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!