Tuesday 3rd November:
Trained out from Asakusa to Tokyo to walk around the Imperial Palace gardens. It is strange that in such a busy city, there's a massive block of nature and heritage. And a block where the city sounds do not seem to permeate. Also it was nice to not have to pay an entrance fee either!
We wandered past the musical water features, however, the music was lacking, but the water was impressive. Jumped from Tokyo to Ginza briefly to find the Mercure hotel, where we'd be checking in to the next day.
Back to Asakusa for the festivities of Cultural Day. Big parade around the town which concluded at the Senso-ji temple. The alleys leading up to and around the temple are lined with market stalls. Some beautiful hand made and traditional gifts available, along with the mass produced trinket crap too. Also the street stalls for food were demonstrating some interesting concepts for food, but, that being said, nothing really stood out as majorly weird to me. And thus far (i'm composing this post on Friday 6 Nov) nothing has been overly cliche or bizarre.
Discovered the joys of 290 Yen gyoza and Kirin whisky. Also discovered that just because something says beef, it doesn't automatically make it from a slappable part of the animal!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Day 2 summary
My first encounter of the train systems in Japan. Caught the Keisei line from right behind the hotel to Tawaramachi station (Asakusa). Checked in to the Ryokan and left our bags there, the headed off to the 41st Tokyo Motor Show. Now, I was thinking that the show would be massive, and I guess compared to the Sydney Motor Show it still was, especially cconsidering it was only about $15 entry fee. Anyone with a camera really seemed more interested in taking pics of the demonstration girls than the cars. So I don't know what they would have thought about the white chick frantically taking pics of rims and lights and badges!
The concept cars were interesting, but not groundbreaking. There was an overwhelming push for diesel cars too. Playstation had a massive stall promoting Gran Turismo 5, due for release in March 2010, with various screens and sim type setups for people to try a lap. The waiting line at one point was 40 minutes that I saw. Whilst walking out the back of the pavillions, a mass of food stalls lined the lot, but my biggest surprise came from the single KFC stall - I certainly didn't expect to see that.
I'll put some pics up from the show soon... I can't do any photo resizing on this eeepc, so keep an eye out for the link to my flickr account or a facebook album.
First night in the Ryokan was a shock to the system in a way - floor sleeping, fine; small enclosed room, fine; wheat pillow, unexpected; lumpy futon mat, not fine.
The concept cars were interesting, but not groundbreaking. There was an overwhelming push for diesel cars too. Playstation had a massive stall promoting Gran Turismo 5, due for release in March 2010, with various screens and sim type setups for people to try a lap. The waiting line at one point was 40 minutes that I saw. Whilst walking out the back of the pavillions, a mass of food stalls lined the lot, but my biggest surprise came from the single KFC stall - I certainly didn't expect to see that.
I'll put some pics up from the show soon... I can't do any photo resizing on this eeepc, so keep an eye out for the link to my flickr account or a facebook album.
First night in the Ryokan was a shock to the system in a way - floor sleeping, fine; small enclosed room, fine; wheat pillow, unexpected; lumpy futon mat, not fine.
Day 1 Summary (travel day)
Now that I have some intarwebz access, I'll type up some day by day accounts of what's been doing on this trip.
Sunday 1 November:
Flight day.
I broke the plane - twice. First the headrest on my seat: tried to lift it up and pull the wing things in towards my head but the whole thing just lifted off and in to my hands. Then I went to the toilet and the soap dispenser just slipped right off the wall. Admittedly it didn't "break" as such, but it did come away from its fitting. So that still counts. I wonder if that kind of fragility extends to the plane's actual engineering? :s bit of a worry really.
Oh the irony of the meals on the flight... lunch was Japanese curry or chicken terryaki, a taste of things to come at your destination. Dinner on the other hand - now that you're 7 hours away from home, here, have a meat pie or quiche, and ice cream for dessert.
Passed through customs and collected luggage within half hour total. Rather impressed by that. Had to hang around Narita airport for 90 minutes before the shuttle bus to the hotel arrived. Room in the Mercure hotel at Narita was only tiny, but more than comfy considering the long time on the plane. Sleep was glorious, hot shower was devine.
Sunday 1 November:
Flight day.
I broke the plane - twice. First the headrest on my seat: tried to lift it up and pull the wing things in towards my head but the whole thing just lifted off and in to my hands. Then I went to the toilet and the soap dispenser just slipped right off the wall. Admittedly it didn't "break" as such, but it did come away from its fitting. So that still counts. I wonder if that kind of fragility extends to the plane's actual engineering? :s bit of a worry really.
Oh the irony of the meals on the flight... lunch was Japanese curry or chicken terryaki, a taste of things to come at your destination. Dinner on the other hand - now that you're 7 hours away from home, here, have a meat pie or quiche, and ice cream for dessert.
Passed through customs and collected luggage within half hour total. Rather impressed by that. Had to hang around Narita airport for 90 minutes before the shuttle bus to the hotel arrived. Room in the Mercure hotel at Narita was only tiny, but more than comfy considering the long time on the plane. Sleep was glorious, hot shower was devine.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
From the plane
Below is what I wrote on the flight over to Japan... I'll type up a "what I'm doing while I'm here" post soon:
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Some points to note that I should get down before I forget:
My luggage on check in was indeed 11kg - 11.6kg to be precise. Also to note, it was lighter than Beau’s luggage!! How about that…a chick with less packing!
I have it on great authority from my friend Kieran that should things on this holiday become overwhelming, I should set myself on fire because ninja’s can’t catch you when you’re on fire!
This flight is 7246km (distance on the ground) long.
There really is no atmosphere within the Coolangatta airport, especially in the “INTERNATIONAL” lounge. It’s more like a makeshift site office found on the side of a highway construction project.
After spending $233 at duty free for collection upon returning, I immediately calculated how much more I can spend of my tax exempt allowance. The alcohol capacity has already been exhausted by the 1L mango Absolut, 1L red ruby Absolut and 200ml Chivas. The obligatory Chanel No 5 was also purchased.
I have no idea really what kind of shopping experience I can get from this holiday and I’m certainly not going to go overboard with stocking up on junky trinkety things. I’ll definitely find a gift of indulgence for my parents and something extra special for my beautiful man.
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I just raised the window cover on the plane - it’s 3pm Qld time (and we’re somewhere in a time zone within the hour). The only thing to be seen is blue and white. The sky is a never ending mono-tone blue with the occasional dot of cloud cluster, suspended rather eerily and yet very intriguingly. There is no perspective or depth - no sign of end to the blue on the way down to indicate the sea below, and no specific curve to the horizon.
And by now my eyes are stinging and my ass is numb. I’ve watched about five hours of shows, considered nothing of the next ten days of sightseeing and written this blog post in my notebook and now typed it up on the Geeesmo so it is ready to cut and paste as soon as I find myself accessible to my comfort zone within the intarwebz.
------------------
Some points to note that I should get down before I forget:
My luggage on check in was indeed 11kg - 11.6kg to be precise. Also to note, it was lighter than Beau’s luggage!! How about that…a chick with less packing!
I have it on great authority from my friend Kieran that should things on this holiday become overwhelming, I should set myself on fire because ninja’s can’t catch you when you’re on fire!
This flight is 7246km (distance on the ground) long.
There really is no atmosphere within the Coolangatta airport, especially in the “INTERNATIONAL” lounge. It’s more like a makeshift site office found on the side of a highway construction project.
After spending $233 at duty free for collection upon returning, I immediately calculated how much more I can spend of my tax exempt allowance. The alcohol capacity has already been exhausted by the 1L mango Absolut, 1L red ruby Absolut and 200ml Chivas. The obligatory Chanel No 5 was also purchased.
I have no idea really what kind of shopping experience I can get from this holiday and I’m certainly not going to go overboard with stocking up on junky trinkety things. I’ll definitely find a gift of indulgence for my parents and something extra special for my beautiful man.
------
I just raised the window cover on the plane - it’s 3pm Qld time (and we’re somewhere in a time zone within the hour). The only thing to be seen is blue and white. The sky is a never ending mono-tone blue with the occasional dot of cloud cluster, suspended rather eerily and yet very intriguingly. There is no perspective or depth - no sign of end to the blue on the way down to indicate the sea below, and no specific curve to the horizon.
And by now my eyes are stinging and my ass is numb. I’ve watched about five hours of shows, considered nothing of the next ten days of sightseeing and written this blog post in my notebook and now typed it up on the Geeesmo so it is ready to cut and paste as soon as I find myself accessible to my comfort zone within the intarwebz.
