Day 15 - Kyoto temple hunting!

Dan decided he didn't want to come with me today to see some of the temples and shrines on the list, not a problem, we all had our reasons for coming, he wanted to see the anime stuff and I wanted to see the temples and shrines. It's nice to get a day off, in all fairness in the 3 weeks we are here, we haven't really stopped being tourists and it really does take it's toll on you! I'm hoping to nab an "easy" day when I get back to Tokyo, mainly as there isn't much left to do there that we haven't seen/done

Back on topic, Kyoto itself doesn't have a sophisticated rail system like Tokyo and Osaka, but it has a very efficient bus system. I left here around 8am, as I had a lot of ground to cover today, as we didn't do philosophers path yesterday. I picked up my 500 yen bus pass from the reception, and set a course to the bus station, which conveniently is next to the train station. I got off my bus a bit prematurely, and ended up at Kamimiyano maecho rather than the station; Honenicho. This didn't set me back too far, once I eventually found a signpost I was back on track! I've entered the area of Kyoto, where they don't translate anything to English on the signs! And you need to use a lot of common sense or you will end up very lost, very quickly! I found Philosophers Path (Tetsugaku no Michi) and headed towards Honen-in Temple. Tetsugaku no Michi wasn't quite as philosophical as the guide book made it out to be, maybe it's because it's not the cherry blossom or Autumn maple, either way, it was a peaceful walk to the temple, the temple itself was a little run down, but it's more about what you feel rather than see, and whilst walking through the graveyards I could feel something, maybe it was that the stones didn't have any kind of identification on them, were they John Does? Anyway I headed to Eikan-dō Zenrin-ji which is also on the philosophers walk, this temple was closed to the public though.

I eventually found my way to the bus stop, and headed to the West of Kyoto, first stop was Kinkakuji Michi station, which lead me to the Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku-ji as it's rightly called. This is a world heritage site, meaning that they are protected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in regards to funding or protection. You pay like 400 yen to get in, but it's all about trying to get that spectacular shot of the golden temple, here is my best attempt with my Canon Ixus 220 HS

See the full gallery on Posterous

There are various other sites to behold around the temple, the lake is quite pretty as well. From here I headed to Ryōan-ji temple, another world heritage site, this temple boosts a Zen Garden. "To many, the temple's name is synonymous with the temple's famous 'Zen garden', the karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden, thought to have been built in the late 15th century. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder." (Source Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dan-ji) Something went wrong, I only saw 4 boulders! Just kidding, I went more for the view rather than seeing if I was spiritually enlightened, It seems from the picture I took, I could only see around 10, although I couldn't really get a good seat as a lot of people were there studying the rocks and what not!

It took ages to get back home after I finished here, as I was the other side of Kyoto! Was a good day though, picked up an amazing Croque-monsieur on the way back in celebrations I'm now up to date with my Kyoto activities! 

Had a sneaky beer and watched the Strikeforce main event... DAMN! (I'll save that talk for my other blog!) Now slowly catching up with the blogging. Hopefully I'll get a lie in tomorrow and catch Fushimi Inari and A-Bar tomorrow.

 

Day 15 - Kyoto temple hunting!

Dan decided he didn't want to come with me today to see some of the temples and shrines on the list, not a problem, we all had our reasons for coming, he wanted to see the anime stuff and I wanted to see the temples and shrines. It's nice to get a day off, in all fairness in the 3 weeks we are here, we haven't really stopped being tourists and it really does take it's toll on you! I'm hoping to nab an "easy" day when I get back to Tokyo, mainly as there isn't much left to do there that we haven't seen/done

Back on topic, Kyoto itself doesn't have a sophisticated rail system like Tokyo and Osaka, but it has a very efficient bus system. I left here around 8am, as I had a lot of ground to cover today, as we didn't do philosophers path yesterday. I picked up my 500 yen bus pass from the reception, and set a course to the bus station, which conveniently is next to the train station. I got off my bus a bit prematurely, and ended up at Kamimiyano maecho rather than the station; Honenicho. This didn't set me back too far, once I eventually found a signpost I was back on track! I've entered the area of Kyoto, where they don't translate anything to English on the signs! And you need to use a lot of common sense or you will end up very lost, very quickly! I found Philosophers Path (Tetsugaku no Michi) and headed towards Honen-in Temple. Tetsugaku no Michi wasn't quite as philosophical as the guide book made it out to be, maybe it's because it's not the cherry blossom or Autumn maple, either way, it was a peaceful walk to the temple, the temple itself was a little run down, but it's more about what you feel rather than see, and whilst walking through the graveyards I could feel something, maybe it was that the stones didn't have any kind of identification on them, were they John Does? Anyway I headed to Eikan-dō Zenrin-ji which is also on the philosophers walk, this temple was closed to the public though.

I eventually found my way to the bus stop, and headed to the West of Kyoto, first stop was Kinkakuji Michi station, which lead me to the Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku-ji as it's rightly called. This is a world heritage site, meaning that they are protected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in regards to funding or protection. You pay like 400 yen to get in, but it's all about trying to get that spectacular shot of the golden temple, here is my best attempt with my Canon Ixus 220 HS

See the full gallery on Posterous

There are various other sites to behold around the temple, the lake is quite pretty as well. From here I headed to Ryōan-ji temple, another world heritage site, this temple boosts a Zen Garden. "To many, the temple's name is synonymous with the temple's famous 'Zen garden', the karesansui (dry landscape) rock garden, thought to have been built in the late 15th century. The garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time. It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder." (Source Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%8Dan-ji) Something went wrong, I only saw 4 boulders! Just kidding, I went more for the view rather than seeing if I was spiritually enlightened, It seems from the picture I took, I could only see around 10, although I couldn't really get a good seat as a lot of people were there studying the rocks and what not!

It took ages to get back home after I finished here, as I was the other side of Kyoto! Was a good day though, picked up an amazing Croque-monsieur on the way back in celebrations I'm now up to date with my Kyoto activities! 

Had a sneaky beer and watched the Strikeforce main event... DAMN! (I'll save that talk for my other blog!) Now slowly catching up with the blogging. Hopefully I'll get a lie in tomorrow and catch Fushimi Inari and A-Bar tomorrow.

 

Day 14 - Osaka Castle and Kyoto

We were suppose to do Osaka Castle the day before, but time constraints and the crappy weather made it a challenge to accomplish, checked out of the hostel early..ish! (Another good hostel, not quite as nice as the Tokyo one, but would still recommend it to anyone heading to Osaka, it's real easy to find from the Fukushima Station in Osaka and the staff are really helpful! And also Mr Yano is an amazing Japanese person to drink with!) We left our bags in the safe room before heading towards the castle. The weather was quite unpredictable again today, heavy humid showers! Fun! Walked to the castle from the train station, it's about a mile away, not too far, although in hindsight we should have got on that "train" that goes to the castle. Anyway, the castle is quite a feat, it looks spectacular and has an intriguing back story, which is played out throughout the museum. Got some great pictures of the castle (at some point you'll see!)

Headed back to the hostel to get the bags, left to Osaka station, first thing I noticed when we got to the JR station was a large Pokemon display right next to the building apparently housing the Pokemon shop, we didn't check it out as it was already late afternoon. Hopped on a JR train to Kyoto.

The first thing I really notice about Kyoto, is how different it is to Tokyo/Osaka, it's not as built up as the more populated cities, you see no end of pagoda's and shrines whilst on the train, but no giant shopping centres or housing complexes to the extent the other cities has, it's almost like Kyoto has been left behind. For those who didn't know this use to be the capital of Japan up until 1869, and it wasn't a target during the World War ll bombing raids, that's why a lot of the prewar buildings and shrines are still standing.

Anyway, we get off the train and instantly we have no idea where we are suppose to be going in regards to the new hostel, so we hop into a cab, and you know you're in trouble when even he doesn't know where to go! Never the less, we found the hostel in no time, it's around a 15 minute walk from the station, but if you don't know where you are, you'll easily get lost, as it's hidden down various side streets. This hostel has a very different feel to it, it's a "backpacker" hostel, it caters to a lot more people than previously encountered, and they all appear to be English or American, this isn't a bad thing, but it's not the same as the other hostels whereas you were interacting with the locals and they were showing you their customs. There seem to be a lot of students here spending my taxes! Even the receptionist spoke fluent English, although to be honest, he was a lot of help when it came to planning my temple hop for tomorrow!

There isn't much more to post about, after we got settled, we walked around Kyoto, trying to get our bearings, there isn't much in the area... apart from a Yodabeshi Camera! Meh! We found a local shrine called Higashi Hongashi but it was closed, so we couldn't really explore it. Crashed earlyish! Going to be up early to travel around Kyoto!

Day 14 - Osaka Castle and Kyoto

We were suppose to do Osaka Castle the day before, but time constraints and the crappy weather made it a challenge to accomplish, checked out of the hostel early..ish! (Another good hostel, not quite as nice as the Tokyo one, but would still recommend it to anyone heading to Osaka, it's real easy to find from the Fukushima Station in Osaka and the staff are really helpful! And also Mr Yano is an amazing Japanese person to drink with!) We left our bags in the safe room before heading towards the castle. The weather was quite unpredictable again today, heavy humid showers! Fun! Walked to the castle from the train station, it's about a mile away, not too far, although in hindsight we should have got on that "train" that goes to the castle. Anyway, the castle is quite a feat, it looks spectacular and has an intriguing back story, which is played out throughout the museum. Got some great pictures of the castle (at some point you'll see!)

Headed back to the hostel to get the bags, left to Osaka station, first thing I noticed when we got to the JR station was a large Pokemon display right next to the building apparently housing the Pokemon shop, we didn't check it out as it was already late afternoon. Hopped on a JR train to Kyoto.

The first thing I really notice about Kyoto, is how different it is to Tokyo/Osaka, it's not as built up as the more populated cities, you see no end of pagoda's and shrines whilst on the train, but no giant shopping centres or housing complexes to the extent the other cities has, it's almost like Kyoto has been left behind. For those who didn't know this use to be the capital of Japan up until 1869, and it wasn't a target during the World War ll bombing raids, that's why a lot of the prewar buildings and shrines are still standing.

Anyway, we get off the train and instantly we have no idea where we are suppose to be going in regards to the new hostel, so we hop into a cab, and you know you're in trouble when even he doesn't know where to go! Never the less, we found the hostel in no time, it's around a 15 minute walk from the station, but if you don't know where you are, you'll easily get lost, as it's hidden down various side streets. This hostel has a very different feel to it, it's a "backpacker" hostel, it caters to a lot more people than previously encountered, and they all appear to be English or American, this isn't a bad thing, but it's not the same as the other hostels whereas you were interacting with the locals and they were showing you their customs. There seem to be a lot of students here spending my taxes! Even the receptionist spoke fluent English, although to be honest, he was a lot of help when it came to planning my temple hop for tomorrow!

There isn't much more to post about, after we got settled, we walked around Kyoto, trying to get our bearings, there isn't much in the area... apart from a Yodabeshi Camera! Meh! We found a local shrine called Higashi Hongashi but it was closed, so we couldn't really explore it. Crashed earlyish! Going to be up early to travel around Kyoto!

 

Day 14 - Osaka Castle and Kyoto

We were suppose to do Osaka Castle the day before, but time constraints and the crappy weather made it a challange to accomplish, checked out of the hostel early..ish! (Another good hostel, not quite as nice as the Tokyo one, but would still recommend it to anyone heading to Osaka, it's real easy to find from the Fukushima Station in Osaka and the staff are really helpful! And also Mr Yano is an amazing Japanese person to drink with!) We left our bags in the 

Day 13 - Osaka Aquarium and Umeda district.

We had a very busy day planned for today due to losing a whole day to Universal Studios Osaka, the day before, we left the flat early to get to Osaka's second premium attraction, it's aquarium. You look in any tour guide/site and it'll tell you to come here, it's usually one of their top rated activities to do. We paid our 2,000 Yen (about £16) to get in. Osaka aquarium's theme is the ring of fire, all of the fish/mammals housed here come from the pacific ring of fire area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire) Upon entering the aquarium you are greeted by an impressive tunnel of fish, mainly composed of various sting rays, makes for a really great atmosphere. The aquarium itself was packed with kids, I think it's summer holidays here in Japan at the moment, so I guess the parents were just taking their kids for a day out, it was just heaving! Every time you'd try and take a picture some kid will nudge in front of you and mess your photo up! Oh well, I got some pretty good shots anyway. We saw loads of cool fish/mammals, to name a few; hammerhead shark, tuna, dolphin, seals, sea lions and stingrays among dozens of other species. The main "Tank" in the aquarium housed dozens of different species of fishes, and spanned several floors, was quite impressive, I was a bit disappointed there was no big giant shark there or a whale! They had baby sharks and some smaller whales but meh!

Grabbed a subway for lunch, I tried the steak and potato sub, was alright! The sauce was a bit crap. Set off on our way towards Umeda/Osaka, Umeda is classed as the main shopping district of Osaka, personally I saw the same kind of shops I have seen in every other built up shopping area. They had Yodabeshi and the preppy hipster shops! We headed off to the Umeda Sky Building first, to get a skyscraper view of the city, had a proper result here, it is suppose to cost like 1,000 yen (£8) to get to the observation floor, we got off on the floor below and managed to nab some photos before leaving! OK we didn't see the "floating garden" but to be honest, from what I have seen, it's hardly worth the price of admission!

From here we checked out the shops, Dan was equipped with his Pokemon shop location, but alas we couldn't find it, "Oh dear what a pity, never mind!" Springs to mind. Like I said earlier, there isn't much to post about here, wherever you go in the world, you go in one cities stores, you've been in them all. We left this area to head to HEP Five building, for those who don't know, the HEP five building, is pretty much a shopping mall with a freaking Ferris wheel built on the roof! Yes it's that cool! The shops were rubbish, high-end designer tat, double the UK counterparts! Jumped on the Ferris wheel and took some great shots of the city... even if the windows were a little grubby!

We were going to head to Osaka Castle from here but it started raining quite heavily, and Dan found the arcade.... We weren't going anywhere in a hurry! Although fair play to him, he won like 5 DragonBall "toys" at the arcade, I won 2 (IN A ROW!) One-Piece key-rings, Dan was doing so well at the arcade he even won the freaking shelf! Although they didn't give him the shelf! Basically he broke the machine, by accident!

 

Day 13 - Osaka Aquarium and Umeda district.

We had a very busy day planned for today due to losing a whole day to Universal Studios Osaka, the day before, we left the flat early to get to Osaka's second premium attraction, it's aquarium. You look in any tour guide/site and it'll tell you to come here, it's usually one of their top rated activities to do. We paid our 2,000 Yen (about £16) to get in. Osaka aquarium's theme is the ring of fire, all of the fish/mammals housed here come from the pacific ring of fire area. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire) Upon entering the aquarium you are greeted by an impressive tunnel of fish, mainly composed of various sting rays, makes for a really great atmosphere. The aquarium itself was packed with kids, I think it's summer holidays here in Japan at the moment, so I guess the parents were just taking their kids for a day out, it was just heaving! Every time you'd try and take a picture some kid will nudge in front of you and mess your photo up! Oh well, I got some pretty good shots anyway. We saw loads of cool fish/mammals, to name a few; hammerhead shark, tuna, dolphin, seals, sea lions and stingrays among dozens of other species. The main "Tank" in the aquarium housed dozens of different species of fishes, and spanned several floors, was quite impressive, I was a bit disappointed there was no big giant shark there or a whale! They had baby sharks and some smaller whales but meh!

Grabbed a subway for lunch, I tried the steak and potato sub, was alright! The sauce was a bit crap. Set off on our way towards Umeda/Osaka, Umeda is classed as the main shopping district of Osaka, personally I saw the same kind of shops I have seen in every other built up shopping area. They had Yodabeshi and the preppy hipster shops! We headed off to the Umeda Sky Building first, to get a skyscraper view of the city, had a proper result here, it is suppose to cost like 1,000 yen (£8) to get to the observation floor, we got off on the floor below and managed to nab some photos before leaving! OK we didn't see the "floating garden" but to be honest, from what I have seen, it's hardly worth the price of admission!

From here we checked out the shops, Dan was equipped with his Pokemon shop location, but alas we couldn't find it, "Oh dear what a pity, never mind!" Springs to mind. Like I said earlier, there isn't much to post about here, wherever you go in the world, you go in one cities stores, you've been in them all. We left this area to head to HEP Five building, for those who don't know, the HEP five building, is pretty much a shopping mall with a freaking Ferris wheel built on the roof! Yes it's that cool! The shops were rubbish, high-end designer tat, double the UK counterparts! Jumped on the Ferris wheel and took some great shots of the city... even if the windows were a little grubby!

We were going to head to Osaka Castle from here but it started raining quite heavily, and Dan found the arcade.... We weren't going anywhere in a hurry! Although fair play to him, he won like 5 DragonBall "toys" at the arcade, I won 2 (IN A ROW!) One-Piece key-rings, Dan was doing so well at the arcade he even won the freaking shelf! Although they didn't give him the shelf! Basically he broke the machine, by accident!

 

Day 12 - Universal Studios Osaka!

Another unprecedented change to the itinerary! We checked the weather forecast Wednesday night and it looked like rain for Friday so we swapped the days around. I thought we were going to oversleep today as we were quite smashed last night, and we didn't set an alarm, but we did well!

Anyway hangover free, we left towards "Universal City Station" to get into Universal Studios, before we went in, I was a bit sceptical about the idea of going to this place in Osaka, knowing that it'd be stupidly expensive and in Japanese! And whilst both of these statements are true, we did have an awesome time! It cost us 6,200 Yen, each, to get in, (about £50!) I'm a man of value, so I said to myself, lets see a few rides/shows to at least justify the ticket price, I thought it would be impossible to get some value on this ticket seeing how busy it was, it was heaving! Weather wise, it easily peaked 35 degrees earlier! 

First thing we did upon entering the theme park was check out the Terminator 2 - 3D "show," we were all ushered into a room, and this woman in red started talking (in Japanese obviously) about her company "Cyberdyne" eventually all hell breaks loose and we get a show with a Japanese John Connor! It was quite cool.

After that we saw the Spiderman ride, another of my favourites, you go in a car and it you get "thrown" about by 3D animations, it was so amazing I went on it four times! Each time it only took like 2 minutes of queueing! We worked out an easy way of jumping the queue at Universal Studios Osaka, they have two lines, 1 for groups, and 1 for singles, unless you actually wanna sit next to your friend you can literally jump to the front of the queue every time!

Back To The Future was after this, personally I hated this ride, in comparison to all the others I went on in the day, this really showed it's age, and didn't really have the "oomph" that the others offered, they had a full scale delorean outside which Dan loved!

Other notable shows/rides we saw, Waterworld show, this was amazing! I only got the gist of this because it had a lot of talking in it, but the choreography and stunts were great fun, basically, some guys were holding out this little fort, some other dudes break in, some fighting, killing and awesome scenes later lead to applause all round! The Jurassic Park ride was pretty cool as well, nostalgic and scary at the same time! Managed to get utterly drenched at the end as well. Jaws and Backdraft were alright, a bit boring to begin with, but picked up for the finale! There were various street performers doing the rounds, I think it was to do with Universal Studio Osaka's 10 year anniversary.

There were quite a few "theme" restaurants to try out, we chose the Jurassic Park one, which was crap to be honest, the price was quite reasonable, about £11 for the whole meal, but the quality of said meal was just not there! it was a "Dinosaur" steak, sausage on a bone, vegetable rice and baked potato! It was all edible, but was just rubbish! (Almost on par with my in flight meal!)

The thing that I was amazed with throughout my day, was that the worked all seemed so enthusiastic, whether it be a tour guide on the Jaws ride, a drinks server, a cleaner or even performer, they all just seemed so happy and full of life, I don't think I've ever experienced a place in England whereas everyone within the establishment is as happy as can be, without it seeming false. (Well except for Bankers then!)

I picked up a really bad ass Cookie Monster plush from the gift shop, among some other presents, I was gutted not to find the keyring I was after, but meh! Life goes on!  Busy day tomorrow, last full day in Osaka, hopefully going to Osaka aquarium, Osaka Castle, HEP Five building, Umeda Sky Building and Den Den Town (Nipponbashi) if we have time that is!

Day 11 - Osaka - The first izakaya!

We left Tokyo around 9am, to get out JR Exchange Order changed into a JR Pass, so we can ride *some* JR run lines around Japan (costs like £209 per week, but it pays for itself after going to Osaka and back to Tokyo!) 

I won't bore you with the travel stuff! We got on the bullet train, it was a Shinkansen train, not quite the Nozomi (the fastest of the bullet trains) but oh well!

We arrived at our station Fukushima, Osaka a little after 2pm, we couldn't check in till 3pm so we just strolled around, it was immensely hot today, to the point where I single handedly bankrolled most of Osaka's vending machines. Once we were checked in, we were told about a party that night, or izakaya, basically, an izakaya is a place where people go to drink, but they serve food, not like pubs back home, more like occasional nibbles! It cost us like 2,000 yen to go, and it was a great laugh, we were chilling with some like minded people, some students and travellers. We drank and ate a lot of amazing Japanese cuisine (Sushimi, Tofu, Eggplant and Sake! springs to mind!) We left there to go to the local Karaoke bar. Karaoke was great fun, not quite as good as when we went with Aaron and G-rat, mainly because their systems were rubbish! But when you're drunk and singing along to Nothing Else Matters and Bittersweet Symphony with good company, can you ask for more?

Day 12 - Universal Studios Osaka!

Another unprecedented change to the itinerary! We checked the weather forecast Wednesday night and it looked like rain for Friday so we swapped the days around. I thought we were going to oversleep today as we were quite smashed last night, and we didn't set an alarm, but we did well!

Anyway hangover free, we left towards "Universal City Station" to get into Universal Studios, before we went in, I was a bit sceptical about the idea of going to this place in Osaka, knowing that it'd be stupidly expensive and in Japanese! And whilst both of these statements are true, we did have an awesome time!

It cost us 6,200 Yen, each, to get in, (about £50!) I'm a man of value, so I said to myself, lets see a few rides/shows to at least justify the ticket price, I thought it would be impossible to get some value on this ticket seeing how busy it was, it was heaving! Weather wise, it easily peaked 35 degrees earlier! 

First thing we did upon entering the theme park was check out the Terminator 2 - 3D "show," we were all ushered into a room, and this woman in red started talking (in Japanese obviously) about her company "Cyberdyne" eventually all hell breaks loose and we get a show with a Japanese John Connor! It was quite cool.

After that we saw the Spiderman ride, another of my favourites, you go in a car and it you get "thrown" about by 3D animations, it was so amazing I went on it four times! Each time it only took like 2 minutes of queueing! We worked out an easy way of jumping the queue at Universal Studios Osaka, they have two lines, 1 for groups, and 1 for singles, unless you actually wanna sit next to your friend you can literally jump to the front of the queue every time!

Back To The Future was after this, personally I hated this ride, in comparison to all the others I went on in the day, this really showed it's age, and didn't really have the "oomph" that the others offered, they had a full scale delorean outside which Dan loved!

Other notable shows/rides we saw, Waterworld show, this was amazing! I only got the gist of this because it had a lot of talking in it, but the choreography and stunts were great fun, basically, some guys were holding out this little fort, some other dudes break in, some fighting, killing and awesome scenes later lead to applause all round! The Jurassic Park ride was pretty cool as well, nostalgic and scary at the same time! Managed to get utterly drenched at the end as well. Jaws and Backdraft were alright, a bit boring to begin with, but picked up for the finale! There were various street performers doing the rounds, I think it was to do with Universal Studio Osaka's 10 year anniversary.

There were quite a few "theme" restaurants to try out, we chose the Jurassic Park one, which was crap to be honest, the price was quite reasonable, about £11 for the whole meal, but the quality of said meal was just not there! it was a "Dinosaur" steak, sausage on a bone, vegetable rice and baked potato! It was all edible, but was just rubbish! (Almost on par with my in flight meal!)

The thing that I was amazed with throughout my day, was that the worked all seemed so enthusiastic, whether it be a tour guide on the Jaws ride, a drinks server, a cleaner or even performer, they all just seemed so happy and full of life, I don't think I've ever experienced a place in England whereas everyone within the establishment is as happy as can be, without it seeming false. (Well except for Bankers then!)

I picked up a really bad ass Cookie Monster plush from the gift shop, among some other presents, I was gutted not to find the keyring I was after, but meh! Life goes on! 

Busy day tomorrow, last full day in Osaka, hopefully going to Osaka aquarium, Osaka Castle, HEP Five building, Umeda Sky Building and Den Den Town (Nipponbashi) if we have time that is!

Day 11 - Osaka - The first izakaya!

We left Tokyo around 9am, to get out JR Exchange Order changed into a JR Pass, so we can ride *some* JR run lines around Japan (costs like £209 per week, but it pays for itself after going to Osaka and back to Tokyo!) 

I won't bore you with the travel stuff! We got on the bullet train, it was a Shinkansen train, not quite the Nozomi (the fastest of the bullet trains) but oh well!

We arrived at our station Fukushima, Osaka a little after 2pm, we couldn't check in till 3pm so we just strolled around, it was immensely hot today, to the point where I single handedly bankrolled most of Osaka's vending machines. Once we were checked in, we were told about a party that night, or izakaya, basically, an izakaya is a place where people go to drink, but they serve food, not like pubs back home, more like occasional nibbles! It cost us like 2,000 yen to go, and it was a great laugh, we were chilling with some like minded people, some students and travellers. We drank and ate a lot of amazing Japanese cuisine (Sushimi, Tofu, Eggplant and Sake! springs to mind!) We left there to go to the local Karaoke bar. Karaoke was great fun, not quite as good as when we went with Aaron and G-rat, mainly because their systems were rubbish! But when you're drunk and singing along to Nothing Else Matters and Bittersweet Symphony with good company, can you ask for more?

Day 10 - Harajuku and Ikebukuro

Now I know what you're thinking... where's Mount Fuji? Well the thing is, it just couldn't feasibly be done, we just couldn't get to the hostel for a reasonable price, it was on the wrong JR line which we are not covered on with the JR pass. (The JR Pass covers you for most of the JR owned lines, except for this section that runs on the south side of Fuji.) Basically this oversight would have cost us upwards of 6,000 yen per day to travel to (and subsequently another 6,000 yen to get back to a JR line to get to Osaka) Which would have in essence torn an extra £100 out of the budget, so we did the next feasible option which was to stay at this place one more night and save around £50 (We still have to pay for the hostel we're not showing up at, and another night here, but it seems like the only logical way. It's a pain in the ass, but I spent about 2 and half hours trying to get a route to the "picturesque" location, but we "plod along."

So we got up early and set out for Harajuku, we decided to split up and go our own way, probably for the best, as I wasn't in the best of moods this morning! Straight away I walked down Takeshita-dōri to see all the hipster crap the guide book was telling me about, and no world of a lie, within 100 meters, I had been stopped by at least 10 men of South African decent, "Yo Man, Yo! I got your size!" There are quite a few of these little shops along the corners of Takeshita-dōri which cater to American import apparel, I have nothing against American clothing what so ever, in fact my Cincinnati Bengals shirt is one of my favourites, but that is besides the point. These guys have these stores they've opened up and they sell Hip Hop clothing imported from the US, I have nothing against Hip Hop or anything, but it's not me, not my style! Stop harassing me please! Take the hint, no means no! If you keep trying to take me to your lame shop I may dropkick someone! Because of the constant stoppages I only walked down Takeshita-dōri once, mainly due to trying to stay sane! There was some interesting stuff there, mainly in the form of anime cosplay shops.

I left the chaotic marketplace to go and check out the Meiji Shrine, I took a long sidetracked walk through the pathway leading up to the shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji who passed in 1912, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Shrine) Pictures to come soon!

I was going to venture into Yoyogi Park, but I had already spent enough time in Harajuku and at the shrine, I'll probably be back before I go to get this awesome looking shark bag I found! (Yeah you read that right Luke - Shark Bag!) Back on the JR Yamanote line to Ikebukuro now, I only really wanted to see one place here and that is Namja Town! I've heard so many stories about gyoza stadium and ice cream world I just had to check it out! 

I found myself wandering through various department stores before finally meeting up with Dan and getting some grub, I checked out Bic Camera, which is like a large electronic department store, seems quite popular out here, same goes for Yodabeshi Camera, as an economist, I see these prices and cringe! £50 for a 16gb SD card? £220 for a 3DS?! The Yen must be kicking some serious ass at the moment on the market place! After sprawling around the same kind of shops, I found some arcades... Today was a good day, I found some Tales of Vesperia - One Coin figures (Out of print, stupidly hard to find!) Managed to win 2 and a couple cannon fodder crap in the process! I'll have to send these weird looking hentai girls to StayDead when I get back to England!

Eventually we made it to Namja Town, we went to Gyoza stadium first, I've never had gyoza before, but I was told this is the place to try it/ love it! and it was! It's hard for a westerner to describe a gyoza, (who's never had any before!) I guess it's kinda like a rice dumpling with some kind of filling, think of a sweeter ravioli. We sampled a few stalls gyoza, we had some beef and cheese, chicken and cheese and beef with teriyaki sauce, all of which were sublime! I was always put off by gyoza, as I thought it would taste like dim sum, I'm not really a fan of dim sum. After the brilliant gyoza we found ice cream city. I think I was mis-sold on this place, I mean where was the shark ice cream at? I sampled melon ice cream and crab ice cream, Dan tried peach ice cream and wasabi ice cream.

Slowly repacking now, as tomorrow we set sail for Osaka, it's a shame we didn't go to Fuji-San in the end, but there is always another time, I may not be updating the blog for a while, that's mainly down to the next few places I'm staying at and if they have Wi-Fi or not.

 

 

Day 10 - Harajuku and Ikebukuro

Now I know what you're thinking... where's Mount Fuji? Well the thing is, it just couldn't feasibly be done, we just couldn't get to the hostel for a reasonable price, it was on the wrong JR line which we are not covered on with the JR pass. (The JR Pass covers you for most of the JR owned lines, except for this section that runs on the south side of Fuji.) Basically this oversight would have cost us upwards of 6,000 yen per day to travel to (and subsequently another 6,000 yen to get back to a JR line to get to Osaka) Which would have in essence torn an extra £100 out of the budget, so we did the next feasible option which was to stay at this place one more night and save around £50 (We still have to pay for the hostel we're not showing up at, and another night here, but it seems like the only logical way. It's a pain in the ass, but I spent about 2 and half hours trying to get a route to the "picturesque" location, but we "plod along."

So we got up early and set out for Harajuku, we decided to split up and go our own way, probably for the best, as I wasn't in the best of moods this morning! Straight away I walked down Takeshita-dōri to see all the hipster crap the guide book was telling me about, and no world of a lie, within 100 meters, I had been stopped by at least 10 men of South African decent, "Yo Man, Yo! I got your size!" There are quite a few of these little shops along the corners of Takeshita-dōri which cater to American import apparel, I have nothing against American clothing what so ever, in fact my Cincinnati Bengals shirt is one of my favourites, but that is besides the point. These guys have these stores they've opened up and they sell Hip Hop clothing imported from the US, I have nothing against Hip Hop or anything, but it's not me, not my style! Stop harassing me please! Take the hint, no means no! If you keep trying to take me to your lame shop I may dropkick someone! Because of the constant stoppages I only walked down Takeshita-dōri once, mainly due to trying to stay sane! There was some interesting stuff there, mainly in the form of anime cosplay shops.

I left the chaotic marketplace to go and check out the Meiji Shrine, I took a long sidetracked walk through the pathway leading up to the shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji who passed in 1912, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Shrine) Pictures to come soon!

I was going to venture into Yoyogi Park, but I had already spent enough time in Harajuku and at the shrine, I'll probably be back before I go to get this awesome looking shark bag I found! (Yeah you read that right Luke - Shark Bag!) Back on the JR Yamanote line to Ikebukuro now, I only really wanted to see one place here and that is Namja Town! I've heard so many stories about gyoza stadium and ice cream world I just had to check it out! 

I found myself wandering through various department stores before finally meeting up with Dan and getting some grub, I checked out Bic Camera, which is like a large electronic department store, seems quite popular out here, same goes for Yodabeshi Camera, as an economist, I see these prices and cringe! £50 for a 16gb SD card? £220 for a 3DS?! The Yen must be kicking some serious ass at the moment on the market place! After sprawling around the same kind of shops, I found some arcades... Today was a good day, I found some Tales of Vesperia - One Coin figures (Out of print, stupidly hard to find!) Managed to win 2 and a couple cannon fodder crap in the process! I'll have to send these weird looking hentai girls to StayDead when I get back to England!

Eventually we made it to Namja Town, we went to Gyoza stadium first, I've never had gyoza before, but I was told this is the place to try it/ love it! and it was! It's hard for a westerner to describe a gyoza, (who's never had any before!) I guess it's kinda like a rice dumpling with some kind of filling, think of a sweeter ravioli. We sampled a few stalls gyoza, we had some beef and cheese, chicken and cheese and beef with teriyaki sauce, all of which were sublime! I was always put off by gyoza, as I thought it would taste like dim sum, I'm not really a fan of dim sum. After the brilliant gyoza we found ice cream city. I think I was mis-sold on this place, I mean where was the shark ice cream at? I sampled melon ice cream and crab ice cream, Dan tried peach ice cream and wasabi ice cream.

Slowly repacking now, as tomorrow we set sail for Osaka, it's a shame we didn't go to Fuji-San in the end, but there is always another time, I may not be updating the blog for a while, that's mainly down to the next few places I'm staying at and if they have Wi-Fi or not.

 

 

Be patient readers! The photos are coming.

I had a few emails earlier from some of you guys and girls. Welcome to the party! Anyway, I just thought I'd say that I can't easily upload pictures from this netbook, massive shout out to Simon who lent me it, but it takes too long to sort the photos out and upload via trackpad!

As soon as I get to a desktop PC I will be uploading some of my spectacular pictures for you dudes to check out, I have around 2,100 already! Sorting them is quite the challenge!

 

Thanks for sticking with my incoherent blather thus far!

Peace and Love

Jamie Harvison

Day 10 - Harajuku and Ikebukuro

Now I know what you're thinking... where's Mount Fuji? Well the thing is, it just couldn't feasibly be done, we just couldn't get to the hostel for a reasonable price, it was on the wrong JR line which we are not covered on with the JR pass. (The JR Pass covers you for most of the JR owned lines, except for this section that runs on the south side of Fuji.) Basically this oversight would have cost us upwards of 6,000 yen per day to travel to (and subsequently another 6,000 yen to get back to a JR line to get to Osaka) Which would have in essence torn an extra £100 out of the budget, so we did the next feasible option which was to stay at this place one more night and save around £50 (We still have to pay for the hostel we're not showing up at, and another night here, but it seems like the only logical way. It's a pain in the ass, but I spent about 2 and half hours trying to get a route to the "picturesque" location, but we "plod along."

So we got up early and set out for Harajuku, we decided to split up and go our own way, probably for the best, as I wasn't in the best of moods this morning! Straight away I walked down Takeshita-dōri to see all the hipster crap the guide book was telling me about, and no world of a lie, within 100 meters, I had been stopped by at least 10 men of South African decent, "Yo Man, Yo! I got your size!" There are quite a few of these little shops along the corners of Takeshita-dōri which cater to American import apparel, I have nothing against American clothing what so ever, in fact my Cincinnati Bengals shirt is one of my favourites, but that is besides the point. These guys have these stores they've opened up and they sell Hip Hop clothing imported from the US, I have nothing against Hip Hop or anything, but it's not me, not my style! Stop harassing me please! Take the hint, no means no! If you keep trying to take me to your lame shop I may dropkick someone! Because of the constant stoppages I only walked down Takeshita-dōri once, mainly due to trying to stay sane! There was some interesting stuff there, mainly in the form of anime cosplay shops.

I left the chaotic marketplace to go and check out the Meiji Shrine, I took a long sidetracked walk through the pathway leading up to the shrine. Meiji Shrine is dedicated to Emperor Meiji who passed in 1912, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Shrine) Pictures to come soon!

I was going to venture into Yoyogi Park, but I had already spent enough time in Harajuku and at the shrine, I'll probably be back before I go to get this awesome looking shark bag I found! (Yeah you read that right Luke - Shark Bag!) Back on the JR Yamanote line to Ikebukuro now, I only really wanted to see one place here and that is Namja Town! I've heard so many stories about gyoza stadium and ice cream world I just had to check it out! 

I found myself wandering through various department stores before finally meeting up with Dan and getting some grub, I checked out Bic Camera, which is like a large electronic department store, seems quite popular out here, same goes for Yodabeshi Camera, as an economist, I see these prices and cringe! £50 for a 16gb SD card? £220 for a 3DS?! The Yen must be kicking some serious ass at the moment on the market place! After sprawling around the same kind of shops, I found some arcades... Today was a good day, I found some Tales of Vesperia - One Coin figures (Out of print, stupidly hard to find!) Managed to win 2 and a couple cannon fodder crap in the process! I'll have to send these weird looking hentai girls to StayDead when I get back to England!

Eventually we made it to Namja Town, we went to Gyoza stadium first, I've never had gyoza before, but I was told this is the place to try it/ love it! and it was! It's hard for a westerner to describe a gyoza, (who's never had any before!) I guess it's kinda like a rice dumpling with some kind of filling, think of a sweeter ravioli. We sampled a few stalls gyoza, we had some beef and cheese, chicken and cheese and beef with teriyaki sauce, all of which were sublime! I was always put off by gyoza, as I thought it would taste like dim sum, I'm not really a fan of dim sum. After the brilliant gyoza we found ice cream city. I think I was mis-sold on this place, I mean where was the shark ice cream at? I sampled melon ice cream and crab ice cream, Dan tried peach ice cream and wasabi ice cream.

Slowly repacking now, as tomorrow we set sail for Osaka, it's a shame we didn't go to Fuji-San in the end, but there is always another time, I may not be updating the blog for a while, that's mainly down to the next few places I'm staying at and if they have Wi-Fi or not.

 

Day 9 - Tsukiji Fish Market and Tokyo Tower

Today is our last day at Khaosan Tokyo Samurai, we decided to get some of the touristy stuff out the way that we had yet to check off, we were suppose to do both of these on other days but just didn't get round to it.

The alarm went off at 7, we were out by half past, we eventually got to Tsukiji for about half 8, and it was just sheer mayhem, row upon row of frozen fish, I was more interested in finding some of the "legendary" fresh sushi, but alas we must have lost sight of that in the chaos of it all. It's such a fascinating place, with workers rushing around the place to get lorries and vans loaded so the customers can get their fish ready by the nightfall, obviously fish tastes better the fresher it is, freshness is the key to all sushimi used in sushi. The only thing I don't really understand about Tsukiji is why they would let the public in? This is a place of business, with some very dangerous fast apparatus moving about and with million yen transactions taking place, rather than the off cut of salmon for tonight's dinner. It just seemed a little weird, you wouldn't exactly take a walk around Smithfield Meat Auction-house in London as a tourist or would you?

We left the fish market after getting frustrated with trying to find the food stalls! I wanted some super fresh sushimi God damn it! And set a course for Tokyo tower, we got off the train at Daimon station near Shiba Park, which we walked through to get to the temple Zōjō-ji, this temple has a vast Buddhist history, the park itself was created around it back in 1393. Some very famous shogunate are buried here.

We spent some time taking in the sites before heading to the Tower, we paid 1,400yen to get to the top observation deck (250 meters up) You are also allowed to take pictures and go shopping at 150 meters up! I took some spectacular shots of the city from up high (Soon to be updated) and got some fantastic shots of the Zōjō-ji temple from above.

Got back to the hostel to get organised for tomorrow as we are suppose to be heading to Mount Fuji tomorrow.

Day 9 - Tsukiji Fish Market and Tokyo Tower

Today is our last day at Khaosan Tokyo Samurai, we decided to get some of the touristy stuff out the way that we had yet to check off, we were suppose to do both of these on other days but just didn't get round to it.

The alarm went off at 7, we were out by half past, we eventually got to Tsukiji for about half 8, and it was just sheer mayhem, row upon row of frozen fish, I was more interested in finding some of the "legendary" fresh sushi, but alas we must have lost sight of that in the chaos of it all. It's such a fascinating place, with workers rushing around the place to get lorries and vans loaded so the customers can get their fish ready by the nightfall, obviously fish tastes better the fresher it is, freshness is the key to all sushimi used in sushi. The only thing I don't really understand about Tsukiji is why they would let the public in? This is a place of business, with some very dangerous fast apparatus moving about and with million yen transactions taking place, rather than the off cut of salmon for tonight's dinner. It just seemed a little weird, you wouldn't exactly take a walk around Smithfield Meat Auction-house in London as a tourist or would you?

We left the fish market after getting frustrated with trying to find the food stalls! I wanted some super fresh sushimi God damn it! And set a course for Tokyo tower, we got off the train at Daimon station near Shiba Park, which we walked through to get to the temple Zōjō-ji, this temple has a vast Buddhist history, the park itself was created around it back in 1393. Some very famous shogunate are buried here.

We spent some time taking in the sites before heading to the Tower, we paid 1,400yen to get to the top observation deck (250 meters up) You are also allowed to take pictures and go shopping at 150 meters up! I took some spectacular shots of the city from up high (Soon to be updated) and got some fantastic shots of the Zōjō-ji temple from above.

Got back to the hostel to get organised for tomorrow as we are suppose to be heading to Mount Fuji tomorrow.

Day 8 - Asakusa (Rest Day)

After the events last night, we decided not to do much today, mainly so we can recover somewhat from a very busy week. We strolled into Asakusa, and took an alternate route around town, and no matter how many times we walk around this place we always find something new. We found this one road which was almost exclusively pachinko parlours. We strolled round the area and found loads of locations previously unknown to us, like a giant flea-market department store and a hangout for CosPlayers!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Ended up strolling around the temple for a little while earlier, it's so awe inspiring.

See the full gallery on Posterous

There isn't much to really write about today, we went for a few walks around the areas, just generally had a lazy day, mainly using the time to catch up on this blog, sorting out the pictures and the loot acquired thus far!

I'm not sure when this blog will be updated again, as we are travelling around Japan this week, going to Fuji-San on Tuesday, Osaka and Kyoto to follow, Wi-Fi may not be available to us. 

If you are ever in Tokyo, check out the hostel we stayed at in Asakusa, it's easy to find, helpful bilingual staff, cheap rooms, air conditioned rooms and free Wi-Fi http://www.hostels.com/hostels/tokyo/khaosan-tokyo-samurai/37952 (This is a genuine review and not a referral)

 

Day 8 - Asakusa (Rest Day)

After the events last night, we decided not to do much today, mainly so we can recover somewhat from a very busy week. We strolled into Asakusa, and took an alternate route around town, and no matter how many times we walk around this place we always find something new. We found this one road which was almost exclusively pachinko parlours. We strolled round the area and found loads of locations previously unknown to us, like a giant flea-market department store and a hangout for CosPlayers!

See the full gallery on Posterous

Ended up strolling around the temple for a little while earlier, it's so awe inspiring.

See the full gallery on Posterous

There isn't much to really write about today, we went for a few walks around the areas, just generally had a lazy day, mainly using the time to catch up on this blog, sorting out the pictures and the loot acquired thus far!

I'm not sure when this blog will be updated again, as we are travelling around Japan this week, going to Fuji-San on Tuesday, Osaka and Kyoto to follow, Wi-Fi may not be available to us. 

If you are ever in Tokyo, check out the hostel we stayed at in Asakusa, it's easy to find, helpful bilingual staff, cheap rooms, air conditioned rooms and free Wi-Fi http://www.hostels.com/hostels/tokyo/khaosan-tokyo-samurai/37952 (This is a genuine review and not a referral)

 

Day 7 - Studio Ghibli Museum / Karaoke!

Today was always going to be a good day, we had this planned out for months, because we had to buy the tickets for the museum months in advance to avoid disappointment.

We left the flat in Asakusa early in the morning to head towards the Mitaka station, picked up some breakfast on the way, I picked up a French croissant with a Japanese twist of melon whipped cream! It took us an hour to get to Mitaka from Asakusa station, which wasn't too bad, the hardest bit was trying to negotiate the JR lines schedule.

We walked to the museum from the station, which is around 1.5k away, took around 20mins, it was quite a picturesque area. We traded in our tickets for the souvenir tickets, we saw the short film first, which was about a boy and a rabbit fighting over a walking stick, it was really cute and had some wonderful music.

We explored the museum and walked through the "adult" size version of the cat bus from Totoro! It was really well built, we went to the cafe on the roof to get a famous Ghibli beer! brewed especially for Studio Ghibli cafe, it was quite a nice ale! We explored the museum and the sites more before tackling the store! £80 later we started to head home! We were suppose to meet my friend Aaron at 4.15pm (Near Mitaka) but we were finished a bit too early so we headed back to Asakusa to drop off our wares!

By the time I got back to the flat I was unsure if we'd meet up with Aaron and G-rat, but I got in touch and we literally shot straight back out to meet them at Musashi Koganei, several trains later we made it to the station. I haven't had a night out with students for a long time, and these guys really knew how to party... and on the cheap! A few beers later after meeting the "crew" we headed to karaoke for quite possibly the most fun night you'll have in Tokyo. 2,700yen for all you can drink/sing Karaoke (2 hours) represents good value for money. Several songs later, some amazing versions of "Don't stop believing," "Hot In Heeere," "Nothing else matters" and "I'd do anything for love...but I won't do that."

G-Rat showed us a really good place to eat, which was spectacular, Dan had a curried rice dish with egg, I had a chicken, rice and miso dish... also amazing!

All in all, the best night we've had in Japan thus far, we felt very welcomed by these guys, Aaron, Mark, Mike, Noah, Sihiro, Alex and the others, sorry if I missed anyone out, I'm rubbish with remembering names especially after about 9 pints!

Dan managed to best himself at 1am, by managing what can be best described as the McGangBang! He first started with a double quarter pounder (half quarter pound of beef!) then he had another one and put a chicken sandwich in it in between the patties... the chicken sandwich was quite big, I'd say it was about quarter a pound of meat! In about 30 minutes he'd eaten nearly a pound and a half of meat... Champion! I would have taken to the challenge but I wasn't brave enough.

 

Day 7 - Studio Ghibli Museum / Karaoke!

Today was always going to be a good day, we had this planned out for months, because we had to buy the tickets for the museum months in advance to avoid disappointment.

We left the flat in Asakusa early in the morning to head towards the Mitaka station, picked up some breakfast on the way, I picked up a French croissant with a Japanese twist of melon whipped cream! It took us an hour to get to Mitaka from Asakusa station, which wasn't too bad, the hardest bit was trying to negotiate the JR lines schedule.

We walked to the museum from the station, which is around 1.5k away, took around 20mins, it was quite a picturesque area. We traded in our tickets for the souvenir tickets, we saw the short film first, which was about a boy and a rabbit fighting over a walking stick, it was really cute and had some wonderful music.

We explored the museum and walked through the "adult" size version of the cat bus from Totoro! It was really well built, we went to the cafe on the roof to get a famous Ghibli beer! brewed especially for Studio Ghibli cafe, it was quite a nice ale! We explored the museum and the sites more before tackling the store! £80 later we started to head home! We were suppose to meet my friend Aaron at 4.15pm (Near Mitaka) but we were finished a bit too early so we headed back to Asakusa to drop off our wares!

By the time I got back to the flat I was unsure if we'd meet up with Aaron and G-rat, but I got in touch and we literally shot straight back out to meet them at Musashi Koganei, several trains later we made it to the station. I haven't had a night out with students for a long time, and these guys really knew how to party... and on the cheap! A few beers later after meeting the "crew" we headed to karaoke for quite possibly the most fun night you'll have in Tokyo. 2,700yen for all you can drink/sing Karaoke (2 hours) represents good value for money. Several songs later, some amazing versions of "Don't stop believing," "Hot In Heeere," "Nothing else matters" and "I'd do anything for love...but I won't do that."

G-Rat showed us a really good place to eat, which was spectacular, Dan had a curried rice dish with egg, I had a chicken, rice and miso dish... also amazing!

All in all, the best night we've had in Japan thus far, we felt very welcomed by these guys, Aaron, Mark, Mike, Noah, Sihiro, Alex and the others, sorry if I missed anyone out, I'm rubbish with remembering names especially after about 9 pints!

Dan managed to best himself at 1am, by managing what can be best described as the McGangBang! He first started with a double quarter pounder (half quarter pound of beef!) then he had another one and put a chicken sandwich in it in between the patties... the chicken sandwich was quite big, I'd say it was about quarter a pound of meat! In about 30 minutes he'd eaten nearly a pound and a half of meat... Champion! I would have taken to the challenge but I wasn't brave enough.

 

Day 6 - Odaiba

We decided to split up for this day, you hang out with someone for 6 days straight and it'll drive you insane too! Anyway, we both headed towards Odaiba, but we made our own way there and our own plans. I decided to partake in a little shopping and sightseeing.

Odaiba is a man made island built to protect Tokyo from sea attacks in the Edo period, (Daiba means fort) The island nowadays is more of a shopping district with some rather amazing sights and sounds

I got off the train at Odaiba Kahinkoen and headed towards the docks, the docks is a small shopping mall with various brand name shops with stalls, mainly beach clothing shops like Billabong, Adidas and Vans. I strolled around there looking at the western brands before heading to the next mall which is called Aquacity, which has more of a flea-market feel, and it really did feel quite quaint, there were various bric and brac stores which felt quite refreshing, considering that most of the stores/stalls I've seen in Japan thus far are of western brands. I found various nostalgic shops within this mall and a retro arcade which was fun to walk around on (and obviously play on!)

Grabbed some lunch at the Kua 'aina burger branch, which was brilliant, I had a draft beer, avocado burger and some chips for 1,400yen (about £12) whilst sitting looking out over the pier... and at a statue of liberty replica... Damn you, you damn dirty apes!

Once I finished faffing about with the shops I started ticking off some things on my sightseeing list, I checked out the Fuji TV station (home of a popular TV station in Japan) which was very busy, I was going to pay the 500 yen fee to get to the top, but I was already cutting my schedule a bit fine already, so I just walked around their amazing visual museum and took in the sights.

From there I set a course to the giant ferris wheel, on the way I spotted a giant arcade, and managed to win myself a giant Pokemon plush, maybe it's the present for the dog?! Got to the ferris wheel and saw a massive queue and a sign saying something like "estimated time 3 hours" so I took some pictures and went on my merry way.

Next up was the Panasonic building, in here they show off the latest technologies that they are working on, and they have some spectacular stuff in there to mess about with, like a HD waterproof camera, a 100% electric Tesla sports car! and some other neat gubbings, it was quite a trek from the ferris wheel to here, and I thought I was lost so I asked a guy watching over a construction site for directions, (in Japan they usually hire someone to stand outside of a construction site, I believe this is to inform and aide the public and organise and potential deliveries.) Anyway, instead of pointing where I needed to go, Hiro just walked me there, it was like another 1.5k out, that was some pretty good service. He seemed to speak English really well, and I was trying my best to throw some basic Japanese at him.

I left the Panasonic building and saw "Tokyo Big Sight" which was built in 1996, is mainly used for conventions, it's quite an obscure piece of architecture, to describe it I'd say that it looks like 4 upside down pyramids! I got some good shots and headed back to the station.

Met up with Dan at half 6 and went to get some Sushi at our local Sushi place, which is fantastic! I was pretty hungry and had 10 plates and a couple of beers, and it still cost less than £20! We traded stories and eventually went for a beer at the one cafe/pub we found in Asakusa, a good day all round I'd say.

Day 6 - Odaiba

We decided to split up for this day, you hang out with someone for 6 days straight and it'll drive you insane too! Anyway, we both headed towards Odaiba, but we made our own way there and our own plans. I decided to partake in a little shopping and sightseeing.

Odaiba is a man made island built to protect Tokyo from sea attacks in the Edo period, (Daiba means fort) The island nowadays is more of a shopping district with some rather amazing sights and sounds

I got off the train at Odaiba Kahinkoen and headed towards the docks, the docks is a small shopping mall with various brand name shops with stalls, mainly beach clothing shops like Billabong, Adidas and Vans. I strolled around there looking at the western brands before heading to the next mall which is called Aquacity, which has more of a flea-market feel, and it really did feel quite quaint, there were various bric and brac stores which felt quite refreshing, considering that most of the stores/stalls I've seen in Japan thus far are of western brands. I found various nostalgic shops within this mall and a retro arcade which was fun to walk around on (and obviously play on!)

Grabbed some lunch at the Kua 'aina burger branch, which was brilliant, I had a draft beer, avocado burger and some chips for 1,400yen (about £12) whilst sitting looking out over the pier... and at a statue of liberty replica... Damn you, you damn dirty apes!

Once I finished faffing about with the shops I started ticking off some things on my sightseeing list, I checked out the Fuji TV station (home of a popular TV station in Japan) which was very busy, I was going to pay the 500 yen fee to get to the top, but I was already cutting my schedule a bit fine already, so I just walked around their amazing visual museum and took in the sights.

From there I set a course to the giant ferris wheel, on the way I spotted a giant arcade, and managed to win myself a giant Pokemon plush, maybe it's the present for the dog?! Got to the ferris wheel and saw a massive queue and a sign saying something like "estimated time 3 hours" so I took some pictures and went on my merry way.

Next up was the Panasonic building, in here they show off the latest technologies that they are working on, and they have some spectacular stuff in there to mess about with, like a HD waterproof camera, a 100% electric Tesla sports car! and some other neat gubbings, it was quite a trek from the ferris wheel to here, and I thought I was lost so I asked a guy watching over a construction site for directions, (in Japan they usually hire someone to stand outside of a construction site, I believe this is to inform and aide the public and organise and potential deliveries.) Anyway, instead of pointing where I needed to go, Hiro just walked me there, it was like another 1.5k out, that was some pretty good service. He seemed to speak English really well, and I was trying my best to throw some basic Japanese at him.

I left the Panasonic building and saw "Tokyo Big Sight" which was built in 1996, is mainly used for conventions, it's quite an obscure piece of architecture, to describe it I'd say that it looks like 4 upside down pyramids! I got some good shots and headed back to the station.

Met up with Dan at half 6 and went to get some Sushi at our local Sushi place, which is fantastic! I was pretty hungry and had 10 plates and a couple of beers, and it still cost less than £20! We traded stories and eventually went for a beer at the one cafe/pub we found in Asakusa, a good day all round I'd say.