I've been without Internet for the last few days until yesterday. So event memories have run into each other. I'll have to skip the details and just do it in checklist format, because it's all blurred now.
Tokyo
Stayed at Shiba Park Hotel in Minato-ku for first few days.
Visited Ginza, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ueno, Shibuya... probably more.
Ueno Zoo
Ate lots
Walked lots
Kyoto
Stayed at Westin Miyako Hotel
Ate
Shopped
Monkey Park
Bamboo Forest
Temples/Shrines
Back to Tokyo
Stayed at Hotel Ginza Monterey La Soeur
Tokyo Game Show
Shopped a bit
Ok besides being brief, I think that kinda somes it up.
Tomorrow we head to Odaiba, near the water.
One thing I'd like to say is that "winging it" is the best way to go.
Have a rough idea of what you want to do, but don't plan too much, especially when you don't know the city well.
Things have really worked out amazingly, and it couldn't have happened any other way any other time because things just fell into place seemingly randomly.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Japan Day 2
Getting lost is still too easy even on day two. At least we've got our JR passes activated now, empowering us with the gift of mobility! After stuffing our faces with French pastries for breakfast it was off to the Ghibli Museum.
Ghibli is a studio that has made anime films such as, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Laputa Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and Totoro. The museum is a tribute to all that is Ghibli. For more info, check out this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
We got there around 11am, just in time for a screening of a Ghibli anime only shown at the Museum. It was an impressive and entertaining film. Now let me briefly tell you about the museum. Think of a giant house built for kids with stuff to play with made for kids, with lots of rooms and sprial stairwells designed for kids. Don't get me wrong, adults are more than capable of enjoying the museum too but putting myself in the shoes of a child, I could see it would be like heaven. Lots of memorobilia, storyboards, interactive displays populated the rooms of the Ghibli Museum. I particularly enjoyed the displays which cleary demonstrated their animation techniques.
Ok. Fast forward to Shinjuku district in the early afternoon. If Minato-ku was tame and Ginza was posh, Shinjuku would be cool uncle that takes you to the games arcade and brings you along to the strip clubs when you're only 11. (No, I do not have an uncle like this but you get the point). Shinjuku is a little bit naughty in some areas, but full of youthful energy. Just the Shinjuku train station alone is full of department stores targeted at young women; You now the drill, skirts, dresses, makeup, shoes, all that jazz. South of the station are adult shops and entrances to what I can only guess are peep shows. Between this cheeky area and the station is what blew me away. Pachinko-overdose; Shop after shop, each one a multilevel establishment dedicated to the past time of the Japanese equivalent to the Pokies. If you could cross breed a pinball machine with a pokie machine and throw in some video game DNA, you would give birth to Pachinko. Boy do they love it. There must have been at least fifty pachinko parlours there if not more.
*Hold on - women's judo is on TV* ...
LOL accidental head butt. Ok where was I? Ah yes. Finally after wading through all the pachinko parlours, we found the departmental stores. Most of these were still above our budget, but not as intimidating as Ginza.
I'll keep this summary moving. Today we ate Tempura and Okonomiyaki for lunch. It was oishii desune. I'd just like to say Japan rocks, and so far all the food has been cheap and delicious with impeccable service. It is evident they really do their best to accomodate my tatty grasp of the Japanese language.
In the later evening we enjoyed freshly barbequed yakitori (skewers) with some sake on our way back to the hotel. We still get confused at the menus that don't have pictures or plastic food models, but it is definitely heaps of fun doing it on our own and not getting spoon fed on a pre packaged tour.
That's all for now.
Ghibli is a studio that has made anime films such as, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Laputa Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and Totoro. The museum is a tribute to all that is Ghibli. For more info, check out this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki
We got there around 11am, just in time for a screening of a Ghibli anime only shown at the Museum. It was an impressive and entertaining film. Now let me briefly tell you about the museum. Think of a giant house built for kids with stuff to play with made for kids, with lots of rooms and sprial stairwells designed for kids. Don't get me wrong, adults are more than capable of enjoying the museum too but putting myself in the shoes of a child, I could see it would be like heaven. Lots of memorobilia, storyboards, interactive displays populated the rooms of the Ghibli Museum. I particularly enjoyed the displays which cleary demonstrated their animation techniques.
Ok. Fast forward to Shinjuku district in the early afternoon. If Minato-ku was tame and Ginza was posh, Shinjuku would be cool uncle that takes you to the games arcade and brings you along to the strip clubs when you're only 11. (No, I do not have an uncle like this but you get the point). Shinjuku is a little bit naughty in some areas, but full of youthful energy. Just the Shinjuku train station alone is full of department stores targeted at young women; You now the drill, skirts, dresses, makeup, shoes, all that jazz. South of the station are adult shops and entrances to what I can only guess are peep shows. Between this cheeky area and the station is what blew me away. Pachinko-overdose; Shop after shop, each one a multilevel establishment dedicated to the past time of the Japanese equivalent to the Pokies. If you could cross breed a pinball machine with a pokie machine and throw in some video game DNA, you would give birth to Pachinko. Boy do they love it. There must have been at least fifty pachinko parlours there if not more.
*Hold on - women's judo is on TV* ...
LOL accidental head butt. Ok where was I? Ah yes. Finally after wading through all the pachinko parlours, we found the departmental stores. Most of these were still above our budget, but not as intimidating as Ginza.
I'll keep this summary moving. Today we ate Tempura and Okonomiyaki for lunch. It was oishii desune. I'd just like to say Japan rocks, and so far all the food has been cheap and delicious with impeccable service. It is evident they really do their best to accomodate my tatty grasp of the Japanese language.
In the later evening we enjoyed freshly barbequed yakitori (skewers) with some sake on our way back to the hotel. We still get confused at the menus that don't have pictures or plastic food models, but it is definitely heaps of fun doing it on our own and not getting spoon fed on a pre packaged tour.
That's all for now.
Japan
It is only the first real full day in Japan. Yesterday was taken up by travel. We got up at 4:30am and arrived at Narita Airport, 7pm Tokyo time.
The pilot's landing was perfect. The staff were friendly and the 30$ upgrade to get more leg room was well worth it. Who says JetStar is the "Death Star"!! I was very satisfied with the service.
But boy was it a long day. After arriving at Tokyo, we still had to catch a bus to Tokyo City Air Terminal, *then* catch a cab to our hotel. I was feeling a little culture shock by that stage, compounded by tiredness.
For a country all my friends said, "You don't need to know Japanese", there certainly was a distinct absence of English around. Fortunately, I still remember words like, Hello, Good Morning, Thank you, Excuse me, Dont Understand, Sorry. Some newer words that I've picked up also came in handy like Bill, Receipt, 2 people.
Today, we still had not activated our JR Rail Pass because we are here 16 days while we only have a 14 day JR Rail Pass. So we walked and we walked, and walked and walked and then rested, then walked again.
I don't know if it's me or what, but the Minato-ku area seems to have not much for tourists. Sure theres cheap eats that are easy to be found, and the food is delicious! There's also a couple of things to look at like in Rappongi. But thats not really Minato-ku anymore really. So walking has it's limitations because we can't go that far. We went to Tokyo Tower, which has a couple of observation decks. It's shaped similar to the Eiffle Tower but a little taller. We visited a couple of shrines and temples but things didn't really pick up until we decided to walk to Ginza in the evening.
*Aside* As I type this you certainly see a lot of random things on Japanese TV.
Anyway back to Ginza. It is no short walk to get to Ginza, maybe 30 minutes from Shiba Park Hotel. But the walk was WELL worth it! The bright lights the huge buildings the array of departmental stores all standing proudly street after street after street, criss-crossed with sidestreets of restaurant after restaurant can only be described as mind blowing for a lil' ol' Brisbanite who's never visited a big city.
The main drag was filled with the trendiest shops while even shops like Armani sat humbly 3 blocks behind. We were starving and stumbled across a small sushi bar. A Japanese couple (I assume, because of how they were dressed), were waiting outside to be seated. A waitress advised it would be over 30minutes wait for us. We were tired of walking so were happy to wait with the already waiting couple.
Again, our patience was worth it. The service was impressive. Our waitress new English which was very helpful for us. There were 3 chefs in front of us to assemble our orders. They are very animated and the experience felt very personal and intimate. If you've ever had tepanyaki... that is the kind of chef/customer relationship I'm talking about. And the sushi was the best I'd ever had, but could you really expect any less, it being Japan?
To conclude, pretty awesome first day, and I'm even leaving out a few random good bits that happened throughout the day.
The pilot's landing was perfect. The staff were friendly and the 30$ upgrade to get more leg room was well worth it. Who says JetStar is the "Death Star"!! I was very satisfied with the service.
But boy was it a long day. After arriving at Tokyo, we still had to catch a bus to Tokyo City Air Terminal, *then* catch a cab to our hotel. I was feeling a little culture shock by that stage, compounded by tiredness.
For a country all my friends said, "You don't need to know Japanese", there certainly was a distinct absence of English around. Fortunately, I still remember words like, Hello, Good Morning, Thank you, Excuse me, Dont Understand, Sorry. Some newer words that I've picked up also came in handy like Bill, Receipt, 2 people.
Today, we still had not activated our JR Rail Pass because we are here 16 days while we only have a 14 day JR Rail Pass. So we walked and we walked, and walked and walked and then rested, then walked again.
I don't know if it's me or what, but the Minato-ku area seems to have not much for tourists. Sure theres cheap eats that are easy to be found, and the food is delicious! There's also a couple of things to look at like in Rappongi. But thats not really Minato-ku anymore really. So walking has it's limitations because we can't go that far. We went to Tokyo Tower, which has a couple of observation decks. It's shaped similar to the Eiffle Tower but a little taller. We visited a couple of shrines and temples but things didn't really pick up until we decided to walk to Ginza in the evening.
*Aside* As I type this you certainly see a lot of random things on Japanese TV.
Anyway back to Ginza. It is no short walk to get to Ginza, maybe 30 minutes from Shiba Park Hotel. But the walk was WELL worth it! The bright lights the huge buildings the array of departmental stores all standing proudly street after street after street, criss-crossed with sidestreets of restaurant after restaurant can only be described as mind blowing for a lil' ol' Brisbanite who's never visited a big city.
The main drag was filled with the trendiest shops while even shops like Armani sat humbly 3 blocks behind. We were starving and stumbled across a small sushi bar. A Japanese couple (I assume, because of how they were dressed), were waiting outside to be seated. A waitress advised it would be over 30minutes wait for us. We were tired of walking so were happy to wait with the already waiting couple.
Again, our patience was worth it. The service was impressive. Our waitress new English which was very helpful for us. There were 3 chefs in front of us to assemble our orders. They are very animated and the experience felt very personal and intimate. If you've ever had tepanyaki... that is the kind of chef/customer relationship I'm talking about. And the sushi was the best I'd ever had, but could you really expect any less, it being Japan?
To conclude, pretty awesome first day, and I'm even leaving out a few random good bits that happened throughout the day.
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