It is ok to have your dog in a bag in a shop but not if it is poking its head out.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Dogs in Japan
Dogs are VERY loved in Japan. To me it seems a little strange and weird because a lot of dogs here are treated like babies. Maybe to the point of out of control but I suppose that’s just part of the Japanese way. Here are some of the funny things that I have seen so far…
It is ok to have your dog in a bag in a shop but not if it is poking its head out.
It is ok to have your dog in a bag in a shop but not if it is poking its head out.
Dancing - FUN FUN FUN: In Tokyo
18th August, 2007
Since we happened to be in Tokyo on a Saturday night we couldn’t resist going out and having a bit of a dance. We got ready with our essentials - sunglasses (as everyone in clubs here wear them?!) and headed out for the night. (We didn’t really wear our sunglasses out but we just bought new ones so we put them on!).
We were staying in Shinjuku at the Washington Hotel again so we decided to stick to the area. We wandered for a while trying to find the place that Marie and I went to last time but soon realised that we had no idea where it was. It was time to resort to the black guys (they are paid to take you to their clubs). We found a couple standing on the street and we asked them to take us to a hip hop place. We walked for a while and eventually ended up at the same place that we went to last time – how coincidental is that??
When we first walked in at about midnight it was pretty dead and the music was pretty average. We weren’t too keen on the atmosphere and we thought that we were going to have an early night. WRONG!! The atmosphere soon picked up – people started coming in and the music slowly got better and better.
We made friends with a group of Japanese people where one of them was having a birthday. It was quite bizarre because all of a sudden we were getting free tequila shots. We didn’t say no but somehow they just seemed to keep on coming. Where they were coming from exactly who knows….but we definitely were enjoying ourselves. They birthday girl got a bottle of champagne from someone and we all toasted to her birthday. It was funny how Marie, Lauren and I seemed to get right in on the act!! I reckon we ended up with about 4 or 5 free drinks each.
We all were pretty piped up and lively – so much so that it was 4:30am when we realised that it was probably time for us to head home as we had to check out of our hotel at 10am the next morning. It was a great night but we definitely paid for it the next morning.
Since we happened to be in Tokyo on a Saturday night we couldn’t resist going out and having a bit of a dance. We got ready with our essentials - sunglasses (as everyone in clubs here wear them?!) and headed out for the night. (We didn’t really wear our sunglasses out but we just bought new ones so we put them on!).
We were staying in Shinjuku at the Washington Hotel again so we decided to stick to the area. We wandered for a while trying to find the place that Marie and I went to last time but soon realised that we had no idea where it was. It was time to resort to the black guys (they are paid to take you to their clubs). We found a couple standing on the street and we asked them to take us to a hip hop place. We walked for a while and eventually ended up at the same place that we went to last time – how coincidental is that??
When we first walked in at about midnight it was pretty dead and the music was pretty average. We weren’t too keen on the atmosphere and we thought that we were going to have an early night. WRONG!! The atmosphere soon picked up – people started coming in and the music slowly got better and better.
We made friends with a group of Japanese people where one of them was having a birthday. It was quite bizarre because all of a sudden we were getting free tequila shots. We didn’t say no but somehow they just seemed to keep on coming. Where they were coming from exactly who knows….but we definitely were enjoying ourselves. They birthday girl got a bottle of champagne from someone and we all toasted to her birthday. It was funny how Marie, Lauren and I seemed to get right in on the act!! I reckon we ended up with about 4 or 5 free drinks each. 
We all were pretty piped up and lively – so much so that it was 4:30am when we realised that it was probably time for us to head home as we had to check out of our hotel at 10am the next morning. It was a great night but we definitely paid for it the next morning.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Cars, Cars, Cars
18th August, 2007
Marie and Lauren hadn’t been to Odaiba in Tokyo before so Steve and I decided to take them there to have a look. Mega Web and Venus Fort were the places we visited. As it was Lauren and Marie’s first time there we decided to have ride in the small little cars which took you through The Mega Web complex. I liked the car that Steve and I got this time.
We also had a look through the History Garage which was set up with really old style cars. It was really cool. Check them out…
Marie and Lauren hadn’t been to Odaiba in Tokyo before so Steve and I decided to take them there to have a look. Mega Web and Venus Fort were the places we visited. As it was Lauren and Marie’s first time there we decided to have ride in the small little cars which took you through The Mega Web complex. I liked the car that Steve and I got this time.
We also had a look through the History Garage which was set up with really old style cars. It was really cool. Check them out…
Friday, August 17, 2007
Nikko: A beautiful place
16th-18th August, 2007
We packed our bags once again and headed to Nikko which is 5 hours away from Himeji. It was a bit of an ordeal to buy the tickets to get here but we eventually worked it out after about 2 hours in the travel agent.
Nikko is a wonderful, pleasant place to visit. I definitely would put this as a must place to see in Japan. It is famous for it’s bridge, many temples and shrines as well as waterfalls, lakes and mountains. We spent the 2 days we had there exploring as many of these sights as possible.
Nikko is a little cooler than other areas in Japan. The Daiya River that runs in Nikko is probably the reason for this. It is quite icy as we found out when we stuck our feet in the water. I tell you what we couldn’t keep our feet in there for long. They were numb after about 10 seconds of being in there.
The river runs under the Shinkyo Bridge. It is very beautiful. The water is so clean and fresh that you just feel like jumping in. You can’t imagine how cold it would be though.
Dragon flies are everywhere in Nikko and seem to like people. They just keep buzzing around you. It’s amazing how many there are.
We visited Rin-no-ji Taiyuin, Futura-san Shrine, a 5 Storied Pergoda, Toshogu, Yakushi-do and Rin-no-ji Sanbutsu-do, which are the main temples and shrines in Nikko. These temples and shrines were unlike any that I have seen before. They were just amazing to look at with so much detail on each one. Instead of being wooden they were made with a lot of gold. Most of the temples and shrines were set in a forest or had mountains as backgrounds. They were just beautiful to look at.
Rin-no-ji Taiyuin Front Gate
Rin-no-ji Taiyuin Sacred Water
Rn-no-ji Taiyuin Koko-mon Gate
Futara-san Shrine Cleaning Water
5 Storied Pergoda
Toshogu
"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"
Kegon Falls was next on our list. They are 97m high and 7m wide. There was 3.0 tons of water falling per second the day we went. It was pretty spectacular to see these falls. You were even able to catch an elevator right down to pretty much water level. It was good to see the falls from this perspective. The temperature drop from the top to the bottom was 10 degrees. It was 25 degrees at the top and 15 degrees at the bottom which was a little chili for my liking but well worth being cold.
Lake Chuzenji was the next thing we saw. This was another beautiful sight in Nikko. It too was surrounded by mountains and absolutely breathtaking.
Food was hard to find in Nikko for some reason. The “7 Eleven” served it’s purpose that’s for sure. We ate about 4 meals there and we managed to find a Korean Restaurant that was open to eat tea one night.
I loved Nikko and would love to come back again in the winter time when everything is covered in snow. I guess we will see if we have time.
We packed our bags once again and headed to Nikko which is 5 hours away from Himeji. It was a bit of an ordeal to buy the tickets to get here but we eventually worked it out after about 2 hours in the travel agent.
Nikko is a wonderful, pleasant place to visit. I definitely would put this as a must place to see in Japan. It is famous for it’s bridge, many temples and shrines as well as waterfalls, lakes and mountains. We spent the 2 days we had there exploring as many of these sights as possible. Nikko is a little cooler than other areas in Japan. The Daiya River that runs in Nikko is probably the reason for this. It is quite icy as we found out when we stuck our feet in the water. I tell you what we couldn’t keep our feet in there for long. They were numb after about 10 seconds of being in there.
The river runs under the Shinkyo Bridge. It is very beautiful. The water is so clean and fresh that you just feel like jumping in. You can’t imagine how cold it would be though.
Dragon flies are everywhere in Nikko and seem to like people. They just keep buzzing around you. It’s amazing how many there are.
We visited Rin-no-ji Taiyuin, Futura-san Shrine, a 5 Storied Pergoda, Toshogu, Yakushi-do and Rin-no-ji Sanbutsu-do, which are the main temples and shrines in Nikko. These temples and shrines were unlike any that I have seen before. They were just amazing to look at with so much detail on each one. Instead of being wooden they were made with a lot of gold. Most of the temples and shrines were set in a forest or had mountains as backgrounds. They were just beautiful to look at.
Rin-no-ji Taiyuin Front Gate
Rin-no-ji Taiyuin Sacred Water
Rn-no-ji Taiyuin Koko-mon Gate
Futara-san Shrine Cleaning Water
5 Storied Pergoda
Toshogu
"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"
Kegon Falls was next on our list. They are 97m high and 7m wide. There was 3.0 tons of water falling per second the day we went. It was pretty spectacular to see these falls. You were even able to catch an elevator right down to pretty much water level. It was good to see the falls from this perspective. The temperature drop from the top to the bottom was 10 degrees. It was 25 degrees at the top and 15 degrees at the bottom which was a little chili for my liking but well worth being cold.
Lake Chuzenji was the next thing we saw. This was another beautiful sight in Nikko. It too was surrounded by mountains and absolutely breathtaking.
Food was hard to find in Nikko for some reason. The “7 Eleven” served it’s purpose that’s for sure. We ate about 4 meals there and we managed to find a Korean Restaurant that was open to eat tea one night.
I loved Nikko and would love to come back again in the winter time when everything is covered in snow. I guess we will see if we have time.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Mount Fuji Conquered
10th-12th August, 2007
Marie and I set off on the bus and headed to Mount Fuji – this time to climb to the top of the mountain. We got some of our Japanese friends to organise the tour for us and we were on our way. We were all stocked up with our hiking boots, gators, warm clothes, sugar fixes, oxygen and torches. We felt really professional!!
The tour was all in Japanese of course which made it difficult for Marie and I to understand but we somehow managed to get through the 2 day tour. We quickly made some friends (who could hardly speak any English) but they were very good and helped us work out what we were meant to be doing.
We left at 7:20pm on Friday night and arrived at the 5th Station at 7:30am. Before we got to the 5th Station we stopped at a temple so that people could pray before they climbed the mountain.
At 9:30am we ate lunch which was good as it filled us up before we had to begin the climb! We started climbing at 11:30am after we took some photos and had a Japanese pep talk (which of course we understood every word!). There were about 40 people on our tour. Before we started climbing we bought walking sticks to help us up the mountain.
Marie and I pretty much led the pack the entire way (well we were behind the tour guide). We made sure that we stuck right by his side. We were like bad smells he turned around and we were right in his face. We didn’t want to get lost or left behind.
The climb itself wasn’t so bad. We had a break every half an hour which was good so that we could rejuvinate. At each station you could buy a stamp to put on your stick. Each stamp was ¥200 which seems cheap but when you have already paid ¥1000 for the stick and there are 10 stations it can become quite pricy. The whole stick in total was between ¥4000 and ¥5000, BUT it was well worth it as it is now an awesome souvenir. I LOVE my stick! ☺
When we got to the 8th Station it was around 5pm. Here we were to eat tea and then have a 5 hour sleep before we climbed the rest of the mountain to the top. Tea was curry rice fish and meatballs. The sleeping conditions were quite funny – everyone was all lined up next to each other in a blue sleeping bag. Forget showers and nice toilets. There is very limited water on Mount Fuji so even to go to the toilet was an obstacle. Thank goodness I didn’t have to go too much (I think I got away with one time!).
At 10:30pm we had to be ready to climb the rest of the way up. It was quite cold at this stage so Marie and I put on our thermal pants, thermal tops, jumpers, jackets, beanies and rain pants just incase it started raining. We were all set ready to go. At this stage it was dark so our torches came in handy. It was a lot harder climbing the mountain in the freezing cold night. It was absolutely freezing – you can’t imagine how cold it actually was. Marie and I were huddled together with my hand in Marie’s pocket pretty much the rest of the way up. There were so many people climbing the mountain which meant it was very slow going. This was a little annoying as we actually had to stop and wait until people started moving which meant that we were even more freezing as we weren’t moving.
At about 4:15am the sun started coming up. The idea was to be at the top of the mountain for the sunrise. We were a little worried that we weren’t going to make it but we managed to hike our way up the mountain to see the most amazing sunrise that I have ever experienced. 
It was just stunning. It was about 5am when we reached the top! By the time we got to the top it wasn’t as cold and so we were able to enjoy it. We got our last stamp which in Japanese says “top of the mountain”. This was one of my favourite stamps!! “Yata” – we made it!! We were so happy to make it to the top. It was definitely worth all the hard work and effort to see the sunrise. When the sun rose two Japanese men raised the Japanese flag while singing a song. It was good to be able to see this. We had a look around the crater at the top of the mountain before it was time to head back down again.
Going down was easier than going up but it was still hard work. The ground was very slippery and dusty. I had a few “sixers” on the way down but nothing too major. We started our hike down at about 6:30am and we finally made it down at 10:30am. It was great to be back down and to actually be able to say that we conquered Mount Fuji. It was a great feeling and we have our sticks to prove it!!
Marie and I had black faces from all the dust on the way down. It was disgusting and I felt so dirty. We were stopping at an Onsen – one of those public baths on the way home. I wasn’t particularly keen on going to an Onsen but as I was so dirty and disgusting I kind of had no choice. It was quite hard to get the dirt off and a good scrub was definitely required – that’s all I needed while I was at the Onsen. I couldn’t wait to be done and dressed. After our Onsen we ate lunch. It was just what we needed after a hard climb.
When lunch was over we headed back on the bus for the long ride back to Himeji.
We didn’t get in until 12:40am. It was such a long 2 days but it was well worth every minute. I had a great time and I feel like I accomplished something HUGE!!
Marie and I set off on the bus and headed to Mount Fuji – this time to climb to the top of the mountain. We got some of our Japanese friends to organise the tour for us and we were on our way. We were all stocked up with our hiking boots, gators, warm clothes, sugar fixes, oxygen and torches. We felt really professional!!
The tour was all in Japanese of course which made it difficult for Marie and I to understand but we somehow managed to get through the 2 day tour. We quickly made some friends (who could hardly speak any English) but they were very good and helped us work out what we were meant to be doing.
We left at 7:20pm on Friday night and arrived at the 5th Station at 7:30am. Before we got to the 5th Station we stopped at a temple so that people could pray before they climbed the mountain.
At 9:30am we ate lunch which was good as it filled us up before we had to begin the climb! We started climbing at 11:30am after we took some photos and had a Japanese pep talk (which of course we understood every word!). There were about 40 people on our tour. Before we started climbing we bought walking sticks to help us up the mountain.
Marie and I pretty much led the pack the entire way (well we were behind the tour guide). We made sure that we stuck right by his side. We were like bad smells he turned around and we were right in his face. We didn’t want to get lost or left behind.
The climb itself wasn’t so bad. We had a break every half an hour which was good so that we could rejuvinate. At each station you could buy a stamp to put on your stick. Each stamp was ¥200 which seems cheap but when you have already paid ¥1000 for the stick and there are 10 stations it can become quite pricy. The whole stick in total was between ¥4000 and ¥5000, BUT it was well worth it as it is now an awesome souvenir. I LOVE my stick! ☺
When we got to the 8th Station it was around 5pm. Here we were to eat tea and then have a 5 hour sleep before we climbed the rest of the mountain to the top. Tea was curry rice fish and meatballs. The sleeping conditions were quite funny – everyone was all lined up next to each other in a blue sleeping bag. Forget showers and nice toilets. There is very limited water on Mount Fuji so even to go to the toilet was an obstacle. Thank goodness I didn’t have to go too much (I think I got away with one time!).
At 10:30pm we had to be ready to climb the rest of the way up. It was quite cold at this stage so Marie and I put on our thermal pants, thermal tops, jumpers, jackets, beanies and rain pants just incase it started raining. We were all set ready to go. At this stage it was dark so our torches came in handy. It was a lot harder climbing the mountain in the freezing cold night. It was absolutely freezing – you can’t imagine how cold it actually was. Marie and I were huddled together with my hand in Marie’s pocket pretty much the rest of the way up. There were so many people climbing the mountain which meant it was very slow going. This was a little annoying as we actually had to stop and wait until people started moving which meant that we were even more freezing as we weren’t moving.
At about 4:15am the sun started coming up. The idea was to be at the top of the mountain for the sunrise. We were a little worried that we weren’t going to make it but we managed to hike our way up the mountain to see the most amazing sunrise that I have ever experienced. 
It was just stunning. It was about 5am when we reached the top! By the time we got to the top it wasn’t as cold and so we were able to enjoy it. We got our last stamp which in Japanese says “top of the mountain”. This was one of my favourite stamps!! “Yata” – we made it!! We were so happy to make it to the top. It was definitely worth all the hard work and effort to see the sunrise. When the sun rose two Japanese men raised the Japanese flag while singing a song. It was good to be able to see this. We had a look around the crater at the top of the mountain before it was time to head back down again. 
Going down was easier than going up but it was still hard work. The ground was very slippery and dusty. I had a few “sixers” on the way down but nothing too major. We started our hike down at about 6:30am and we finally made it down at 10:30am. It was great to be back down and to actually be able to say that we conquered Mount Fuji. It was a great feeling and we have our sticks to prove it!!
Marie and I had black faces from all the dust on the way down. It was disgusting and I felt so dirty. We were stopping at an Onsen – one of those public baths on the way home. I wasn’t particularly keen on going to an Onsen but as I was so dirty and disgusting I kind of had no choice. It was quite hard to get the dirt off and a good scrub was definitely required – that’s all I needed while I was at the Onsen. I couldn’t wait to be done and dressed. After our Onsen we ate lunch. It was just what we needed after a hard climb.
When lunch was over we headed back on the bus for the long ride back to Himeji.
We didn’t get in until 12:40am. It was such a long 2 days but it was well worth every minute. I had a great time and I feel like I accomplished something HUGE!!
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