robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

We haven’t had the best luck when it comes to international flights but that said we have only taken one so far and that set the bar pretty low. Well thankfully Japan Airlines was a very comfortable and helped make the journey err…. fly by.

Customs was a breeze and this time around and as a bonus we didn’t have any smart asses asking us how many jars of Vegemite we had brought in – well maybe they did and we just didn’t understand them.
We lugged our bags to the train station, sorted out our rail pass and grabbed a train to Shinagawa to our shoebox hotel for the night. It was quite a squeeze with all the luggage and backpacks but thankfully we were too buggered to care and just crashed.
Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, grabbed a Maccas breakfast and caught the rail down to Osaka to meet our translator/tour guide for the next couple days, Ol’ Timmy Tuder – the old boy wasn’t hard to spot either.

Tuuuuuudes!

Our hotel is ALOT bigger than the previous one and in the heart of “America Town”, Shinsaiabashi. The fashions in this area are just like the city itself – bright and loud. Spray on jeans are rampant, as are pointy toed shoes and shirts with sewn on patches.

A local street

Tudes took us to a local haunt for a good Japanese feed and a couple fantastic beers (a taste of things to come I’m sure) then we succumbed to another bout of jet lag and crashed for the night.

The Aquarium

Next morning, we got up bright and early to meet Tudes and Ai and caught the train to the aquarium. We were a bit skeptical about another aquarium since the ones we’ve been to in the states were sub-par and hugely overpriced. It’s incredible the sheer amount of water they have contained within the four storey housing and of course the assortment of delicious animals.

whale shark

A whale & A Leeane

Whilst there we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to get on the world’s biggest Ferris wheel for an overview of the neighbourhood.

big wheel

view from the ferris wheel

We headed towards Osaka castle but took a quick detour for lunch at a well known place in a town I can’t remember the name of. There we tried a bunch of fried animal parts which again were utterly scrumptious despite knowing what parts they were. We eventually found out they included cow tendons and pregnant fish. Leeane took a special liking to the cow tendons which took me by complete surprise.

Fried Random Goodness

mmmm tendons

Osaka castle is surrounded by a series of moats and is apparently for its time the most impenetrable castle in Japan.

The Impenetrable Osaka Castle

Tudes, Rob, Ai, Leeane

The night consisted of hitting a couple of bars and meeting up with some of Tim’s mates from when he was living here. It was a fun night of mostly 80s nostalgia which I think left the girls a little bewildered

good times

To make amends, the next day we did something the girls wanted to do, have a tour of the Asahi Brewery. The tour itself was fairly interesting albeit a little confusing for Leeane and myself (all in Japanese) however for the promise of 25 minutes of endless beer at the end of the tour, it was worth enduring. Needless to say good times flowed.

Asahi Tour Guide

Next up is a day trip to Hiroshima. Stay tuned.

Rob

Tags: japan, osaka

OK blog post mania at the moment.. this is the 3rd in an hour!

So as we spend our last days in the USA I thought it would be good to post the list of the things we have found “strange” in the USA. We have been compiling this list since we arrived way back in July. Some of these strange things are good things.. some are annoying things…. but all are different to the “norm” life as we know it back in Australia.

Oh and it doesn’t include the obvious things like driving on the wrong side of the road etc.

• When ordering a burger, the wait-staff ask how you want your meat patty cooked (medium/well-done etc). I am pretty sure I have never been asked that back in Australia – not for a hamburger – we just assume “cooked”.
• Many shops don’t accept notes higher than $20. In fact if you get a large amount of money out at an ATM, it is dispensed in a big wad of $20’s only.
• If you give a cashier a $100 note (although not sure where you would have got it from in the first place), they hold it up to the light for a second. As if they could tell it’s counterfeit with a quick glance!
• If you see something which is $15 – it ends up being some silly amount like $16.13 once you go to the cashier because of sales tax (made up of a state tax + city tax + county tax).
• Pennies are useless. Get rid of them!!
  
• Half milk/half cream (called half-half) is common place for people’s coffee and tea. It is gooood!
• Showers are not simple to turn on. There’s only one tap and a shower head and faucet underneath (for a bath). You have to turn on the tap and then figure out some obscure contraption to redirect the water flow from the faucet to the shower head. An obscure switch or piston-like knob normally.
• A lot of cars have only brake lights on the back. The left or right brake light will flash when being used as an indicator.
• Suicide lanes – a lane in the middle of the road where cars coming in either direction can turn. Scary.
• The TV adverts here are… confronting. Erection problems, prostate issues, genital herpes.. you name it.. there’s someone talking about it.. in detail. And there’s always an incredible list of disclaimers tacked on to the end of the ad e.g. for an asthma drug – “if you have asthma which is current under control with other medication you should not take  XXX as there is an increased risk of asthma-related deaths when using  XXX “. Riiiiggghhhhttttt.
• Drive thru ATM. Actually very handy.
• Drive thru post boxes. Also very handy.
• Stores that sell guns AND alcohol are common. Scary.
• In restaurants, entrees are main-courses. So you order an appetizer (optional), an entree and a dessert (optional).
• In many bars, a pint is actually the smallest size of glass (although the bigger glass is the same size as an actual pint you would get in Australia). Weird!
• Stores and supermarkets provide what Rob and I have been calling “Fatty-Carts” for people who are morbidly obese. And, boy, there’s quite a few of them here in the states. Anyways, these carts are motorised scooters which you normally see the elderly using. The stores provide them to their obese customers to help them get around the store as they buy up big on more unhealthy goodness. Smart move by the stores.

So that’s about all the notable things we can think of. I have a feeling there will be many more strange things in Japan coming up.. starting with their toilets!

Leeane

Tags: odd stuff, usa

Our final weekend was spent in one of our favourite cities of our trip – Austin, Texas. Matt and Lauren (who we met earlier on our travels) invited us to stay the weekend and see some of the nightlife of Austin.

First up was a bit of sight-seeing at Mount Bonnell – kind of like the Kings Park equivalent of Austin. We got there just at the right time too to watch as the sun set. The river is lined with mansions and we were forever trying to spot Matthew McConaughey or Lance Armstrong – but alas, no luck.

How's the serenity

Robster and I

Matt and Lozza

After some dinner we headed out to the Warehouse District of the city. Since we hadn’t been to that part of town before it was great to see what else Austin had to offer. First up was a bar with 100’s of beers available – and even an Australian beer besides Fosters woohoo!

Rob seems to be a magnet for bums bumming money. And this night was no exception. We somehow managed to have a bum serenading us – and he just would not shut up. Finally Rob flipped him a buck and told him to work on his pitch.

Awkward moment with the bum

The next night we were lucky enough to go to Lauren’s dad’s place for a premature birthday celebration for Matt. The food was incredible and we had air hockey and pool to entertain us. We had so many laughs it was ridiculous – Laurens brother in particular was pretty hilarious.

Me being schooled at air hockey

Doubles

Linda, Matt, Lauren and Marty

A big thanks to Matt and Lauren for letting us intrude for the weekend. We had a great time and would love to repay the favour sometime.

So we are off to Japan tomorrow – should be a bit of a cultural change. Lets hope we don’t get lost straight away.

Leeane

PS> I bought an iPod touch (an early birthday present from Rob) and it is awesome!

Tags: austin, texas

We got to scratch off another thing from our ‘things to do in America list’ the other day, which of course means we fired a handgun in a dry creek bed. It feels really strange and highly illegal firing off rounds in the backyard but that feeling disappeared as quick as my hearing after the first shot.

bang!

bang bang!

bang bang bang!

We also managed to drag Clydester away from his endless grazing to pose with us in some pictures. I had a slightly bad feeling that he’d charge off and trample us horribly, but thankfully he just stood there and slept instead.

blazing saddles

giddy up

A couple days later we decided a German food fix in near by Fredericksburg was in order. Conveniently on the way is an old train tunnel which since it’s demise in the 1940s has since become inhabited by tens of thousands of bats. Consequently the bat’s have made it there own by infusing the tunnel with guano, more technically known as bat shit in these parts. The smell is undescribable, to the point where even Duffy was overwhelmed.

the bat cave

The picture doesn’t really do the scene justice as if you look at the far entrance of the tunnel you’ll see black specks darting around everywhere against the stark white contrast of the sunlight. The tunnel also has nightly viewings of the bats leaving the tunnel at sunset for their nightly feed of crickets and moths, unfortunately we were a couple hours early for that one and we had a feed of our own to hunt for.

An outstanding German feast at the Fredericksburg Brewery was in order, topped off with a few fine, german pilsners. Curiosity got the better of Uncle Bob and myself and we ordered a sample of their ‘finest’ bitter…. my oath it was the bitterest thing I’ve ever tasted! For the beer lovers out there, the IBU (bitterness rating) was 100 which may not mean anything to you but compare it to say Little Creatures Pale Ale which I find quite bitter and around 25-30 IBU and you’ll get the picture.

die shintzel ein rueben!

Unfortunately our stay with Uncle Bob and the various critters had to come to an end sometime, I think it was harder to say goodbye the second time but he’ll be in Australia next year so knowing that makes it easier.

Rob

Tags: texas

The challenge of eating a supersized McDonalds meal has been completed. And let’s cut to the chase… I failed.

There could be many excuses – the heat, the fact that we at at 5pm (hardly dinner time!!) or the fact I had stuffed myself with Reeses Butter Cups already etc. But in the end there are no excuses – it was a heck of a lot of food and drink.

Mmmm doesnt that just look delicious!

We were lucky enough to find a McDonalds that actually does the supersizing still. Supersizing seems to be a bit of a dirty word since the movie came out. Of course, everything is bigger in Texas so we were in the right state to find a supersized-enabled Macca’s.

I started off with the fries – did most of them.. then did the burger… started to hit the wall right about there. After downing half the Coke I tried to go back to the fries to finish them off, but I just couldn’t face any more. I could have taken the drink and fries with me to finish later (after all I had 45 minutes to complete the challenge) but at that stage I didn’t want to be within a 10-foot pole of any food so had to admit failing the challenge.

Stuffing my cheeks - this was before I hit the wall

Big fries and coke. Note Uncle Bobs face in the background.

Of course, 20 minutes later I was feeling better and wished I had kept the food so I could finish it.

The leftover fries that stood between me an victory. Damn them!

Oh well. Next time!!  Not.
Leeane

Tags: mcdonalds, texas