robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

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.

Rolling hills from the Pirate Ship

Hakone-machi port

Motohakone-machi

Rob

Tags: 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.

R.I.P. Paw.

Leeane

Tags: 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!

Rob

Tags: 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.

One week to go! The countdown is ON!

Leeane

Tags: japan, tokyo