Tokyo Disneyland

26th March, 2007

I was soooo excited to be heading to Disneyland. Marie and I put our Hello Kitty ears and our Japan t-shirts on and we were on our way. We were like little kids very excited and full of beans. Steve just kept shaking his head at us. Disneyland looked exactly as I imagined it – just like a fairytale. There was the Mickey Mouse flowers, the castle and people everywhere. The amount of people was just unbelievable. We got into the grounds and were greeted by a band. We then got out our map and began our journey through the lands so that we could see as much of it as possible. Marie and I originally had 2 day passes but because the line ups were sooo huge we decided to change it to only a one day pass because the line ups were too frustrating to wait in and we didn’t want to spend 2 whole days waiting in lines. Some of the lines were 3 hours long. With this in mind we went on as many things as possible. The attractions that we got to see included: a Jugle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Alice’s Tea Party (the tea cup ride), Roger Rabits Cartoon Spin, Minnie’s House, Mickey’s House, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Treehouse, Gadget’s Go Coaster, Donald’s Boat, Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and a Micro Adventure.

My favourite rides were: Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Adventure, Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin and Thunder Mountain. I also really enjoyed exploring Toontown. At night we got to watch Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights and Disney Magic in the Sky (a fireworks display). Both of these were spectacular!!

For dinner we went into the Queen Of Hearts Banquet Hall. This was a really well set out place. It looked very cool and funky. After dinner, Marie and I got to meet Mickey!! That was one of the highlights of the day! I bought a Tokyo Disney t-shirt and a little Mickey bag. Disneyland is definitely a lively, fun place – everything is cute and very kiddish. Most of the rides are themed and for kids so you have to bear that in mind when riding them. The long waits were annoying and tiring but we definitely got the most out of our day. We arrived at 8am and left at 10:30pm and got to see most things. I enjoyed seeing Disneyland and am glad that I got to experience it.

Harajuku, Shibuya - Tokyo

25th March, 2007

Steve had an Animae festival that he wanted to go to today so Marie and I decided to do the girly thing and hit the shops – after all we were in Tokyo, how could we resist?? We heard that Harajuku was the fashion area of Tokyo so that’s where we went. Steve had given step by step instructions on how to get there and his directions were spot on. We found the good shopping area in no time (I think we could just sniff it!) and before we knew it we had shopped up a storm. When do Marie and I ever come home with nothing? I bought 2 pairs of shoes, some shorts, a top, some leggings, some earrings and some nail polish. I could have kept going but I was running out of hands!! It was fun just roaming around the shops. Definitely a place for girls!!

After we finished exploring Harajuku we decided to go to Shibuya which is where the busiest intersection in the world is. You don’t know the meaning of busy until you see this place. It is unbelievable. Crazy in fact. We just stood there watching for about 30 minutes. The lights would stop and there would be thousands of people crossing the road, when the lights went green again people would just gather at the lights ready to cross. They would just come out of nowhere. Every set of lights literally had thousands of people crossing. It was unreal. I didn’t understand where they all came from. It was cool when we actually joined them and crossed with them – we felt so insignificant, like just one dot out of hundreds! It’s definitely a place that I recommend you see.

The rest of Shibuya was also cool. It was a very happening place. There were just people everywhere. We had a wonder around the area until it was time to meet Steve. He was also amazed at how busy the crossing was. Everyone would be!! Through our travels we discovered a cool place called “Sweets Paradise” which is an all you can eat pasta, salad and sweets, sweets, SWEETS! We decided to go there for dinner. Big mistake because all though it was delicious I ate way too much. I have absolutely no will power.
We headed home with very full bellies, tired feet and lots of shopping bags!!

Tokyo Cont......

Once we dropped our luggage off we decided to have a wonder around Shinjuku which was the part of Tokyo we were staying in. First impressions of Tokyo was amazing. It was busy, fast moving and exciting, just how I imagined it! The first thing we did was to walk into a camera store so that Marie could buy a new camera as she had a little disaster with her old one. Within 10 minutes we had found the one we wanted and were on our way again. How’s that – the first corner we turn was a camera shop! We were amazed at how busy life was in Tokyo and were amused by just watching people walking by.

For dinner we headed to Roppongi which is another very happening place in Tokyo. The nightlife here was fantastic. There was never a dull moment or a ‘dead’ street. We ate in a little Italian restaurant before heading out to a club. We went to a club called Muse where we were going to meet some of our American friends. This club was free for ladies but $20 for men. We got inside to find it not happening at all and so decided that we didn’t want to stay. We rang our friends and told them that we weren’t going to meet them.
We headed back to Shinjuku to find some night life there. We felt better being here because we could just walk back to our hotel. From Roppongi it would have been about a $60 taxi ride home. We were eventually guided into a Hip Hop club which was the most lively club that I have experienced in Japan so far. The music was good and the people in there were all awesome dancers. We spent the next few hours dancing the night away before we thought we better hit the sack as we had to get up early the next morning.

The Getting to Tokyo Saga

The day had come for us to leave for Tokyo. Steve, Marie and I were all packed and excited to get there. We got to the train station nice and early but Steve had been getting tooth aches so we decided that it was best for him to go to the dentist before we left so that we could make sure that everything was ok and that he could get some pain killers for the pain! He managed to get into the dentist first up and sorted out his tooth issues. So everyone was happy and we were on our way. We got to the Shinkansen to find ourselves standing as the train was packed. We eventually got seats after a few stops which was good because I definitely didn't want to stand for 3 and a half hours. Everyone was ok, we had a nice peaceful ride there, slept pretty much the whole way.

When we got there, it was a rush to get off the train. We grabbed our luggage and jackets and headed to the exit of the train. We bought prepaid Shinkansen tickets which cost $144 each. When you get to the exit you have to show your ticket to get out. Steve and I had our tickets ready to go but when we asked Marie if she had hers, she couldn’t find it. Funny that because we saw her holding it the whole way to Tokyo so in between getting our luggage and getting off the train she somehow managed to lose it. Anyone who knows Marie well knows that this is typical Marie. She was pretty stressed (as you would be). We raced back to the train to see if we could find it but the cleaners had already cleaned everything and there was nothing left on the train. We then went up to the lost and found place to try and explain to them what had happened but we had no luck! We were pretty worried at this stage because without the ticket you couldn’t get out of the station without having to buy a new ticket. Being $144 we didn’t want to have to do that. When we go to the exit we tried to explain to the man what had happened. He didn’t understand us and it took us about 20 minutes to make him understand. His first reaction was bad luck you have to pay. We started to fire up a bit then and we argued for about another 5 minutes until the man finally just gave Marie a ticket so that she could get out of the station. We said “arigato” (thankyou) a few times but he didn’t want to hear our thank yous. He just wanted us to get out of his face – pretty much. Well we quickly got the hint and took the ticket and left. Lucky for Marie she didn’t have to pay twice!!

The story doesn’t end here……. We exited one section but then came to another section where you had to put your ticket into the machine again. Well Marie seemed to somehow lose the other ticket that the man gave her. Can you believe it? So there we went again. We had to go up to the other man and explain the whole story again, saying that she lost her ticket, the other man gave her a ticket and then she lost her ticket again. This man had no idea what we were on about, and this section all of a sudden became very busy so I think in the end he just couldn’t be bothered and said ‘go through’. We quickly took his advice and she ran through. We were finally out of the station. Boy that was a very exhausting start to our trip. Something like this could only happen to Marie……. Who loses their Shinkansen ticket? I swear she would lose her head if it wasn’t screwed on!! ( I do love her still- she certainly keeps us on our toes!!!!!) After all that stress we headed straight to our hotel to drop off our luggage before we lost anything else!!

Nails

23rd March, 2007

Yay – I finally was able to get my nails done. I am so happy now. I feel all girly ☺ It took me a while to find a place to get them done but I finally found it. They cost me $63 but compared to $126 I think I got a pretty good deal. I was worried that they might turn out terrible considering I didn’t know how to explain what I wanted but the girl that I had could actually speak a little English so I could kind of explain what I wanted and my nails turned out really well. I was happy with the end result. If you are wondering what they look like I took a picture (couldn’t help myself!) :-)




What do you think?????

Sayings

Check out these saying - they're quite good......

Okayama

21st March, 2007

Today was a public holiday so we thought that we would head to Okayama for the day. Okayama is a city about 2 hours away from Himeji. There is a black castle there.
They call it the “Black Crow” because of it’s appearance. This castle had been destroyed in World War II and was rebuilt again in 1966. It was actually a very beautiful castle. You could go in a have a look inside. It was quite modern due to the fact that it had been rebuilt. There was even an elevator inside! On one of the levels there was a carriage that the princess used to get carried around in. You were allowed to sit in it so of course we had a turn.

There was also a beautiful garden behind the castle. They were called the Korakuen Gardens. We saw 2 Weddings being photographed there. One bride was in a Kimono and the other bride was in a Western style white dress. Both looked beautiful. The gardens were very pretty. It would be good to go back again during a different season to compare the difference.

Okayama is a big place. We only really had time to explore those two things. I definitely want to go back there because there was so much more to see.

Crazy Train Ride.....

20th March, 2007

Due to the fact that we left Universal Studios so late, we had to catch the last train home. We ended up catching an 11:40pm train. Now we had not eaten dinner because we had been so rushed trying to fit all the rides in before the park closed that we just didn’t get time, then we had to make sure that we caught the last train so there was no time to eat. Lauren bought some drinks and snacks for us to eat on the train on the way home so we didn’t waste away! ☺

You would think that being so late at night we would have pretty much had the train to ourselves. Our theory was that we would get 2 lots of four seats so that we could spread out and eat our snacks in peace and relax. Well we were wrong, wrong WRONG!! This train was the busiest train that we had ever been on. We couldn’t even get ‘a’ seat let alone 2 lots of four. This was some crazy stuff. As soon as the train came we were crammed in. Jam packed like sardines. You couldn’t even move and people were still trying to get on. We had all our luggage too so people had to deal with that. As the train started moving sometimes it would turn suddenly and everyone would lose their balance. People were falling into each other everywhere. Some man ended up holding Marie’s bag without even wanting to because of the way we were positioned. When the first stop came some people wanted to get off of course. We didn’t need to get off so we stayed put. Marie was forced to follow that man to get her bag back. There was no sumimasen (excuse me) or anything like that people just pushed their way off. You had no choice but to get off with them. We didn’t want to get off so we were trying to stay on but that didn’t happen. We were forced out of the train. Renee (Lauren’s friend from Australia) actually fell over because people were pushing and shoving and she lost her balance. It was like a herd of people seriously. Some serious damage could happen here. It was hilarious. Then I saw this poor little kid crying because there was such a commotion going on and he needed to get off. His mum grabbed him and pulled him off the train. I think we just had no idea of what the protocol was when the train was in such a busy state. We managed to get back on the train again before the doors closed shut but we lost it. We could not stop laughing. Now when you are on a train or a bus or any type of public transport, it is meant to be a quiet place. It is kind of like a courtesy thing. We were behaving like teenagers – giggling and carrying on. We couldn’t stop for ages. People were getting quite annoyed at us. We were the only ones laughing, everyone else was quiet and serious. Didn’t they think it was funny too?
It is hard to imagine how packed it actually was but it was out of control, I have never experienced anything like it. If it was this bad in just Osaka, imagine how it is going to be in Tokyo…..

Universal Studios

20th March, 2007

We woke up with lots of energy ready to hit Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan. I absolutely love, love, LOVE theme parks so I was like a little kid at Christmas. We ate our buffet breakfast which was included with our hotel and were on our way. We thought that we picked a really good day to head there as it was a work day, so our theory was that it was going to be fairly quiet. WRONG!!! We got there to find crazy line ups and people everywhere. I don’t think that there is ever a quiet moment in Japan, (and apparently this was a quiet day, I’d hate to see it when it was busy then!). We finally got inside. It looked fantastic. All the sets were very well done. I was in my element. I just wanted to run everywhere but I had to contain myself! There were rides and shows and gimmick stores – it was awesome!

There was the most amazing roller coaster there – probably the best one that I have ever been on. It was called the Hollywood Dream. It was so scary but I loved it. We waited 1 and a half hours to get on it but it was well worth the wait. We went on an ET ride, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and Spiderman. We saw Shrek in 4D which was amazing. 4D means that you feel things too. This was the first 4D show that I have ever seen – I loved it! We also watched Terminator II in 3D. The line up for each activity was out of control but in parks like these they always are so it was expected. PLUS I wanted to go on as many things as I could so I was prepared to wait. There were a few things that I really wanted to do but we missed because we ran out of time. We did the main things so I was happy. I couldn’t resist buying some sort of souvenir so I bought some ‘Hello Kitty’ ears! Gimmick I know, but they were cute!

We left the park at 9:30pm and we didn’t get home until 1am. It was a long but crazy ride home!

Red Hot Chili Peppers......

19th March, 2007

Everyone was excited to be going to the Chili’s. We left work early with our already packed bags and met at the station to make a mad dash to get to Osaka so that we could make it to the concert on time. We quickly dropped our bags at our hotel room, got changed into our concert clothes, raced around to find somewhere to grab a quick bite to eat and headed to the Osaka Dome. We were there in good time! The 8 of us walked up to Osaka Dome but as we were doing so we got a funny feeling. People weren’t bustling around as they do when there is a concert and in fact we couldn’t even here any music playing – it was all very quiet for a place that should have been buzzing! When we finally got to the front we noticed a sign saying that the concert had been postponed. The lead singer was sick and couldn’t fly. None of us had any idea that this had happened. We obviously don’t watch TV or listen to the radio and even if we did we wouldn’t have understood anything.
We all left feeling very disappointed, so to cheer ourselves up we all went out for coffee and cake. The good thing was that even though it was a Monday night Osaka is a happening place so there is always something to do there.
So sorry everyone but you will have to wait until a later date for me to report on the Chili’s……..at least we have a good story to tell!

Huh? Episode 3

After some more searching this is what I have found to add to the 'Huh?' collection.........





What would you like? Coffee, whisky or morning?



What's going on here.....Tina and beer?



Since when do monkey's ride bikes?

I hope you enjoyed these crazy sightings. Stay tuned for the next episode of 'Huh?'...........

A Day at Sumo

18th March, 2007

I can now say that I have experienced a Sumo match – well several actually. It was a whole day filled with fun, excitement and lots of ‘oooohhhh’s, aaaaaahhhhhh’s and oooowwwwwww’s’. I had a terrific day. We arrived in Osaka at around 8:30am and were in the stadium until 6:00pm.

The beginning matches were amateur league. The professionals didn’t start until later in the day but we figured that we may as well watch as many matches as we could considering this may be the only time we ever get to go to Sumo. Everything from the judges, to the players’ outfits, to the actual ring, to the size of the Sumos was amazing to see. And YES they are as big as what they seem on tv. The professionals especially were amazing to watch. Some of them seemed to be really psyched up. The crowd were rowdy at times but in general were fairly quiet.

I saw many bouts (wrestles) throughout the day and I think I now have the ritual / ceremony of sumo all figured out! Once the Sumos enter the Dohyo (the ring) they have to go through a series of symbolic movements. The first one is to rinse their mouth out with water. This is to cleanse their mind. They then raise their arms and stamp their feet. Next comes the scattering of the salt to purify the ring. It is also supposed to prevent them from injury. The two Sumos then squat and face each other in the middle of the ring with their fists on the ground while staring each other out. This process is repeated several times. Once both players feel ready the bout (wrestle) begins. Each bout usually only lasts a few minutes if that but those few minutes are usually action-packed with lots of thrills and excitement. The player who touches any part of his body out of the ring or the player that gets pushed to the ground inside the ring loses. We saw a lot of fairly even bouts during the day and it was exciting to see who was going to win. Sometimes the smaller of the two Sumos won – which just goes to show that size does not matter!

There are only 6 Grand Tournaments a year, three are held in Tokyo, one in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu. Each tournament lasts for fifteen days and every Sumo has to fight at least once a day with a different opponent. The Sumo with the most wins over losses is the winner of the tournament and is awarded the Emperor’s Cup on the final day.

Sumo is a very interesting and unique game and I am glad to have been able to experience it.



Of course we had to find a Sumo to take a picture with!!

Classic Tina

Here is a laugh for all of you.........this is just a typical Tina shot which Steve just happened to catch on camera. How classic is this picture??

Sake Tour

10th March, 2007

Ok I have now 100% decided that I definitely do not like the taste of Sake. For those of you who don’t know, Sake is a type of Japanese alcohol. It is very strong and you drink it in a shot glass. We were taken to a Sake factory on the weekend to have a tour. This was a very interesting experience. First of all we were given a talk about how Sake was made– it was all in Japanese so I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to pick up some words but I got nothing! After the talk we were shown a video of how they made Sake and then we went on a tour of the factory.

On our tour we had to wear white gumboots and a little white shower cap. We all looked very stylish! Before the tour began we had to step into water with our boots to make sure that they were clean. (Japan is very big on being clean if you hadn’t already noticed). The tour consisted of showing us the different rooms and processes of how Sake is produced. Sake is made out of rice and there is a lot of labour involved in making it.


After the tour we went back in to the main section where we were able to taste test the various types of sake. They brought us quite a few bottles to taste and it was like an ‘all you can drink’ for about an hour. Everyone bought snacks such as cheese, ritz, chocolate, chips and popcorn to share so we got stuck into the Sake and food! It was funny because the Japanese people’s idea of snacks was totally different to ours. They went all out and were eating actual proper food like sushi, fried meats and rice. Of course I wanted to try all the different types of Sake, so you can imagine the kind of state I would have been in when I left the place.
Trying to ride our bikes home after we got back to the train station was definitely an adventure. A pot plant in the middle of the path had a slight collision with me (it was all the pot plants fault of course). Luckily there was no damage caused! We made it home in one piece ready to then head to the pub for the remainder of the night.

The pub was ok. I didn’t really need any more to drink which was a good thing – all I needed to do was to dance it all off (which I managed to do!) The people at the pub were crazy. There must have been something in the air but at one stage these people were putting cream on plates and shoving in into people’s faces. I’m glad I didn’t get creamed! I would have been peaking if I did!! Then I was just standing there talking to my friends (as you do) and the next minute these people came running through the crowd and I was taken out! There was me sprawled all over the floor about 1 metre from where I was standing! It must have looked so funny. I reckon I would have won Funniest Home Videos if that was caught on camera. I eventually managed to pick myself up off the floor with some assistance of course. At that stage I was ready to head home. Taxis were hard to come by so we ended up just walking home in the rain in my high-heeled white boots. It took us about 20 minutes to walk home and I think I pretty much complained the whole way home. My white boots weren’t so white at the end of the night. They needed some major cleaning on Sunday morning. Just as well they only cost me $10.

My First Hair Cut

4th March, 2007

Well I decided that it was time to do something with my hair. I have been here for two months and have not touched it so it was looking very sad and sorry. So I was very brave and booked myself into the hairdressers. Now this is the first time in my whole life that I have ever been to the hairdressers to get my hair done as usually mum does it all for me. I was very concerned about how my hair was going to turn out considering I speak no Japanese. Even making an appointment was in hand signals! I wanted to colour my hair red so I learnt the word for red and said that to them in Japanese. They then came back with some samples that I had to choose from. I had no idea which one to pick as usually mum just knows the one I want. Plus the samples are never the way they actually look on your hair. I chose the one that I thought was the one I normally wear and hoped for the best! They gave me a magazine to look through to choose a style of cut. There were so many to choose from – I chose one that had a fringe. While they were putting the colour on I was thinking that it was looking a lot lighter than my usual colour so I was getting a little worried. I didn't want it to look too red or pink. When it washed off and was wet it was really noticeable which made me even more worried because when mum does it you can hardly tell when it is wet – it’s not until it is dry that you can notice the red. Once they had cut it they started drying it and it started looking better. The hairdresser took ages to style it for me and when it was finally finished I was actually happy with the result. The colour might have been a little lighter than what I was expecting but it was ok. There was no major disaster which was good. I was in the hairdressers for almost 3 hours and it cost me $102 which for me is very expensive considering I get cuts and colours for free normally but I suppose that is fairly reasonable. I can now say that I have been to the hairdressers!

Trying to find a cheap place to get your nails done on the other hand is a different story. They all seem to be around the $100 mark which is crazy. I am still looking though because I really want them done. Waxing just doesn’t seem to exist over here in Japan. I have not seen one waxing shop which is really frustrating. Who knows how they get rid of hair here but they obviously don't wax!

An Afternoon Tea Party

28th February, 2007

I was invited to one of my adult students houses for afternoon tea. It was a very different experience to what I am used to. I was picked up at 1pm and taken to her house. It was a beautiful house by the way. I walked inside to a beautifully presented table setting waiting for us. Of course I had to take pictures!

One of the other students in my class had been practising ‘Tea Ceremonies’ so she came dressed in a kimono with all her tea gear so that she could perform a tea ceremony for us. It was so cool because the ladies house actually had a room built in where you can perform these ‘Tea Ceremonies’. I ate one of the Japanese sweets and then drank my tea. I actually quite enjoyed this sweet. I am usually not a big fan of the Japanese bean sweets but this one went down quite nicely.

I wanted to take them something that they had never tried before. Vegemite was the only thing that I could think of that was new and Australian – so I made them some vegemite sandwiches to try. I also took some camembert cheese, ritz biscuits, strawberries and chocolate almonds. They had never tried the cheese before either so that was an experience for them too. They actually really enjoyed the vegemite which I was surprised at. One of them even asked me if she could buy vegemite paste in Japan! We had coffee and green tea, and cake with cream and rice crackers…….there was so much food to choose from. One of the ladies bought some origami paper so we all made a paper crane, then she gave me a little box with the rest of the origami paper and put all the paper cranes that we made inside. I will be making a mobile out of the paper cranes. I ended up staying for 4 hours. I was able to meet Shinako’s children as they came home from school while I was still there. They were very nice and were keen to ask me questions after they got over being shy. It was a very relaxing and beautiful afternoon. These people just go to so much effort for you it’s amazing!