cans.
Wall of Vending Machines
One particular brand has caught my attention. Boss, with Tommy Lee Jones staring drunkenly at me with his powerfully weathered face I can’t help but comply and buy a can.
Tommy Lee: Lost in translation
The older version of the above photo has mostly been replaced, except on some of the more obscurely located machines. The following photo looks more like a cologne advert for a brand called ‘Intensity’ and for some reason I imagine Tommy’s photo shoot would have played out like that scene in Lost in Translation.
Posted by leeane on October 20, 2008
under japan, kyoto
We spent a couple days in Kyoto – which was once the capital of Japan. It is a very beautiful city and home to the nicest locals we have encountered since beginning our travels.
We were staying at the ANA hotel which turned out to be a bit “la-dee-da”! All the female staff were dressed in pink kimono’s and there seemed to be someone bowing to us at every turn. Our room also had a great view overlooking one of Kyoto’s tourist attractions – Nijo Castle.
View from our room
We only had a couple days in Kyoto so we decided a bus tour would be the best way to see as many of the sites as possible in the short time. Unfortunatley our tour bus seemed to be full of fellow Aussie tourists. Some of them were nice and we had a chat to them, but there were a bunch who were very disrespectful and rude – so we were getting pretty pissed off as you can imagine.
The tour’s first stop was Nijo castle (the one opposite our hotel). This was the shogun’s imperial castle from the 1600’s until the late 1800’s. We weren’t allowed any snaps inside so we could only manage the gardens and one of the building outside.
Nijo Castle
Nijo castles garden
Next up was the Golden Pavilion Temple – which was originally built in the 1300’s (but has been burnt down and rebuilt three times). This temple has been covered in gold leaf on the outside and is quite a sight to see. It also has some nice gardens as well.
Golden Pavilion
Robbo in the gardens
Me in the gardens
Lastly was a Shinto Shrine which I can’t remember the name of. It was quite cute to see a lot of little boys and girls running around in little kimono’s – apparently they have a ceremony they have to do when they are 3 and 5 years old.
Cute little japanese girl
One of the buildings in the shinto shrine
So we have now left Kyoto and are in Tokyo – Shinjuku to be exact. We have 9 days left here and then back to ol’ Perth.
Posted by rob on October 18, 2008
under japan, osaka
The past couple of days we’ve been making the most of our tour guide Tudes and seeing some places we probably wouldn’t get to see otherwise. One of those places was a market street chock-a-block full of tasty looking food and some other things which I had never considered as edible before now.
Local market place
Fugu - Japanese poisonous fish which has to be prepared with great care
One of the food stalls we happened across was for lack of a better word – a whale butcher. Now in Australia at least, whaling is a big no no and to make it even more interesting alot of anti-whaling, ‘terrorist’ acts have occurred to commercial Japanese whaling ships at the hands of Australian activists of late. Now given all this, I would have expected that the owner of this stall would have at least tried to hide the decorative whale flag hanging into the street. Not this fella. He even had a whale size chart so you could see how the average human measures up to a blue whale – right before you buy a nice chunk of it.
Mmmm Free Willy
Of course, I had to buy some whale slices which apparently can be eaten as is, right out of the vacuum sealed pack. They didn’t look half bad either, kind of like an ultra fatty piece of bacon which curiously is more palatable than some of the bacon strips we had in the states. The smell too was quite inviting, again quite like bacon but with more of a smoky aroma.
But the taste…. uggh.
Eating a whale strip
The white blubbery bit is like a gristly, oily sponge and consequently the oil you get on your fingers was enough to water proof the wooden bench we were sitting on and perhaps the business man on his lunch break next to us as well. We figured out after more trial and error that if you just avoid eating the blubber and just eat the meaty flap then it is just OK, but certainly nothing to write home about. At least now I can firmly say that if nothing else, whaling is wrong for the simple fact that they aren’t worth eating.
After that, it felt like my internal organs had been well oiled and I needed a couple hours in a scolding hot shower to degrease. Thankfully the feeling passed in a couple hours and we got ready to eat again in Tim’s old neighbourhood out in the ‘burbs’.
Cooked chicken skewers and lemon
Right opposite his old shoebox apartment we drank and ate an assortment of meats on sticks all of which were very tasty and not too exotic, except for maybe the chicken knuckles which are just a little too crunchy for my taste. That was until Tim and Ai ordered the raw chicken and raw egg bowl! Alarm bells were ringing and I swear that at least once I saw a vertically challenged version of my mum appear on my shoulder saying, ‘Don’t even think about it!’. I couldn’t help myself, Tim and Ai were enjoying it too much for me to just sit back and watch. I must say that it was the most tender and tasty bit of chicken I have ever eaten and thankfully even hours later my meal was still in my stomach.
Raw chicken and Egg.
On the way out we stopped in at a cosy bar down the road where some old fellas that Tim used to drink with were busy with karaoke. We all had a go at it and eventually word got around that it was Leeru’s birthday so the whole bar sang happy birthday and bought more rounds of drinks.
Tudes on the Mic
It was getting pretty late on, but we had one more bar to pay homage to – The New Yorker. A trendy little bar albeit a little small for the 10 people crammed in there. There I vaguely remember trading Zippo lighter tricks with people until we taxied it home.
One year older in the New Yorker
All in all a very enjoyable night and a good sendoff / impromptu birthday celebration. Tomorrow we are off to Kyoto for a couple nights. Here are some final pictures of our area in Shinsaibashi at night time.
Posted by rob on October 15, 2008
under japan, osaka
Yesterday was pretty much rained out for us yesterday so we hung around close to the hotel and checked out a lot of undercover areas. Seems that Perth drivers aren’t the only ones that forget how to drive at the sight of rain as this snap of a massive traffic jam next to our hotel shows.
Nice, wet weather traffic jam
Today clear skies so we took the oppurtunity to see Himeji Castle, about 30 minutes via bullet.
Himeji Castle
Rob & Leeru
The castle and surrounding area is outstanding and very well preserved probably because the castle never saw any action and unlike Osaka castle was not bombed to the ground in WWII.
It’s hard to fathom the sheer size of the castle until you are up close. The foundation alone is seriously huge.
Front of the castle facing the train station
me, out the back of the castle
Leeru, out back
The view from the top of the castle is outstanding, the city is surrounded by hills and the castle itself is right smack in the middle.
View from the top floor
On the way back we had a look around Shin-Osaka station and grabbed a cheap feed. Going to do some serious exploring of our area tomorrow or perhaps head back to Himeji and go up into the hills to check out some of the hillside.
Posted by leeane on October 13, 2008
under japan, osaka
Since Tim and his girlfriend are lapping up the luxury in a Japanese resort town for the next few days, Rob and I made our way to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial.
We managed to master subway system and bullet trains – well mostly. Being stuck in a smoking carriage for a couple hours isn’t all that pleasant.
Once we got off the bullet train we made our way on to the local trams to take us the Peace Memorial. First up was the A-bomb dome. The bomb exploded directly above this building. It wasn’t totally obliterated because most of the force goes outwards with the shockwaves rather than down.
The A-dome
Looking at the T-bridge that was the target of the bomb
Next was the museum. It is extremely well done and shows all sides of the story too. It’s also good that you see the rather gruesome aftermath including radiation burns of people. Quite disturbing but something we are glad to have done. It did feel a little weird being there surrounded by Japanese people – and us being among the few white people. One of the volunteer guides told us in English that “We don’t hate Americans because of this… we hate war”. Very poignant, but I told her we were Australian anyway just in case.
View of Peace Memorial Park - looking down towards the A-dome
Tomorrow is Himeji castle – the most famous castle in Japan.
