Japan 2009

Day 3 - Monday 30 March - Tokyo to Fukuoka

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:38:58 +0900

Had a very solid six hours sleep last night, but still woke up at 6am not able to get back to sleep :/

After downloading all my photos, went across the road to find something to eat.

A bit after nine we headed to the station and jumped on a train to Tokyo main station. There we activated our JR passes for the rest of the trip and organised the trip to Hakata (Fukuota). We weren't able to get reserved seats on a non-smoking car of the Tokyo to Shin-Osaka trip but did for Shin-Osaka to Hakata. Then popped into Starbucks for a coffee/snack.

Stu on the train between Akihabara and Tokyo stations

Went then to catch our train. The unreserved cars were up the front of the train, which meant a very long hike up the platform trying to get past all the people that were lined up in front of the train. Got in a queue for the second car. We tried to get two pairs of seats on the right side of the train, but failed. At least we got one.

So the train ride was pretty cool. Very fast and smooth. The scenery just *whizzed* by! Even got a decent view of Mt Fuji, although cloud was obscuring its middle.

Mt Fuji from the train

Bento box we got on the train between Tokyo and Osaka

At Shin-Osaka we changed trains and then sat somewhat bored for another few hours. We had a 'silent' car, which meant we couldn't really talk or play cards :( The link to Kyushu goes under the sea, so that was a little boring. In fact the second half of the trip was largely in tunnels - boring! heh

Our second Shinkansen (of many)

The trains look a lot like aircraft on the inside!

This is a Silence Car! No talking!

Got to our hotel in Hakata no problems - it's right opposite the station - score! Somewhat bigger than the last hotel too, and it has internet!!!! hurrah!! ;)

Were just about to down to Canal City for dinner when Natty and Sandra turned up - we ran into them at reception. So then we stood around for like 3/4 hour trying to decide what to do. In the end went to Natty's sister's current home town of Kashii for dinner and to see her flat. Was pretty cool, and Rosie is lovely.

Natty and Rosie

Mobile phone recharging stations in Kashii mall

So then rushed back to Hakata to try and see the fountains before they stopped for the night. Came in just as the 9:30 show was finishing. We thought that was it, so wandered around the shopping centre looking at the arcade type stuff. At 10pm there were more fountaining, but missed those.

Canal City

Fountains in Canal City

Pachinko (?) machine. Some such ball bearing machine anyway
Photo by Natto

Massive wall of TVs in Canal City

Eventually wandered back to the hotel. Where it's now rather late...

More photos from Day 3

Steps walked today: 13790
Photos taken by me: 207
Photos taken by Stu: 0

Day 4 - Tuesday 31 March - Fukuoka to Hiroshima

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:55:37 +0900

Whewf. Another 15k+ step day...!

Got up relatively early (well early for everyone else, normal time for me ;) ). The hotel had breakfast which was useful. No hot food though, except some hard boiled eggs. Took ages to get everyone out the door, but did eventually and left Fukuoka on a shinkansen bound for Kokura.

Got off at Kokura and then hunted around looking for lockers. Found a small batch of them in the station, and then sent out a search party (Stu) to find some more available big ones. Chucked all our bags in lockers then got on a local train to Space World!! (Stu didn't want to go to Space World so he spent the day wandering around Kokura)

The gang outside Space World

Space World was pretty cool. There were a couple of way cool roller coasters and a third one that wasn't working which was pretty disappointing because it looked awesome. My favourite of the two big working ones was the Venus GP which was spectacular. Went for a full two minutes, over a kilometer long, had an upside down loop, was very fast, not too violent, and was way cool in every way. We went on it in the morning and I spent all afternoon itching to go back on it. I did have another go later in the afternoon, and even managed its last ride of the day just before the park closed. Probably one of my favourite roller coasters *ever* !

Venus GP in front of the Space Shuttle

The other cool roller coaster was the Zaturn. This thing had a magnetic propulsion system that went from zero to 128km/h in like a second. It was freaky! So it shot you along and then 65m straight up into the air where you went over the top and then came straight back down. You barely have time to be scared cause it's over so fast :) (and not much time to enjoy the view at the top either heh). It was a bit more violent though so left going back for a repeat run until right at the end of the day. But the queues were so short I actually managed to get two more rides in :)

Zaturn roller coaster

The rest of the park was pretty standard. We went on a very wet-making water coaster (which was actually pretty good - it got out of the water for a bit and did some roller coaster stuff in the dark before the big drop at the end) and one similar to the Snowy River Rampage at Australia's Wonderland, a couple of small roller coasters, and saw a couple of "show" rides. One of the 3D shows was pretty good because the story worked without commentary. Another one was an actual space show which was 3D as well and very pretty, and was talking about the enormity of space and the Voyager probes.. at least we assume it was, because it was only in Japanese.. Doh!

Adventure Cruise - we got very wet in this!

I want a room with all these lights!

Space Eye ferris wheel (Ferris wheels are very popular in Japan)

Alien-themed toilet signs

Boogie-Woogie Space Coaster (aka "Cute Little Roller Coaster"),
Cosmo Fighter Dome, Zaturn

Venus GP and Space Shuttle

Zaturn roller coaster

Saying goodbye to Space World

Finishing off with the three big coaster rides was super awesome, was glad I was able to. Got our day packs out of the locker (they are only one-use lockers for 200 yen for the little ones) then walked back to the train station and caught a train back to Kokura. Stu was waiting for us and then we went for a walk to look for dinner. There were all these really cool alleys of shops and tiny restaurants in the area next to the station. But we didn't end up getting anything from those - we ended up at Mos Burger. We really are planning on eating more "real" Japanese food - honest!

Alley in Kokura

So went back to the station with the intent of catching the 19:52 to Hiroshima. But the Nats wanted to find the 100yen shop they'd been told about. So we left them to catch the next train and went on without them heh. (But they made it without any troubles, so all good ;) )

Station labelling - colour coding for the types of trains

The bed in this hotel is almost as hard as the floor, so not sure how well I'll go sleeping on it.. Hrmmmm....

Below are a few photos from Stu's day wandering around Kokura.

Kokura Castle

Kokura

Diorama in Kokura Castle

Dude playing the sax

Carp/koi feeding frenzy

More photos from Day 4

Steps walked today: 16015
Photos taken by me: 154
Photos taken by Stu: 235

Day 5 - Wednesday 1 April - Hiroshima

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:15:00 +0900

Well I knew one full day wasn't really going to be enough time here. I was right.

The plan was to be out the door by nine, but we were late (as usual).

Hiroshima trams
Photo by Stu

Caught the JR train to Miyajima-guchi, as we'd already paid for that, and it's only 25 minutes instead of nearly an hour for the tram. Then walked down and hopped on the JR ferry across to Miyajima (we were all set to buy tickets but the ticket dude said it was free with a JR pass.. score!).

Sculpture outside the ferry terminal at Miyajimaguchi

On the ferry over to Miyajima

Itsukushima Shrine and Tori

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

As soon as we got off the ferry we met the local deer population. Natto wanted to be friends with all of them. Or at least take photos of them all ;) They *were* pretty cool. Had a look at the map before wandering around to see the Itsukushima Shrine tori. Walked up to see the five storey pagoda. Then wandered round the back of Itsukushima looking at stuff. We might have gone in but we didn't really have the time in the end. We all took heaps of photos of the stuff that we did see heh. Didn't get time to look at everything that was there either.

There were lots of deer at Miyajima

Itsukushima Shrine's Stone Torii

Deer joined in on this group photo!

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

Itsukushima Shrine

Cherry blossoms in front of the Five Storey Pagoda

Five Storey Pagoda

Itsukushima Shrine Tori

Itsukushima Shrine

We could easily have spent the entire day there. But we really needed to get back to Hiroshima to see everything else we wanted to. So hopped on another train back (after popping into 7 eleven to pick up some lunch to eat on the train).

Got back to the station then jumped on a tram down to the A-bomb Dome. It was one of the few buildings left standing after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. It was really sad standing there at basically ground zero. The boys got talking to a guide that was there who was a hibakusha (a-bomb survivor) who was in-utero when the bomb went off, making him one of the youngest survivors.

A-Bomb Dome, formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall

Top of the A-Bomb Dome

of the Atomic bomb - he was in utero when it happened" />
This dude is credited as one of the youngest survivors
of the Atomic bomb - he was in utero when it happened

Wandered around the Peace Memorial Park, looking at some of the monuments.

Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students

Origami paper cranes

Cherry blossoms on the river bank

Children's Peace Monument

Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound
Holds the ashes of 70,000 bomb victims who were unidentified or had
no living relatives to claim them

Flame of Peace
It is said that the fire will burn until the last nuclear weapon is gone
from the earth

Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims

Then headed up to the Peace Memorial Museum. It had quite a lot of info about Hiroshima before, during and after the bombing, and didn't try to blame anyone, but was more about the message of peace and anti-nuclear weapons. We spent two hours there but could easily have stayed longer if we'd had the time/energy.

Watch that stopped when the atomic bomb went off

Model of Hiroshima before the blast

Model of Hiroshima after the blast

Hypocentre of the atomic blast

By this time it was raining relatively heavily, and it was getting quite late, so we abandoned plans to go see the castle and caught a tram back to the hotel.

After drying off for a bit and resting, we headed out to try and find some dinner. Found a place called Nakau's which was warm, dry, brightly lit, had lots of seating, and even an English menu. So had a decent Japanese meal there :)

Then back to the hotel to do computery stuff..

Steps walked today: 13492
Photos taken by me: 350
Photos taken by Stu: 206

Day 6 - Thursday 2 April - Hiroshima to Himeji to Osaka

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:08:19 +0900

Last night I decided that if it was clear I'd go on a trek to Hiroshima Castle. So this morning it was clear, so Sandra, Natty and I hopped on a tram back down to the A-bomb Dome station. From there we walked north to the castle and had a look around. Hopefully got some nice photos from the south-western corner.

Hiroshima Castle

This eucalypt survived the atomic blast
Photo by Natty

Hiroshima Castle

Unfortunately we didn't have very long there because the others had to check out of their room. Stu was checking out for us so I could stay a little longer. So walked around the eastern side of the moat but didn't really get any better photos.

Walls of Hiroshima Castle

I walked back down to the A-bomb Dome and from there found the location of the hypocentre of the atomic bomb blast. Was just as sad wandering around there today as it was yesterday :( The guide that we talked to yesterday was there too, talking to a guy and his kids.

Hypocentre. The atomic bomb went off 600 metres above this spot.

A-Bomb Dome in morning light

The Peace Clock in the Peace Park

So then headed back to the hotel and we checked out and headed for the station.

We liked the little window the Nozomi N700 train guards had to look out

Japan is the country to go to if you have a weak bladder.
Toilets are everywhere, always free, clean (except some
of the squatty ones) and look at this - they welcome tourists
to their toilets!! Europe, please pay attention!

Our mission for the day was Himeji castle. Sadly not all of the cherry blossoms were out yet, so didn't get as spectacular photos as you see on the postcards, but did manage to get some nice photos with some of the trees that had partly opened. We all went crazy taking photos heh.

Himeji Castle

Cherry blossoms near Himeji Castle

Taking photos on phone cameras

Himeji Castle

Cherry blossoms near Himeji Castle

First of only two group photos we had in Japan

Himeji Castle
Photo by Stu

We went inside (600yen) and then were herded like a flock of sheep through the interior and up into the towers. Managed to lose each other in the crowds which was a bit annoying, but found each other not too long after. The main tower was pretty cool, but pretty much devoid of any contents. There were some museum-type displays but everyone was racing so fast through the place it was hard to stop to read them. We also had to take our shoes off, which proved tricky when laden down with backpacks, camera bags and cameras, and a steady stream of people pushing their way past :/

Interior of Himeji Castle - not showing the crowds in here!

View of the castle grounds from the top level of the castle

Shrine in top level of Himeji Castle. This gives no indication of how packed it was in here!

Courtyard in Himeji Castle

Eventually made our way out and found the others in the West Bailey before wandered towards the exit.

Himeji Castle

The Nats and Andrew had decided to go see the next door gardens, so Sandra and Stu and I went off to find some lunch (it was well after 3pm by this time). We found an alley restaurant that had no english menu, or even a menu with pictures, so we all had to go back out again and show them what we wanted from the plastic display food! :) I had some some of pork ramen, and the pork was sooo good, so tender.

Then found a sheltered spot in the sun to have some snackages while waiting for the others. A bit before the designated meeting time I tried to find a spot on the eastern side of the castle to get some photos but there were too many trees in the way :( So caught up with the others, and we went back to the station, retrieved our bags, and caught a train to Osaka.

Our train to Osaka coming out of the sunset

Found the hotel easily (Natty and Sandra stayed here on their way down the country). Had a team meeting to decide on a rough plan for our four days here. Stu did washing while I went out with the others to get a snack. Had to stay up rather a lot later than we wanted to waiting for the washing, but at least can sleep in a bit in the morning.

Steps walked today: 20117
Photos taken by me: 330
Photos taken by Stu: 152

Day 7 - Friday 3 April - Nara

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:01:57 +0900

The plan was for a relaxed start and a 9:30 exit from the hotel. Except the slow starters held things up.. Hrmmm :)

Managed to figure out the Osaka train system and ended up on the right train to Nara. We didn't have too much of a plan for the day, so did a lot of wandering between temples and shrines. It was all nice enough and all the deer were exceptionally cool - I even shelled out 300 yen to get a little bundle of "deer cakes" - like a cross between pancakes and cookies - to feed them. My cousins had told us about the free Goodwill tours and I'd been meaning to book one, but suddenly the time had come and we hadn't done it :( So it meant we didn't know much about the significance of the places we were looking at, and so therefore probably didn't get as much out of the day as we could have :(

Stu playing a drum machine in Sega World

Eastern Golden Hall and Five Story Pagoda of Kofukuji

Deer getting up close and personal

Feeding a deer in front of the Five Story Pagoda
Photo by Andrew

Deer chasing a girl
Photo by Stu

Pair of deer

Dude on the way to Todaiji

Nandaimon Gate

Entrance gate and top of Todaiji

I was impressed with this photo because of its timing.
He managed to get the deer to rear up at the exact moment
there was a break in the massive crowds along this path
(see above photo)

Todaiji Temple
World's largest wooden building

Daibutsu - Japan's largest bronze Buddha

I pondered the reasoning behind a solitary bucket
of water at the side of the temple

Inside Todaiji Temple
Photo by Natto

We couldn't resist a group photo in front of the "No Group Photos" sign
Photo by Stu

Natty and Sandra at lunch in Nara
This was a great meal, one of the better and more authentic meals we
had in Japan (and Natto and Andrew missed out cause they didn't want to try it!)

Lanterns in Kasuga Taisha

Kasuga Taisha

Lanterns in Kasuga Taisha

We decided to stop by Horyuji even though the grounds were going to be shut in the hopes of at least seeing it. Well we managed to see it with about thirty seconds to spare - they were just locking up the grounds as we got there. So we managed to get a couple of photos from a distance. Also stopped in at a local supermarket on the way back to pick up some supplies.

Horyuji Temple - built in the 7th century - the world's oldest wooden buildings

And then finally back to the hotel. Where we collapsed in a heap, and I drank a few beers :)

Steps walked today: 14790
Photos taken by me: 278
Photos taken by Stu: 212

Day 8 - Saturday 4 April - Osaka

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:25:35 +0900

Well the weather forecast was for rain today, so we decided to do some local "indoor" things.

First stop was the Umeda Sky Tower. 700 yen entry but there are plenty of places that have discount vouchers which made it only 630. Stu looked at the glassed escalators and lifts and decided to give it a miss heh. The rest of us went up and it was pretty cool, but it was very hazy so couldn't see much into the distance.

Umeda Sky Building

Windows in the Floating Garden Observatory of the Umeda Sky Building

Escalators in the Umeda Sky Building

Bridges over the Yodo River

Osaka (Kita) buildings

Yodobashi Camera
Most of this building is a massive department/electronics store

Came back down and picked up Stu who was waiting in the garden below and then went to Yodobashi Camera which was next to Osaka station. Spent quite a bit of time in there drooling over camera equipment but they have every other electronics product you can imagine over about six floors. Was way cool. Wish we had stuff like that in Australia. Decided that compact flash memory was too expensive (can get it a lot cheaper in Australia), but did end up getting another USB stick for downloading our photos to.

Gardens outside the Umeda Sky Building

Andrew looking through a 874k Yen lens (the 1.5M yen lens was in a cabinet next to it!)

Rows and rows of capsule machines

It was well after 2pm by this point and we hadn't eaten and we all had sore feet/legs. In the end we went to Bentencho where we had to change trains, and there we found a Scottish Restaurant. So blood sugar levels were restored :)

After eating we went up to tackle the non-JR ticket machines. Even with English instructions it wasn't clear what we had to do, so in the end an American dude who was getting a ticket next to showed us how to do it :) Turns out we just had to put enough money in to cover the fare, then hit the button matching the fare as indicated on the big station boards above the machines. Easy if you know how heh.

Pondering the ticket machines at Bentencho

So ended up at the Osaka aquarium (Kaiyukan) around 3pm. The aquarium was insanely over crowded which made the whole experience quite distressing. Couldn't get near the glass without a lot of jostling :( We all got separated quite quickly. The displays were pretty good though, although they repeated themselves several times as you spiralled down and saw the same tank further and further down. The biggest tank was basically in the middle and you spiralled down around it. Their whale sharks were very cool. But I couldn't help comparing the place to the Sydney Aquarium, and thinking the Sydney one is quite possibly better. The aquarium is open fairly late (like 7pm or 8pm), but at 5pm they turned the lights down in the tanks, which made photographing things more difficult :( Not that I should have worried - Natto's camera is about a thousand times better than mine, and as soon as I saw her shots I thought well why bother taking any on my camera heh.

Osaka Aquarium

Fish in Osaka Aquarium

Otters?
Photo by Natto

Crowds at the aquarium - made seeing things very hard

Penguin

Tropical fish (discus and tetras)
Photo by Natto

Whale shark

Dolphin
Photo by Andrew

Sunfish

The two whale sharks

Turtle

Spider crab
Photo by Andrew

Jellyfish

Up close and personal with a penguin

Andrew patting a sting ray

Sharks outside the aquarium

After leaving the aquarium we made our way back to Bentencho where Stu caught a train back to the hotel and the rest of us headed for Namba (after stopping at an Italian place for dinner). We didn't have much of a plan for this area other than a Super Potato 7 store that was somewhere in the area but we didn't have a good map of where it was. So we just thought we'd go for a wander. Wandering in Japan is so much fun, you see such random stuff. We headed east through the underground Namba Walk. This was amazing all by itself. Just this underground string of shops, much like the ones under Town Hall station, but it went on for *ages* between all the Namba stations. And this country is sooo user-friendly in terms of maps on every other pole. It's very had to get lost here! Anyway, after walking through the underground stuff, we went aboveground and headed for the lights. It was fricken awesome. Alleyways had been covered over and turned into walking malls. And every so often you'd end up outside next to whole buildings covered with lights. It seemed endless. It was only the fact that we were ready to collapse with exhaustion that we decided to head back to the station. It took three trains to get back to the hotel, and a lot of standing around :/

This art would be graffittied in about three seconds in Australia

There were *fish tanks* in public thoroughfares!
Photo by Natto

The Glico Man. Supposedly famous.

Had a quick team meeting about tomorrow. The others want to go to Kyoto tomorrow but we're not sure we're up for another exhausting day. We may have a quiet day and go to Kyoto on Monday. I also have a sore throat which I'm not too happy about :(

Steps walked today: 17743
Photos taken by me: 622
Photos taken by Stu: 79

Day 9 - Sunday 5 April - Osaka/Kobe

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:09:06 +0900

So this morning my throat was still feeling sore :( Definitely not happy Jan :(

Went down for breakfast at 9 (and was first one there heh) and everyone else came down and we discussed what we all planned to do. Stu and I needed a quiet recovery day. Sandra did too. Natty decided to go to the zoo and so Sandra decided to go with her. Natto and Andrew were all set to go to Kyoto, but at the last minute decided not to, and they ended up going to Universal Studios.

So I spent the morning moaning and feeling like crap. However I did manage to do a bit of Kyoto research and even came up with an itinerary that I thought Stu and I could manage. Stu went out to Umeda for a couple of hours on a mission to find a book store he'd read about somewhere. He came back later with a box of octopus balls - supposedly an Osaka speciality.

A bit before 3pm I finally dragged myself out of the hotel and we went on an excursion to Kobe. Hopped on a shinkansen and were there in fifteen minutes. Decided to walk down the hill to Sannomiya and from there got a local JR train to Maiko. The train line was right next to the ocean for a while, it was very nice, and could see the bridge coming in advance. Walked down to the bridge and took a bunch of photos. In the northern pylon there is the "Marine Promenade" which lets you go up to the underside of the bridge deck. There's a walkway and even a whole visitor's centre with telescopes, cafe and gift shop! Makes for some cool photos of the under side of the bridge. Afterwards we went back outside and took more photos in the setting sun.

Looking down towards Sannomiya from Shin-Kobe station

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
At 4km long, the world's longest suspension bridge

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

Maiko Marine Promenade underneath the bridge

Stu in the Maiko Marine Promenade

Looking through the middle of the bridge

Visitor's Centre in the middle of the bridge

Stu controlling a camera atop the bridge

Flowers in front of the bridge

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge through the möbius stone

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the möbius stone

The möbius stone

Sunset over the Akashi Strait

Visitor's Centre in the bridge

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

We took about six photos before we got one we liked

Got the JR train back to Sannomiya and paid for the subway train back up to Shin-Kobe. Found a place to have a sit-down dinner. I had a big kirin which helped slightly numbing the general pain in my body, and we both had a fried pork curry then we hopped on a shinkansen back to Osaka.

We had hoped for an early night but as the others came back from their days they came and dropped in on us, so we had the team meeting for tomorrow and I showed them what I'd come up with for an itinerary, and crazily enough everyone was happy with it - weird!! :)

Impromptu team meeting in our room
Photo by Stu

Steps walked today: 5545
Photos taken by me: 202
Photos taken by Stu: 185

Day 10 - Monday 6 April - Kyoto

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:43:12 +0900

Had a relatively crap night's sleep. Kept waking up with sore throat but not wanting to cough and wake up Stu.

Headed out of the hotel a bit after nine and jumped on a shinkansen to Kyoto (it's a fifteen minute trip - it's much easier to get to Kyoto than the other side of Osaka!).

Interior of the shinkansen to Kyoto - looks like an aeroplane!

First stop was a two-station JR ride to Inari to see Fushimi Inari. Hundreds of torii all lined up to form a long archway up the side of the hill. It was very cool. And quite photogenic, although the lighting conditions made photography a little tricky.

Gate near entrance to Fushimi Inari Shrine

Garden near Fushimi Inari Shrine

Freaky stone dog thing at Fushimi Inari Shrine
Photo by Stu

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Stu taking photos in Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine
Photo by Andrew

The next stop was meant to be Nijo castle. So we got the JR train back to Kyoto and changed trains to the other JR line to Nijo. Except we forgot to get the daily bus pass tickets from Kyoto first :( So we wasted about ten minutes debating whether we should go back and get them or just carry on and pay each ticket manually. The passes were 500yen, and we had planned to take four bus trips of 220yen each. Not exactly a whole not more, but just more difficult in terms of getting the right change. So after getting grumpy with each other we ended up going back to Kyoto to get the passes. By the time we got back to Nijo an hour had been wasted, which we couldn't really spare with so much planned for the day :(:(

Kyoto Tower. Would have been nice to go up if we'd had time

Cool mosaic near Nijo station

So we went and looked at Nijo Castle, which was 600yen entry, but not castle-like at all. In fact it was just a few wooden buildings. Which were pretty enough and all but don't know that I would have put it in the itinerary if I'd actually bothered to do any real research on it *sigh*.

Ninomaru of Nijo Castle

Girls at Nijo Castle
Photo by Stu

Moat and gardens of Nijo Castle

Next stop was Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion), which required our first crammed bus ride of the day. The pavilion itself was so shiny though! Very pretty, we enjoyed it a lot.

Kinkakuji - the Golden Pavilion

Golden bird atop the Golden Pavilion
Photo by Natto

At this point it was well after 3pm and all we'd had for lunch was an ice cream each. So we decided to skip trying to see the Imperial Palace and go straight to Gion. So what followed next was a thoroughly horrendous bus ride from one end of Kyoto to the other. Not that I can complain - near the beginning two people next to us got off which meant Stu and I got a seat. The Nats had to suffer the bottom sardine-can level and people trying to push past. Natto swore she'd never get on another Kyoto bus and was wanting to walk back to Kyoto station later - it was that bad!

By the time we got to Gion it was around five o'clock, so first order of business was dinner. Wandered around for a bit before finding an ok looking place in a back alley. They had an english menu and a toilet, so we went in :) It turned out to be a tappan-yaki restaurant so we got a bunch of dishes and some beer. It was all awesome :) Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yasaka Shrine in Gion

Teppanyaki restaurant at the back of Gion Corner

Food in the Teppanyaki restaurant

After dinner we went wandering again, but it was getting dark, so not easy for photos. We tried to find the actual location of Gion Corner because Natto wanted to see one of the shows they do. But she didn't actually know where it was and instructions given by several different people didn't seem to get us any closer :( So in the end she gave up. But in our wanderings we did see several geisha. They were so pretty (in a done-up sort of a way), but I felt so sorry for them because they had to run the gauntlet of the tourist papparazzi just to go about their daily lives.

Gion Corner. The tragedy of this is we actually went looking for
it later on, and we'd walked right past it but didn't realise!!

Geisha in Gion
Photo by Natto

Yasaka Shrine in Gion
Photo by Stu

So Natto gave up on the show idea, so we hopped on a couple of buses back to the station and then back to Osaka.

Kyoto Tower

Astro Boy!

Was going to go to bed early, but had to stay up late doing the washing. Not sure will have internet access again before the end of the trip, so this may be last blog entry for a while..

Steps walked today: 9472
Photos taken by me: 211
Photos taken by Stu:

Day 11 - Tuesday 7 April - Osaka to Hakone

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:11:49 +0900

Had to wake up pretty early as we had an 8:13 train. Went down to breakfast at seven and had to deal with early morning epic breakfast queue. So had no choice but to wait. They had the asparagus wrapped in bacon again, which they hadn't had since the first morning, so had six of them :)

Managed to check out ok and hobbled slowly to the station (Stu was feeling quite sick from medication withdrawal :( ). Didn't get very good seats on the train. Oh well. Trip was otherwise uneventful. Got to Odawara and found the Hakone Tozan info centre, where we bought our Hakone Free Passes (3900 yen for a two-day pass). Except for Stu who decided in advance he wasn't going to go on any of the cable cars etc, so he just got a bus ticket (which you take a ticket for when you get on the bus and pay the appropriate amount when you get off - which to Moto-Hakone was 1150 yen). The bus trip up into the mountains was very cool, but pretty much impossible to photograph due to the number of trees next to the road. They also don't have anywhere for luggage, so we had to have it all in the aisle of the bus - not terribly convenient for everyone else trying to get on and off. So we sat right up the back to minimise the annoyance.

I read someone's blog that called this bus the "bento bus" because of how crammed it was - they weren't kidding!

Arrived in Moto-Hakone about forty-five minutes later and found the hotel without any trouble. Dumped our bags and then did the whole tourist circuit which involves a boat trip on a pirate ship (!), two different "rope ways", a cable car, a train and a bus.

Had about a five minute wait for pirate ship - a motorised "tall ship" which puttered up Lake Ashi in about half an hour. Very kitsch but very cool. There was a dressed up pirate on board, although he said no photos (cause they charge to have a photo taken with him).

Pirate ship on Lake Ashi

Our hotel and Moto-Hakone from the ship on Lake Ashi

Hakone Shrine tori

Another Pirate Ship on Lake Ashi

Togendai and the ropeway to Ubako

Arrived in Togendai and caught the first rope way up to (Owakudani, 1044m) where we got off and were hit by sulphur fumes! This part of the mountain had active volcanic stuff happening, and further down the mountain there appeared to be a sulphur mine. Wandered up the hill to where all the active stuff was happening and got some of the black hard-boiled eggs. These eggs are just ordinary eggs that they hard boil in the boiling water from the ground. The chemical reaction with the minerals in the water turns the egg shells black. Looks quite spectacular but inside the eggs are perfectly normal and taste just like eggs. Apparently eating one will increase your life by seven years. Not that you can buy just one, you have to buy a bag of five of them for 500yen hrmmm. Everyone except Andrew had one. And these things were still *hot* !

This is what we *should* have been able to see from the ropeway

Lake Ashi from the ropeway

Mountainside at Owakudani

Natto next to a black egg at Owakudani

Hot springs

They boil the eggs in the natural springs

Black eggs turned black by minerals in the water

But the eggs are perfectly normal on the inside!
Photo by Andrew

Ropeways at Owakudani

The Nats wanted to ride the little train!

Sulphur deposits

This bit of the mountain would have had a spectacular view of Mt Fuji, except it was hiding behind a screen of clouds and haze :( So was a little disappointing, but not unexpected.

Got the next rope way down to (Sounzan) where we changed to the cable car. And at the bottom of that changed to a train. It was a cute little train line with pretty scenery and amazingly tight turns on the tracks. We only stayed on the train for two stops, but I'd liked to have stayed on longer. Definitely need to spend more time here next time. Finally we caught the bus back down the hill to Moto-Hakone.

Hakone Tozan Cable Car

Checked into the hotel properly - biggest room ever! (in terms of Japan hotels heh). We got a lake view western style, Nat and Andrew got a mountain view western style and Natty and Sandra got a lake view Japanese style room. We'd not had one before so all piled into their room to have a look :) (taking shoes off first of course heh).

Sandra and Natty in their room

Nat and Andrew needed to go to the 7-eleven to get some cash so I tagged along to see if I could see Mt Fuji - as the clouds had mostly cleared. And saw it we did, right on sunset! Was very pretty, but there was so much haze the view was just of a silhouette.

Lake Ashi and Hakone Shrine Tori (view from our room!)

Sunset over Lake Ashi

Mount Fuji!!

Came back in time for dinner at the hotel. It was a set menu of Japanese entrees (which were "interesting" and met with mixed response from the others), a chicken and mushroom hotpot (exceptionally nom!) and two massive plates of crab claws (!). Andrew is allergic and the Nats turned their noses up at them, so Sandra, Stu and I spent like half an hour shelling the silly things heh. So much effort for such a little bowl of crab meat heh.

Crab legs times lots!

Didn't do much with the rest of the evening yet it's still quite late. And we want to be up very early tomorrow to see if we can see Fuji-san .. oops...

Steps walked today: 8401
Photos taken by me: 243
Photos taken by Stu: 121

Day 12 - Wednesday 8 April - Hakone to Tokyo

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:55:12 +0900

What a day!!

Got up at really really stoopid o'clock (5:45 am) with Natty and Sandra to go see Mount Fuji. It was very hazy but at least we could see it. So we thought that was exciting. We walked up to Detached Palace Garden and went down to the Observation Point (which said it didn't open til 9am, but it looked pretty open to us!). The view of the mountain from there wasn't really any better than from the lakeside because you couldn't see as much of the water. Came back down the 200 stone steps then went across to walk back down the cedar plantation down the old highway. It was all very peaceful at this hour of the morning and we didn't see any other crazy people so had all these places to ourselves :)

Mount Fuji at 6am. We thought this would be as good a view as we'd get.

Hakone Detached Palace

Sandra on the Two Hundred Stone Steps

Remains of the Cedar Highway between Moto-Hakone and Hakone-machi

As we came out of the cedar walk, we saw Mount Fuji again, and it was even shinier because the sun was getting stronger on it. Smsed Stu to get him to come have a look.

Shiny!! Mount Fuji from the Cedar Highway

Then we made our way back to the hotel for breakfast. Our table all got these ham/cheese rolls, which were nice enough, but the other two tables got full on cooked breakfasts. We thought it was all very odd, and that maybe they could have alternated meals so people could choose which meal they'd prefer. Shrug.

After breakfast all of us except Stu went back up to see how clear the view was, and the mountain was even shinier! The Nats immediately wanted to back up the cable cars but I was worried about making Stu have to wait around for us :( Stu said it was ok though, so the others quickly checked out, and we raced up for the 10:10 pirate ship. The view on the lake was lovely for the first five minutes until it hid behind the caldera rim :) Arrived at the north end and hopped on the rope way.

Shiny!! After breakfast the mountain was shiny so we decided to go up the cable cars again

Hakone Shrine Tori

Mount Fuji and Lake Ashi from the pirate ship

Shiny!!

Mount Fuji behind a cable car at Owakudani

Mount Fuji from Owakudani

From this point on (actually it was really earlier heh), Fuji became known as Shiny :)

The view just got better and better as we went up the mountain to the highest point (1044m). It was sooo pretty (altho still hazy). Took a bunch of photos from a few locations before heading back down the cable car and onto another pirate ship (actually the same ship all three times heh).

One of the pirate ships on Lake Ashi

Mount Komagatake up from Hakone-en. You can get a chairlift up there,
but it's not part of the Hakone Free Pass.

One of the many bird photos Stu took while we went up the mountain
Photo by Stu

Mount Fuji from the Detached Palace gardens
Photo by Stu

Came back to collect Stu and our luggage and talked to the hotel manager (Mac) who was also the waiter, and a funny dude. Got him to take a group shot of us.

Mac the hotel owner and his bonsai

Second of our two group shots, taken by Mac

Walked up to the bus stop. We took an express to Hakone-Yamoto because the slower more touristy bus would have been too hard to get us and all our luggage onto. From there we got the little train to Odawara. And from Odawara a shinkansen to Shinagawa.

Natty and Sandra went on to Tokyo station to locker their bags, while we went to our hotel to dump ours (epic king sized bed! and most exclusive hotel yet). Hopped back on the Yamonote line to get to Harajuku. The idea was to meet the others at the Scottish Restaurant there before going to the 100 yen shop (the Nats were desperate to go heh). We did actually find them which was most useful as neither of them had phones and none of us had ever been there before :) So had a crepe to keep us going (it was about 4:30 and none of us had had lunch yet) and went to the 100 yen shop next door. Now this is supposed to be a big/famous 100 yen shop, but was really boring. Pretty much all of the junk there can be found in Australian $2 shops. The one we went to in Akihabara last week was better, even though it was about one tenth the size. (Apparently the one in Kokura that the Nats stayed back for was much more betterer)

Take-a-shit-a Street .. :) (Takeshita Street) in Harajuku

100 Yen shop in Harajuku - it was pretty lame

Cosplay shop in Harajuku

Wandered up and down Takeshita Street a bit more and then went to the Scottish Restaurant for a light dinner before continuing on. We decided to go to Shibuya to see the crazy scramble pedestrian crossing. Way cool! :) We criss-crossed it several times just for fun :) Then we just wandered mostly at random for a while, looking at all the pretties and shops.

Shibuya - the Times Square of Tokyo

Dog mural in Shibuya

Hachikō statue in Shibuya

Shibuya crossing from above

After our (well, mine) legs were about to drop off, we hopped on a train back to Shimbashi and "home". Popped out again to get some food for Stu and then collapsed in a heap.

Set an all-time records on the pedometer - 23058 steps!! Feet are really really achy, will have to try and find some sitty-type activities tomorrow...

Steps walked today: 23058
Photos taken by me: 373
Photos taken by Stu: 123

Day 13 - Thursday 9 April - Tokyo

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:15:51 +0900

Didn't get a good sleep last night. Stubie was very sick and didn't sleep well :(

Slept til 8:30, but then taking care of Stubie and organising breakfast and trying not to hold up Nat and Andrew too much. So not a good morning. Got out the door around 11:30 with Nat and Andrew and we walked up to the Sony building to look at all the shinies. Then came back to the hotel to pick up the random camera and see how Stubie was going.

Fujiya Building, Ginza

Headed out again, this time trying to find the other Shimbashi station for the Yurikamome line. Got sent on a very convoluted route by the underground signage. Found the station eventually and caught the elevated driver-less train over the Rainbow Bridge out to Odaiba.

Rainbow Bridge from the train to Odaiba

Nat saw a building with Sega on it so went on a mission to find it. I saw a building with Golden Arches on it and went on my own mission heh. They actually got back very quickly because they needed entrance fees just to get in.

Nat and a Cat :)

After lunch walked down to the Statue of Liberty clone and looked out at the Rainbow Bridge, before walking through the Star Trek-like promenades between the buildings. I came back early while the others continued their day on their own.

Statue of Liberty and Rainbow Bridge

Odaiba promenade

Plane coming into land at Haneda airport, with the Telecom Building and the Flame of Freedom

Fuji TV Headquarters

Daikanransha - one of the world's largest ferris wheels, 115m high, at Palette Town

Got back to the hotel, and then went out with Stu to the doctor to get some more medication to replace what he lost. Expensive loss that was :( Hopefully he'll have a better night tonight.

That was at Harajuku. Went for a little walk to find somewhere to sit down in the big park, but no seats were to be found after ten minutes walking :( Ended up sitting in a gutter just outside Meiji Jingu shrine. Seriously Japan, what's with the lack of seating around?? It's one major gripe I have with this country.

Tori at entrance of Yoyogi Park, Harajuku

Sake barrels? in Yoyogi Park

Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park

Had a very quick look at the shrine, then came back to Harajuku and caught a train up to Shinjuku. We actually arrived there at 6pm. So getting through the busiest station in the world at the busiest time of day. Was pretty crazy :):):)

"Eye" in Shinjuku subway area. Given the sheer numbers of people walking past this,
I was impressed to be able to get this photo at all!

Followed the signs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, and the north tower observation deck. It was just getting dark so got to see all the pretty lights. Smsed Andrew to see if they wanted to join us, so they came over from Tokyo as well. Ended up being up there for two hours - whoops!

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office

Moorise over Tokyo from the Metropolitan Government Office
Photo by Stu

Park Hyatt Hotel (where they filmed Lost in Translation)

Came back down and Nat wanted to go to Sizzler (we told her we'd passed one on the way to the towers). So we went and found that. Strangely enough it was quite probably the healthiest meal we've had all trip! Heaps of vegetables that we'd been missing out on by eating at fast food places and generally eating badly. Natto ate heaps more than Stu which was scary heh ;)

And finally wandered back here very late...

Station signs in Shinjuku station. I'm kicking myself I never got a recording of the train
announcements that told you which lines to get for which trains..!

This is the emptiest we ever saw a Tokyo train!

Steps walked today: 19417
Photos taken by me: 158
Photos taken by Stu: 47

Day 14 - Friday 10 April - Tokyo

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:40:45 +0900

Soo sleepie...

Got up slightly earlier than yesterday (8am). Tried to catch up on news feeds and downloading of photos. But didn't do any sort of day planning or blog entry posting :( Met up with Nat and Andrew to decide what to do with the morning. Went and grabbed some food for the Stubie then we headed out. Decided on Maccas because that always seems like a safe place for breakfast :) But their bacon and egg McMuffins aren't actually muffins - they are these sweet rolls and they call them McGriddles. Weird :)

C11-292 Steam locomotive outside Shimbashi Station

Then hopped on a train one stop to Hamamatsucho. Went and found the Pokemon Centre but it wasn't open yet. Nat was very sad heh. So turned around and wandered in the direction of the Tokyo Tower. This led us through Zojoji temple so got some photos of the temple with the tower behind it :)

Zojoji temple and Tokyo Tower

Closeup of the upper observation deck of Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower

Got to the tower. It's 820 yen to go up to the "Main Observatory" (150m), but on the fine print it says you have to pay extra to go to the "Special Observatory" (250m) but they don't actually tell you how much it is. Sneaky bastards. Anyway we paid the 820 to go up and asked how much it was to go to the top (another 600 yen). Got up to the main deck and were amazed that we could see Shiny!!! Were pretty excited about that :) Paid the extra 600 yen and went to the top. This was actually really good. Beautiful 360 degree views and easy panorama making :)

Shiny!! from Tokyo Tower

Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba

Looking across to Shinjuku

Tokyo and Imperial Palace Gardens

Looking straight down from Tokyo Tower. Stu would not have liked this!

After we all took our fair share of photos we wandered down and then realised just how late in the day it was. So hurried back to the station and met up with Stu at Shimbashi. Went up to Kanda and transferred to the Chuo line for Kichijoji. It was (as usual) quite a while after lunch, so grabbed some food at an ampm - I had a bit of KFC-like chicken and some fruit salad in jelly.

Inokashira Park

Artist in Inokashira Park
Photo by Stu

Petal snow!!

Then made our way to the Ghibli Museum. You have to book in advance to see this place, and from your own country I believe. So Nat had organised this weeks ago. It was a pretty cool place, although frustrating because no photography allowed inside :( I've only seem two Ghibli movies, so really must see more of them. There's actually not too much content in the museum, but there's every chance we missed a whole section, as essentially it's just a random series of rooms with no way to be sure if you've seen them all. What was freaky is they seem let you touch a lot of the stuff. So the artists studio recreations had tonnes of interesting english-printed books and I couldn't help but pull some of them out to have a look :) There's no way you'd ever get to do that in an Australian museum!!

Ghibli Museum

So we spent a couple of hours there, then wandered make to Mitaka Station and back to Tokyo.

Dropped Stu off and Shimbashi, then went back to the Pokemon Centre at Hamamatsucho. Nat drooled over heaps of things there, but in the end only bought one thing :)

Pokemon toilet paper (!?) at the Pokemon Store
Photo by Natto

Then trained it around to Shinjuku again. Andrew and I were both tired and grumpy from lack of food (by now it was 8pm and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch) so put Nat in charge of finding dinner (she being the fussiest eater of the group ;) ). She found an Italian place outside Yodobashi so that's where we went. It was really good! ;)

After dinner we felt much better so went through three of the multiple *buildings* of Yodobashi. I had to resist the very strong urge to buy more storage (a cute little bus-powered usb hard drive would be soooo cool! ;) ). Looked at all sorts of shiny things.

Yodobashi Camera building in Shinjuku

Finally wandered back here quite late.. Again..! Heh

Using your phone is almost a compulsory activity sitting on a train!
Photo by Natto

Friday nights mean taxis as far as the eye can see outside every station in Tokyo

Steps walked today: 16491
Photos taken by me: 143
Photos taken by Stu: 32

Day 15 - Saturday 11 April - Tokyo

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 09:08:07 +0900

Quite a bit better night last night. Stu definitely recovering.

Went out for Maccas again this morning. Seems that they do in fact have McMuffins. Who knew? :)

After breakfast we split up. Stu and I went up to Ochanomizu because Stu wanted to check out the musical instruments stores and the book stores. Had a little bit of a look around. Then sat down at a cafe for half an hour to get a coffee for Stu.

Music store in Ochanomizu
Photo by Stu

Wandered back to the station the got a yellow train one station to Akihabara. Felt kinda funny to back there again, it was almost like coming home :)

Bridge from the Chuo/Sobu line of Ochanomizu station

The reason for going was that Vic was in town! I'd mailed him last week but he only just saw his email. So he mailed me this morning followed by a phone call to see if we wanted to meet up. So organised lunch in Akihabara. Anyway so met Vic at the station then we wandered around looking for food, with noone making a decision (story of our trip ;) ). Eventually we came to the green harbour bridge so Stu suggested Denny's. So went there. Sat in the next booth to where we had our first "Japan" meal heh. Well their lunch menu was a lot more extensive, and included a lot of Japanese food. I picked something that looked like it had cheese and tomato in the picture (no English subtitles), and it turned out to be lasagna! So it was very cool catching up with Vic, as had not seen him since I left Sydney. He was on a photography tour which sounded very cool, and with a Japanese-speaking guide, so he got to eat and drink in some interesting places :)

After lunch, Stu and I trained it to Tokyo station and wandered out to look at the Imperial Palace gardens. We didn't get to see it all though, because it was nearly 4:30 and they started kicking everyone out (that, and we'd been sitting around for a while). Went and found the entrance bridge (I'll look up its name when I have my maps out again), and while we were there this old Japanese dude came and started talking to us. I think he wanted to practise his English (which was pretty good). He thought we were joking when we said you often have to pay for toilets in Europe. And we were trying to convince him that Japanese people are very polite (except in crowds) and the place was very clean. He said that older people think the country has gone downhill heaps in the past fifty years heh.

Tokyo Station was being renovated

Flowers in Wadakura Fountain Park, near the Imperial Palace

Wadakura Fountain Park

Swan in the moat of the Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace Gardens

Tokyo Tower from outside the Imperial Palace

I was amazed at how much wide open space there was outside the Imperial Palace

Nijubashi Bridge in the Imperial Palace grounds

Pressing on, we went to find Godzilla. We had better luck than Nat and Andrew (who tried unsuccessfully to find it a couple of days ago - no thanks to Dave O's inaccurate place marker on our google map - or maybe it got moved by accident at some point). Anyway, that was pretty cool.

Godzilla!!

Hopped on a train back to the hotel to get my jumper, although we should have walked, we were most of the way there anyway, and probably walked just as far getting to/from stations heh.

Smsed the others and organised to meet up at Shinjuku for dinner.

Found them outside Yodobashi, and then began yet another hunt for food. You'd think that with multiple food vendors on every block this would be easy, but everything was either too expensive or not to people's taste. So we just wandered aimlessly for ages. Eventually ended up at another Italian place. Ordered three pizzas and most expensive beer ever (2500 yen for a jug) and most expensive garlic bread ever (150 yen for the tiniest piece you could imagine). Still, pizza was pretty good.

Buildings in Shinjuku

Most expensive garlic bread ever!

Went back to find the 8-bit cafe that Nat wanted to see, but it was really just a little night club, that wanted a 2000 yen cover charge, and all the locals there were laughing at us, so we didn't go in.

Wandered back to station, then went to Shibuya so Stu could see Hachiko and the crazy crossing. But after two crossings, I crossed again but noone followed me :( So stood around looking stoopid until eventually Stu came and found me. *sigh*

Starbucks in Shibuya, where they discreetly filmed Lost in Translation
Photo by Stu

Then headed back to hotel to crash.

Steps walked today: 19982
Photos taken by me: 125
Photos taken by Stu: 206

Day 16 - Sunday 12 April - Tokyo to Canberra

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:51:57 +0900

Shinkansen and view from our hotel room in Shimbashi

Tried to get out the door early (by 9am). It didn't work. Was more like twenty past by the time we checked out. We'd decided to go to Tokyo to dump our bags for the day, but this meant not stopping in at Maccas for breakfast. So we got to Tokyo and dumped bags, and made reservations for the NEX, but then couldn't find any food. That's not to say there was nothing there (there was heaps), but Stu was feeling overwhelmed and of course there's the fussy eaters heh. So we ended up wandering aimlessly around for about an hour. Was really not fun. In the end decided to go to Ueno, and we got some pretty crappy food in the park.

First stop was the science musuem. It was 600 yen, but they also had a dinosaur exhibition, which was 1500 yen for entry to both. Decided to give that a miss as 900 yen seemed an awful lot just for dinosaurs. Had a bit of fun wandering around the science musuem. Their 360 degree theatre was pretty cool. The exhibits weren't too bad, a bit like a cross between the Powerhouse Museum and a natural history museum. But it was a little bit jumbled up in terms of layout, and very little in the way of English subtitles (aside from computer screens here and there which had translations). We didn't have time to see the Japan exhibit building, just the global building.

Automatically opening umbrellas

Animal display in the museum

Tasmanian Tiger!
Photo by Natto

WWII aeroplane

This circular room represented all forms of life with a "tree of life" on the
ground showing how they were related/evolved/separated

Dinosaur

T-rex!
Photo by Andrew

Wandered back to the station and then headed across to Harajuku, because Stu and Nat wanted to check out the cosplay kids. "Meh" was about my reaction to it ;) It was very crowded and not that interesting.

Cosplayers in Harajuku

Stu getting a free hug

Then headed back to Tokyo to get our bags and hop on the NEX. Was kinda sad saying goodbye to Tokyo.

On the Nex to Narita airport. I was really sad to be leaving at this point

At the airport we spent the last of our yen on bits and pieces and massages in the airport's way cool massage machines (still 200 yen for ten minutes hurrah!). Finally left Japan about half an hour late.

Relaxing in the massage chairs at the airport
Photo by Stu

I decided I wasn't going to try and sleep, so watched "Bolt" first up (not too bad) and then Frost/Nixon (pretty good). At this point I thought I could maybe doze a little, so slept for maybe an hour or two. They turned on all the lights at 3:45 Japan time which cut into my sleeping :( Over "breakfast" (of a couple of small danishes), finally got to watch the other half of Enough Rope that I started watching on the way over.

Transferred planes at the Gold Coast. Decided their duty free prices were pretty good. Although they only had one bottle of cointreau in the entire shop :( Immigration at Sydney took about three minutes, and customs we just walked straight through, no inspections no nothing.. boring! ;) (although Stu did get a quick pat-down search at the Gold Coast).

Outbound and inbound planes at the Gold Coast

Sydney Harbour

Paramatta Road totally deserted early Easter Monday

Checked in at the Qantas domestic checkin at the International Terminal (and got the grumpiest check-in attendant ever, which didn't help my already tired/hungry mood >:( ), which let us get their free bus across to the domestic terminal. So tarmac tour for free! :)

767 on the "free" tarmac tour between terminals

Went in with Stu to the Qantas lounge for a few pieces of toast and orange juice, before getting a Dash-8 down to Canberra. Melita picked us up at the airport and we came home.

Leaving Sydney airport

Sutherland

Ansto at Lucas Heights

Federal Highway - nearly home!

The Dash-8 we flew back to Canberra in

And that, as they say, is that :)

Steps walked today: 9692 (plus 6140 Monday)
Photos taken by me: 299
Photos taken by Stu: 72

Panoramas

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:00:32 +0900

Click for full sized panoramas

View from our hotel in Akihabara

Ueno Park, Tokyo

Miyajima

Todaiji Temple, Nara

View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

Nijo Castle, Kyoto

Lake Ashi, view from our hotel room in Hakone

Tokyo Harbour and Rainbow Bridge

Tokyo Tower 360
Photos by Nat

Tokyo and Imperial Palace wide open spaces