Last day! 26th of December

This morning we got up and packed up. We left our things at the hotel and went for a nice big walk around Ueno park. It was extremely cold, a maximum of 5 degrees. The park has a huge shallow lake with thousands of lotus plants in it. They were all dead because it’s winter, but it was an amazing sight to see. Now I know what lotus roots look like before they’re cut up and cooked. They do not look appetizing floating in duck muck.

We went to the Tokyo National Museum, which is in the park. It’s in a lovely big western-style building. We looked at the old Buddhist statues and some other old Japanese artifacts. They were fascinating and beautiful. My favourite statue was a big wooden carved god/man with a halo of fire. I’ve seen these ones around Buddhist temples and they’re really scary looking. After exploring the museum we went to the gift shop. It initially looked great, lots of books and interesting Japanese things. However, when we looked at anything closely it turned out to be really bad quality and really overpriced. I bought some postcards with pictures of the exhibits on them.

We ventured back out into the cold and walked to the nearest station and trained back to our hotel. I was nervous and had a stomach ache but I managed. We collected our baggage and took the train three stops to Tokyo station, then took the Narita express to… NARITA AIRPORT!

At the airport a nice lady took us and helped us with checking in. Then we went and looked around the shops. We had a light meal at a Western-style sandwich shop and then spent all our Japanese money but 56 yen. You really can’t buy much for 56 yen.

Boarded our plane at 7:35pm Japan time. It’s now almost 1am Japan time and we’ve hit a bit of turbulence. Sucks a bit. Our new noise-cancelling headphones are awesome. Atsu atsu. It’s hot hot. I suppose we’d better get used to the hot if we’re going to Sydney!

Apparently Qantas has put us on a Bombadier Dash 8 tomorrow. This sucks because they’re small planes and have small luggage allowances (4kg of carry-on luggage). We have more than 4kgs of carry-on luggage each so I don’t know what they’ll do. Probably ask us to pay moneys.

I think we should argue that we are both below average weight people, and so that should count as minus 15kgs each. We’d be right that way!

Turbulence sucks! But we’re doing okay.

Photos December 25th and 24th

Us in our Yukatas!
View of Mt Fu
Okonomiyaki from last night - delicious!
Me at the statue at Yebisu Garden Place
Chucky at the statue at Yebisu Garden Place

Tsukasa and Shigeru at Yebisu Garden Place - oh no, she's the baddie!

Tsukasa freezing at Yebisu Garden Place

Thursday, 25th December! Christmas!

Today is our last full day in Japan. We got up and ate the hotel breakfast which was Japanese food only. It was okay, but not great. As usual Chucky was anti. I think he just wants weeties.
I HATE WEETIES.
Despite feeling jibbly, we went out on the train to Akihabara Electric Town. We took the Yamanote line because it is JR and as such we get free travel on our passes. Isn't Chucky clever to book us a hotel on the Yamanote line? Clever boy.
Electric Town is just full of electric parts shops, anime shops, computer and other electrical appliance shops, and maid cafes. We saw a beautiful Lolita and followed her discreetly. She went into a maid cafe where she probably works.
We looked at headphones all morning trying to find some nice noise-cancelling ones for the plane. It was great. I got some pink ones and Chucky got some extremely nice ones. The morning was not spoiled at all, even when I had an upset stomach.
Next we took the train to Ebisu, because I wanted to see what it was like. The train took about half an hour. On the train there were two girls who were totally goth-loli and looked amazing. One had blue hair! Yebisu Garden Place is a place visited a lot in my favourite J-drama, so we went there and took photos of us being like film stars. I can't believe I stood where Matsumoto Jun and Inoue Mao stood!
Lunch was a McDonald's affair, which was surprisingly awesome. I think people take their jobs very seriously in Japan, whatever their job is. It makes for good burgers.
We took the train another stop to Shibuya, where there is a famous pedestrian crossing. It was amazingly busy and was packed with beautiful people. I followed another Lolita for a while until she got boring. Shibuya has lots of big video screens and neon signs, very exciting. I was mainly astounded by the beautiful people. We went to a few shops but didn't buy anything. We were starting to feel tired.
We walked to Harajuku. I love Harajuku. First we went to the Laforet building basement where there are many awesome fashion shops, including Metamorphose, Angelic Pretty, and Putamayo. I bought a ring and some earrings, all with deer on them. They were from different shops but go together well. I still didn't buy anything from Metamorphose. I'm beginning to dislike their thing of having everything stupidly overpriced just because it's a name brand that people want to show. We also saw two guys who were the most incredible goths - white makeup and long straight hair with blonde streaks.
We walked down the famous pedestrian street in Harajuku and had fun looking at people and shops. At Harajuku station we took the train back to our hotel and collapsed.
We got dinner at a don restaurant. I got Buta-don (pork rice bowl) which was better than usual. There was only one guy working at the shop. He was doing the cooking and the serving and was incredible. I felt sorry for him, because people kept coming in and saying "Sumimasen!" while he was cooking.
Got two desserts at am/pm - one cream and cake dessert and one creme broulee. The creme broulee was the best ever.

Wednesday, 24th of December

Chucky: We spent the morning at Emi's place hanging out with the family and packing up our bags. Chrissy had a sleep because she still has a cold and I found things in our luggage to throw out. Eventually we got both the bags packed and both were lighter than 20kgs (just!). We said goodbye to everybody and Emi and her Mum took us to the station where we waited around for the Kodama shinkansen to take us to Tokyo. The shinkansen trip was comfortable and we got an AMAZING view of Fuji san. AMAZING. Just like a postcard. Fuji-san is really big.
Chrissy: When we arrived at Tokyo station we had to catch another train to Ueno, so we joined in with the crowd and rushed through the station and onto a train. The walk to our hotel was fairly short but extremely crowded. Yay! Back in crowded Tokyo!
After we got settled we went out to find some dinner. We went to some upstairs place which looked a bit seedy at first but turned out to be DELICIOUS food. We had a bacon Okonomiyaki and some yaki-soba. Despite telling the waiter that I don't eat prawns, I found some tiny tiny tiny prawn-type animals in the yaki-soba. After eating a bunch of it. I had thought that they were little slices of pickled ginger, because they're exactly the same colour. I had to look really closely, but they were definately miniature prawns. I stopped eating and began to worry about it. I did start to feel sick, but it's all better now and the worry was probably causing the nausea after all. Maybe I'm NOT allergic to prawns? They were only very tiny, so maybe I am? Charles tells me that tomorrow we're having a whole lobster for lunch.
We walked around the area for a while, which looked fairly seedy with lots of bouncers with earpieces walking around being tough. I don't know who they were bouncing. We went to Don Quiote which is a huge chain that sells everything. Literally everything. Headphones, chewing gum, ballgowns, tinsel. It even had imported Tim Tams and Pringles!
We went to a Lawon's and a 7/11 and a Family Mart and bought some Christmas Cake and a miniature bottle of champagne for a Christmas celebration. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Tuesday, 23rd December

Chrissy: Today we went to a different area of Fukuoka to try to find Kinokunia and do some other shopping. We found the building it was supposed to be in, but it wasn't there. It turned out to be the most frivolous shopping plaza I've ever seen. Perfume, cosmetics and a ridiculous amount of clothes shops. No bookshops, no food shops, no chemists, carpenters or any other kind of shop. It was the worst.

We found a bookshop in the building next door. It wasn't Kinokunia, but it might as well have been because it was so well-stocked and had exactly what we were looking for - a Japanese version of Tintin for Emi's 7-year-old nephew. Also I found an actually good clothes shop where I bought a really nice - and really cheap - red coat. It's amazing.

Charles:
We also had a donut from MR DONUT. It was pretty good. Bookshops in Japan are different. There are bookshops everywhere and most of them are books for people to read on trains. They look like libraries with rows of shelves full of identically sized books. The only sections we can see is the broad difference between plain coloured normal books and zany manga. These kind of bookshops have no kids books and are totally useless for us.

Also how come Chrissy can find a rad coat for 3000 yen and Chucky can only find one for CONSIDERABLY more. Mysteries of fashion.

THE STORY CONTINUES.

We had our longest shinkansen trek ever back to Emi's place. having gotten back to Hakata station, we had to take a 2.5 hour trip to Osaka. Then we got directly onto another shinkansen which took 1.5 hours to get to Mikawa-Anjo station. The second trip was nicer because we got to see Kyoto again out the window. Yay Kyoto tower! Yay world's biggest tin shed!

We got to the station at 6:09 and Emi was waiting for us at the gate with her Mum in the car. We were really happy to see them again! Travelling is fun but its nice to see familiar faces. We went home and presented presents to the family and the kids.

Dinner was enormous because it was a celebration for (big) Emi's birthday. Yum. Their food is the best. (Especially the miso soup)

After dinner, Moka-chan kept asking Chrissy "yonde kudasai! yonde kudasai!" (read to me! read to me!) so Chrissy had to battle through a bit of Frog and Toad which was luckily in Hiragana. Hopefully Moka-chan understood the words because we didn't. We also had fireworks (I think birthday celebrations as well). These were fun. Japanese fireworks are similar but somewhat more dangerous than ours. Yikes!

We had a bath and then watched an episode of our new favourite drama with (normal) Emi. The drama is called Zettai Kareshi (absolute boyfriend) and is about a girl who volunteers for a trial of a robot entirely dedicated to love. Deep philosophical exploration of what it means to be human. Not. We have been watching this and some other shows on the trains on the small lappy.

Anyway, we remembered that we left a lot of stuff here and have been going through it throwing useless things out. Carrying our bags has lessened our love of useless things.

December 22, 2008

We got up early and had the Western-style breakfast at our Beppu hotel, in the hope that it would be more awesome than the Japanese breakfrast form yesterdaya. It started off with a big ole salad and a bacon and egg hotpot that we got to cook ourselves over a real flame! Not hot enough to really fry the bacon though – how un-western that would be! We hate crisp bacon in Australia.

Next we were given 5 enormous slices of bread and instructed on how to use a toaster. Down, up, see? We also got to eat a bowl of corn soup! Of course we had the usual western slice of grape fruit and pieces of cut up apple and naturally a glace cherry.

They gave us coffee though. I don’t know what was so western about that.

The breakfast was totally weird and huge but every individual thing was yummy.

I was tired so I went up to bed again, and Chucky went to the bath house around the corner. It is written about in the Lonely planet.

Chucky: This bath was so close that I couldn't leave without trying it out. Lonely Planet says "it is very simple... and very hot" which was an apt description. There were no showers or taps, just stools and washbuckets and a big hot bath. You have to scoop up some water from the bath into a bucket and wash yourself. It still seems weird that Japanese people treat this experience as everyday washing, people shave and clean their teeth at the bath. The bath itself was SUPER HOT. Like as hot as the footbath. Imagine pins and needles of hotness on your whole body! My only strategy was to sit really still because if I moved at all it felt all hot again. After I got out, an old man got out as well and I detected a change in the air. I think the old guy had set the bath too hot because another man waited until he had left and then opened up a cold water tap before trying to get in. Bizarre. The building that this bath was in was great. It's apparently a Meiji era building and has stereotypical Japanese style architecture.

Chrissy: We packed up and went to the station to catch the train to Fukuoka. Luckily we didn’t have to change trains. Chucky had an unhappy tummy again which was worrying.

We arrived at Hakata (same as Fukuoka) at around 1pm and looked around the bustling station for food. We found a café where we had a quiche and a BLT sandwich. Japanese-style western food is quite nice.

We took the subway one stop which saved us ten minutes of walking, and our hotel was right around the corner. It was jolly cold. Our room is fairly large with a heater table and a fridge! I love the heater table and snuggled under the quilt. This place appears very old and is sort of rickety. The hotel has a garden in a courtyard in the centre of the building, and we have a nice view of that. Our room has no toilet or shower so we’re sharing with this floor, which is fine. I’ve only seen one other person here. As I was resting under the table, I thought I saw snow out the window. It had run away by the time I ran and looked.

We went out to “Canal City” which is a huge shopping complex with a famous fountain. Luckily, just as we approached it, the fountain started performing to the tune of “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. It was amazing. The shopping complex is 5 storys high, and the fountain shot up slightly higher than that. We looked around for a while and bought some gifts for Emi and her family, as we’re going to their house tomorrow. We had some coffees and cake at a Starbucks which was novel. I had a black cherry mocha, which is a drink that we sampled at a test-run weeks ago in Yokohama. It was then that I realised that I no longer had my scarf with me. We retraced our steps for ages and I couldn’t find it. I was so upset with myself… but I didn’t really like that scarf anyway. After a while the shops got boring because they were all the same. We did see a bag shop called “Labia” though. We had a giggle. There is something called Ramen Stadium at Canal City, which Charles had read about in the Lonely Planet. It said you could sample heaps of different types of Ramen. Turns out they were just a floor of Ramen restaurants and some signs we couldn’t read. So in order to “sample” them you have to buy a bunch of different dishes for 850 yen each.

I have a nasty sore throat today and I was feeling really bad around that time. We stopped for dinner at a cheap-ish restaurant that sold Ramen amongst other things. It was not in Ramen Stadium.

Now we’re back at the hotel where there is only internet at the front desk, so I don’t know how we’ll put this up, or even if we will at all today.

Hot Springs cont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 21st December

Today we got up early and had the Japanese breakfast from the hotel. It was only just bearable. It featured a plethora of unidentifiable meat purees which I avoided, plus some rice and the thinnest fish in the world. After breakfast we went back to bed and fell asleep for another two hours. I think we’ve been too busy.
We got up again around 10:30 and decided to go to Kannawa, which is an area of Beppu that has lots of Jigoku (Hells) and onsen (hot springs). It was a bit rainy but we decided to go anyway. We found a tourist information office where a man showed us a bus map and gave us lots of information. He also gave us each a Beppu flag/teatowel/hanky/cloth as a souvenier.
We took the bus to Kannawa which was easy enough. We went up to a higher part of town, which gave us a great view of the city with lots of steam spouts everywhere. First up we decided to visit two hells: Umi Jigoku (sea hell) and Oni-Ishi Bozu Jigoku (Monk’s head Hell). We saw a wall behind which was a hell and looked over and saw flamingoes and an elephant. That was the Mountain Hell, which was pooh-poohed in the Lonely Planet because the animals are kept in bad conditions. The elephant we saw was in a small enclosure with no greenery. I was sad. So in protest we didn’t go there. The Sea Hell featured a 200m deep hot blue pond. It is very blue. The steam was incredible, until we realized it was being pumped from somewhere else. At the Sea Hell we saw a sign that said “Hot Spring of a Leg”, but when we investigated we found that it was a foot bath. There were some other people there trying it and saying things like “Atsu atsu atsui!” which means “Hot hot hot!”. We took off our shoes and socks and attempted to get in. It was SO HOT that I had to keep reminding myself that it only FEELS like it’s burning but it’s not ACTUALLY burning. We could only sit there for about 3 minutes before our feet got pins and needles from the heat and we had to leave. My feet were bright red up to halfway up my calf. It was an interesting experience.
Charles: I like foot baths. I think they’re cute. You take off your shoes and there is a shallow bath with places to sit down. For some reason Beppu HOT SPRINGS OF A LEG contain giant citrus fruits floating around. They actually have a nice smell, maybe to counteract the disgusting sulfur etc. We observed that the correct Japanese way to enjoy a HOT SPRING OF A LEG was to sit on the seat with your feet in for one second and then pull both legs in the air while balancing on your bottom. Chrissy became quite good at this.
Chrissy: The Monk’s Head Hell is so called because it features boiling mud that looks like a Monk’s shaven head when it bubbles up from under the surface. It was really smelly but it was awesome. The whole place was hot even though it was cold, and extremely humid, and smelt like rotten eggs. There was even steam coming out of the drains. It was like science fiction!
After we visited the Hells we went for a walk and found the Hyotan Hot Springs. This was like a hot spring resort, with a plethora of baths for men and women. You have to leave your shoes in the shoe lockers at the front desk, then swap that key for a changing room locker key. The only mixed gender thing is a sand bath. We separated and went to our respective changing rooms and changed into our provided yukatas for the sand bath. The sand is heated by the hot spring steam, and you lie in it and put it on yourself. It’s warm and nice, and the deeper you dig the hotter it is. This is the opposite of hot beach sand. Then you shake off all the sand and go have a bath.
The women’s bathing area was amazing. There were about 8 different baths. First I washed myself (I found MY OWN stool and bucket) and then went and sampled all the different baths. First there was the waterfall bath, which was a long bath with a high pipe with holes in it way above, which was emitting streams of water. I saw ladies sitting cross-legged under the streams so I did too, but it felt like I was being beaten up so I stopped.
Then there were two regular-type baths. Next, I went in the walking bath, which was just a really shallow long bath with pebbles on the bottom so it feels nice on your feet. There were two rock baths where some extremely hot water was flowing in, and the further away you sat the cooler it was. There was a sign saying “Be careful of BOILING WATER”. Then I went to the outdoor bath which was a little hot for me. I tried to go into the steam bath but only opened the door before I realised it was probably too hot. I tried the waterfall bath again because I realized that there were different strength streams and that I had tried one of the biggest streams before. I tried the smallest one which was sort of nice on my back but also sort of like being beaten up.
CHARLES BATH EXPERIENCE: I had a similar time to Chrissy except with naked men instead of naked ladies. There was also no walking bath. I liked the waterfalls and a wooden bath which was inside. I prefer leaning on wood than rocks.
Chrissy: A young lady was friendly to me in the changing room (probably because I was in her way) and we chatted in English/Japanese/Sign language outside until Chucky emerged from the men’s bath. We decided to get some lunch, and set off. The lady kept on chasing us and telling us places to go to eat, and then offered to drive us to a place, but we said we could walk. We set off quickly because we didn’t want her to chase us again. She was nice though!
Charles: we were confused because she told us to go to SANRIBU. When we walked a little bit out of the car park we saw a huge sign for a supermarket just down the street: Sun Live!
Chrissy: We just ended up getting some buns at a bakery. They were nice but not exactly lunch. After taking a bus back to the station, Chucky got some takoyaki (octopus fried in batter) and I got some chippies. The takoyaki didn’t agree with Chucky too well so we just came back to our hotel and watched a movie. We’re really tired now and don’t feel like dinner. Tomorrow is another travel day which is a total bummer. We’re so tired! I want to go home!

Saturday, 20th December

Today was mainly a travel day. We got up and packed and took ourselves to the Shin-Osaka station where we booked tickets and got ourselves some yummy breads from a bakery. We took the shinkansen to Kokura (in Kyushyu), where we changed to a local express. The shinkansen was a fairly bad shinkansen experience, as the non-smoking car smelt like smoke. The local express got us to Beppu in under 2 hours. We thought it would take ages so we weren’t prepared when Beppu station arrived and we had to rush to get off the train in time.
It was a short walk to our hotel. We settled in and rested for a while and then set out again at around 5:30. We could walk right down to the water’s edge. There was no beach though, just a lot of concrete and bad smells. It was nice to see the sea though! We found a shopping centre where I saw a cool jacket that I didn’t buy. We went up to the 7th floor where there were restaurants. We both had sukiyaki for dinner. Sukiyaki is a hotpot dish with mushrooms, thin beef slices, cabbage, onion, noodles and tofu cooked in a soy based sauce. It is super tasty, and as usual comes with rice, miso soup, pickles and green tea.
We also ordered desserts at the restaurant. First we got a cake-type dessert which had cream in it and also had ice cream enveloped in sweet rice paste. Then we ordered another dessert which was sticky rice paste squares in a hot sweet bean syrup, with a side of yuzu ice-cream and hot yuzu drink. The hot sticky rice melted in the paste and reminded me a bit of marzipan and a bit of melty cheese. The taste was nothing like either though!
At the restaurant there was a self-serve drinks bar, with a variety of machines, cups, teabags and ice. It took me about 4 goes to find the machine with hot water to make tea. Then I realised that it said “hot water” on the label.
We walked back to our hotel as we’re both feeling really tired after a huge day yesterday and a travel day today. This part of Beppu is a nightlife hotspot, as there are people everywhere and neon signs and lots of buildings with pictures of inviting girls at the entrance. It seems our hotel is having a huge party downstairs and we’re not invited!

Friday, 19th December

This morning I got my sleep in as promised. Then we went downstairs to the cafe in the hotel. We were given a drinks menu and Charles cleverly asked in Japanese whether they had anything to eat. The waitress said a whole lot of things and we picked out "Toastu" and said "Yes! Toast! Hai!" so were given toast. Expensive toast.
We took the train into the city one stop further than last night, to a place called Namba. There we went to a Marui department store - the same department store we went to in Yokohama. I was looking for a nice dress to wear to a wedding but everything was too wintery. Charles bought an amazing jacket. We saw the same one in Yokohama weeks ago, and today it was on sale! Hooray! We even managed to get the tax refund.
We found another underground shopping arcade and stopped for a break. Chucky bought a burger and I had a coca cola. Japanese coke is different from Australian coke.
Next we started walking from Namba to Shinsaibashi, the place we were last night. We stopped at a McDonald's because I started to feel hungry. I bought some chips and a chicken fillet, which turned out to be so incredibly spicy that I almost choked and even Charles could hardly eat it. Harrumph.
There were so many interesting shops around. I liked looking in a bead shop that was selling every kind of bead you could think of at a cheap price, plus jewelery components. I didn't buy anything but I got lots of ideas.
We found our way back to Aranzi Aronzo and bought some band-aids with characters on them and a little tin.

Band-aids story: Last night I reached into my health bag and was attacked by my razor, which ate some of my left ring finger knuckle. I bled SO MUCH and then I realise that I'd lost an earring (a handmade one) and then I banged my elbow. So I needed band-aids.

We asked the girls at Aranzi Aronzo if they knew where Victorian Maiden was, which is another Gothic Lolita shop. I like Victorian Maiden because all of their designs are actually wearable (maybe) and really pretty. The girls at Aranzi Aronzo tried really hard to help us, even printing out a map for us to follow. So we followed it and ended up in the America Mura district, which is a shopping area with apparently American things.
We couldn't find Victorian Maiden no matter how hard we looked. We found a 2nd hand Lolita shop though (maybe it was old stock from the good brands) with relatively cheap clothes. I actually tried on a Victorian Maiden dress, and an Angelic Pretty dress, and a Metamorphose skirt. They were all a little bit wrong for me, but I got to think about the styles more.
We went for a walk down the road and found an Apple store where Charles tried all the headphones.
We went down a little side street and I saw a familiar sign: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright! Unfortunately (or fortunately) the shop was closed as it was past 7:30pm. I got to look in the window though!
Took the train back to Shin-Osaka and had a late dinner at the station. Dessert was a creme broulee or something... they sell about 20 varieties of creme broulee in the convenience stores. Some are gross but tonight's one was good.

Cube Gum

Cube Gum (Grapefruit flavour)

Actually cubes! Actually delicious!

Whats this little blue thing?

Some small post it notes for wrapping up the gum when you're finished.

Disgusting Fountain

World's most disgusting fountain.

This statue is like: "Stop! Don't come near this disgusting fountain! It's too disgusting!"

Thursday, 18th December

We got up and had a complimentary breakfast at our Okayama hotel. It was western-style with toast and things, and cute fruit salads with 1 piece of pineapple, 1 grape and 1 tiny piece of orange in a small plastic container. I had three (giving the pineapple to Charles).
We left our luggage with the staff and HIT the TOWN. First we went to the Okayama park via the Ugliest Fountain Ever. We went over a Smelly River and found the park and had to pay to get in. It was a pretty park with lots of little different things in it, like a crane (the bird) enclosure and several tea houses and fish in the ponds.
Next we went to the castle. When we found out that it was 800 yen each to go in, we decided to just look at the castle.
"Is that the Castle beyond the Goblin City?"
"Turn back Sarah. Turn back before it's too late."
Then we went back into town and had a coffee and cake break at a cafe. YUM. We went to Loft department store where I bought a Frog and Toad book for Emi's niece for Christmas. It's in Japanese so her mum will be able to read it to her. I loved Frog and Toad when I was little! They also had frog and toad soft toys but I restrained myself as they were poorly made and I think I could do better myself.
We got our luggage and took a taxi to the station (it's a long annoying way and I wasn't feeling too well) and got the shinkansen easily. It was an uneventful ride and I got to watch The Wonder Years on the lappy. Aw Kevin!
At Osaka it was an easy trip to our hotel because it's just over the road from the station. It's a business hotel, and our room is smaller than other times. The bed was advertised as being a "semi-double" which is ... compact. We will manage. Maybe one of us will sleep upside down. The man at the desk had some confusion when he thought we were a guy called Frank. We managed to communicate in the end.
After a brief rest we went out again, taking the (unfortunately NOT JR) subway into the city, where there is the largest underground shopping arcade in Japan (or the world?). We found Metamorphose which was smaller than the one in Kyoto, but had some shoes on sale and I was able to communicate with the adorable shop girl enough to try them on and figure out that there was only one size - too small. She even took out the laces for my gargantuan foot! No shoes for me.
Then we walked around the corner to the Aranzi Aronzo shop. Aranzi Aronzo is a shop that sells merchandise to do with some characters that you can make. It's hard to explain, but I have two Aranzi Aronzo craft books which tell me how to make all these little felt animals. The shop sells other stuff with pictures of those animals, and storybooks about them. I bought Chucky some boxer shorts with Robot Panda and Normal Panda on them, and he bought me a little tiny calander with pictures of all the characters. We also got a little postcard book and I bought a small bag and some stickers. The lady gave me a tiny purse to go with the bag for FREE! I was so happy to be there. There's a character that's a little scotty dog which is based on the owner's dog Tetsu. In the shop there were photos of the real Tetsu and a bowl and a leash and a mat where he usually sits. I wish we could've seen Tetsu!
On the way back to the station we got food at a place in the arcade. There was no English menu so the waitress came outside with us so we could point to the plastic food we wanted. Almost every Japanese restaurant has creepily realistic plastic food in the window. I also managed to say that I don't eat prawn. Yay!
We only got a little bit lost at our station. It's big!
I'm feeling homesick tonight, so we watched Monty Python on the lappy. Episode 2: The Larch.
Chucky promised that he would let me sleep in until TEN tomorrow.

December 17th

Charles: Today was basically a travel day, we were heading from Takayama in the Mountains to Okayama which is more south than Kobe and near the coast. We woke up, packed up our stuff and walked down the street to the station to get the 9:37 train to Nagoya. We weren't very happy with the ryokan because that morning our fridge locked itself and some of our food inside and I think I lost some earphones somewhere but we were in a hurry so we didn't take it up with the staff.

The train ride back to Nagoya was just as bumpy as going the other way, but we had a nicer time because we were prepared for the hot carriage. The views were really beautiful with the river below and fog falling down valleys above. This trip was just over two hours and we got to Nagoya at 12:00. We've been to Nagoya station a few times now so we headed directly to the shinkansen gates and ordered tickets. We thought that we would need to go further down the line and change to a lower level of shinkansen so we ordered tickets for Kyoto on Hikari 367 departing at 12:11. When we got to the platform (12:05) we saw on the board that Hikari 367 was going to Okayama! Chrissy was skeptical but I argued that we could go back downstairs and ask the man to rebook our tickets for Okayama. We ran down the stairs (me carrying both bags) and managed to get this concept across to the man and got new tickets for the same seats. We got to the platform again just as the train was pulling in, perfect timing hm? Chrissy didn't think so and spent the next few minutes staring me to death.

No trip to Japan is complete without a stressful shinkansen experience.

This train trip was smooth and relaxing and we got a nice view of Himeji castle as we zoomed past. We got to Okayama and 2:15 and wanted to take a taxi to the hotel. We thought this would be easy. Comfort Hotel, we could point to it on a map, it wasn't very far. The taxi driver couldn't understand us saying Ko n fo ru to Ho te ru and couldn't read the english name. Eventually we communicated and he thought it was so amusing that he laughed all the way up the street. We're on the 9th floor of the Comfort Hotel.

Our afternoon was slow because we were tired and Chrissy felt a bit sick. We got some takeaway for lunch and played on the internet. In the evening we went for a walk and found a nice mall with Kinokunia which, even in Japanese, is a fun shop. We tried to find a particular tofu restaurant but as a nice lady explained to us in English, tofu is a morning thing and it's a lunch place so we ate cheap katsu-don instead. Yum.

Chrissy: Chucky bought a fruit salad dessert that he thought would be pear, peach and apricot. It turned out to be pineapple, Something and Something. In jelly.
The hairdryer here actually dried my hair and didn't just warm it!

Belated December 16th

Today we explored Takayama on foot. After a reasonably boring breakfast at the hotel we walked to a little market that happens every morning next to the river. We saw a few nice things which we bought as presents and had a nice time watching the ducks and fish coexisting in parallel dimensions. It was really cold.
We started to walk around town and found that Takayama has a few streets of very old buildings preserved in the Edo period style. It was nice to walk around this area but only a few of the shops were interesting. We started walking uphill and headed towards some trees. It turned out that we’d hit the edge of town and that we were walking up a small mountain to some castle ruins. The walk was a little bit tricky but we had some nice views. We started to see out of the valley which Takayama sits in and out to the high snowy mountains beyond. The "castle" turned out to be a flat area and a sign, but the walk was really nice. We headed down the hill by a different route and followed a walking trail on our map. This took us past a mysterious temple, a little spring and shrine with a mossy and icy fountain shaped like a frog, some strange playground equipment in a frosty park and other interesting views.
Eventually we arrived back in a remote corner of town and found a convenience store where we had lunch. The rest of the walk followed a different edge of town but was mostly on normal roads. We walked through a couple more temples and shrines before we got sick of the walk and headed back in the direction of the hotel to rest.
On this last leg of the walk we saw 3 Buddhist temples, each with a huge bell out the front. Why so many bells so close? Do they ring them all at once or alternatively? Are they competitive about their bells? We didn’t even see most of the temples in town, the map had many more marked.
After a rest at the hotel, we walked out to find a post office and some internet. The post office was easy to find but the internet was a bit lame and strange. We asked at the information desk at the station and the man invited us in to use a laptop which is apparently set up for this purpose. It was really slow and crap but we got to check emails and the trains for tomorrow.
We felt like dinner even though it was early so we tried another LP recommendation called Origin, yakitori restaurant. They weren’t really ready for customers but they accommodated us and the food was really, really nice.

Belated December 15th

Today we got up early and had the breakfast at our Nara Ryokan (same as yesterday, except Salmon instead of other fish). We packed up and took ourselves to the Nara station – quite a long walk but at least this time it was downhill!

Our newly activated JR pass works like magic. We just showed it to the guy at the ticket gate and he welcomed us through with a smile. We took a limited express train to Kyoto which filled up pretty quickly. We were then able to grab a bento box and get a Shinkansen to Nagoya, which took around 40 minutes. We were lucky enough to be in time to catch that hour’s train to Takayama. The weather forecast for Takayama today was 4 degrees and snow. So I had dressed really warmly for the day – thermal pants and top. The train from Nagoya to Takayama was very comfortable, with a lot of leg space and toilets and a food trolley. But it was incredibly hot and really bumpy – two things that do not go well with me. There was a thermometer IN the carriage and it was 26.8 degrees. It got down as far as 24.5 and then went up again. It was a 2.5 hour trip. The scenery was beautiful though!

We were relieved to get to Takayama. It was about 3pm when we arrived. We found the hotel relatively easily compared to previous times. It’s a big ryokan, and we’re on the third floor. As usual at Ryokans, you are asked to take off your shoes at the entrance and leave them in the shoe cupboard by the door. Indoor slippers are provided at the door, which are these faux leather slippers with no backs that you just slide on. The problem is that whenever we walk, they slide off again. Having experienced this at Nara, we didn’t put them on, but then we were chased with them so we did and just shuffled.

We were showed to our room, which has a little alcove to leave your indoor shoes (no shoes whatsoever on the Tatami mats) and your bags. A sliding paper door revealed a 12-mat room with a low wooden table, a television and kettle, cups, teapot and REAL TEA, a balcony area with a small table, and a bathroom with a shower/bath and toilet. No futons.

We went out to the Combini to get some late lunch and got some Inari sushi and a Meron bread. We looked around and saw the river and some interesting looking shops. It was cold. We went back and looked up some places to eat and decided to eat at a place around the corner, but first to look at the internet downstairs.

The internet was 100 yen per ten minutes! Outrageous! I put in 100yen and almost sent an email before it shut down on me. I’m writing this in Word and I’m going to post it tomorrow at the train station where they have internet.

We went to this place around the corner which had a really nice atmosphere and ordered Sukiyaki. It was a bowl of raw cabbage, bean sprouts, mushrooms, tofu, onion and the famously amazing Hida beef (Hida is the area we’re in now), all in a soy-based sweet sauce. This was placed over a burner and set on fire, and we were told to turn it all over and cook it up together. It was fun and tasted amazing. We were also given miso soup, rice, two lots of Japanese pickles, and unlimited green tea. It was delicious!

We walked towards Family Mart and bought some chocolates called Melty Kiss that I’ve been curious about since our first day in Japan, and also some dessert. When we got back, futons had been spread for us! Like stealthy ninjas they waited until we had our backs turned and then BAM! Futon attack!

I had a lovely bath in the hotel’s ladies’ bath (Japanese style) where I could take as long as I wanted because nobody else was there. We ate the dessert I bought and it turned out to be coffee cream on top and underneath… coffee jelly. Weird.

More photos December 14th

Photos December 14

Sunday, 14th December!

Chrissy: Today was our full day in Nara. We got up fairly early to eat the Japanese breakfast here, which was miso soup, rice, a strange tofu dish over a FIRE, pickles, lotus root, other veggies, and some other veggies, as well as a baked fish and eggplant. Only little dishes, but it added up to a humungous meal.
We went out with an Australian friend we met last night. The lady at the front desk told us about some deer event happening at 9:30, so we rushed over to Nara Park (it's gigantic) to where it was happening. There were a bunch of people milling around, and then one guy with a french horn (or some other kind of horn?) got up and said something, and then started to play his horn. About 20 seconds later, a herd of deer came pelting out of the woods 50 metres behind him and ran towards him. It wasn't dangerous or anything. It was a really cool spectacle. Chucky thinks that they let them out of an enclosure in the forest, but I think that they were called from afar. We were handed out senbei which is a kind of cracker, to feed the deer. They were really pushy and some tried to eat my coat and bag. One jumped up on Chucky, so it looked like a kangaroo. There were all these little children with the senbei, who were shorter than the deer and were terrified!
Then we went for a walk in the park, which includes many interesting sights. First, we walked to Todai-ji temple, which is the biggest wooden building in the world and contains a really huge Buddha. I don't know if it's the biggest buddha, but it is certainly huge. In the same building, behind the Buddha, there is a huge wooden column with a hold through the base. I have been informed that this hole is the same size as the great Buddha's nostril, and that whomsoever shall pass through it shall be blessed with enlightenment. So we did. We are enlightened.
Continuing the walk, we went to another Buddhist hall where there were monks chanting and praying. I felt weird about watching so I walked away. There were some interesting water features around.
Chucky and our new friend had lunch at a place that sold souveniers and lunches. I watched and drank coke because I was still so full from breakfast. Then we went further into the park to a Shinto shrine area which was really pretty. The Shinto shrine was in a rainforest-type place, still with deer everywhere. They were really tame, and were quite happy to let you walk close to them and take photos.
We walked back to town and got some lunch for me from the Circle K (where strange things were afoot). Yum.
Then Chucky MADE me go out immediately to find a doughnut shop he read about. We walked some arcades and things and found some really amazing secondhand clothes shops. The best one had a cafe at the front, and then a tiny tiny selection of secondhand kimonos and a display case full of retro jewellery, then there was this stage area/display area, and then there were tables where young women in kimonos and colourful sneakers were crocheting things. I felt so left out, I really wanted to join in.
There were a host of other rad second hand clothes shops around too. I bought a ... vest ... which is awesome.
Found our doughnut shop, where Chucky got something. A doughnut. Then we met up with our friend and got Okonomiyaki. Yay! I want my dessert.

December 13th - Kyoto and Nara

Today we thought we might visit the bamboo grove in Kyoto before we got on our way to Nara. We got ready to leave but realized that is was quite a long way away and we were a bit stressed about activating our Japan Rail Passes. We went for a short walk in the city instead and got a great view of Kyoto Tower and the Big Tin Shed.

After we picked up our bags (heavy) from the hotel we walked down to the station and negotiated our passes. We felt very special being able to usurp the ticket machines and simply show our passes to the man at the gate. We’re SPECIAL PASS HOLDERS.

We figured out the platform to go to Nara and saw a train ready to leave. It was a local train and we thought “Oh, it’s only 37 kilometers, it can’t be that bad.” When we got on the train and it stopped every 10 seconds we took the initiative at a big station to change to an express. Very clever of us.

When we got into Nara, Chrissy was a bit disappointed that the station area looks just like every other city in Japan with big messy buildings and loud traffic. The walk to the ryokan was uneventful but annoying with our bags which we dropped off and went to look about and find lunch. Nara has some shopping arcades as well, kind of like a mini Teramachi and Sanjo streets (Kyoto). We went back to the ryokan for a while and then went out to look at the park. According to the map, about half of central Nara is park with temples, museums and a few shops. The light was fading but we had a nice time looking at the deer. We walked through a giant temple gate and when we turned around we realised that there were two giant scary statues watching us! Scary!

Dinner was at a chain Japanese restaurant specializing in rice with ingredients on top dishes. These are usually called something-don in Japan and this restaurant is called the don. Chrissy ordered an old favourite of ours – oyakudon ­– or eggy chicken on rice. I ordered a mysterious item which turned out to be crumbed and fried OYSTER on rice. Bad choice since I’m not that keen on oysters. I probably should have looked at that page on the menu which featured a big picture OF AN OYSTER.

We came back to the hotel reasonably early and used their big bath to wash away a stressful day. Soon – sleep!
j

December 12th!

Chrissy:Today we got up and caught a bus to Kiyomiz-dera, which is a shrine in the East of Kyoto.
On the way to the bus stop, we saw a old lady who had dropped a bag and was struggling with something. Chucky asked if she was ok, and I helped her with her dropped bag. She said thankyou and we went on our way. Then she called after us "Are you French?" and we went back and explained that we were Australian. "Oh, Australian" she said. We went on our way. Then she called to us again and ran up to us as quick as an old lady burdened with a million bags can run. She pushed two little packages into our hands and said they were "From Tokyo". We thanked her and finally actually went on our way. We were really touched that she gave us a gift when all we did was pick up her bag and see if she was ok.
The bus was packed, so I pushed my way to the front of the bus when our stop was approaching. Then almost everyone on the bus got out after me, including Chucky. I felt a little silly.
Then everyone who had been in the bus, as well as a hoarde of other people started walking up a very steep hill on a very narrow road. We followed and were soon forced along up this hill. I just love crowds and traffic, especially when there are no footpaths. So I was overjoyed when about 20 huge buses drove past, clearly having dropped scores of people off at the top of the hill, where we were headed. Along the narrow street were lots of pottery shops. We stopped and looked in a couple in an attempt to find someone a wedding gift. To no avail!
We finally reached the top of the mountain and I had a sit down. I thought it was particularly mean that there was a sign saying "No Eating or Drinking" at the entrance to the shrine. I was so thirsty after the trek! I snuck a sip from my waterbottle.
One of the pagodas was really tall. There was a multitude of little buildings and things to do. The best building was a huge structure with a famously brilliant view of the city and of the coloured leaves. I fell over and hurt my hand and shin. I was so embarrassed I went and had a discreet little cry.
Next, we went down some steps to the sacred water-drinking thing. A sacred spring up in the hills is directed down to this structure with three streams of water. People take sticks with cups at the end and wash their hands and drink the sacred water. It's supposed to grant your wishes or give you long life. Chucky did it, and I watched and took photos. He brought me back some sacred water. I felt much happier after that.
We walked around the complex for a while and looked at all the good luck merchandise. I bought a phone dangly with a little bell in it that I thought was cute. AS SOON AS I put it on my bag, it became exceedingly annoying and I had to remove it.
There is an attraction at this particular shrine that is an underground tunnel of darkness. The Lonely Planet guide says "This subterranean walk through the darkness easily qualifies as Kyoto's most unusual attraction. We won't say too much about Tainai-meguri - just try it". So we did. We paid 100 yen each to a man and were told that it is "very dark - use your left hand". There was a rail on the left that you're supposed to hold to guide you. Chucky made me go first. We descended a flight of stairs and then turned a corner and went through some curtains and were in total darkness. It was the kind of darkness that makes you feel as though there's a wall right in front of you, stopping you from continuing. Feeling the handrail and listening to the people ahead of me, I went along slowly, getting more and more freaked out the whole way. Towards the end, I saw this weird glowing rock that you're supposed to turn clockwise. I took my hand off the rail to turn it and then couldn't find the rail, and panicked until Chucky guided my hand back to it. Then we were out and I needed a good sit down. We were down there for less than 5 minutes, I think. When my breathing returned to normal, we left and followed a walk suggested in Lonely Planet. We bought crepes from a crepe shop. What I thought was ice-cream in the picture turned out to be normal cream, so they were incredibly rich and were hard for Chucky to digest. It was ok though. At the end of the walk we took a bus back to our hotel. We had a late lunch of tempura from the lady over the road. It was so filling! I also ate the little gift the old lady gave me this morning. It was a little package of Hello Kitty sweet soft rice snacks, covered in that yummy powder they use so your fingers don't get sticky. Yum! Thanks old lady!
Went out again later to visit a department store we read about in the book. It turned out to be only dumb clothes for girls, but the boys clothes were pretty good and Chucky bought some amazing shoes. Yay! Ate a late dinner at our mystery restaurant and now home. I've had the same dessert 3 days in a row and I AM getting fatter.

Charles:
The walk today was great. We got to go down lots of amazing streets and saw some really nice traditional japanese craft shops. We also saw a giant faux-traditional japanese crafts shop which spanned three or four of the old buildings. Bizarre.

Photos December 12

Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera foundations

Spring below the main hall

Retrieving some water

Photos December 12 continued

Drinking the spring water

Picturesque

Lonely planet says that this is the prettiest lane in Kyoto. It had no people, motor scooters, cars, vans or trucks.

BTW Kyoto Tower is totally strange

It's like a big UFO.

World's biggest tin shed

Close up view:

Zoomed out view: rivalled in bigness only by Kyoto tower!

December 11th, Photos