Back In Tokyo

Day 8 Thursday April 12th

It was a nice feeling been back in Tokyo after our long excursion down to the southern Japan. It meant finally we would be able to get a good nights sleep. At least I thought it did. To start off with we made our way down to the Tokyo Bay where we got a cheap ferry ride across to Odaiba. On the ride you get a great view of the Rainbow Bridge (50th largest main span suspension bridge in the world)the Tokyo Big Sight building with the 4 upside down pyramids and the Fuji Building.



After getting off the ferry we went straight to the Tokyo Big Sight and went wondering around inside. There was a conference going on and everyone was dressed up for it. Well everyone except me and Ryan who were in jeans and long sleeved shirts. We had a few looks but nobody said anything. Not to far away, was a car show that we checked out for a while and then it was off to another Arcade for some good old racing games!!!

Realising we were getting a bit low on time we made our way around to get some good pics of the Fuji Building and then on to the beach area to get some more pics of the rainbow bridge and the mini statue of liberty at sunset.



We had to be in Shibuya to meet up with one of my sisters university friends at 8:00 so we made our way there once the sun set. What was supposed to be just a meal out and a drink or two ended up being a little longer than that. We started with a great traditional Japanese meal and a few beers before heading out for drinks at 3 more bars. Drinks at these bars included glasses of Absinthe from Czech Republic, double shots of 151 rum, and a few ciders at a Irish pub. This was all prior to going to a club where we were drinking and dancing until 6am. After a quick McDonalds breakfast we said goodbye to Christian who had to work later that day and made our way back to Kichijoji. Well from Shibuya it is only about 20min on the train.... no problem. Ryan and I were both so tired that we instantly fell asleep. I remember waking up about 2.5 hours later and looking up to see what stop we were at. In my drunken state I managed to slowly pronounce the words on the station wall.... Shi... Bu....Ya. This is when Ryan woke up and also realised what had just happened. Sh*t!!! Yes we were back where we started haven ridden the train end to end about 4 times during rush hour on the trains which is quite an accomplishment I thought. My camera was still on the ground next to me as well. Had we been in London I am not sure my camera would have lasted 10min like that weather I was asleep or not. It just proves how much safer Japan is to most other places in the world.

Day 9 Friday April 13th

Well needless to say most of the day was pretty much a right off after the night we had just had. It was a day of sleeping, reading, eating sushi, and emails before we made our way into Shinjuku to meet up with some of Ryan’s friends for a few drinks. It was another great night as we were with Canadians, Americans, eastern Europeans, Japanese, and Koreans. We did debate staying out all night again with another drinking session but decided it best to catch the last train back to Ryan’s as we knew the following night was going to be a big one.


Day 10 Saturday April 14th

The day was spent walking around the Imperial Palace (called Kokyo). Unfortunately tourists are only allowed inside on 2 days each year around Christmas time. However the gardens are fantastic and it was great just walking around and catching minor glimpses of the palace. You also get a great view of some of the bridges that lead into the Palace.




From here we wondered down past the infamous "Diet Building" on our way to Tokyo Tower. Just before we got to the tower though, we heard the sound of bamboo been hit against something really hard. So we ran up a flight of stone stairs to see some marshal arts training in action. I was getting my fair share of the Japanese culture in the short time I was there.

Tokyo Tower is based off of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The main difference is that Tokyo tower is smaller and painted orange. We were going to go up it but as you get a better view from the government buildings (refer to first Japan entry) which is also free it seemed a bit of a waste to go up. Besides we were off to Akihabara.

Akihabara is Tokyo's discount electronics district and I was like a kid in a candy store. Stories upon stories of electronics in street after street. It was impossible to decide where to go next. One store we went in was at least 5 times the size of Hamleys Toy Store in London. Those who have been there can perhaps understand the size I am getting at. We walked around for as much time as we could before heading off to the Sony building to check out all the new Sony Products and a model who happened to be doing a photo shoot on the first floor.

As we were running low on time we raced back to Ryan's place for a shower and clean clothes before it was back into downtown Tokyo for a great Brazilian meal with his friends and a birthday celebration. The meal was amazing. It was all you can eat meat and they kept on bringing it out skewered on swords. Once you pointed out how much you wanted they cut a slab off and slid it onto your plate. After 2 hours of this we were all stuffed and ready to move onto the club Muse. It is also worth mentioning that one the things we ate was Chicken Heart. I might have liked it a little more if I didn't know what it was when I ate it.

It was a long night again for drinking and dancing until 7am but "most" of us stayed up all night dancing yet again. A certain someone.... "Ryan" fell asleep at the club yet again. hahaha. We managed to get a few hours sleep before we were up again and off to see one of the most famous sites in Japan!!!

Nara and Osaka

Day 7 Wednesday April 11th

After a good start in the morning we packed our bags and made our way yet again down to the train station. We threw our bags into a locker in Kyoto station and bought 2 tickets down to the city of Nara. Nara is most famous for been the first official permanent capital of Japan in the year 710. However it was then moved in 785 to what is now know as Kyoto. Kyoto remained the capital of Japan until 1868 where it was moved when emperor Meji moved to the city of Edo. The city then renamed Tokyo which means "eastern capital".


Upon walking around Nara you instantly notice all the deer roaming around. They are wondering around in the parks and follow you around hoping you buy some of the crackers for sale for 150 yen ($1.50 Canadian). Well yes Ryan and I did this and found out how aggressive they can be. One grabbed onto the back of my sweater and it was quite a struggle to get it back. Ryan was surrounded...well just take a look at the photo.

The reason that there are Sika deer around the city is that in the Shinto Religion they are regarded as messengers of the gods. Since Nara is filled with Buddhist temples is seems only right to have them roaming around.



We walked around the park checking out a few temples and pagodas before heading to our main destination which was Todaiji. Inside is the biggest statue of a Buddha that I have ever seen. It was cast back in 752 AD. Take a look at the size of the people compared to the building that houses this statue. It is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world! The Bronze Buddha was up to the ceiling and truly a site worth seeing. We spent a lot of time admiring the building and statue before walking around more parks and the rest of the city.



By night fall, we had to make our way back to Osaka where we had a great meal at the Hard Rock cafe. Yes don't worry I bought a shot glass to add to the collection. We walked the 45min or so back to train station in Osaka to connect to Kyoto where we were reunited with our bags. From here we waited until 11pm to catch the night bus back to Tokyo. The bus was magnificent. Each seat was a reclining seat with plenty of space between you and the next person. I had a giant area to myself and proceeded to look out the window until we were out in the country and it was getting to be 2:00am. It was one of the better sleeps I had had so far on the trip.

The remaining days of Japan to come...

Himeji Castle and Kobe by Night

Day 6 Tuesday April 10th

Yes it was yet another late awaking but we were on our way out of Kyoto by about 11 or so. It was a quick train ride down to Himeji which is the city famous for having the castle most worth seeing in all of Japan. On the way though the train runs along the ocean and we went right past the longest Suspension Bridge in the world just outside Kobe. The bridge is called the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and holds the title with its 1991m main span. Its 710m longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Apparently this record might be short lived as the Italians are planning a suspension bridge to Sicily that is 3.7km in total. However that been said the Japanese are also looking into bridges with main spans of 2400m. Anyways back to the main topic of the entry...



The castle itself stands out strong as it towers over the city from the north end. It is nicknamed "The White Heron" because of its white plaster walls. The structure is wood but the plaster is used as a fireproofing material, which could be one of the reasons it is still around today since it was built in 1583. There was a fort there as early as 1333 but the structure that stands today wasn't fully built until 1583.




We paid our entry fee and then spent at least an hour walking around the gardens, common areas, and smaller buildings before even attempting to go inside the main building. Inside was a little bare but it did have cases of artefacts and drawings that where interesting to see. By far my favourite was the 2 sets of armour up on display.



After about another hour inside the castle we made our way into the town for some Kebabs and a walk through some of the tourist shops. We were also on the lookout for a Starbucks coffee but sadly we found none...

On the way back we stopped off in a city called Kobe which had a excellent harbour and arcade which are lit very tastefully and makes the harbour a great place to be at night. Also it has a star bucks....very important. We spent a good hour and a half just walking around the harbour and playing many arcade games. One of which was a baseball pitching game which happens to be the sport of choice in Japan...



By now it was getting late so we made our way back again to Kyoto for a few drinks and our last night in Southern Japan….well sort of.

3 Temples in Kyoto

Day 5 Monday April 9th

As per usual we had a bit of a late start in the morning as we were trying to recover from the lack of sleep over the past 48 hours. Once we were up and about though it was a fun action packed day of visiting temples. Our first stop was the temple called Ryoan-Ji which is famous for its rock zen garden where it is said to be one of the best examples of "dry landscaping". There are no water features at all in the garden which has a bedding of white gravel. There are 15 rocks in the garden and from anywhere you stand you can only see a maximum of 14 of them at one time. The rest of the temple and gardens were every bit as impressive as the zen garden and we could have spent a lot more time wondering around but we had more temples to visit.


The 2nd temple we went to does not allow visitors to go inside but you can get a great walk around the lake overlooking the temple. This is one of the more famous temples in Kyoto. It is called Kinkaku but its also known by the name "The Golden Pavilion". It gets this name because the two top floors are covered with gold leaf on Japanese lacquer. The building has 3 different types of architecture which makes the building really unique. The 1st floor is Shinden-zukuri, The 2nd floor is Buke-zukuri, (the style of the samurai house) and the 3rd floor is Karayo style or Zen temple style. We walked around the lake and then the rest of the gardens taking many photos before moving on the 3rd temple of the day.



This temple is perhaps the most famous in the city and was pretty busy with tourists. Kiyomizu-dera is the name but it actually refers to several Buddhist temples on the grounds. The temple was built in 798 and was named after the waterfall that is in the grounds. The name Kiyoi Mizu means pure water. At one part of the temple complex visitors can use metal cups to collect water from 3 streams of water run off and drink it. It is said that drinking the water of the three streams confers health, longevity, and success in studies.




After leaving this temple we walked down to the district of Gion which is famous for being the best place in Kyoto to see a Geisha. True to its reputation we did see 2 or 3 walking around. Gion is filled with restaurants and Traditional Japanese tea houses. By this time though it was getting late and starting to get dark. We stopped off a great restaurant for a meal of Tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) followed by a Starbucks and a late night stroll through downtown Kyoto before heading back for a drink and some sleep so we would be refreshed for the trip to Himeji and Kobe in the morning..... I mean afternoon.

A long ride to Kyoto

Day 3 Saturday April 7th

Saturday for me didn’t really start until about 2pm as I was sleeping the morning away and getting over the 8 hour time difference between England and Japan. Once I was up though it was back in Tokyo to see the temple/shrine called Meiji Jingu. But before heading into the temple we had a look around at all the Goths and “unique outfits” people were wearing and posing for. Apparently this happens every weekend and they don’t ask for money they just enjoy having their photos taken.

The temple was established in 1920 and was dedicated to Emperor Meiji who passed away in 1912. It is a place of worship for peace and prosperity but is also used for Shinto weddings which we were lucky enough to see. We walked around the paths, gardens, buildings, and shrines before heading back towards all the Goths and into a park close by.

At the park were a few live bands playing and selling their albums. These bands were really good but just out to practice, make a few new fans, and make some money selling their CD’s/. I did end up buying a demo of one band that I was impressed with. We walked through the rest of the park watching some skateboarders before ending up close to Shibuya again. We had a quick look around some of the smaller streets after dark when they were all lit up before heading back to Ryan’s place and packing our things up for our trip to Kyoto.

The plan was to take the “local” train (I use the term local lightly) that would take about 8 hours or so to get to Kyoto. Fair enough though, as it was the cheapest way down there. It was overnight and we would have to change trains about 6 or 7 times which wasn’t a problem though it just meant we wouldn’t have a great nights sleep. Well the first hour and half was fine and ran smoothly with the efficiency and timing you would expect in Japan. Not a single train was delayed. Well the problem/adventure all started when we tried to make a transfer in a town called Odawara. On the internet it said that we didn’t need to have a reserved seat for this next train but we soon found out that the rules had been changed 5 days ago and they would let us on the train and after Ryan’s friend had a argument we realised that it was hopeless and they were not going to bend the rules. Also the station was closing and we were forced to leave. So at this point it is now 2am, we have nowhere to stay, and no transportation. So what do we do? We found an all night bar and proceeded to drink beers for the next 4 hours laughing about the whole situation. I thought it was the greatest thing ever and I am actually glad that it worked out the way it did. As the sun rose and the station opened again we jumped on the next train and continued our journey down to Kyoto.

Ryan enjoying a beer at 3am

One of the many trains we took to Kyoto

Sunrise over the Pacific means its time to catch the next train

Day 4 Sunday April 8th

We arrived in Kyoto about 12pm and were met by some more friends at the station who took us directly to the river where a people were all sitting around on tarps drinking and laughing in the park to celebrate Hanami. It was a great time and we met people from all over the world including on Canadian who happened to be a Ottawa Senators fan and was wearing the shirt to prove it. We exchanged a few words….. Running on hardly any sleep at all we grabbed some more beers and spent the afternoon in the sun under the cherry blossom trees eating and drinking away. When night fell we walked back to Ryan’s friend’s house with the large group to drink more beers and eat a few hard boiled Easter eggs. It was a long trip but at least it makes a great story!!!

The main river and park in Kyoto

More Cherry Blossom tress outside Kyoto Station

The flight to Japan

Day 1 Thursday April 5th.

It all started with the walk to the bus station from Brad and Nada's house, who I am grateful to for letting me stay the night making the trip to bus station a lot easier. I was up at 4 and at the station by 4:20am. The only eventful scene worth mentioning there was that I was inches away from getting crapped on by a pigeon which would not have gone over to well with me. The bus ride was easy enough as I did sleep most of the way to Heathrow.

From here I flew to Copenhagen in Denmark where I had a 2 hour layover (well 1 hour as the plane from London was late) before getting ready for the 10 hour flight to Narita just outside Tokyo Japan. The flight went by really fast with the TV screens in each headrest and the choice of about 15 movies. I think I managed to get through 4 of them before reading a few chapters of a book and getting some sleep.

Day 2 Friday April 6th.

Arriving in Japan I cleared customs without any major incidents other than the extremely large number of questions as I always get asked in every airport. I must just have "that look" about me.

It was about an hour and half bus ride to Kichijoji station where I met up with Ryan in the matter of seconds. As you leave the airport there were rows of cherry blossom trees on either side of the road which was remarkable. They are only in bloom for 2 or 3 weeks which makes this one of the best times to visit Japan. It is only a short walk to his place from the station down some narrow streets passed small restaurants, grocery stores, and arcades. After a quick stop at his place we made our way down to a park close by to see the cherry blossoms and people just lounging around in the sun. It was such a laid back atmosphere and it was easy to see why everyone laying on mats drinking a few beers.





Before checking out a few local temples and stores in Kichijoji we had to have a quick bite to eat. We ate is this small local sushi bar with a conveyer belt of freshly prepared sushi going around in circles. It was the best sushi I have ever had. No wonder we went back there 3 times throughout the trip.

Jumping on the train we made our way down to Shinjuku to go to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and took the elevator up the 243m to the top floor for a great view of Tokyo. This building used to be the tallest in Tokyo but lost its title in 2006 to the Midtown Tower.

Jumping on the train again we went down to Shibuya to see the famous intersection that has a never ending huge crowd of people crossing. You may recall the famous scene in the movie Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift where the crowd has to disperse as fast as possible as the cars come racing through. Well we went to the 2nd floor of Starbucks to get a great overhead view of the masses of people before we made our way back to Ryan’s to get ready to head to a Salsa bar in Roppongi and dance the night away with some of his friends from work before catching the last train back to Kichijoji for some sleep. Not to bad for the first day in Japan.





More to come!!!

Haynes Car Museum

On Saturday Brad, Nada, and me went down to the Haynes Car Museum which is about an hour south of Bristol. As this is England it took us a little more than an hour due to the traffic trying to get out of the city. But once we got to the museum we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Once we had paid our £7.00 entry fee went walked into the first hanger which held “The Red Room”. The room was full of old sports cars which were all obviously red. Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Maserati’s, MG’s, Triumph’s, Porsche’s, Jaguars, Lotus’, and many more row after row. It was hard to take it all in at first. We walked up and down checking out each car. Kris you would have loved it!!! Don't worry though between the three of us I think we took over 300 photos.





There were 5 hangers in all housing over 350 old and rare cars. One car in back hanger is one of seven ever made. Other favourites were the formula one Ferrari, Ford GT40, the Porsche 356, a Model T Hotrod, and the 2000 Ferrari 360 Spider. Check out the pictures taken below.







It was a great place to check out although there were not as many newer cars as I had expected. I did see a lot of cars by companies that I had never heard of before though. On the way out though we did see a few tanks and a really strange zebra paint job on a Porsche. The Porsche wasn't even part of the museum though. It just belonged to another paying customer but I couldn't resist taking a photo of it.


After leaving the museum we made our way up to Wells to have a quick look at the cathedral and then we had a quick walk down the main street where they filmed the movie “Hot Fuzz” which I have still not seen despite being in Wells last year during the filming of it.

We had a great pub meal in a classic British pub complete with the owner coming out and telling us stories about how one of his workers is moving to Canada. He went on to tell us about how his insulin injections have changed due to new government regulations. You just have to love that about pubs in England.