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Today we were thinking of going to some temples in Kyoto but when we woke up it was raining...
So we chaged our plan to go to some shops in central Kyoto and walk around and find fun things.
The first weird thing that happened today was my big breakfast mistake. I went to a takeaway shop to order some bentos for breakfast and instead of two, I ended up with three. One too many. The silver lining was that one was really awful due to it's strange fried squid content and so we didn't eat that one. The other two were nice.
We left the house and took the subway up the street aiming for "Kyoto Art Centre" which has some galleries. Unfortunately there were no exhibitions on, but as we were walking out we saw people pounding mochi across the road. We went over to have a look and were accosted by some old gentlemen who wanted us to sign a little visitors book. They gave us some weird tickets and a little kids puzzle. It turns out that since it's the end of January there's a mochi festival in that local area and lots of families with kids had come out to this old kindergarten to eat mochi and have a nice time. There were ladies in a big kitchen cooking up the rice, and guys outside pounding it into dough. Each of the kids was given a turn pounding.
A nice man who could speak a little bit of english came and showed us around, then he led us inside to where some ladies gave us three sorts of mochi to eat which is what everyone was getting. The first was a box with mochi that had anko and some that had a brown powder that we can't identify. Probably ground husk of some grain or something. The second was mochi in anko soup like we had previously. The nice man insisted that we try them all and sit in the hall where everybody else was. He also gave us some tea.
The official way for kids to eat mochi at the mochi festival was by letting their parents eat it while they run around and accidentally tip over cups of mochi soup. We tried very hard to be good and finish all ours, but they gave us SO MUCH. It was very difficult. Mochi is gummy and hard to chew and swallow so it took us a long time, all while we felt out of place. It was delicious though!
After the mochi festival we decided to walk to the Kaleidoscope museum and had a coffee to calm down. We also went to a big cubic mall that we'd been to before. This time it was packed with people watching a dancing competition on a big stage, so we watched too. Most of the dancers were high school students and they were really good. It was rad. Some kids did robot dancing and were really really really good. Super good. Wow.
We went to a few shops and then continued on our kaleidoscopic quest. The kaleidoscopes were fun and mostly different from last year. A lady explained to me in great detail about a kaleidoscope but I only understood a bit.
After kaleidoscopes we wandered through the streets looking at interesting shops. We remembered that there was a button shop around somewhere and searched for it. Christina found a bead shop instead, so I had to stand outside for hours (minutes -ed.) taking photos etc. We also found the button shop but Christina didn't buy anything.
We wandered around for ages looking at all kinds of alternative and expensive fashions, bicycles etc. Eventually we ended up at the Teramachi arcades and we went in there to look around for more interesting stuff. The most interesting thing we found was another coffee which we drank while people watching from the second floor of a Starbucks. People are cool. I looked in another bag shop and Christina looked at shoes. We ended up at a department store looking at men's clothes and I tried on a jacket but didn't buy it. It was too small. I also had a conversation with a man about jeans and also didn't buy any.
On the way home, Christina looked at some frilly clothes shops and we also went to ANOTHER camera shop called "naniwa camera". I thought it would be the same as regular camera shops, but this one had a huge collection of second hand film cameras which was fun to look at (Charles took HOURS -ed.).
On the way home we stopped at our regular restaurant to get dinner. I ordered a beef/rice/egg bowl and, in her first serious misstep, Christina accidentally ordered beansprouts and liver which we didn't like at all. The beansprouts were nice though. She is still in shock that she ate liver. Gross.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
30 January - Osaka
Today we got up and went straight back to Osaka. Charles wanted to see the Umeda Sky Building. It's really two towers which are joined at the top with an enormous disc and some huge escalators. We took the lift to the 35th floor, and were surprised and terrified when the lift was glass and we could see all around us. It was shockingly scary and rad. We paid a fee to go to the upper disc and had to go up a giant escalator that was also in glass and was also scary. It was pretty empty, but they had a campaign for Valentine's Day on, so everything was for lovers. It was totally weird. In Australia apparently nobody is ever in love (according to the media?), but in Japan love is all the rage. It would suck if you went up the Umeda Sky Building without a boy/girlfriend because of all the love stuff. Anyway... we had a coffee.
We went up onto the observation deck where we could see all of Osaka. It was windy and bright, and there was a place that was "reserved for lovers", possibly because it was romantic during sunset or something. Since it was midday there was no difference between that place and anywhere else on the deck. Weird?
Down on the ground again we went back to Shinsaibashi, where we had spent a lot of last night. We went to the underground mall called Crysta, where we had spent a lot of time in our 2008 trip. It was not nearly as cool as we remembered, but we also remembered that we had never actually bought anything at Crysta last time either. We had lunch in an Okonomiyaki restaurant down there, which was pretty nice. Osaka okonomiyaki has noodles in it as well as cabbage.
Next we took a train further south (or something) back to Namba to look again at the interesting people and places. There were lots of boys/men with long leather shoes, tall blonded hair, leather, chains, and eyeliner. There were also lots of girls/women with tall shoes, tall blonded hair, fake fur, bling, and false eyelashes. We went to Tokyu Hands which is one of Charles' favourite shops (along with Loft and Muji) and Christina bought him a pocket knife, and we bought a cool toy camera that takes FOUR PHOTOS in ONE SECOND and works on film and is cute. We wanted one ever since our friend had one that was cool. We're going to load it up and take photos tomorrow but we can't upload them to the internet!
Christina found a few interesting shops - an Atelier Pierrot, Marble (had never seen this one before, and didn't like it much), and Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. This is how we know she's not a real Lolita (even hate writing that name): she doesn't really like Baby. We bypassed all the dresses save an Alice and the Pirates one, and ended up only buying some cute earrings that were half price.
We went to a Beams for Men shop which had a lot of great clothes that Charles sort of liked, but he's "not into fads" so didn't buy anything except for a small Porter change purse. Not into fads, but into bag brands. He's happy now and puts his small change in it.
We were tired then and made our way back to Osaka station to take the shinkansen back to Kyoto. We were the only ones in the entire carriage. Once back in Kyoto, we got some takeaway katsudon and oyakodon from a place close to our hotel. It was delicious!
We went up onto the observation deck where we could see all of Osaka. It was windy and bright, and there was a place that was "reserved for lovers", possibly because it was romantic during sunset or something. Since it was midday there was no difference between that place and anywhere else on the deck. Weird?
Down on the ground again we went back to Shinsaibashi, where we had spent a lot of last night. We went to the underground mall called Crysta, where we had spent a lot of time in our 2008 trip. It was not nearly as cool as we remembered, but we also remembered that we had never actually bought anything at Crysta last time either. We had lunch in an Okonomiyaki restaurant down there, which was pretty nice. Osaka okonomiyaki has noodles in it as well as cabbage.
Next we took a train further south (or something) back to Namba to look again at the interesting people and places. There were lots of boys/men with long leather shoes, tall blonded hair, leather, chains, and eyeliner. There were also lots of girls/women with tall shoes, tall blonded hair, fake fur, bling, and false eyelashes. We went to Tokyu Hands which is one of Charles' favourite shops (along with Loft and Muji) and Christina bought him a pocket knife, and we bought a cool toy camera that takes FOUR PHOTOS in ONE SECOND and works on film and is cute. We wanted one ever since our friend had one that was cool. We're going to load it up and take photos tomorrow but we can't upload them to the internet!
Christina found a few interesting shops - an Atelier Pierrot, Marble (had never seen this one before, and didn't like it much), and Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. This is how we know she's not a real Lolita (even hate writing that name): she doesn't really like Baby. We bypassed all the dresses save an Alice and the Pirates one, and ended up only buying some cute earrings that were half price.
We went to a Beams for Men shop which had a lot of great clothes that Charles sort of liked, but he's "not into fads" so didn't buy anything except for a small Porter change purse. Not into fads, but into bag brands. He's happy now and puts his small change in it.
We were tired then and made our way back to Osaka station to take the shinkansen back to Kyoto. We were the only ones in the entire carriage. Once back in Kyoto, we got some takeaway katsudon and oyakodon from a place close to our hotel. It was delicious!
Friday 29th January - Osaka
Today was the best day ever. We basically went to Osaka from Kyoto to go shopping and it was awesome.
We got up a bit late and walked to the station, taking a "local" train to Osaka which was about half an hour. At Osaka station, we got completely lost looking for a Tourist Information Centre where we could get a city map. Eventually we found it and got a map.
Our first item was to go to the head shop of Chrissy's favourite lolita brand "Victorian Maiden". The head shop is in an apartment building which seems totally weird. They seem to have another apartment in the building which I guess is their office where they run the business, so the shop is their special show room.
Anyway, the tricky thing was, Chrissy sent an email (in Japanese) saying when she would like to visit their shop but they didn't reply which was a bit upsetting. We decided to go the shop anyway but the directions on their website was in Japanese and really confusing. So we went out to the place on the map which was tricky in itself and followed the directionts to the highlighted building, but it didn't seem right. In fact we went up the correct apartment and it just seemed like a normal apartment. Then we went to about 3 other local apartment buildings looking for the right one. Eventually we decided to have a break and get a coffee. In the shop, I was looking at the map and asked the waitress if she knew where to go, she got her manager who knew about it and led me outside to point to where to go.
After our coffee we went out again and found it easily. We had been in the right place, but on the wrong side of the block. Their aparment letter box and intercom were labelled so we knew we were right. In hindsight, the google translated directions make sense, kind of. The "Coffee Museum" is the coffee shop we stopped at.
We had to call up the shop to work out how to use the intercom but eventually we got to the shop and a shop girl came down from the office to meet us, I think she knew we were coming even though she hadn't replied to the email. Christina will tell all about her adventure in trying on clothes (even I had a pretty nice time).
Christina:
I had attempted to do my hair nicely to visit Victorian Maiden, and I actually did a pretty good job, but what started as an up-do ended up as a side-down-do. Slippery hair?
At the VM shop, there was a small ante-chamber where there was a mannequin and some bits and brochures. The main room had several racks of clothes, two small tables and a display cabinet with beautiful hair things and jewellery and ornaments, a fitting room, and the soundtrack was Easy Piano Duets (a book I know well). Frilly parasols adorned every other place. Everything was old-fashioned and pretty. The shop girl was extremely cute and helpful, although she couldn't speak a word of English. I tried on lots of clothes, many were too big for me. Here is a list of all the clothes I tried on:
Noble Stripe Pintuck Blouse in both brown and blue. It fit like a glove. I didn't like the brown so much, but it was hard to find something nice that went with the blue one. It's made of light semi-silky fabric which is slightly striped.
Tulip Garden Scallops Skirt in the dusky colour. This skirt fit well because it had lacing at the back. It is lined and the fabric feels delightful. I liked this skirt.
Charlotte Mermaid Skirt in black (they didn't seem to have the cream). I really loved this on the website, but in real life it didn't fit me at all. I don't get it, it just looked completely wrong. Too big for me, and so it sat too low on my waist, and so it ruined the hipline.
Christina Dress in black. Everyone knows how much I love this one. The girl got it out for me especially because she realised that it is NAMED AFTER ME. I had high hopes, but it was too big. It should be called the Slightly Bigger Than Christina Dress. The collar was cool though, I would have liked another like that.
Ribbon Mielche Dress in red flowery. It was pretty but a bit overwhelming and too big for me.
Lady Check Mermaid Dress in black and white tartan. It was a totally weird fit. Looked cool on the website!
Reginental Stripe Frill Dress in light grey. This was really beautiful. It fits well and has a nice shape. The fabric is beautiful. I can imagine myself wearing this one to work!
Dorothy Dress in pink. What a lovely dress! It fit well and suited me, and had the look of a collar at the top - all pintucks and lace edgings. Super lovely.
Adele Bustier Dress in black patterned. This was really nice, I tried it on twice actually, once with my blouse and once with the VM blouse. It was really pretty and fit perfectly.
I got two items. Can you guess which ones? Guess first and then read. Go on.
I spent a good hour and a half in the shop, because I wanted to be sure about my purchases. When I bought them, the girl also put two postcards and a lovely VM phone strap in the bag too. She told me they were presents and we had a small conversation. Charles told me later that she'd been writing me a postcard every time I was in the changeroom (often) using a little translator which beeped (I had been wondering about the beeping) and she'd asked him which colour phone strap I'd prefer. Then Charles took a photo of her and I together in the part of the shop where photography was allowed. She told me I was cute! The cutest girl in Japan told me I'm cute! I didn't stop smiling all day.
(I bought the pintuck blouse in blue, and the tulip garden skirt in dusky. They go well together and I'm so happy with them!)
Back to Charles:
After VM we realised we actually had no plan about what to do. We looked in our city guide from the information booth and decided to go to the south shopping part of the city which is imaginatively named Minami (south). We had been here last year for a little bit but still thought we could find something new. We took a JR train on the Osaka loop line for a while and then remembered we were hungry. As the train pulled into a station, Christina spotted a "Lotteria" burger place on the platform and we jumped of the train and right into the shop.
We hadn't tried Lotteria yet and the food was not super great, but passable given how hungry we are. Burger places in Japan have an "American" feel and definately play themselves up as novelties. They usually have jazz over the speakers which is nice and are filled with people who buy some chips or a coffee and then sit down to sleep/study/chat etc. We're kind of sick of cheap Japanese food and the burgers are usually good quality.
After Lotteria we got back on another train and worked our way to Namba station with one change to a different line (? Mysteriously). Namba has a huge underground mall "Namba Walk" which we got lost in for a little while. Actually I thought we were in a DIFFERENT underground mall called "Crysta" but all underground malls look the same and I was completely wrong. Our plan was to walk through cool places and find a shop we had been to before called "Aranzi Aronzo" which sells cute things. We escaped Namba Walk and ended up on Shinsaibashi street which was awesome because it is probably the most fun street in the world. Mum and Dad - you've seen Teramachi covered arcades, but Osaka is king of covered arcades. Shinsaibashi is sooo long and it has others going in each directions as far as you can see. It is madness.
We stopped for a coffee at Starbucks and people watched for a while, Osaka people have a distinct and rad style compared to Tokyo and Kyoto. After coffee we walked out to the river which bisects Minami and features awesome lighted signs and lots of suspended giant crabs. I got to see the big "Glico Man" sign which is a famous landmark of the area. Everybody else on the bridge was taking photos of it as well. Also a guy was beatboxing by himself and was good.
We walked through the arcades for a while and I decided that I wanted to find a musical instrument store to buy my little Korg controlled in BLACK. We found one small one but it was really only a Yamaha shop. Christina and I were discussing how hard it is to find a musical instrument shop when we suddenly saw an awesome shop right in front of us. I went in and asked for what I wanted and got it. Yay. Also, Japan wants me to buy a Yamaha Tenori-On. Even Christina likes them. I would but they're kind of a Toy with a capital T, and also about $800. A Korg Wavedrum is a possibility as well, but I don't think I will buy one.
We also went to Loft which was fun and then hightailed it to Aranzi Aronzo, seeing all kinds of fun shops on the way. Osaka is full of cool bikes.
In the end, Aranzi Aronzo was not that good, but we bought some little postcards we liked. We plotted our route home to a subway station and walked back down a different street, aiming to get a small park where kids gather to have fun. On the way, *I* saw a lolita shop and Chrissy stopped to look while I went to an awesome book shop called Village Vanguard after the New York jazz club. Village Vanguard is a self-proclaimed "Exciting Life Book Store" and sells CDs, novelties, fashion accessories and magazines. It's madness in a Village Vanguard, they feature CDs throughout the shop with each one in it's own CD player playing all at once. The books are organised by kind of genre with little enclaves of particular interests (fetishes?). My interest was piqued by a corner of books about industrial architecture/abandoned buildings/bizarre places featuring my favourite Japanese magazine "Wonder Japan" and also picture books about dams, floodgates, expressway junctions photographed at night, etc. Chrissy got lost in a lolita fashion section. This particular store was giant and we had to leave because it was too overwhelming. Wow.
We decided to break for dinner since Chrissy saw a "Freshness Burger" which is her favourite burger chain. On finishing our burgers, we realised it was 9 oclock and would have to start going home. We quickly found a subway station and zipped back to Shin-Osaka hoping to get a shinkansen back to Kyoto. We got the last Hikari at 9:33. The ticket lady was hesitant to give us tickets since it was 9:27 but she underestimated our shinkansen catching abilities and we were fine. I think it the last one because there was some damage to the line further up from Kyoto as illustrated on a little sign at Osaka. At Kyoto their was a huge crowd of people at the Shinkansen gates who were all stuck because of it and were being dealt with somehow. We squeezed through to escape unscathed.
Finally we walked home from Kyoto station dodging parties of good-tempered business people out for their Friday night drinks.
We got up a bit late and walked to the station, taking a "local" train to Osaka which was about half an hour. At Osaka station, we got completely lost looking for a Tourist Information Centre where we could get a city map. Eventually we found it and got a map.
Our first item was to go to the head shop of Chrissy's favourite lolita brand "Victorian Maiden". The head shop is in an apartment building which seems totally weird. They seem to have another apartment in the building which I guess is their office where they run the business, so the shop is their special show room.
Anyway, the tricky thing was, Chrissy sent an email (in Japanese) saying when she would like to visit their shop but they didn't reply which was a bit upsetting. We decided to go the shop anyway but the directions on their website was in Japanese and really confusing. So we went out to the place on the map which was tricky in itself and followed the directionts to the highlighted building, but it didn't seem right. In fact we went up the correct apartment and it just seemed like a normal apartment. Then we went to about 3 other local apartment buildings looking for the right one. Eventually we decided to have a break and get a coffee. In the shop, I was looking at the map and asked the waitress if she knew where to go, she got her manager who knew about it and led me outside to point to where to go.
After our coffee we went out again and found it easily. We had been in the right place, but on the wrong side of the block. Their aparment letter box and intercom were labelled so we knew we were right. In hindsight, the google translated directions make sense, kind of. The "Coffee Museum" is the coffee shop we stopped at.
We had to call up the shop to work out how to use the intercom but eventually we got to the shop and a shop girl came down from the office to meet us, I think she knew we were coming even though she hadn't replied to the email. Christina will tell all about her adventure in trying on clothes (even I had a pretty nice time).
Christina:
I had attempted to do my hair nicely to visit Victorian Maiden, and I actually did a pretty good job, but what started as an up-do ended up as a side-down-do. Slippery hair?
At the VM shop, there was a small ante-chamber where there was a mannequin and some bits and brochures. The main room had several racks of clothes, two small tables and a display cabinet with beautiful hair things and jewellery and ornaments, a fitting room, and the soundtrack was Easy Piano Duets (a book I know well). Frilly parasols adorned every other place. Everything was old-fashioned and pretty. The shop girl was extremely cute and helpful, although she couldn't speak a word of English. I tried on lots of clothes, many were too big for me. Here is a list of all the clothes I tried on:
Noble Stripe Pintuck Blouse in both brown and blue. It fit like a glove. I didn't like the brown so much, but it was hard to find something nice that went with the blue one. It's made of light semi-silky fabric which is slightly striped.
Tulip Garden Scallops Skirt in the dusky colour. This skirt fit well because it had lacing at the back. It is lined and the fabric feels delightful. I liked this skirt.
Charlotte Mermaid Skirt in black (they didn't seem to have the cream). I really loved this on the website, but in real life it didn't fit me at all. I don't get it, it just looked completely wrong. Too big for me, and so it sat too low on my waist, and so it ruined the hipline.
Christina Dress in black. Everyone knows how much I love this one. The girl got it out for me especially because she realised that it is NAMED AFTER ME. I had high hopes, but it was too big. It should be called the Slightly Bigger Than Christina Dress. The collar was cool though, I would have liked another like that.
Ribbon Mielche Dress in red flowery. It was pretty but a bit overwhelming and too big for me.
Lady Check Mermaid Dress in black and white tartan. It was a totally weird fit. Looked cool on the website!
Reginental Stripe Frill Dress in light grey. This was really beautiful. It fits well and has a nice shape. The fabric is beautiful. I can imagine myself wearing this one to work!
Dorothy Dress in pink. What a lovely dress! It fit well and suited me, and had the look of a collar at the top - all pintucks and lace edgings. Super lovely.
Adele Bustier Dress in black patterned. This was really nice, I tried it on twice actually, once with my blouse and once with the VM blouse. It was really pretty and fit perfectly.
I got two items. Can you guess which ones? Guess first and then read. Go on.
I spent a good hour and a half in the shop, because I wanted to be sure about my purchases. When I bought them, the girl also put two postcards and a lovely VM phone strap in the bag too. She told me they were presents and we had a small conversation. Charles told me later that she'd been writing me a postcard every time I was in the changeroom (often) using a little translator which beeped (I had been wondering about the beeping) and she'd asked him which colour phone strap I'd prefer. Then Charles took a photo of her and I together in the part of the shop where photography was allowed. She told me I was cute! The cutest girl in Japan told me I'm cute! I didn't stop smiling all day.
(I bought the pintuck blouse in blue, and the tulip garden skirt in dusky. They go well together and I'm so happy with them!)
Back to Charles:
After VM we realised we actually had no plan about what to do. We looked in our city guide from the information booth and decided to go to the south shopping part of the city which is imaginatively named Minami (south). We had been here last year for a little bit but still thought we could find something new. We took a JR train on the Osaka loop line for a while and then remembered we were hungry. As the train pulled into a station, Christina spotted a "Lotteria" burger place on the platform and we jumped of the train and right into the shop.
We hadn't tried Lotteria yet and the food was not super great, but passable given how hungry we are. Burger places in Japan have an "American" feel and definately play themselves up as novelties. They usually have jazz over the speakers which is nice and are filled with people who buy some chips or a coffee and then sit down to sleep/study/chat etc. We're kind of sick of cheap Japanese food and the burgers are usually good quality.
After Lotteria we got back on another train and worked our way to Namba station with one change to a different line (? Mysteriously). Namba has a huge underground mall "Namba Walk" which we got lost in for a little while. Actually I thought we were in a DIFFERENT underground mall called "Crysta" but all underground malls look the same and I was completely wrong. Our plan was to walk through cool places and find a shop we had been to before called "Aranzi Aronzo" which sells cute things. We escaped Namba Walk and ended up on Shinsaibashi street which was awesome because it is probably the most fun street in the world. Mum and Dad - you've seen Teramachi covered arcades, but Osaka is king of covered arcades. Shinsaibashi is sooo long and it has others going in each directions as far as you can see. It is madness.
We stopped for a coffee at Starbucks and people watched for a while, Osaka people have a distinct and rad style compared to Tokyo and Kyoto. After coffee we walked out to the river which bisects Minami and features awesome lighted signs and lots of suspended giant crabs. I got to see the big "Glico Man" sign which is a famous landmark of the area. Everybody else on the bridge was taking photos of it as well. Also a guy was beatboxing by himself and was good.
We walked through the arcades for a while and I decided that I wanted to find a musical instrument store to buy my little Korg controlled in BLACK. We found one small one but it was really only a Yamaha shop. Christina and I were discussing how hard it is to find a musical instrument shop when we suddenly saw an awesome shop right in front of us. I went in and asked for what I wanted and got it. Yay. Also, Japan wants me to buy a Yamaha Tenori-On. Even Christina likes them. I would but they're kind of a Toy with a capital T, and also about $800. A Korg Wavedrum is a possibility as well, but I don't think I will buy one.
We also went to Loft which was fun and then hightailed it to Aranzi Aronzo, seeing all kinds of fun shops on the way. Osaka is full of cool bikes.
In the end, Aranzi Aronzo was not that good, but we bought some little postcards we liked. We plotted our route home to a subway station and walked back down a different street, aiming to get a small park where kids gather to have fun. On the way, *I* saw a lolita shop and Chrissy stopped to look while I went to an awesome book shop called Village Vanguard after the New York jazz club. Village Vanguard is a self-proclaimed "Exciting Life Book Store" and sells CDs, novelties, fashion accessories and magazines. It's madness in a Village Vanguard, they feature CDs throughout the shop with each one in it's own CD player playing all at once. The books are organised by kind of genre with little enclaves of particular interests (fetishes?). My interest was piqued by a corner of books about industrial architecture/abandoned buildings/bizarre places featuring my favourite Japanese magazine "Wonder Japan" and also picture books about dams, floodgates, expressway junctions photographed at night, etc. Chrissy got lost in a lolita fashion section. This particular store was giant and we had to leave because it was too overwhelming. Wow.
We decided to break for dinner since Chrissy saw a "Freshness Burger" which is her favourite burger chain. On finishing our burgers, we realised it was 9 oclock and would have to start going home. We quickly found a subway station and zipped back to Shin-Osaka hoping to get a shinkansen back to Kyoto. We got the last Hikari at 9:33. The ticket lady was hesitant to give us tickets since it was 9:27 but she underestimated our shinkansen catching abilities and we were fine. I think it the last one because there was some damage to the line further up from Kyoto as illustrated on a little sign at Osaka. At Kyoto their was a huge crowd of people at the Shinkansen gates who were all stuck because of it and were being dealt with somehow. We squeezed through to escape unscathed.
Finally we walked home from Kyoto station dodging parties of good-tempered business people out for their Friday night drinks.
Friday, January 29, 2010
28th January!
Today we headed down to the station so Charles could look at another Bic Camera. It had 7 floors! He enjoyed looking at all the cameras and headphones and video recorders. Chrissy had fun listening to Jamiroquai on the display headphones.
We had a coffee and cake at a Dotour shop and caught the bus out to the University of Art and Design to meet a lady named Emi who we had arranged to have a cooking class from. When we got there, she was waiting there with one other lady who had joined the class. We walked to her house, where she began telling us all about what we were going to cook and all the ingredients.
We made a meal with five dishes: a salad with sesame seasoning; grilled marinated fish steaks; tofu-skin spring rolls; boiled turnips with chicken sauce; and mochi rice balls with various fruits and sweets. Along the way, she gave us three types of tea and a glass of ume-chu each. Ume-chu is really sweet plum sake. It was an amazing experience and we recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto. Emi was just lovely and she clearly enjoys sharing her kitchen with us.
We took the bus to the Teramachi covered arcades so that I could visit the shops I didn't get to the other day - Metamorphose, Milk and Emily Temple Cute. I was just going to look, because tomorrow we're visiting Victorian Maiden and I want to see everything before I buy (if I buy at all). First, Metamorphose. I can't believe how different their stock is from last time. Last time it was all leopard prints and disgusting colours, but now they have taken a more classical turn. Some really nice dresses, lovely pintucked blouses, and some socks that I almost bought. Next, Milk. It's not really Lolita, but some of their clothes are frilly and all of them are cute. I tried on a pair of shorts, but they were too big. Too big! Emily Temple Cute was really nice, they had a lot of stock, and a lot of their stuff was on sale half price. Some lovely cardigans and tops, some nice stuff coming in their spring collection too. And the shop girls were the lovliest I've seen in Japan.
We walked to the McDonald's near our hotel, but weren't terribly hungry because of our humongous meal today. We didn't feel like eating more Japanese food.
We washed our clothes tonight. Hah! It's been a while. What a relief.
We had a coffee and cake at a Dotour shop and caught the bus out to the University of Art and Design to meet a lady named Emi who we had arranged to have a cooking class from. When we got there, she was waiting there with one other lady who had joined the class. We walked to her house, where she began telling us all about what we were going to cook and all the ingredients.
We made a meal with five dishes: a salad with sesame seasoning; grilled marinated fish steaks; tofu-skin spring rolls; boiled turnips with chicken sauce; and mochi rice balls with various fruits and sweets. Along the way, she gave us three types of tea and a glass of ume-chu each. Ume-chu is really sweet plum sake. It was an amazing experience and we recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto. Emi was just lovely and she clearly enjoys sharing her kitchen with us.
We took the bus to the Teramachi covered arcades so that I could visit the shops I didn't get to the other day - Metamorphose, Milk and Emily Temple Cute. I was just going to look, because tomorrow we're visiting Victorian Maiden and I want to see everything before I buy (if I buy at all). First, Metamorphose. I can't believe how different their stock is from last time. Last time it was all leopard prints and disgusting colours, but now they have taken a more classical turn. Some really nice dresses, lovely pintucked blouses, and some socks that I almost bought. Next, Milk. It's not really Lolita, but some of their clothes are frilly and all of them are cute. I tried on a pair of shorts, but they were too big. Too big! Emily Temple Cute was really nice, they had a lot of stock, and a lot of their stuff was on sale half price. Some lovely cardigans and tops, some nice stuff coming in their spring collection too. And the shop girls were the lovliest I've seen in Japan.
We walked to the McDonald's near our hotel, but weren't terribly hungry because of our humongous meal today. We didn't feel like eating more Japanese food.
We washed our clothes tonight. Hah! It's been a while. What a relief.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, 27th January
Today we woke up late in Kyoto without knowing what to do. Continuing our list of things from last time we were here, we decided to go to Arashiyama in western Kyoto to have a look at the famous bamboo forest.
Cleverly, we worked out how to get out there on a JR line so we wouldn't have to pay a fare. The subway kind of expensive in Kyoto. Out in Arashiyama we looked around for the Buddhist temple, Tennoji. It has a famous garden and connects to the bamboo forest. We payed to have a look at the garden and spent a while sitting in contemplation at the nice pond and reading about it. As seems to be the case with all Kyoto temples, it was built in the 1300s, but unfotunately burned down... eight times... since then. So it's not really very old. Except in tradition.
The garden was very nice but a bit wintery, on the other hand it was pretty quiet. The exit of the garden walks right into the bamboo forest which was also nice and only marginally spoiled by workers cleaning up with chainsaws and hammers (don't worry, we went back later after the chainsaw guys left and taxis started driving through instead). We took lots of photos that look exactly like other photos in books of the same place. We observed and skipped some bits from the Lonely Planet guide and started wandering along the edge of the mountains looking at the interesting houses and other japanese tourists. Our favourite tourists are little groups (usually trios) of old ladies who all huddle together on the train. They all wear little knitted hats and walk slowly and quietly with only the occaissional "hon to neeeeeee?". They're all polite and sometimes say "konnichiwa" to us. The worst tourists are embarrassing Australians who yell out at each other across parks and gardens and stuff. Ew. Luckily we only saw a few today.
We saw a house where Basho's student used to live, which was pretty, and some weird fields, and some ninja guys pulling carts with japanese tourists. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that mainly serves traditional japanese sweets and and tea. We wanted food so we ordered two different sets based around green tea flavoured Soba noodles. My set had a pile of cold noodles and some sauce and condiments to dip them in, as well as a little bit of fish and some pickles (sukimono = things you like) and some salty red beany rice balls. Chrissy had soba in salty soup with a big bit of fish on top + sukimono and a bowl of rice with tiny fish. We ate it all and it was delicious. Soba noodles are great. The restaurant was nice and quiet and we sat for a while looking at their garden.
Our next stop was Gio-ji which is a mini temple which Errol + Pamela had visited in November. It has a mossy garden started by a Buddhist nun hudreds of years ago and was really pretty. My favourite thing of the day. It's surrounded by bamboo forests and the cool air was falling down from the hills above us. We met some japanese tourists and admired a cat which seemed to live in the temple building.
One of the tourists had an old fashioned style reflex camera with the view finder on top. I think I mentioned already that film cameras are totally in this year, especially weird ones. Every time we go sight-seeing I see tourists with novelty cameras or old Canon SLRs. Sorry Peter and Errol - no Minoltas. Also, it's mostly girls. Chrissy where's your tilt-shift colour-filtered Holga toy camera?
After walking through the bamboo forest again we took the JR line back to town, changing to a subway so that we could go visit the Teramachi arcades. We wandered around for a while and had McDonalds for dinner. After that we got serious about shopping and went straight to the bag shop. I was going to buy a Porter wallet but Chrissy said that the zip was too big and would break so I didn't. We also went to two music shops, one only sold guitars but the other had a pretty cool selection of stuff. Chrissy got to try a real Moog theremin which was awesome, we both played with Yamaha Tenori-on (synthesiser toys from Yamaha which are a grid of lighted buttons, rad and cool, but also $800). I wanted to buy a little Korg controller but they only had it in white and not black so I didn't.
Maybe I'll buy a Korg wavedrum drum synth. Only $500? Maybe not.
Cleverly, we worked out how to get out there on a JR line so we wouldn't have to pay a fare. The subway kind of expensive in Kyoto. Out in Arashiyama we looked around for the Buddhist temple, Tennoji. It has a famous garden and connects to the bamboo forest. We payed to have a look at the garden and spent a while sitting in contemplation at the nice pond and reading about it. As seems to be the case with all Kyoto temples, it was built in the 1300s, but unfotunately burned down... eight times... since then. So it's not really very old. Except in tradition.
The garden was very nice but a bit wintery, on the other hand it was pretty quiet. The exit of the garden walks right into the bamboo forest which was also nice and only marginally spoiled by workers cleaning up with chainsaws and hammers (don't worry, we went back later after the chainsaw guys left and taxis started driving through instead). We took lots of photos that look exactly like other photos in books of the same place. We observed and skipped some bits from the Lonely Planet guide and started wandering along the edge of the mountains looking at the interesting houses and other japanese tourists. Our favourite tourists are little groups (usually trios) of old ladies who all huddle together on the train. They all wear little knitted hats and walk slowly and quietly with only the occaissional "hon to neeeeeee?". They're all polite and sometimes say "konnichiwa" to us. The worst tourists are embarrassing Australians who yell out at each other across parks and gardens and stuff. Ew. Luckily we only saw a few today.
We saw a house where Basho's student used to live, which was pretty, and some weird fields, and some ninja guys pulling carts with japanese tourists. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that mainly serves traditional japanese sweets and and tea. We wanted food so we ordered two different sets based around green tea flavoured Soba noodles. My set had a pile of cold noodles and some sauce and condiments to dip them in, as well as a little bit of fish and some pickles (sukimono = things you like) and some salty red beany rice balls. Chrissy had soba in salty soup with a big bit of fish on top + sukimono and a bowl of rice with tiny fish. We ate it all and it was delicious. Soba noodles are great. The restaurant was nice and quiet and we sat for a while looking at their garden.
Our next stop was Gio-ji which is a mini temple which Errol + Pamela had visited in November. It has a mossy garden started by a Buddhist nun hudreds of years ago and was really pretty. My favourite thing of the day. It's surrounded by bamboo forests and the cool air was falling down from the hills above us. We met some japanese tourists and admired a cat which seemed to live in the temple building.
One of the tourists had an old fashioned style reflex camera with the view finder on top. I think I mentioned already that film cameras are totally in this year, especially weird ones. Every time we go sight-seeing I see tourists with novelty cameras or old Canon SLRs. Sorry Peter and Errol - no Minoltas. Also, it's mostly girls. Chrissy where's your tilt-shift colour-filtered Holga toy camera?
After walking through the bamboo forest again we took the JR line back to town, changing to a subway so that we could go visit the Teramachi arcades. We wandered around for a while and had McDonalds for dinner. After that we got serious about shopping and went straight to the bag shop. I was going to buy a Porter wallet but Chrissy said that the zip was too big and would break so I didn't. We also went to two music shops, one only sold guitars but the other had a pretty cool selection of stuff. Chrissy got to try a real Moog theremin which was awesome, we both played with Yamaha Tenori-on (synthesiser toys from Yamaha which are a grid of lighted buttons, rad and cool, but also $800). I wanted to buy a little Korg controller but they only had it in white and not black so I didn't.
Maybe I'll buy a Korg wavedrum drum synth. Only $500? Maybe not.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
January 26th - Miya Jima and Kyoto
Today we woke up (sort of) at Hana Hostel and had some breakfast of a bread we bought last night. We caught a local JR train down to Miya Jima station, where we took a ferry over to the island of Miya Jima. There is a shrine there which is one of the Three Views of Japan, which includes a giant red tori (gate) about 20 metres off the coast. At low tide you can walk closer.
Miya Jima is a hilly island which is covered in boring stupid deer. They must be really used to people because they totally ignored us even when I sat next to one. He deliberately looked away from the camera. Another one was eating a blue tarpaulin. I tried to stop him, but he didn't grasp the concept.
We walked around for a while and took some photos around the place. My thumbnail came off and bled! We didn't feel like going up the mountains so we went and had lunch - Gyu-don, which is just beef and onion delicious on rice. We went to a souvenier shop to look at phone danglys and the weird lady shopkeeper kept asking us to buy the island's speciality, maple-leaf shaped little filled cakes. We agreed to buy one, and she said "Maybe two?" "No, just one thanks" "Yes, maybe two." "We will only take one." After that we took the ferry back again.
I felt really sick for a while after that for some reason. It was weird and horrible and I won't go into details. We took the shinkansen from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka station, where we had to change trains to get to Kyoto, which was only 15 minutes down the track. Charles felt really sick on that train, which was also really horrible. We both had a rum tum (tiddle-iddle-um-tum). We both felt much better when we arrived at Kyoto and knew where to go.
After a rest, we wanted to go and eat something at our favourite mystery restaurant from last time (we no longer felt sick). It was still there with the same menu. I had fried fish and misc. and Charles had katsu-don and misc. It was amazingly rad.
We went to a 100 yen shop and to a CD shop, and a 7-11 where we bought some desserts. One was a milky substance which I thought might be junket but turned out to be disgusting! It tasted like a bad memory, and Charles thought it tasted like codliver oil, except sweet and not so strong. The other dessert was delicious mandarin pieces in jelly.
We're really into Flight Of The Conchords and watched it on the train. Now we're going to watch some more!
Miya Jima is a hilly island which is covered in boring stupid deer. They must be really used to people because they totally ignored us even when I sat next to one. He deliberately looked away from the camera. Another one was eating a blue tarpaulin. I tried to stop him, but he didn't grasp the concept.
We walked around for a while and took some photos around the place. My thumbnail came off and bled! We didn't feel like going up the mountains so we went and had lunch - Gyu-don, which is just beef and onion delicious on rice. We went to a souvenier shop to look at phone danglys and the weird lady shopkeeper kept asking us to buy the island's speciality, maple-leaf shaped little filled cakes. We agreed to buy one, and she said "Maybe two?" "No, just one thanks" "Yes, maybe two." "We will only take one." After that we took the ferry back again.
I felt really sick for a while after that for some reason. It was weird and horrible and I won't go into details. We took the shinkansen from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka station, where we had to change trains to get to Kyoto, which was only 15 minutes down the track. Charles felt really sick on that train, which was also really horrible. We both had a rum tum (tiddle-iddle-um-tum). We both felt much better when we arrived at Kyoto and knew where to go.
After a rest, we wanted to go and eat something at our favourite mystery restaurant from last time (we no longer felt sick). It was still there with the same menu. I had fried fish and misc. and Charles had katsu-don and misc. It was amazingly rad.
We went to a 100 yen shop and to a CD shop, and a 7-11 where we bought some desserts. One was a milky substance which I thought might be junket but turned out to be disgusting! It tasted like a bad memory, and Charles thought it tasted like codliver oil, except sweet and not so strong. The other dessert was delicious mandarin pieces in jelly.
We're really into Flight Of The Conchords and watched it on the train. Now we're going to watch some more!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Blarg 25 January!
Today was mainly a travel day. We were allowed to sleep in at Kosuke's because there wasn't a list of things to do. We had a delicious breakfast prepared by his mum and then watched some T.V. before leaving.
We were watching a telecast of some school's production. There were lots of short songs and dances performed by the children, who ranged in age from about 1 year old to maybe 10. Most of the songs were about some cultural aspect of Japan, but others were about other countries or something different. It was funny watching the littlest kids, who just didn't understand what was going on. There were lots of tears, and towels thrown in, and one little girl fell off the stage. They had lots of helping people to point the kids in the right direction. Some songs featured 4-year-old girls in skimpy tops and tiny skirts doing dance moves from the Cutie Honey movie. I felt weird watching it, but I guess it's not a sensitive issue here. They were cute.
Kosuke's mum Keiko made us special Chyampon Ramen (chyampon is Nagasaki dialect for "everything mixed together"). It usually has one million prawns and squids and octopus, but it's special because it was made of chicken stock for me. It was delicious, but huge and an early lunch.
They took us to the train and even paid for the cheapest ticket so they could come through the gate and wait for us to leave. Kosuke's family is really lovely! I think they enjoyed having us too.
The first train from Isahaya station to Hakata was so lovely! It had a wooden floor and art in the toilets. Kyushu has the nicest scenery of all of Japan, I think. I HAVE SEEN ALL OF JAPAN.
From Hakata we took the Hikari shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was a short walk to our hotel (it said 3 minutes on the website, but more like ten. They always lie), which is a youth hostel. We have a private room with an ensuite though. Charles says that the website said it was a converted business hotel.
We lazed around for a couple of hours, and then went out to get dinner. We stopped at a close Yakiniku restaurant. It seems like their speciality was offal, but I didn't want offal, so we had regular beef and vegetables. They gave us a FIRE POT with a grill over it, and vegetables and slices of raw marinated meat. We cooked it ourselves on the grill and it was DELICIOUS! The vegetables were a bit weird, I think maybe we did them wrong. Then we got bits of chicken, which were also delicious, and then a bit of "cattle tail slices" which had bits of vertebrae in them which was weird. But DELICIOUS! I guess it's good that they're using the whole cow. We also ordered two types of ice-cream which was DELICIOUS. And I had a humongous beer! It was very light. The staff at this restaurant were really lovely and talked to us a bit.
Now we're at "home" already, and we're going to watch some Arashi program which is on tonight. We wouldn't have known, but Kosuke's mum knows I like Arashi and told me about it. Three posts in one night!
We were watching a telecast of some school's production. There were lots of short songs and dances performed by the children, who ranged in age from about 1 year old to maybe 10. Most of the songs were about some cultural aspect of Japan, but others were about other countries or something different. It was funny watching the littlest kids, who just didn't understand what was going on. There were lots of tears, and towels thrown in, and one little girl fell off the stage. They had lots of helping people to point the kids in the right direction. Some songs featured 4-year-old girls in skimpy tops and tiny skirts doing dance moves from the Cutie Honey movie. I felt weird watching it, but I guess it's not a sensitive issue here. They were cute.
Kosuke's mum Keiko made us special Chyampon Ramen (chyampon is Nagasaki dialect for "everything mixed together"). It usually has one million prawns and squids and octopus, but it's special because it was made of chicken stock for me. It was delicious, but huge and an early lunch.
They took us to the train and even paid for the cheapest ticket so they could come through the gate and wait for us to leave. Kosuke's family is really lovely! I think they enjoyed having us too.
The first train from Isahaya station to Hakata was so lovely! It had a wooden floor and art in the toilets. Kyushu has the nicest scenery of all of Japan, I think. I HAVE SEEN ALL OF JAPAN.
From Hakata we took the Hikari shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was a short walk to our hotel (it said 3 minutes on the website, but more like ten. They always lie), which is a youth hostel. We have a private room with an ensuite though. Charles says that the website said it was a converted business hotel.
We lazed around for a couple of hours, and then went out to get dinner. We stopped at a close Yakiniku restaurant. It seems like their speciality was offal, but I didn't want offal, so we had regular beef and vegetables. They gave us a FIRE POT with a grill over it, and vegetables and slices of raw marinated meat. We cooked it ourselves on the grill and it was DELICIOUS! The vegetables were a bit weird, I think maybe we did them wrong. Then we got bits of chicken, which were also delicious, and then a bit of "cattle tail slices" which had bits of vertebrae in them which was weird. But DELICIOUS! I guess it's good that they're using the whole cow. We also ordered two types of ice-cream which was DELICIOUS. And I had a humongous beer! It was very light. The staff at this restaurant were really lovely and talked to us a bit.
Now we're at "home" already, and we're going to watch some Arashi program which is on tonight. We wouldn't have known, but Kosuke's mum knows I like Arashi and told me about it. Three posts in one night!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
24 January!
Today was the busiest day we have had on our trip. First we had a gigantic Japanese breakfast with lots of little foodstuffs. Chrissy tried fish cake for the first time ever! She didn’t die and it wasn’t gross!
Kosuke had to go to an English exam at the local university, so we got up early and went out with his parents to take him there. While he was doing the exam, his parents wanted to show us around the local town, Isahaya.
Our first stop was the local Shinto shrine, Isahaya-jinja. We stopped and prayed at the shrine as Kosuke’s parents were keen for us to do and had a look around. Everywhere important in Nagasaki area is on top of a big hill, so the shrine had a great view.
The next stop was a hotel on top of the side of a mountain where there was a nice view, as we looked out I saw an interesting sea wall that goes all the way across a big bay. Kosuke’s Dad said “that’s were we’re going next” and we were told all about that big project to reclaim land in the bay. So we went in the car down the mountain and drove over the big wall, which is seven kilometres long, with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other which, stopping in the middle to marvel.
The next event was a big drive back to Isahaya over the mountains which had beautiful views of the sea through both sides of the car. Chrissy fell asleep but Charles watched the whole day talking (with a dictionary) to Kosuke’s parents. Chrissy didn’t mean to fall asleep! It was nice and warm in the car.
Before picking up Kosuke we stopped to look at a scenic bridge of Isahaya which is one of a class of bridges called “megane bashi” which means “glasses bridge”. The two stone arches of the bridge which reflect in the water looked just like a pair of glasses. We also looked into the high school there where there were kids doing Japanese archery which was fun to watch. In fact, we were told, Kosuke’s sister does Japanese archery.
After we picked up Kosuke from his exam we all headed into Nagasaki to go to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is owned by relations of Kosuke’s mother and is 200 years old. It was very traditional and very fancy, we were in a traditional Japanese room and were waited on by women in beautiful Kimono. The dishes were traditional Nagasaki dishes called Shippoku Ryori. It came in a tall bento box with three levels, and a bowl of soup. It was traditional to eat the soup first – it was clear and had a piece of fish, some mushroom, a piece of fish-cake, and a rice dumpling thing in it. The broth tasted of fish.
The bento had in it lots of little singular foods, differently prepared tofus, fishy stuff, prawny stuff, potato, pickles, sweets. After we finishes we were served mandarins! Then some stewed apple and a sweet! Then some sweet soup with a rice dumpling in it! The sweet soup was the best thing ever! It was very thick, made of sweet bean paste. All the people who served us were really nice, probably because the owner is related to Kosuke’s mum.
We went and looked at the river and found some heart shaped stones! I guess we’ll have luck in love or good cardiovascular health or something.
We dropped Kosuke’s mum at the station so that she could go home and prepare stuff. Then the three of us went to Megami Bridge (as opposed to Megane Bridge this morning), which is a 1km-long bridge across the harbour. It’s spectacular! Look it up.
The three of us went to the Nagasaki atomic bomb museum. It was awful and we left quickly because it was so horrendous. We felt very sad. Then we went to the Nagasaki Peace Park, where there is a humongous peace statue from Japan, and lots of other smaller ones from other countries. The big statue is very symbolic. He has one hand pointing up to the threat of atomic bombs, the other hand outstretched bringing humanity together in peace, one leg crossed in meditation, the other poised for action, eyes closed in prayer for the victims of the bomb, a kind countenance, and a muscular body to be able to help people. That’s like seven symbols.
We drove back to Isahaya, to Kosuke’s house. His aunt and uncle were there to celebrate Kosuke’s sister’s birthday which is today, and Kosuke’s dad’s birthday which is next week. We had two cakes and sung Happy Birthday in Engrish. Kosuke’s mum had prepared vineagered rice and we all made our own sushi with many ingredients on the table. We were plied with o-sake, which was delicious. We watched a samurai-drama on the TV that has been advertised ad-nauseum in Nagasaki because it’s set in Nagasaki about a real character, and the actor is very handsome and also from Nagasaki. As far as I can tell, nothing happened in the show except character development which we didn’t understand.
Kosuke had to go to an English exam at the local university, so we got up early and went out with his parents to take him there. While he was doing the exam, his parents wanted to show us around the local town, Isahaya.
Our first stop was the local Shinto shrine, Isahaya-jinja. We stopped and prayed at the shrine as Kosuke’s parents were keen for us to do and had a look around. Everywhere important in Nagasaki area is on top of a big hill, so the shrine had a great view.
The next stop was a hotel on top of the side of a mountain where there was a nice view, as we looked out I saw an interesting sea wall that goes all the way across a big bay. Kosuke’s Dad said “that’s were we’re going next” and we were told all about that big project to reclaim land in the bay. So we went in the car down the mountain and drove over the big wall, which is seven kilometres long, with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other which, stopping in the middle to marvel.
The next event was a big drive back to Isahaya over the mountains which had beautiful views of the sea through both sides of the car. Chrissy fell asleep but Charles watched the whole day talking (with a dictionary) to Kosuke’s parents. Chrissy didn’t mean to fall asleep! It was nice and warm in the car.
Before picking up Kosuke we stopped to look at a scenic bridge of Isahaya which is one of a class of bridges called “megane bashi” which means “glasses bridge”. The two stone arches of the bridge which reflect in the water looked just like a pair of glasses. We also looked into the high school there where there were kids doing Japanese archery which was fun to watch. In fact, we were told, Kosuke’s sister does Japanese archery.
After we picked up Kosuke from his exam we all headed into Nagasaki to go to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is owned by relations of Kosuke’s mother and is 200 years old. It was very traditional and very fancy, we were in a traditional Japanese room and were waited on by women in beautiful Kimono. The dishes were traditional Nagasaki dishes called Shippoku Ryori. It came in a tall bento box with three levels, and a bowl of soup. It was traditional to eat the soup first – it was clear and had a piece of fish, some mushroom, a piece of fish-cake, and a rice dumpling thing in it. The broth tasted of fish.
The bento had in it lots of little singular foods, differently prepared tofus, fishy stuff, prawny stuff, potato, pickles, sweets. After we finishes we were served mandarins! Then some stewed apple and a sweet! Then some sweet soup with a rice dumpling in it! The sweet soup was the best thing ever! It was very thick, made of sweet bean paste. All the people who served us were really nice, probably because the owner is related to Kosuke’s mum.
We went and looked at the river and found some heart shaped stones! I guess we’ll have luck in love or good cardiovascular health or something.
We dropped Kosuke’s mum at the station so that she could go home and prepare stuff. Then the three of us went to Megami Bridge (as opposed to Megane Bridge this morning), which is a 1km-long bridge across the harbour. It’s spectacular! Look it up.
The three of us went to the Nagasaki atomic bomb museum. It was awful and we left quickly because it was so horrendous. We felt very sad. Then we went to the Nagasaki Peace Park, where there is a humongous peace statue from Japan, and lots of other smaller ones from other countries. The big statue is very symbolic. He has one hand pointing up to the threat of atomic bombs, the other hand outstretched bringing humanity together in peace, one leg crossed in meditation, the other poised for action, eyes closed in prayer for the victims of the bomb, a kind countenance, and a muscular body to be able to help people. That’s like seven symbols.
We drove back to Isahaya, to Kosuke’s house. His aunt and uncle were there to celebrate Kosuke’s sister’s birthday which is today, and Kosuke’s dad’s birthday which is next week. We had two cakes and sung Happy Birthday in Engrish. Kosuke’s mum had prepared vineagered rice and we all made our own sushi with many ingredients on the table. We were plied with o-sake, which was delicious. We watched a samurai-drama on the TV that has been advertised ad-nauseum in Nagasaki because it’s set in Nagasaki about a real character, and the actor is very handsome and also from Nagasaki. As far as I can tell, nothing happened in the show except character development which we didn’t understand.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 23rd
Today we took a train to Nagasaki to meet our friend, Kosuke and his family. We woke up early to eat our Japanese style breakfast at the ryokan and then went back to sleep for a while. We finally went out to have a walk around Fukuoka before catching our train.
As soon as we started to walk away from the ryokan we were surprised to see a HUGE FACE that had appeared overnight at the shrine near our hotel. It was really big. I guess today must be huge face festival day or something. We walked down to have a look and saw people still working on painting it. There was a shinto wedding at the shrine as well and we had a sticky beak watching them take photos etc. We walked back to Canal City and looked at some shops but none as interesting as the big face.
Our train was at 12:20 and was a limited express to Nagasaki. We were there in good time but Hakata station is very confusing since it has a lot of construction and the people there are a bit strange and we can’t understand them at all. It was a bit hard, but we got some lunch to eat on the train and managed to get away. The train trip went along the coast and near mysterious misty mountains. It was very nice.
In Nagasaki we immediately saw Kosuke and his dad and were greeted enthusiastically. We all got in the car and they took us to see a few things in Nagasaki. The focus of our tour was Nagasaki’s connection with the West as the first international trading city in Japan. We visited Dejima which was an island enclave for Dutch traders while Japan was under self-imposed isolation. Dejima *used* to be an island but at some point in the early 20th century they filled in a lot of the harbour and covered it up, then it was excavated years later.
Our next stop was Orandazakka, a hill which had some historical French houses and then Glover garden, which was the site of a historical house built by a Scottish man called Glover in the 1860s. Glover garden had spectacular views of Nagasaki harbour including a huge bridge and dry docks and other cool stuff. Awesome.
After the garden, Kosuke and his dad Yuuji took us to their place which is outside of Nagasaki. All the local towns seem to be connected by tunnels through the mountains. Kosuke’s family was there, mother, Keiko, grandmother Sue (Su-eh) and 16-yar-old sister Mai. We all had dinner together in their lovely house and we got to listen to and speak a lot of Japanese which was fun but tiring. A serious matter was Sue retelling her experience of the atomic bomb – she was 27kms away so wasn’t hurt and apparently hasn’t suffered terrible cancers or anything but she felt the huge winds blowing trees around saw the horrible aftermath.
After dinner we all sat in the living room with our feet under the Kotatsu and looked at photos, then we watched TV. The family like music shows and they had some recorded that we could all watch.
Friday 22nd January, Fukuoka
Today we headed to Fukuoka on the Shinkansen. We got up early so that we would be in time for the 10:03 train from Tokyo station. We had to change trains at Osaka to get all the way to Hakata station in Fukuoka where we arrived at 4pm.
The trip from Tokyo to Osaka was annoying – lots of people were getting up and down. Japan Rail pass holders are not allowed to take Nozomi shinkansen, which are the ones that only stop at major cities. The Hikari shinkansen makes a lot of little stops and lots of the people on it were going to or coming from one of these smaller stops. So it’s a busy train.
The highlight of the trip was through the mountains after Nagoya – the towns and tea farms along the shinkansen line were all covered with snow. It was very pretty and Christina nearly died of excitement. Despite our pleas, nobody else wanted to stop for snow-frolicking so we had to stay on the train.
Finally in Fukuoka, we went directly to our ryokan, the same one we had stayed for one night in 2008. It’s a lovely place, the building is old and in traditional Japanese style, our room is big, includes a kotatsu (heater table) and has a view of their little traditional garden and only cost us 7500 yen in total. We don’t get our own bathroom, but the ryokan has a big bath that I like using anyway.
We had a brief sleep under the kotatsu and then HIT THE TOWN which is within walking distance. The first stop was the giant mall called “Canal City”. It’s a nice walk which we had done before, through a temple and then through elevated walkways to the mall. We wandered for a while and found a basement full of character shops. Chrissy found a “Swimmer” shop (her favourite) and I had to leave her there for about half an hour while she pored over flowery wallets etc. I went and looked at capsule machines and won a “nintea” ninja figure representing apple tea. The pun apparently is: “Nintea, Let’s enjoy after’nin tea”.
After I rescued Chrissy from Swimmer we left Canal City and found the real canal which we hadn’t seen yet. We saw some yatai which are little portable food stalls. They have a bar with little seats around and clear plastic walls hanging from their roof. We were invited in by their cooks but we wanted to walk first. We walked up a main street of town in the Tenjin area and found a giant bear and small bears full of bottle caps. On the way back I wanted to eat ramen, Chinese style noodle soup. We found a yatai which said “ramen” (lucky we can read Japanese) and went in. It was empty and the two guys running it were a bit silent but we ordered our ramen anyway. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Amazingly ridiculously delicious.
After ramen we walked home through canal city, pausing to watch the giant fountain. Back at the ryokan we had our first proper Japanese bath and now we feel all warm with our feet under the kotatsu.
The trip from Tokyo to Osaka was annoying – lots of people were getting up and down. Japan Rail pass holders are not allowed to take Nozomi shinkansen, which are the ones that only stop at major cities. The Hikari shinkansen makes a lot of little stops and lots of the people on it were going to or coming from one of these smaller stops. So it’s a busy train.
The highlight of the trip was through the mountains after Nagoya – the towns and tea farms along the shinkansen line were all covered with snow. It was very pretty and Christina nearly died of excitement. Despite our pleas, nobody else wanted to stop for snow-frolicking so we had to stay on the train.
Finally in Fukuoka, we went directly to our ryokan, the same one we had stayed for one night in 2008. It’s a lovely place, the building is old and in traditional Japanese style, our room is big, includes a kotatsu (heater table) and has a view of their little traditional garden and only cost us 7500 yen in total. We don’t get our own bathroom, but the ryokan has a big bath that I like using anyway.
We had a brief sleep under the kotatsu and then HIT THE TOWN which is within walking distance. The first stop was the giant mall called “Canal City”. It’s a nice walk which we had done before, through a temple and then through elevated walkways to the mall. We wandered for a while and found a basement full of character shops. Chrissy found a “Swimmer” shop (her favourite) and I had to leave her there for about half an hour while she pored over flowery wallets etc. I went and looked at capsule machines and won a “nintea” ninja figure representing apple tea. The pun apparently is: “Nintea, Let’s enjoy after’nin tea”.
After I rescued Chrissy from Swimmer we left Canal City and found the real canal which we hadn’t seen yet. We saw some yatai which are little portable food stalls. They have a bar with little seats around and clear plastic walls hanging from their roof. We were invited in by their cooks but we wanted to walk first. We walked up a main street of town in the Tenjin area and found a giant bear and small bears full of bottle caps. On the way back I wanted to eat ramen, Chinese style noodle soup. We found a yatai which said “ramen” (lucky we can read Japanese) and went in. It was empty and the two guys running it were a bit silent but we ordered our ramen anyway. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Amazingly ridiculously delicious.
After ramen we walked home through canal city, pausing to watch the giant fountain. Back at the ryokan we had our first proper Japanese bath and now we feel all warm with our feet under the kotatsu.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Today we had a well-deserved sleep-in. We're so tired from our week of activities! Then we trained it to Akihabara to meet a guy who does computer music. Charles takes over:
Funada and Hide met us at Akihabara station and we all agreed to go for coffee before heading out to the "partsu shoppu" of Akihabara. Funada is a radio engineer but is also interested in computer music and cool projects. We talked about his iPhone applications and my performances and the different things I do with Arduinos, etc. Hide had come with him to help interpret, but I think he was very nervous about speaking in English and didn't say much. Even so, with a mixture of English and Japanese we could all be understood. Funada took us around the electronics market and to the backstreets of akihabara where there are some shops that sell electronics kits and parts. I bought a few small things that I would need for projects this year! Everything was *much* cheaper than Australia with a ridiculously huge range. Amazing. We all went to have a rest at another coffee shop and we exchanged Twitter addresses and he told me about some other artists in Japan who I might talk to. We took a few photos and then said goodbye to Funada and Hide. I think we all had fun, even Christina.
Christina: After we left Akihabara, we went to Ikebukuro because we heard that there was a nerdy place for girls to rival Akihabara for boys. But when we got there we were both really tired and bummed out. We ate food in the station building on the 15th floor, which took ages to find. When we were finished, we went outside to look for an interesting place to go, but we couldn't see anything and had no idea where to go. So we took the train back to Shinjuku and to our hotel.
We rested for a while, and at about 6pm we trained out to Ginza. Ginza is most interesting at night time because all of the buildings light up. We just walked around for a while and Charles tried on some pants at UniQlo. They were awesome but we couldn't be bothered to buy them.
We ate at Freshness Burger at Shinjuku, close to the hotel. Freshness Burger is my FAVOURITE. They put all other burgers to shame.
We had a dessert that was labelled as a cheesecake, looked like bread-and-butter pudding, and tasted like uncooked vanilla cake batter. I loved it.
Funada and Hide met us at Akihabara station and we all agreed to go for coffee before heading out to the "partsu shoppu" of Akihabara. Funada is a radio engineer but is also interested in computer music and cool projects. We talked about his iPhone applications and my performances and the different things I do with Arduinos, etc. Hide had come with him to help interpret, but I think he was very nervous about speaking in English and didn't say much. Even so, with a mixture of English and Japanese we could all be understood. Funada took us around the electronics market and to the backstreets of akihabara where there are some shops that sell electronics kits and parts. I bought a few small things that I would need for projects this year! Everything was *much* cheaper than Australia with a ridiculously huge range. Amazing. We all went to have a rest at another coffee shop and we exchanged Twitter addresses and he told me about some other artists in Japan who I might talk to. We took a few photos and then said goodbye to Funada and Hide. I think we all had fun, even Christina.
Christina: After we left Akihabara, we went to Ikebukuro because we heard that there was a nerdy place for girls to rival Akihabara for boys. But when we got there we were both really tired and bummed out. We ate food in the station building on the 15th floor, which took ages to find. When we were finished, we went outside to look for an interesting place to go, but we couldn't see anything and had no idea where to go. So we took the train back to Shinjuku and to our hotel.
We rested for a while, and at about 6pm we trained out to Ginza. Ginza is most interesting at night time because all of the buildings light up. We just walked around for a while and Charles tried on some pants at UniQlo. They were awesome but we couldn't be bothered to buy them.
We ate at Freshness Burger at Shinjuku, close to the hotel. Freshness Burger is my FAVOURITE. They put all other burgers to shame.
We had a dessert that was labelled as a cheesecake, looked like bread-and-butter pudding, and tasted like uncooked vanilla cake batter. I loved it.
Wednesday 20/1
Charles: Today we wanted to go to Nikko which is an old town in the mountains north of Tokyo.
We took a Shinkansen line from Tokyo station to Utsunomiya and then changed to a tiny train that had only a few cars on the JR Nikko line. The whole trip took about 2 hours.
Christina adds: The train trips were both really lovely. The shinkansen was fun because it was a double decker train! The Nikko Line train was fun because there was beautiful scenery!
Charles: At Nikko we walked up a long road to get to the temple area. All the Japanese took a million buses but we thought it would be more fun to walk. We got really hot from being in the sun AND YET there was snow on the ground.
Christina: Snow! Just in a couple of little piles though. But snow! I played with it.
Charles: The temples were lovely but tricky to get to. They were all together on a hill in a big park which was quite pretty. We had to walk up one million steps to get to them. We walked through a few but we were a bit put off by lots of school groups that were around. Also, Nikko has very few English explanations or maps or anything. It was all a bit confusing. Even our little bit of Kanji was helpful working out the named of places.
After a few hours it started to get very cold and we walked back down the hill. On the way we stopped to look at shops. One antique shop was very interesting, full of weird old japanese stuff like payphones and watch parts and old dressforms.
It was interesting people watching on the train home. Christina fell asleep. The JR Nikko line is a local train so there were kids coming home from school and only a few tourists. Most Japanese tourists come via a non-jr limited express to Tokyo so it was quiet.
Christina: Once in Tokyo, we had to take a local train to Shinjuku. It was OK when we got on, but after two stations we got to know everyone on the train personally. There were 25 people per square metre and the temperature rivalled Canberra. We were broken people for about half an hour after that trip.
Charles: Back in Tokyo we went to Tokyu hands and a different Kinokunia in south Shinjuku. Christina finally found a cache of goth loli magazines and bought two.
Christina: I've been trying to find this one magazine, Deco Alice A La Mode. We finally found it in the OTHER Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. Obviously. I also bought the current G+LB for 1300 yen instead of for $45 in Impact Comics later this year. I'm not spending money, I'm saving it.
Charles: We decides to eat at a different kind of restaurant. It was sort of fast food sukiyaki. Everybody sat at a bar with a little electric stove in front of them and had a prepared sukiyaki frying pan put on the stove to cook yourself plus rice, salad and soup.
I guess Japanese people love diy restaurant food. Okonomiyaki, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, etc.
We ordered through a machine so we didn't actually know what we were getting until we got it. Chrissy got sukiyaki and I got pork and chicken. I think. I let mine cook to be well done which I think was wrong, but since I was the one cooking I figured I could do it however I liked.
The food was filling and tasty and we went home to rest our feet after so much walking!
We took a Shinkansen line from Tokyo station to Utsunomiya and then changed to a tiny train that had only a few cars on the JR Nikko line. The whole trip took about 2 hours.
Christina adds: The train trips were both really lovely. The shinkansen was fun because it was a double decker train! The Nikko Line train was fun because there was beautiful scenery!
Charles: At Nikko we walked up a long road to get to the temple area. All the Japanese took a million buses but we thought it would be more fun to walk. We got really hot from being in the sun AND YET there was snow on the ground.
Christina: Snow! Just in a couple of little piles though. But snow! I played with it.
Charles: The temples were lovely but tricky to get to. They were all together on a hill in a big park which was quite pretty. We had to walk up one million steps to get to them. We walked through a few but we were a bit put off by lots of school groups that were around. Also, Nikko has very few English explanations or maps or anything. It was all a bit confusing. Even our little bit of Kanji was helpful working out the named of places.
After a few hours it started to get very cold and we walked back down the hill. On the way we stopped to look at shops. One antique shop was very interesting, full of weird old japanese stuff like payphones and watch parts and old dressforms.
It was interesting people watching on the train home. Christina fell asleep. The JR Nikko line is a local train so there were kids coming home from school and only a few tourists. Most Japanese tourists come via a non-jr limited express to Tokyo so it was quiet.
Christina: Once in Tokyo, we had to take a local train to Shinjuku. It was OK when we got on, but after two stations we got to know everyone on the train personally. There were 25 people per square metre and the temperature rivalled Canberra. We were broken people for about half an hour after that trip.
Charles: Back in Tokyo we went to Tokyu hands and a different Kinokunia in south Shinjuku. Christina finally found a cache of goth loli magazines and bought two.
Christina: I've been trying to find this one magazine, Deco Alice A La Mode. We finally found it in the OTHER Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. Obviously. I also bought the current G+LB for 1300 yen instead of for $45 in Impact Comics later this year. I'm not spending money, I'm saving it.
Charles: We decides to eat at a different kind of restaurant. It was sort of fast food sukiyaki. Everybody sat at a bar with a little electric stove in front of them and had a prepared sukiyaki frying pan put on the stove to cook yourself plus rice, salad and soup.
I guess Japanese people love diy restaurant food. Okonomiyaki, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, etc.
We ordered through a machine so we didn't actually know what we were getting until we got it. Chrissy got sukiyaki and I got pork and chicken. I think. I let mine cook to be well done which I think was wrong, but since I was the one cooking I figured I could do it however I liked.
The food was filling and tasty and we went home to rest our feet after so much walking!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
19/01/10 - Kamakura and Shinjuku
Today we decided to get away from the hustle and the bustle of the big city and go to do something in Kamakura. We activated our Japan Rail passes today and could then take JR trains for free all the way to Kamakura - only about an hour away from Shinjuku.
On the bus there were three little old ladies sitting across from us. They wore a uniform of pants, sensible lace-up shoes, a padded coat and a cute hat. I thought they were the cutest ladies ever.
Once there we took one of their local trains a couple of stops down the track and went to see a big buddha. He was big! Gosh. For 20 yen each, we got to look inside him! He didn't have innards though, just concrete and metal! There was a nice garden around there and we had a nice time looking.
Charles: The local train line was extremely cute. It wasn't JR so we had to pay, but we could use our pasmo cards. It's so small that there is no ticket gate, just a card reader at each stop and an honour system. Each train on the line had a different design.
The big buddha was very nice. A bit smaller than the one at Nara but still very interesting.
Kamakura is on the coast, and so after the Buddha we walked down to the beach. Australian beaches pwned this beach. The sand was kind of grey and there was construction going on. A huge tractor was going back and forth picking up piles of seaweed. People were surfing.
We took the local train back to Kamakura central, and walked along a shopping street until we found an Okonomiyaki place to eat at. It was delicious! I may have eaten a tiny prawn thing but I didn't get sick, so who knows if I ate it or not?
On the way back to Shinjuku I fell asleep on the train. I felt really groggy - how do Japanese people do it!
Back in Shinjuku we finally tracked down the mysterious "Shinjuku Terrace City Illumination" which we had seen in 2008. It's almost the same as last year. Finding places in Shinjuku is just like a lottery. You can choose a direction but there are tunnels, ups downs, escalators, mystery gates to mystery private railways and several malls all meshed together. So difficult!
We ate a Freshness Burger for dinner - they're so delicious! After a brief rest we went out to Shinjuku just to look around. We looked in Marui One and Bic Camera and Don Quijote for a while. Fun shops!
Now we're going to have our desserts!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday 18/01/10! Harajuku, Akihabara and Yurakucho!
We didn't get a good enough look around Harajuku yesterday, so today we headed out again to see if we could find 6% Doki Doki and stuff. We found it upstairs in some backstreet (exactly where it was supposed to be). It was tiny and had about 6 shop girls (5 too many). It was filled with colourful fluffy/plastic/glittery accessories. A girl gave me a toy shopping basked to place all my tiny purchases in. We didn't buy anything.
Next we went back to Laforet to see what we missed. We started at the top floor and worked our way down. We didn't dilly dally, and I only tried on one pair of shoes. They were too big.
We walked back to the station, stopping at a fashion shop that had a mannikin with a rabbit's head. The rabbit was wearing really nice tights so I bought some, and a cool watch! Pictures to come!
We took the train to Akihabara, which is on the other side of town from Harajuku. We met our Japanese teacher from Canberra, Shizuko. We went to a Maid Cafe because we heard so much about them! We just had to find a cold-looking girl dressed as a maid in the street and she took us all the way up to the 4th floor cafe. There were a bunch of girls about my age all dressed as maids with cute hair, saying "Irasshaimase, Ojisama!" or something, which means "Welcome, Master!". They all looked kind of embarrassed, and Mozart was on loop.
We each got a drink and I got a cake as well, but no meals because it was outrageously expensive. One maid was a westerner from Germany. Shizuko asked how much she's paid. Turns out not much.
When my cake arrived a girl told us that she has to cast a spell on it to make it more delicious. She got us all to make love hearts with our hands and say "Moe, Moe, KYUUUUU!" which probably means "Cute Cute BLAAAAAH!" If it worked, imagine how gross the cake would have been without a spell. Super gross.
Shizuko asked a girl how to become a maid, pointing at me. The girl said you have to do 30 lots of 6-hour training sessions, then you get a certificate.
We looked around Akihabara for a while. It's full of interesting nerdy shops full of anime and manga and character goods. We went to the Akihabara Electronics Market which is a labyrinth of little shops selling plugs and wires and capacitors. Charles was happy!
On our way back to Shinjuku, we stopped at Yurakucho to visit the Muji head shop. Muji is great! It's reasonably cheap, reasonably quality, and stylish. Charles bought a jumper for Y3980 but 70% off - cheap!
We walked back to our hotel from Shinjuku station, stopping to look in Kinokuniya for Deco Alice A La Mode, but failed. It's 8 stories high (the shop, not the magazine).
Charles says: Time to work out where will will stay on Wednesday, since Emi is sick and can't have us for a while. :-(
Next we went back to Laforet to see what we missed. We started at the top floor and worked our way down. We didn't dilly dally, and I only tried on one pair of shoes. They were too big.
We walked back to the station, stopping at a fashion shop that had a mannikin with a rabbit's head. The rabbit was wearing really nice tights so I bought some, and a cool watch! Pictures to come!
We took the train to Akihabara, which is on the other side of town from Harajuku. We met our Japanese teacher from Canberra, Shizuko. We went to a Maid Cafe because we heard so much about them! We just had to find a cold-looking girl dressed as a maid in the street and she took us all the way up to the 4th floor cafe. There were a bunch of girls about my age all dressed as maids with cute hair, saying "Irasshaimase, Ojisama!" or something, which means "Welcome, Master!". They all looked kind of embarrassed, and Mozart was on loop.
We each got a drink and I got a cake as well, but no meals because it was outrageously expensive. One maid was a westerner from Germany. Shizuko asked how much she's paid. Turns out not much.
When my cake arrived a girl told us that she has to cast a spell on it to make it more delicious. She got us all to make love hearts with our hands and say "Moe, Moe, KYUUUUU!" which probably means "Cute Cute BLAAAAAH!" If it worked, imagine how gross the cake would have been without a spell. Super gross.
Shizuko asked a girl how to become a maid, pointing at me. The girl said you have to do 30 lots of 6-hour training sessions, then you get a certificate.
We looked around Akihabara for a while. It's full of interesting nerdy shops full of anime and manga and character goods. We went to the Akihabara Electronics Market which is a labyrinth of little shops selling plugs and wires and capacitors. Charles was happy!
On our way back to Shinjuku, we stopped at Yurakucho to visit the Muji head shop. Muji is great! It's reasonably cheap, reasonably quality, and stylish. Charles bought a jumper for Y3980 but 70% off - cheap!
We walked back to our hotel from Shinjuku station, stopping to look in Kinokuniya for Deco Alice A La Mode, but failed. It's 8 stories high (the shop, not the magazine).
Charles says: Time to work out where will will stay on Wednesday, since Emi is sick and can't have us for a while. :-(
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday 17/01//10 - Harajuku and Karaoke
Yay!
Today we had breakfast at a cool cafe underground. Unfortunately Chrissy's "Cafe au lait" was a bit heavy on the lait. Live and learn! Even though it was Sunday there was a big group of business people being busy together in the cafe.
We walked to Shinjuku station and took the train to Harajuku. We walked through the park to Meiji Jingu shrine which was packed with families and tourists. Our next goal was to find the (mysteious) Monocle shop in omote sando. We walked through Teramachi street with only a brief Lolita stop at Body Line, through some back streets on the lookout for 6% Doki Doki and finally arrived at Omote Sando Hills, the rumoured location of Monocle.
Chrissy Interjects: Bodyline is fantastic. Everything was on special and really cheap. I was thinking of buying a skirt for 1990 Yen (about $25). It was nice except that the bow on the front isn't detachable and it's shirred rather than laced. I didn't end up buying anything but I do love visiting Bodyline. The music is always remix'd Disney songs! We couldn't find 6% Doki Doki :-(
Charles Continues: I finally asked someone where the shop was and they eventually said that it was closed (HOW MYSTERIOUS). So we went to Kiddy Land instead. This year's fad is toy film cameras and I picked up some brochures.
Chrissy Interjects: I bought some BB Cream in KiddyLand. I was interested because it was reviewed recently on Lolita Charm. Apparently it's what makes korean celebrities sparkle. I don't know why they had it in a toy shop. Only thing I bought all day :-)
Charles Continues: We walked back to the station, eating lunch at Yoshinoyas on the way. Yoshinoyas sells bowls of rice with strips of beef on top... and condiments. It's cheap and reasonably delicious.
We got on the train to Shibuya (only one stop) to see Yuka and Mari (Chrissy's friends from school who live in Canberra). We met them at the "Hachiko Statue" a famous landmark at Shibuya station. Heaps of other people had the same idea as us, waiting for their friends at Hachiko, taking pictures etc.
Chrissy Interjects: Hachiko statue is a statue of a dog. It's pretty much the exact same story as the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The dog continued to meet its master at Shibuya station 5 years after the master stopped coming.
We found Mari and Yuka who were going to take us to Karaoke, so we wandered around until we saw カラオケ on a building. Mari put her name down for a spot and we waited for about 20 minutes. Karaoke was a lot of fun, they had thousands of songs, both japanese and western and we all had a go to the best of our ability. The japanese were good practice for reading japanese. We got about 5%.... (;_;) Too fast!
After Karaoke we went to have dinner and ate at a Korean restaurant in a department store it was delicious! We said goodbye to Mari and Yuka at the station as they were going back to their place in Yokohama. We took the train back to Shinjuku and promptly got lost in the depths of Shinjuku station. Bad! We ended up in mystery streets and wandered for ages. We found a Tokyu hands and took a cute picture booth picture (PIKURA). Eventually we relented to a map and plotted a route back to the hotel. All is well! Chrissy will update with Desserts Post tomorrow!
Today we had breakfast at a cool cafe underground. Unfortunately Chrissy's "Cafe au lait" was a bit heavy on the lait. Live and learn! Even though it was Sunday there was a big group of business people being busy together in the cafe.
We walked to Shinjuku station and took the train to Harajuku. We walked through the park to Meiji Jingu shrine which was packed with families and tourists. Our next goal was to find the (mysteious) Monocle shop in omote sando. We walked through Teramachi street with only a brief Lolita stop at Body Line, through some back streets on the lookout for 6% Doki Doki and finally arrived at Omote Sando Hills, the rumoured location of Monocle.
Chrissy Interjects: Bodyline is fantastic. Everything was on special and really cheap. I was thinking of buying a skirt for 1990 Yen (about $25). It was nice except that the bow on the front isn't detachable and it's shirred rather than laced. I didn't end up buying anything but I do love visiting Bodyline. The music is always remix'd Disney songs! We couldn't find 6% Doki Doki :-(
Charles Continues: I finally asked someone where the shop was and they eventually said that it was closed (HOW MYSTERIOUS). So we went to Kiddy Land instead. This year's fad is toy film cameras and I picked up some brochures.
Chrissy Interjects: I bought some BB Cream in KiddyLand. I was interested because it was reviewed recently on Lolita Charm. Apparently it's what makes korean celebrities sparkle. I don't know why they had it in a toy shop. Only thing I bought all day :-)
Charles Continues: We walked back to the station, eating lunch at Yoshinoyas on the way. Yoshinoyas sells bowls of rice with strips of beef on top... and condiments. It's cheap and reasonably delicious.
We got on the train to Shibuya (only one stop) to see Yuka and Mari (Chrissy's friends from school who live in Canberra). We met them at the "Hachiko Statue" a famous landmark at Shibuya station. Heaps of other people had the same idea as us, waiting for their friends at Hachiko, taking pictures etc.
Chrissy Interjects: Hachiko statue is a statue of a dog. It's pretty much the exact same story as the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The dog continued to meet its master at Shibuya station 5 years after the master stopped coming.
We found Mari and Yuka who were going to take us to Karaoke, so we wandered around until we saw カラオケ on a building. Mari put her name down for a spot and we waited for about 20 minutes. Karaoke was a lot of fun, they had thousands of songs, both japanese and western and we all had a go to the best of our ability. The japanese were good practice for reading japanese. We got about 5%.... (;_;) Too fast!
After Karaoke we went to have dinner and ate at a Korean restaurant in a department store it was delicious! We said goodbye to Mari and Yuka at the station as they were going back to their place in Yokohama. We took the train back to Shinjuku and promptly got lost in the depths of Shinjuku station. Bad! We ended up in mystery streets and wandered for ages. We found a Tokyu hands and took a cute picture booth picture (PIKURA). Eventually we relented to a map and plotted a route back to the hotel. All is well! Chrissy will update with Desserts Post tomorrow!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
16 Jan, Saturday
Today we decided to go to Nippori to see the "Nippori Fabric Town" and walk around Yaneka Cemetary. We had one false start leaving the hotel - it was *really* cold and we needed extra warm beanies to beat the cold wind. Once we were suitably rugged up we could take the Maranouchi line to Shinjuku and the Yamanote line to Nippori.
We didn't know where Nippori Fabric Town was from the station, but luckily there were big signs and maps. Chrissy didn't have a particular shop to go to, but as we walked, we started to see bolts of fabric piled up outside every shop. Eventually, Chrissy recognised the name of one, "Tomato" and we had a look.
Well, it was full of fabric.
After Tomato, we walked a little and found more shops... also called Tomato... Chrissy found a goth loli sewing magazine and bought that. I got a little bit worried because there was a group of Americans around carrying bags and bags of fabric... the ladies just kept buying more and the guys were saying things like "Oh let's just take these to the post office now and then you can send home more later". NOOOO! Chrissy don't turn into them!!
In the end, Chrissy didn't buy any fabric and we walked on to our next adventure - a walk around Yaneka cemetary area. Notable things were: our wrong turn towards and extremely cute primary school and kids playing with kites in the park and the hand purifying stations which were totally iced over.
After a lunch of small breads we headed to Roppongi Hills on the train. It took a while to get there, but we ended up in the Mori Art Gallery which is on the 53rd floor of a huge building. The exhibition was about medicine, life and anatomy and was very interesting with pieces in all styles from all kinds of periods. It was a HUGE gallery.
We also got to see the view from the 52nd floor off the Mori Building which has viewing platforms all the way around. It was really pretty and we stayed around for over an hour looking at the sunset and watching the lights of Tokyo turn on. The entire sky line was clear --- except for Mt. Fuji which was hidden in clouds.
We headed home finally and bought a freshness burger for dinner. We are so worn out!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Christina cute things from Marui One
These were all really cheap so don't freak out.
Day 2! 15/1/10
First full day in Japan! Today we did some things we have been lusting after all year!
For breakfast we went to a coffee shop which turned out to be called "Beanus".
I think it's a pun on Beans and Venus.
Also, Chrissy ended up with hot milk instead of coffee...
?
Today we decided to find Marui One Shinjuku, which is famous for all of its Gothic and Lolita shops. Unfortunately, all of the shops were for girls, so poor Charles was dragged along with nothing to look at for himself. He was very gentlemanly and let Chrissy look to her heart's content.
In Marui One Shinjuku, they have lots of brand shops: Metamorphose, Baby, Alice And The Pirates, Angelic Pretty, Emily Temple Cute, Excentrique, Moi-Meme-Moitie, Black Peace Now, H.Naoto, Atelier Boz, Jane Marple, Jesus Diamante, Kera Angel, Junie Moon (the Blythe doll shop), and lots of other little cute shops.
After a reasonably solid morning of Lolita shopping, we walked to Shinjuku station to have lunch, stopping only to visit another lolita shop, Innocent World. We ate lunch on the restaurant floor of Lumine, at a sort of upmarket donburi place. Charles had surprise shellfish in his miso soup! Christina was totally freaked out. Luckily her meal had no surprises, except for the surprisingly hot "mexi-rice".
After lunch we went to find another another lolita shop called "Closet Child" which sells second hand clothes. It was a bit depressing - hundreds of unloved BTSSB dresses, which Chrissy didn't like. Conclusion - people only sell awful lolita dresses.
We went home for a rest and then walked out to have a look for dinner. While looking for dinner we were only distracted twice, first by Muji where Chrissy bought a skirt and Charles bought some pens and then by Bic Camera where Charles bought a windscreen for his sound recorder (but he had to ask for it in Japanese first). Also lots of things in Muji were on sale, Chrissy's skirt was 70% off (!).
DINNER.
We finally found a place to eat after walking around for a long time. It was a very friendly place but we couldn't read the handwritten menu at all. The chef could speak english though, so we could order. We ate a fish, two smaller fish, a loaf of tofu and mystery beef soup. It was the nicest dinner in the world and we ate way too much.They gave us a strawberry each for dessert (^_^).
Finish!
For breakfast we went to a coffee shop which turned out to be called "Beanus".
I think it's a pun on Beans and Venus.
Also, Chrissy ended up with hot milk instead of coffee...
?
Today we decided to find Marui One Shinjuku, which is famous for all of its Gothic and Lolita shops. Unfortunately, all of the shops were for girls, so poor Charles was dragged along with nothing to look at for himself. He was very gentlemanly and let Chrissy look to her heart's content.
In Marui One Shinjuku, they have lots of brand shops: Metamorphose, Baby, Alice And The Pirates, Angelic Pretty, Emily Temple Cute, Excentrique, Moi-Meme-Moitie, Black Peace Now, H.Naoto, Atelier Boz, Jane Marple, Jesus Diamante, Kera Angel, Junie Moon (the Blythe doll shop), and lots of other little cute shops.
After a reasonably solid morning of Lolita shopping, we walked to Shinjuku station to have lunch, stopping only to visit another lolita shop, Innocent World. We ate lunch on the restaurant floor of Lumine, at a sort of upmarket donburi place. Charles had surprise shellfish in his miso soup! Christina was totally freaked out. Luckily her meal had no surprises, except for the surprisingly hot "mexi-rice".
After lunch we went to find another another lolita shop called "Closet Child" which sells second hand clothes. It was a bit depressing - hundreds of unloved BTSSB dresses, which Chrissy didn't like. Conclusion - people only sell awful lolita dresses.
We went home for a rest and then walked out to have a look for dinner. While looking for dinner we were only distracted twice, first by Muji where Chrissy bought a skirt and Charles bought some pens and then by Bic Camera where Charles bought a windscreen for his sound recorder (but he had to ask for it in Japanese first). Also lots of things in Muji were on sale, Chrissy's skirt was 70% off (!).
DINNER.
We finally found a place to eat after walking around for a long time. It was a very friendly place but we couldn't read the handwritten menu at all. The chef could speak english though, so we could order. We ate a fish, two smaller fish, a loaf of tofu and mystery beef soup. It was the nicest dinner in the world and we ate way too much.They gave us a strawberry each for dessert (^_^).
Finish!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
First Post! The post that hurts the most!
January 14th 2010
Today some boring stuff happened, then some good stuff happened:
5:30am - Arose from our slumber at the Sydney Formule 1 hotel near the airport.
6:25am - Took shuttle bus to Sydney International Airport
9:30am - JAL plane left Sydney with us on it.
The flight was actually really fun! I was a bit worried because I have a strange ear at the moment, but it didn't hurt at all and the staff were lovely and it was smooth. We were upgraded to Premium Economy! There was a huge school group in Economy so they bumped us up.
We took the Narita Express to Shinjuku. It took about 1.5 hours. On the way, we met another couple who were staying at our hotel, so we decided to go together. From Shinjuku station we had to take the Maruionchi line two stops down to another station in Shinjuku. We walked SO FAR and carried our cases up and down lots of stairs. Tiring! It was cold too, but I found that really nice after 39 degrees at home.
Our hotel room is super tiny, but sweet and pretty. We went out to dinner with our new-found friends at a don restaurant around the corner. They are from America, and the time difference meant that it was 7am at their home when we were eating dinner. A strange breakfast. Charles had Katsu-don, and I had a grilled fish dish with lots of side dishes. I ate so much. The guy serving us was really nice and tried to talk to us in English. I told him that he was skilled at speaking English (in Japanese). He denied it, and told me that I was the skilled one. Then I told him his food was delicious. Win!
We bought some chocolates at AM/PM convenience store - "Melty Kiss". We're both super tired but so happy! We remember why we like Japan now! It's fun!
Today some boring stuff happened, then some good stuff happened:
5:30am - Arose from our slumber at the Sydney Formule 1 hotel near the airport.
6:25am - Took shuttle bus to Sydney International Airport
9:30am - JAL plane left Sydney with us on it.
The flight was actually really fun! I was a bit worried because I have a strange ear at the moment, but it didn't hurt at all and the staff were lovely and it was smooth. We were upgraded to Premium Economy! There was a huge school group in Economy so they bumped us up.
We took the Narita Express to Shinjuku. It took about 1.5 hours. On the way, we met another couple who were staying at our hotel, so we decided to go together. From Shinjuku station we had to take the Maruionchi line two stops down to another station in Shinjuku. We walked SO FAR and carried our cases up and down lots of stairs. Tiring! It was cold too, but I found that really nice after 39 degrees at home.
Our hotel room is super tiny, but sweet and pretty. We went out to dinner with our new-found friends at a don restaurant around the corner. They are from America, and the time difference meant that it was 7am at their home when we were eating dinner. A strange breakfast. Charles had Katsu-don, and I had a grilled fish dish with lots of side dishes. I ate so much. The guy serving us was really nice and tried to talk to us in English. I told him that he was skilled at speaking English (in Japanese). He denied it, and told me that I was the skilled one. Then I told him his food was delicious. Win!
We bought some chocolates at AM/PM convenience store - "Melty Kiss". We're both super tired but so happy! We remember why we like Japan now! It's fun!
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