tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46032544955212798882024-02-07T17:47:04.695-08:00Japan 2012 - 201328th December 2012 - 12th January 2013Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-9075973298039610042013-01-16T04:19:00.002-08:002013-01-16T04:19:22.883-08:00Day 15 - Coming homeSadly, we leave Japan today.<br />
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There were no plans for today, just a few last minute things here and there, check out of our hotel and head to the airport.<br />
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Rob F decided that he wanted some more souvenirs from Studio Ghibli because one of the things he had intended on getting, he left at the shop, so he got up early that morning and made his way out there by himself. We planned to meet him later that day in Akihabara.<br />
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We checked out of our hotel at 11:00 AM and did our last run to the local Family Mart. Having a convenience store and/or vending machines on every corner is really incredible and it's one of the things that we'll probably miss the most, let alone the weird and wonderful variety, like "Hot lemonade", "Vitamin C", "Chocolate Thickshake", "Corn soup" and "Bean drink". It was pretty cool to be able to get hot tea at any corner in the cold weather!<br />
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I think my "<a href="http://japan2010.stevenocchipinti.com/2010/01/guide-to-tokyo.html">Guide to Tokyo</a>" still holds pretty true even after two years had past.<br />
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Robert and Sarah had also gone shopping that morning, so after checking out we stored our luggage at the hotel and went for our last walk down to Akihabara with Jono and my parents. Rob ended up getting back from Studio Ghibli earlier than we had anticipated, so he met us there and we all headed back to the hotel to wait for Robert and Sarah.<br />
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When they got there, Robert led us to the airport and we said good bye to Japan!<br />
While we were at the airport, there was a nice sunset, which was pretty fitting for the occasion and we boarded our flight home.<br />
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Japan is really an amazing place to visit and I highly recommend it, there's something for everyone!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end.</td></tr>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-13168329601345146822013-01-10T02:23:00.000-08:002013-01-16T04:03:42.264-08:00Day 14 - Ginza and Odaiba<div dir="ltr">
Today is our last full day in Japan, tomorrow we will just be slowly making our way to the airport and going home.<br />
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As we wanted to make sure everyone in our group got what they wanted from this trip, Jonathan was very keen to see Ginza, so the three of us went there. Ginza is like a big CBD with lots of shops, so we knew today was going to be another day where Jonathan wanted to spend some solo time shopping, so Rob and I hung around for a little before going our own way. Being a big CBD, there are some pretty cool building around though!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IET4uaQ6eLs/UPUsLb7ew7I/AAAAAAAAA4U/mbCsuW-1ZUU/s1600/DSC_7811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IET4uaQ6eLs/UPUsLb7ew7I/AAAAAAAAA4U/mbCsuW-1ZUU/s320/DSC_7811.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pioneer Plaza</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N2P2U4mdp0s/UPUsJV5lodI/AAAAAAAAA4M/AhivodJJlo8/s1600/DSC_7808.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N2P2U4mdp0s/UPUsJV5lodI/AAAAAAAAA4M/AhivodJJlo8/s320/DSC_7808.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bvlgari buidling</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rnrF1HfRVm0/UPUsNu4kUpI/AAAAAAAAA4c/PcitsO7ZdNs/s1600/DSC_7814.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rnrF1HfRVm0/UPUsNu4kUpI/AAAAAAAAA4c/PcitsO7ZdNs/s320/DSC_7814.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A multi-storey glass-brick building!</td></tr>
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First stop was the Nissan Gallery. There actually wasn't too much on display, there were only two cars and a small shop up stairs selling a few smaller items, like model cars, etc. One of the cars was a Nissan GTR signed by Usain Bolt (I'm sure one of many of his cars). The other one was a Nissan Leaf, a full electric car. Jono bought some souvenirs/gifts and we headed out in search of the Sony building.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCKbYD90j1N6UOKO_TV7g16zUSTadj174Z5pSfpkEZ1VH67cMWYr1b9aGEtkpZm2dS5Mnl5KExZuuxwq8doychOSpwvG6lpRKhIimt-gYHl_Qjnjitjh3_6MMzvn2Krk0bWuEh_0RfIE/s1600/DSC_7793.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCKbYD90j1N6UOKO_TV7g16zUSTadj174Z5pSfpkEZ1VH67cMWYr1b9aGEtkpZm2dS5Mnl5KExZuuxwq8doychOSpwvG6lpRKhIimt-gYHl_Qjnjitjh3_6MMzvn2Krk0bWuEh_0RfIE/s320/DSC_7793.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The two cars in the Nissan Gallery</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvW9x821e9CNTMBgkHl4ajlfk1Hcr2h1LDxMCEsJLJDDP09cezeaioRBNk6_zaK9OTQWjlvne2OGRrMQsla84C-cF6131JLp1l8YYVXH6ic6LtSgS4hA3suJ9gNQWA63NgXMrdbcuwYo/s1600/DSC_7796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEvW9x821e9CNTMBgkHl4ajlfk1Hcr2h1LDxMCEsJLJDDP09cezeaioRBNk6_zaK9OTQWjlvne2OGRrMQsla84C-cF6131JLp1l8YYVXH6ic6LtSgS4hA3suJ9gNQWA63NgXMrdbcuwYo/s320/DSC_7796.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A happy shopper!</td></tr>
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When we found the Sony building, it hadn't opened yet and there was a small crowd gathering at the door. By complete fluke we timed it just perfectly, the doors opened within a minute of us getting there. Out the front was a light display that played music, etc. but during the day it was a bit hard to see it illuminating. It would probably be better at night.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CfGb4BU2gNU/UPUtpyoRoYI/AAAAAAAAA5A/R6yp028bPkI/s1600/DSC_7820.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CfGb4BU2gNU/UPUtpyoRoYI/AAAAAAAAA5A/R6yp028bPkI/s320/DSC_7820.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sony building</td></tr>
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We actually spent a fair amount of time in the Sony building and it was yet another place where they don't let anyone take photos. While the products here are the latest and greatest, they are mostly already available around the world, but it's still pretty good to see all the products in one place and have a bit of a play with them.<br />
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One of the things that stood out for me were the "Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras". They look just like any other compact camera, but they generally have a relatively large lens mounted to them. I had seen these camera's before, generally with a micro four thirds sensor, but there were some here with APS-C sensors, which is the same as my dSLR, and even some with full frame sensors in them! The full frame dSLR's are pretty big, and too see the same sort of sensor in a compact camera was very surprising! Of course they weren't much cheaper than the more common full frame camera's, but it does give a glimpse into a possible future for photographers.<br />
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Jonathan was interested in some Sony headphones, so we took a look at a few of them. They had a pretty big range from the tiny in ear variety to so big it looks like you'd be wearing cans on your ears.<br />
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There were some pretty cool video camera's too. 3D camera's are starting to become more mainstream, so alot of them had two lenses for stereoscopic recordings. For the display models, they had them hooked up to 3D televisions so we could also see the end product. A lot of the video cameras also had little projectors built into the outside of the screens so you could preview the recordings on a near by wall on the go.<br />
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They had portable bluetooth speakers that had an NFC sensor on the top, so instead of trying to find the device amongst others by doing a bluetooth scan, you just tap the phone to the device and it automatically pairs them together, which was pretty convenient.<br />
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Sony are also making Windows tablets and had some on display. They are a proper laptop, but the screens flip around to be folded flat like a tablet. They had a water painting program loaded on them, so Rob and I had a paint-off! We asked the near by sales assistant to judge which was better, but he gave the diplomatic answer of "They're both good". Rob did have the advantage, being artistic and all, but I think I still won!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3n6GUI_AV_lHG473C2C6XtbXFc7pWc9qioZXNCK1cj0tc6R7Yc0w_LFlqPIq6-jEUu1gtcSWzKOjRGWFroW55E7MTTuoW25AyVZw12duQ9w-2xHYx2NqeB9FmJRq2QZDavGvmJqwfug/s1600/DSC_7826.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3n6GUI_AV_lHG473C2C6XtbXFc7pWc9qioZXNCK1cj0tc6R7Yc0w_LFlqPIq6-jEUu1gtcSWzKOjRGWFroW55E7MTTuoW25AyVZw12duQ9w-2xHYx2NqeB9FmJRq2QZDavGvmJqwfug/s320/DSC_7826.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My painting is totally better! ...sortof</td></tr>
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We eventually left the Sony building, spending more time that we imagined and went to get some food. We came across a building that had the word "Restaurants" on it, expecting a food court it was actually a building full of quite fancy restaurants on each floor. We had a look at a couple and they seemed a little too expensive, except one of them. It was a Japanese/Chinese restaurant called "The Metropole" and their menu looked pretty good, they even had dumplings! The restaurant was pretty nice and we got a soup dish with dumplings and tea and it cost around $10-$15. The dumplings were really good! My soup was too big for me to finish, but it was a good feed either way.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQ4Ndq2ot2fmVS6lChM23DPBM1jt4j51t7Uqm8QkExDHx0Fg-KX93-lBix_vpIEARz65NkV1FPQVKMhj2w9jAfgZuB_EmWQsoYX08AqcSZumKip6dXG4_5VlJvf8yOlZbxYMY62zLLtg/s1600/DSC_7827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQ4Ndq2ot2fmVS6lChM23DPBM1jt4j51t7Uqm8QkExDHx0Fg-KX93-lBix_vpIEARz65NkV1FPQVKMhj2w9jAfgZuB_EmWQsoYX08AqcSZumKip6dXG4_5VlJvf8yOlZbxYMY62zLLtg/s320/DSC_7827.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch at The Metropole in Ginza</td></tr>
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From there Rob and I left Jono to do his shopping and we started looking for things to do. We had already walked around the main CBD and didn't really feel like shopping, so we went to the station. Rob asked what we did last time that we weren't going to be doing this time and one of those things were seeing Odaiba. Odaiba has some similarities with our Docklands, but more developed and much much bigger! It's a small island that sits in the bay just outside Minato and has a very futuristic feel to it. The buildings are pretty creative and one of the stations is called the "Tokyo Teleport", so it's like you're teleporting to the future!<br />
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We took a private train like to Odaiba and the train was pretty interesting! The train had wheels with tyres and instead of having train tracks, the "tracks" was just a concrete road, but the road had two strips of a more course concrete for the wheels of the train and rails on the side of the track to keep it in line. The train was pretty long too, so it was sort of a cross between a long bus and a train, but wouldn't know it unless you happen to see the bottom of it, or another train elsewhere on the track.<br />
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The train went through a few stations before crossing the water. Just before the train got onto the bridge that led us to Odaiba, there is a massive circular bridge leading up to it. This was indicated on the map as a loop (that kind of reminded us of the warnings on the roller-coasters at DisneySea).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaHQs1ETEOOlWYKnpnvEn4KkCuHbzEOoQ4QOFo2tG3oXPF4WlC65F_Mdgxmizr5wudGwrNFetF1_psiEijEq6QIlNf0TFD3Zuj8gdt6ZBTEDyDRxUfSKzRoK5Se7DDfwd8YEtK93xlbg/s1600/DSC_7830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaHQs1ETEOOlWYKnpnvEn4KkCuHbzEOoQ4QOFo2tG3oXPF4WlC65F_Mdgxmizr5wudGwrNFetF1_psiEijEq6QIlNf0TFD3Zuj8gdt6ZBTEDyDRxUfSKzRoK5Se7DDfwd8YEtK93xlbg/s320/DSC_7830.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big loop bridge on the way to Odaiba</td></tr>
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On the way we could see some of the cool buildings around. From the station we didn't really have any goals, and Odaiba is a bit too big to walk around the whole thing, so we saw a bridge and headed for that. We thought if anything, it would give us a nice view and we could decide what to look at from there.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhSLblv71heeZbjl3B8ManNJoCpNsElWxGAOgUCEwjvSLLwAawjZpc6DCNppwAOEkwoX-6j8h-l2z_Z2Lp_O_S3PEZPeq3UHV8ra5hVS0HVed_mDRYSfTCDKoS1cxazrErq5Qyei8Swc/s1600/DSC_7848.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhSLblv71heeZbjl3B8ManNJoCpNsElWxGAOgUCEwjvSLLwAawjZpc6DCNppwAOEkwoX-6j8h-l2z_Z2Lp_O_S3PEZPeq3UHV8ra5hVS0HVed_mDRYSfTCDKoS1cxazrErq5Qyei8Swc/s320/DSC_7848.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool bridge in Odaiba</td></tr>
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At the end of the bridge was "Palette Town". As we got off the bridge, the first sight was a large ferris wheel to our left and a big shopping centre, Fort Venus, straight ahead. It was nice, but the whole place was deserted! DisneySea was a lot quieter than we expected too, but out here, it was hard to spot anyone! Being so quiet, we didn't bother checking if any shops were open and just continued walking around taking in the sights of all the interesting looking buildings... and massive empty car parks!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBKcCmwxDJmz2gC4_bb3xRCHt7cBYvLwqEICPeTNZ_9t9NNlZ30gfmZeppzp7SGwIOwfKtb56ZFT8B-PHM6PZja_vwKsJbswaaX8FuBujaKN2x0qR0lC2D433iuC5lX1VXy17IHZGlQA/s1600/DSC_7851.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBKcCmwxDJmz2gC4_bb3xRCHt7cBYvLwqEICPeTNZ_9t9NNlZ30gfmZeppzp7SGwIOwfKtb56ZFT8B-PHM6PZja_vwKsJbswaaX8FuBujaKN2x0qR0lC2D433iuC5lX1VXy17IHZGlQA/s320/DSC_7851.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ferris wheel and Fort Venus</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSuQ5t60Qqn0SQ3hxibLJqmSIf9Q0syFD4FqQBky9mrCPIkflZI0iPKukRW4LxQtAgSIZ-Vdgp1DRY1JjrQbDUB-DFvl42GLGeKCHydsY0xfVtfJVN1AP2D0A7-QuuWWn953PhTjsLrY/s1600/DSC_7858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQSuQ5t60Qqn0SQ3hxibLJqmSIf9Q0syFD4FqQBky9mrCPIkflZI0iPKukRW4LxQtAgSIZ-Vdgp1DRY1JjrQbDUB-DFvl42GLGeKCHydsY0xfVtfJVN1AP2D0A7-QuuWWn953PhTjsLrY/s320/DSC_7858.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the empty car parks!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYoye_9XY3UjKN_pFuD7NTHEfuX6BHplPho5Iq6l5VrxD0SNH_bMrpVsx80-foUmYuelLL7rYb4gW13ZAJREDexyVtacxHw2PrbeXIqoxNgf1kCsKpOlZan45rBgkqNsRgrIyLhjIpBSM/s1600/DSC_7897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYoye_9XY3UjKN_pFuD7NTHEfuX6BHplPho5Iq6l5VrxD0SNH_bMrpVsx80-foUmYuelLL7rYb4gW13ZAJREDexyVtacxHw2PrbeXIqoxNgf1kCsKpOlZan45rBgkqNsRgrIyLhjIpBSM/s320/DSC_7897.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another fancy building in the distance</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDV9DDr-dNsXo1UfLvtAuwej_a34q11958Q8TuFDIDeC43qsKlxDrxSG6lRRUxlTjDc1mD893uzcX86_p9NUMeKrrlBwPEQ-O6w_3LUmN3Ap5kpbgiFbUXmXWCso1NbEXmI4KvKktLEo/s1600/DSC_7898.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDV9DDr-dNsXo1UfLvtAuwej_a34q11958Q8TuFDIDeC43qsKlxDrxSG6lRRUxlTjDc1mD893uzcX86_p9NUMeKrrlBwPEQ-O6w_3LUmN3Ap5kpbgiFbUXmXWCso1NbEXmI4KvKktLEo/s320/DSC_7898.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fanciness </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu0JxxL9kQJe8ZJB7pB5Hp0mUU7PvGQPRvzFBFDbaG7PvEXbG2__a9KyDrZMYsSBMDTxtrcKZwEbJIthpaVBSkqVUKqkoZI07rIB3pIvMrtJRYR5uzvOL8sC-xUSWrY7B_ZcIMpwuueoU/s1600/DSC_7913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu0JxxL9kQJe8ZJB7pB5Hp0mUU7PvGQPRvzFBFDbaG7PvEXbG2__a9KyDrZMYsSBMDTxtrcKZwEbJIthpaVBSkqVUKqkoZI07rIB3pIvMrtJRYR5uzvOL8sC-xUSWrY7B_ZcIMpwuueoU/s320/DSC_7913.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More fanciness</td></tr>
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As we kept walking, there were more people up ahead, and we could see the silhouette of a giant robot. As we got closer we realised it was the giant Gundam! Last time we came to Japan we had one member of our group, Sarma, who was (and is) crazy about Gundam, a Japanese anime series. As part of our research last time, we saw pictures of the giant Gundam on the internet, but we never found it, and this time we just accidentally stumbled across it! As we got closer and closer, we realised why there was a crowd, the giant Gundam was moving! We just caught the end of a demonstration, but all we saw was its head go back to the center position and the lights turning off. We went to the official Gundam shop to find out when the next demonstration was and they told us it was a 5:00pm, which was two hours away! We didn't plan on hanging around for that long, but kinda wanted to see it and I wanted to record it for Sarma, so we decided to kill two hours until the next show.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5VDbpwW7sA/UPaFNLpG_RI/AAAAAAAAA78/oup0riEXHsA/s1600/DSC_7878.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5VDbpwW7sA/UPaFNLpG_RI/AAAAAAAAA78/oup0riEXHsA/s320/DSC_7878.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my pal the giant Gundam</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7K2mfJGzLoheOtt_eZohJVvsIqea8UJzM_Z5T3pgSbhfCMFXnM_IPRqynQRCjG974Z2GR2bfGukqz2oFgzXZKCoVnWtsw6soVQ6KsQXhxfn-pQkayXxdH0MbhhsGo1v1Mj2Tcsp9M28w/s1600/DSC_7880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7K2mfJGzLoheOtt_eZohJVvsIqea8UJzM_Z5T3pgSbhfCMFXnM_IPRqynQRCjG974Z2GR2bfGukqz2oFgzXZKCoVnWtsw6soVQ6KsQXhxfn-pQkayXxdH0MbhhsGo1v1Mj2Tcsp9M28w/s320/DSC_7880.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side view</td></tr>
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We walked around a little and went inside the shopping centre where the Gundam was being displayed, but soon got bored, so Rob suggested we check out Sega Joypolis, which we caught a glimpse of during our walk. Our group last time went into the park, it was pretty good but I'm not a rides person so it wasn't anything special for me. They do have an indoor rollercoaster though!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwmKC1y_g_oPlamJjwgv6SLNagDI0fn8NPdRRjIDAyul2pEMT5gW-UNJrxrVM9Em7-L_C_eiq7APipZML1Q043Uk6MiF_xIa9hjn__4potyU-ktmmFZ82A3RXvSORYc-7eP-a3cQfjzQ/s1600/DSC_7888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwmKC1y_g_oPlamJjwgv6SLNagDI0fn8NPdRRjIDAyul2pEMT5gW-UNJrxrVM9Em7-L_C_eiq7APipZML1Q043Uk6MiF_xIa9hjn__4potyU-ktmmFZ82A3RXvSORYc-7eP-a3cQfjzQ/s320/DSC_7888.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the shops near the Gundam</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH4WP1Ugko7v-aJEyniNkcOujhQ7xhKgi_lDebRt-6g4FeL_YstmNDv2n3DQVfVqTovdnlTyqF1DuvbpN_YzkHIv1YBDIfFw1jVF8rAN5lUcT6mk6cm3BZdx1wZH74QxRvz29UUCcIdk/s1600/DSC_7922.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH4WP1Ugko7v-aJEyniNkcOujhQ7xhKgi_lDebRt-6g4FeL_YstmNDv2n3DQVfVqTovdnlTyqF1DuvbpN_YzkHIv1YBDIfFw1jVF8rAN5lUcT6mk6cm3BZdx1wZH74QxRvz29UUCcIdk/s320/DSC_7922.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sega Joypolis entrance</td></tr>
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All Rob wanted was a plush toy of Sonic the Hedgehog, but even though there were shops nearby, we couldn't find any Sonic toys and the only Sonic giftshop is inside the park, which we didn't want to buy tickets for. After Rob complained about Sega's terrible marketing efforts, we headed back to see the Gundam demonstration - and here it is....<br />
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Yep... that's it...<br />
We saw the head move two hours prior and were expecting a little more, like the arms, or anything! Nope, just some dry ice, a small flap on the stomach with a tv behind it and the same head movements. It was pretty disappointing, but I'm sure that would have been much more exciting for people who have actually seen Gundam before or if we understood what they were saying or for kids. It was getting darker, so we took a few more photos and made our way back.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBl1zb7_wdXzbAwf0iyUX2R3_Ew_qdCg2u3jzbxPTDzBN7GjoEFgrNi8NugfZ1fjkEC4wFfkUBdPGQC0BzJLxRuuXum8-5U4n1gG0Vk2Ba-8i66OhnMTP9NaizzuEZwQ4MTLNP-8rj0Zw/s1600/DSC_7939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBl1zb7_wdXzbAwf0iyUX2R3_Ew_qdCg2u3jzbxPTDzBN7GjoEFgrNi8NugfZ1fjkEC4wFfkUBdPGQC0BzJLxRuuXum8-5U4n1gG0Vk2Ba-8i66OhnMTP9NaizzuEZwQ4MTLNP-8rj0Zw/s320/DSC_7939.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ferris wheel at night</td></tr>
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For most of the trip I had a bit of a sore back. I think I re-aggravated an old back injury, so carrying a backpack everyday slowly made it worse and worse, so almost everyday I said I was going to get a massage, but our days where normally quite busy and I didn't want to miss out on anything, so I just put off. Today, being our last day, I didn't want to miss out! We had seen massage places everywhere, so it didn't really matter where we were, just not Odaiba! Rob wasn't really interested, so I thought if we went to Akihabara, he could kill some time looking at games, etc. and I'd meet up with him after the massage and it's close to our hotel. Well, walking through the streets of Akihabara looking for a massage place wasn't as easy as we had thought. Most of the places where "Maid cafes" or "Maid massages". I've never been to one of those places, but it seemed too dodgy to try. We kept walking around until we found a respectable, non-maid looking place. After quite a while of searching, we found a sign that had massages and no signs of maids, so we thought we'd give that a go.<br />
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The sign said it was on level 7, so we went up a dodgy little elevator to the seventh floor and when we got out of the lift, it was just a tiny room with about 5 doors. One of them had trinkets on it, so we thought that must of been it. At this point Rob was looking at me with a facial expression that said "This looks dodgy, lets get out of here!". I knocked on the door and waited, but nothing happened. I knocked again, and still nothing, so I opened the door and took a peek. There was a hallway with a few curtained off rooms, which looked like massage beds. I got the attention of one of the staff members and they invited us in. As I was walking in, there was someone else getting a normal massage, so that made us feel a lot better. I asked about back massages and they said yes and gave us prices. I ended up getting an hour back massage for $50 and Rob even got convinced to get one too.<br />
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The massages were actually pretty good. While we were waiting, Rob actually said "What are you getting me into Steve", but it all worked out well in the end, and all fully clothed! The masseuse that was massaging me was able to apply a lot of force, which is what I needed for my back, it wasn't just a soft relaxing massage, it was a proper remedial massage, except at one stage she was literally walking on my back, which wasn't that normal.<br />
When I got out I tried to meet up with Rob, but my phone had run out of credit and he wasn't anywhere to be found. I waited a while and then started walking down the street. I found him looking at games, no surprise there and asked him how his massage went. He had the same feedback as me, they were pretty strong and his shoulders felt a lot better, so did my back, so that was good and it would help with the plane ride home.<br />
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We grabbed some Japanese fast food and headed back to hotel. On our way back we saw the strangest thing! There were two guys walking down the street, one had a couple of parrots hanging off him and the other was walking a duck! The duck even had special duck walking shoes! We got a good laugh out of that and headed home.<br />
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We met up with Jono back at the hotel, he had a big day of shopping and ended up buying the fancy Sony headphones he saw earlier, but he ended up getting them that night from Yodabashi instead. He had also already packed, so Rob went back to his room and we both started packing for the trip home.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fAKXsN5NrUU/UPaLOEU-qfI/AAAAAAAAA9k/kTexb2ejHp4/s1600/DSC_7941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fAKXsN5NrUU/UPaLOEU-qfI/AAAAAAAAA9k/kTexb2ejHp4/s320/DSC_7941.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A couple of guys casually walking a duck and their parrots</td></tr>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Tokyo, Japan35.6894875 139.6917063999999321.720838999999998 119.03740939999993 49.658136 160.34600339999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-47614154975051959552013-01-09T05:52:00.001-08:002013-01-14T23:13:12.635-08:00Day 13 - Studio Ghibli and Tokyo SkyTower<div dir="ltr">
After a big day yesterday, we had a well deserved sleep in. We left my mum at the hotel today as she wasn't feeling up to it and the rest of us ended up leaving the hotel at around 11:00 AM to go to the Studio Ghibli museum!<br />
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The museum is a little bit further away than the other attractions and is one of the only places that we got recommended to take a train and a bus to. The train part of the trip was pretty easy, but then trying to find the right bus was a little harder, but we did it eventually. The buses aren't as easy as trains for foreigners. The bus took us the rest of the way, but in hindsight we probably didn't need the bus, the walk wasn't that long.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Studio Ghibli Museum</td></tr>
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Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I was outside. It's a real shame too because the building is very cool inside! As we walked up the path to the building, an assistant checked for our reservation that Robert had organised back in Australia (through JTB I think) and directed us to the service desk. From there another assistant issued us with our admission tickets, which were pretty cool, they were little movie strips and each of us got a clip from a different movie. These tickets also got us into the theatre inside the museum to watch a short Studio Ghibli film. They stamped the tickets when you go in to make sure people only go in once.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0Tvt3MR1FAMC2xE5UOQEcOGFVdWyQICdeXrr5lR9irlxUF24NvXzjEQUExNzRvOWOrXEjT5Bn7jQqRWEPVpVAMk0NWCsPpAsd-pZwpJmzGbT-0Xacj63GD2UDX2fg8kOQcJY4ZrKYB0/s1600/20130115_154345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0Tvt3MR1FAMC2xE5UOQEcOGFVdWyQICdeXrr5lR9irlxUF24NvXzjEQUExNzRvOWOrXEjT5Bn7jQqRWEPVpVAMk0NWCsPpAsd-pZwpJmzGbT-0Xacj63GD2UDX2fg8kOQcJY4ZrKYB0/s320/20130115_154345.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our admission ticket</td></tr>
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As you enter the front door to the museum, you instantly look up and you can see the three floors of the museum. On the right, there is a antique looking elevator with a steam punk looking gauge to indicate which floor the lift is at. Straight ahead there is a 'normal' staircase up to the next floor. Directly above the entrance, on the second floor there is a small bridge from one side of the floor to the other. To the left there is a small spiral staircase that was a bit of a tight squeeze. The entrance to this staircase was small enough that you had to duck to get in and tall people would have to stay hunched to climb up it. At the top there is a small landing that leads into the wall, where you have to duck to get through there too. It's obviously designed for kids, but there were a lot of adult Studio Ghibli fans going through too. The museum is like a huge playground for kids! ...and certain adults.<br />
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The main attractions on ground floor were the theatre and another small room where they showcased some animation models and techniques. Some where quite simple, like a spinning wheel where if you concentrate on one part of it, the character will appear to animated. There were some more advanced ones too, one of them was a large spinning platform with what looked like a series of clay models attached to it (on the floor of the platform and attached to a centre axle above the floor), then periodically it would start spinning, the lights would dim out and a strobe light would flash, which resulted in a large 3D animation that looked really effective! They also had some projection machines setup with a reel of film running through so we could the inner workings.<br />
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We climbed the spiral staircase and ended up on the third floor. There was a "cat bus" from the movie "My Neighbor Totoro". This area is definitely for kids only and had some assistants to watch over the kids climbing around the bus and stop people like Rob F from getting in.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cat Bus<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (photo source: <a href="http://www.theworldisabook.com/2803/visiting-totoro-and-studio-ghibli-museum/">theworldisabook.com</a>)</span></td></tr>
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This floor also had a book shop and a small outdoor area. The book shop was pretty busy, there was quite a few books on display for visitors to read through. Most of them were in Japanese, but a lot of them had a focus on the art style used and were mostly images. Both Rob's ended up buying "The Art of Porco Rosso" book. This floor also had access to the roof where there was a large model robot and a cube from the movie "Castle in the Sky" amongst some gardens. With the amount of greenery up there it's easy to forget you're actually on a roof!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgvCuHAqAI6YLRhJg7F-OoHrOSQ4ndjwt4qDR1CeXANiRIf48SYhDhDhDNPjIipfRV8Iw7sfWDOMKiqLdklD2iNB6VO50KYciMuL2fspNTziUO1BVF5_3lNoU9pTnozfHsZOhnqinp8k/s1600/DSC_7663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgvCuHAqAI6YLRhJg7F-OoHrOSQ4ndjwt4qDR1CeXANiRIf48SYhDhDhDNPjIipfRV8Iw7sfWDOMKiqLdklD2iNB6VO50KYciMuL2fspNTziUO1BVF5_3lNoU9pTnozfHsZOhnqinp8k/s320/DSC_7663.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robot on the roof</td></tr>
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On the second floor there were a couple of rooms, one that showed a series of the sketches and another that had posters and books - this room was set in an old library and was guarded by a dragon. There were more stairs on the outside of the building and an outdoor food court. There was also a gift shop which seemed to be constantly busy!<br />
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That's probably the best I can describe it without photos (and I have a pretty bad memory), but it is well worth a visit, especially if you're a Studio Ghibli fan! There are lots of little things that fans will notice, like particular door handles, stained glass, badges on the gates, the drinking fountains outside and bunch of small details that look like they come straight from one of the films!<br />
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After watching the short film and spending some time in the gift shop we left the museum and followed Google maps through some back streets and made our way back to the station. We headed towards Asakusa to check out the new Tokyo SkyTree.<br />
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Last time we went to Tokyo, the main observation tower was Tokyo Tower, but since then the Tokyo SkyTree has been constructed and is now a popular tourist spot. The project was completed on 29 February 2012, with the tower opening to the public on 22 May 2012<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree">*</a></span>.<br />
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From Asakusa we caught the Tobu SkyTree line (a private train line) to the Tokyo SkyTree. The walk to the entrance includes a few shops (with more inside) and some nice gardens, all with a sort of "tree" theme.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3qlJfSrodWK__NG1aB3GKHoMKwYRgFKRmtValSJXZopH8kCYYprc2C2XadznKUZnVS2rl17of-xvf4mC6OYPo6EpZI5XXIyKYG8gWeNpwKjY7uRTiBLU1-XVl1mC2X3zB1eE90LV9us/s1600/DSC_7678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3qlJfSrodWK__NG1aB3GKHoMKwYRgFKRmtValSJXZopH8kCYYprc2C2XadznKUZnVS2rl17of-xvf4mC6OYPo6EpZI5XXIyKYG8gWeNpwKjY7uRTiBLU1-XVl1mC2X3zB1eE90LV9us/s320/DSC_7678.JPG" width="212" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHI8IRdlGco6h_pLQoYiqXvdRNtIjAiv-xfilqrVax5bl_oHo630v-TYAIL58mNYVZ8PJuhwxkkVJYO4N0wq8lQX7lU_vnCD2rgZlQXrA1dnnWcqX4mjded9YrWegls9pAH1AP1sVVyQ/s1600/DSC_7686.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHI8IRdlGco6h_pLQoYiqXvdRNtIjAiv-xfilqrVax5bl_oHo630v-TYAIL58mNYVZ8PJuhwxkkVJYO4N0wq8lQX7lU_vnCD2rgZlQXrA1dnnWcqX4mjded9YrWegls9pAH1AP1sVVyQ/s320/DSC_7686.JPG" width="212" /></a></div>
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We bought our tickets and took the elevator to the first observation deck which sits at a height of 350 meters. When the doors open you're greeted with a nice panoramic view of Tokyo and it makes you realise just how big this city is, especially in comparison to Melbourne! The lights at night looked very nice and makes it easy to see just how far the city spans, but as the windows where angled up, not only is it hard to get a photo without reflections but there are purple lights everywhere that reflect down along the window. I also didn't have a tripod (and don't think they were actually allowed) so the photos don't do the view justice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LVuCNvvAv-E/UPT3rz15ffI/AAAAAAAAA1w/FQs6FmqQkC8/s1600/DSC_7695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LVuCNvvAv-E/UPT3rz15ffI/AAAAAAAAA1w/FQs6FmqQkC8/s320/DSC_7695.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The city views from the Tokyo SkyTree</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbONdxuyBj9-UfBkcVhyphenhyphent8uY4LtkavdOufZ-07NbQ28jyTaJ8O5yOCOhJuOyN7VdjLTUwD0_RPJCB7nfb6roxESrI8hIW9wZtNB5qpTYrymU8E5Z8oWbyjYVLbKAUexHT8If8UVGH5dI/s1600/DSC_7698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbONdxuyBj9-UfBkcVhyphenhyphent8uY4LtkavdOufZ-07NbQ28jyTaJ8O5yOCOhJuOyN7VdjLTUwD0_RPJCB7nfb6roxESrI8hIW9wZtNB5qpTYrymU8E5Z8oWbyjYVLbKAUexHT8If8UVGH5dI/s320/DSC_7698.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the first observation deck on the Tokyo SkyTree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The information boards explaining the view</td></tr>
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After spending some time taking in the views, we paid a little extra to go up to the next level. This level sits at a height of 450 meters and has a spiral shaped "tunnel" wrapping around the tower. The view at this height is not really that much different to the previous level, but walking through the tunnel is quite nice and due to the spiral shape, the feeling of going higher with every step is a nice touch.<br />
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The last stop was the glass floor where you can walk over a glass panel that looks straight down to the base of the tower.<br />
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From here we went back to the hotel and ended up in Akihabara again. Having Akihabara so close to our hotel is nice, it's quite easy to spend time there and with a spare hour or two, it's quite likely that we'll get to see something interesting! My brother had other plans, but he asked us to keep an eye out for the PC game "Exile" and I wanted to buy a polariser for my new lens to go with my ND filter for extra darkness, so with that shopping list in mind we headed down.<br />
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We went back to the same place I bought the ND filter and found the filter I was after. I ended up buying the polariser and a mini tripod. I spoke to the same sales assistant, who didn't speak much English, but the one word he did get out was "dangerous". This was because I was mounting quite a large dSLR on a tiny tripod, but with good reason. I brought my large tripod, but with a sore back and a low likelihood that I'd need it for many shots, it wasn't worth carrying it everyday, all day, but the mini tripod I can slip into my bag and I'll barely notice it. This would have come in handy for those times where all I need is some stability to get a long exposure, instead of resting it on my wallet or something and trying to get the angle right!<br />
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We went into a few other shops and kept an eye out for Rob's game, without much luck. We went to the store Rob found his obscure game and asked the attendant where the PC games where. He casually told us they were on level 3, so we took the lift. When we got there, we realised we where in the wrong place... it was a whole floor of adult PC games... a whole floor! Needless to say we left there (without buying anything) laughing at how normal that is for people there. If that was in Australia, I don't think the sales assistant would have been quite so casual about it.<br />
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On our way back to the hotel we thought we would try the last shop before leaving Akihabara. I had typed out 'Exile' on my phone in large font, so we walked in and asked the sales assistant where the PC games where (they were normal PC games this time). I showed him the name of the game on my phone and asked if he had it, where he replied back with a confident "No". But then, out of sheer luck, right behind him I spotted it! Out of all the games on the shelf, it was the only one showing the front cover, the rest were just spine out. So I told the guy, and he turned around, saw it and turned back with a sort of embarrassed smile on his face. He had a bit of a laugh and apologised. In the end we didn't end up getting it, but it was a pretty funny story either way. Goes to show you can get anything in Akihabara!<br />
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We ended up getting some Japanese fast food and heading back to the hotel. The fast food is pretty good here, for about $4 you can get enough food to fill you up!</div>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan35.683513 139.5595842000000235.631923 139.47890320000002 35.735102999999995 139.64026520000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-26345912111271537052013-01-08T07:48:00.000-08:002013-01-13T05:05:32.564-08:00Day 12 - DisneySeaToday we went to DisneySea! This is another place we went to on our last trip, but it is a pretty impressive park and Rob had such a good time last time that he couldn't stand still with excitement this time around.<br />
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Because I've already blogged about DisneySea on my <a href="http://japan2010.stevenocchipinti.com/2010/01/day-8-disneysea.html" target="_blank">last blog</a>, I'll keep this one fairly short because not much has changed.<br />
The good thing about this time around was the timing. Compared to last time we went, the park was practically empty! All the rides had about a five minute wait time without a fast pass, where as last time, the fast pass was the only way to get through the queue in a decent time.<br />
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Rob F, Rob O and Sarah went on all the rides multiple times, even one of them nine times! I spent most of the day walking around the park taking photos and checking out the other non-ride entertainment.<br />
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Sarah's friend actually works in DisneySea as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. The theatre for this show is obviously set as an underwater scene, and Arial among other characters are suspended by cables and fly around the theatre, it looked pretty good and seems like a much more exciting job than most! Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos inside.<br />
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During the afternoon, Jono and I went get a drink at a food court and because there was barely anyone else where, we had a pretty good service! There was staff to greet us at the door, another to direct us to the counter to order, three staff members to serve us and the rest where just cleaning. Jono managed to spill his drink all over the table and tried cleaning it with some small serviettes, so I called a cleaner over to help and she was really apologetic... for Jono's screw up. She moved the trays to a new table and seated us, called another staff member over and got her to fetch Jono a new drink (for free!) and continued to clean the table until it was spotless! If that was in Australia, I don't think the cleaners would have showed so much enthusiasm and he probably would have had to buy a new drink himself.<br />
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Here a bunch of photos from the day...<br />
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We had TGI Friday's for dinner near DisneySea and I had an awesome steak with Jack Daniels sauce... so good it was worth mentioning here!<br />
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<br />Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Tokyo DisneySea, 1-1 舞浜 浦安市 千葉県 279-0031, Japan35.6256718 139.884172600000069.7016953 98.575578600000057 61.5496483 -178.80723339999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-21890046286442238282013-01-08T06:23:00.002-08:002013-01-08T07:46:47.190-08:00Day 11 - AsakusaAsakusa is famous for the Sensoji temple and its many markets. Because we had been there <a href="http://japan2010.stevenocchipinti.com/2009/12/day-2-asakusa.html" target="_blank">before</a>, we knew that this place was one of the best places to buy souvenirs so we planned to spend the whole day there. Jonathan wanted to buy some more gifts, but not the souvenir type, he wanted clothes, etc. so he decided to go back to Shibuya for a day of solo shopping. We all had breakfast and the rest of us caught the train to Asakusa. After a short walk we arrived at Kaminarimon Gate (which translates to Thunder Gate).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our group in front of Kaminarimon Gate at Asakusa</td></tr>
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As soon as we got through this massive gate, we were greeted with the start of a long stretch of markets. It has one long road, lined with stalls selling all sorts of things, but then there are more roads of markets down the side streets - it's massive! These stalls sell the same souvenirs as the tourist attractions, but with a lot more choice and a lot cheaper.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Start of the market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The busy stalls</td></tr>
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We spent a fair amount of time walking through the markets buying gifts and trinkets. I bought a couple of gifts, but not that many - most of the people I would normally buy gifts for are here with me this time! Last time I was in Japan, I bought a keyring from a gift shop in Hakone that was a little ninja with flexible limbs, but its starting to wear out. I ended up finding the exact same keyring at this market, so I bought that too.<br />
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At the end of the market is the Sensoji temple's main hall and a five story pagoda. The temple was pretty busy too. Around the temple is a series of shrines and gardens that were pretty nice. Walking around was triggering a lot of memories from the last time we were here. I even remembered the places where I took photos last time!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxjy6xFSycL7IKLn91Frjsj6dOkt9Kb_JNWzyBdfSqgxMYDYjLxWLOMqLjcb8kmeX1BKrfaLkufyvtOZBlV_owq73LonQB39XX785kFkgpyLJ0eUbyUW1ZfElKiddIHHOPRQyDLmQxEk/s1600/DSC_7101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxjy6xFSycL7IKLn91Frjsj6dOkt9Kb_JNWzyBdfSqgxMYDYjLxWLOMqLjcb8kmeX1BKrfaLkufyvtOZBlV_owq73LonQB39XX785kFkgpyLJ0eUbyUW1ZfElKiddIHHOPRQyDLmQxEk/s320/DSC_7101.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main hall</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MuLm3q9O-Z8/UOw2mpPeo7I/AAAAAAAAAt0/n6oCdruQMds/s1600/DSC_7096.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MuLm3q9O-Z8/UOw2mpPeo7I/AAAAAAAAAt0/n6oCdruQMds/s320/DSC_7096.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Five story pagoda</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG63-Iuc31CuNaG_QyxwgFYy9yROfWuMoYtnF5Gw9hoyE80qgGn86oI-TodX7ZcZu9V7u_nekomitSSRyi2JUQEERrszan_j8EYfHcfjrIEW48QbkwXOSdt0wS0YWTFv0NcvAOxaJcdiA/s1600/DSC_7134.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG63-Iuc31CuNaG_QyxwgFYy9yROfWuMoYtnF5Gw9hoyE80qgGn86oI-TodX7ZcZu9V7u_nekomitSSRyi2JUQEERrszan_j8EYfHcfjrIEW48QbkwXOSdt0wS0YWTFv0NcvAOxaJcdiA/s320/DSC_7134.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A shrine</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIeAZrn-2dpSei4GkgeMJV5PM4TZAU1Ui4RK96UYtNe7dGyb9R1HEP96VoeGASMrPUEegP-fxmJ19_1f6Cx28DcpRto5lDiyjuJp_AZJtNub83oPC-hjcfxyO6quoWlpeX1OQP6UHLKNk/s1600/DSC_7116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIeAZrn-2dpSei4GkgeMJV5PM4TZAU1Ui4RK96UYtNe7dGyb9R1HEP96VoeGASMrPUEegP-fxmJ19_1f6Cx28DcpRto5lDiyjuJp_AZJtNub83oPC-hjcfxyO6quoWlpeX1OQP6UHLKNk/s320/DSC_7116.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The gardens</td></tr>
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For lunch, Rob and Sarah wanted Macca's again, so the rest of us went in search of a more Japanese restaurant. After following some back alleys, we came across a quite little restaurant. It was really nice and I tried eel for the first time!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGcy7hIZY0iqY7FluWtmwE82kWY6W9Yz_lcCR5hcz9uHcVCt1CONGkRggM6eWuePVfsFAZ1LYslWLsvCp1sEBc32G5KTNqJVlPRbyG8VDdpaQfv_qTtQcoiiHmK0ogICGNEtehOQQDR8/s1600/DSC_7189.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGcy7hIZY0iqY7FluWtmwE82kWY6W9Yz_lcCR5hcz9uHcVCt1CONGkRggM6eWuePVfsFAZ1LYslWLsvCp1sEBc32G5KTNqJVlPRbyG8VDdpaQfv_qTtQcoiiHmK0ogICGNEtehOQQDR8/s320/DSC_7189.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Later that afternoon, we headed back to the hotel and had about three hours to kill before we all met up for dinner. Jonathan wasn't back yet, so Rob and I went back to Akihabara. We had two things on our shopping list, Rob wanted a particular (and really strange) Nintendo DS game and I wanted a ND Filter for my camera. Last time we went to Akihabara we stumbled across a little shop hidden away at the top of a very plain building and they sold heaps of old equipment, like the original Nintendo and Sega consoles, controllers and heaps of old retro cartridges - it also stunk pretty bad. Rob thought they might have his very obscure game, so we were trying to find it again, but it was harder than we thought. The good thing about that was it made us go into a bunch of building we wouldn't normally have tried and we came across some really interesting places! We saw a really large shop, stacked to the brim with old oscilloscopes and multi meters, two floors of model train parts, a robot shop selling electronics and parts for all sorts of robots, comic stores, game shops, arcades and lots more. It was good fun just browsing through random shops, I wish we had this sort of variety in Melbourne!<br />
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After looking through lots of game shops, Rob finally found his game. I won't go through the details of the game he wanted, but needless to say it was sufficiently weird enough to only be sold in Japan. After being amazed that we actually found it, we started looking for camera shops for my filter. There weren't as many photography shops as I would have thought, but the smaller ones did not sell filters. After asking some strangers, we came across Yodabashi - a massive electronics shopping complex. There was one huge floor of camera gear and they had what I was after, so I bought an ND8 filter and a UV filter for my new wide-angle lens and a little pocket air blower.<br />
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Rob and I were very proud of what we had accomplished with our spare couple of hours and we made in back in time to meet the others for dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant around the corner from our hotel. This time it was a Spanish restaurant, but their menu only had Japanese, Chinese or Spanish and the staff didn't really speak English. Lucky some Spanish words are similar to Italian words, so we made some lucky guesses that worked out ok.<br />
I had a set of mini steaks, they were really tasty, but it wasn't really enough food. Most of the others didn't really have big meals either, so after dinner we stopped by Family Mart and bought the famous microwavable burgers my brother keeps raving on about. They come in a plastic bag and cost a couple of dollars, the cashier puts it in a microwave behind the counter for a couple of minutes and as dodgy as this sounds, they are actually not too bad! So much so that Rob had a lot of these last time we were in Japan, so it was one of the things we just had to do on this trip.<br />
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Rob also had an ice cream that he recommended so we got one of those too. It is basically ice cream made from double condensed milk, put into a rice-paper/waffle-cone casing. It was really sugary and sweet, but pretty damn good!<br />
That night I could barely sleep, possibly because of the sugar rush! That wasn't too good because the next day was going to be a big day - Tokyo DisneySea!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com4Asakusa, Taito, Tokyo, Japan35.7119214 139.7966221000000435.6990294 139.77645210000003 35.7248134 139.81679210000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-75175546181612805372013-01-06T05:43:00.002-08:002013-01-06T07:40:15.333-08:00Day 10 - Shibuya<div dir="ltr">
This hotel is the first one that includes breakfast, but it is also the lowest quality hotel on our trip, so that also means the breakfast isn't massive, but it's better than nothing and it saves us a trip in the morning.</div>
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The buffet included some small rolls, custard strudels, some cereals, yogurt and scrambled eggs.</div>
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After breakfast we headed to Shibuya. About half of our group are keen on shopping, so we ended up agreeing that we would spend most of the day there. Jono, Rob and I started going from shop to shop. Jonathan loves shopping, but Rob and I.. not so much. I think we started getting a little bit delirious with all the shops, so our comments and terrible jokes started going down hill, so much so that Jono asked us to leave him alone for a while!</div>
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Rob and I continued around Shibuya for a little while before meeting up with Jono again for lunch. In that time we ended up going to the Disney store for a bit of a laugh and to check for DisneySea tickets, which they sold there for about $65 for a single day pass.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowYJyB4H1hJRysH_34UEKqGYTQ1J054oGS5JbWzkjHtIRw8ZbUDrBvdNAVZ6fburfvumIb-VKF2Bp0PtoOYMKR4yS1l4s4lTtNm5tHDkIpa0RFEB32a38EIIPMuW1NVjkiemDYbF75wQ/s1600/DSC_7024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhowYJyB4H1hJRysH_34UEKqGYTQ1J054oGS5JbWzkjHtIRw8ZbUDrBvdNAVZ6fburfvumIb-VKF2Bp0PtoOYMKR4yS1l4s4lTtNm5tHDkIpa0RFEB32a38EIIPMuW1NVjkiemDYbF75wQ/s320/DSC_7024.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disney shop in Shibuya</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAVT1q3vyiG4fVQ5lKEgCI6Q-78_XifA8REpZAbCA98ETw0gE80mYsFlhfVxy-gzk8KnlQseIC51OOL82EztOFudcYfGhDyxYHQveFYQgxNrHauKOtBdTENf26rFiIgWvhVh_HRA0b6k/s1600/DSC_7031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAVT1q3vyiG4fVQ5lKEgCI6Q-78_XifA8REpZAbCA98ETw0gE80mYsFlhfVxy-gzk8KnlQseIC51OOL82EztOFudcYfGhDyxYHQveFYQgxNrHauKOtBdTENf26rFiIgWvhVh_HRA0b6k/s320/DSC_7031.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rob is really happy in the Disney shop</td></tr>
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After a bit more walking around, we went to get a photo with Hachiko, the famous dog statue in Shibuya and we found a tourist map of Shibuya to study until we met up with Jono again.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JpA-vtO4ptdbmKU4cFVvlSeo_8qsJr4DXl8BBHueZK2B6meAZ5Rlk5_rDHHsrjwcTKqQHz9IqWRIfQvfZhAWTFIUBWGgpYPyi5MgcwdmlXxurjps4tj6IjLrhpy5laqdslVWsxxD6z4/s1600/DSC_7042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JpA-vtO4ptdbmKU4cFVvlSeo_8qsJr4DXl8BBHueZK2B6meAZ5Rlk5_rDHHsrjwcTKqQHz9IqWRIfQvfZhAWTFIUBWGgpYPyi5MgcwdmlXxurjps4tj6IjLrhpy5laqdslVWsxxD6z4/s320/DSC_7042.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hachiko</td></tr>
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We met up with Jono and started looking for somewhere to have lunch. The tourist map said there was a little alley way with some traditional looking restaurants, known as "Nonbei Yokocho", so we tried to find that. Off the main street, there was a little alley way with some older looking shops, but it was quite small and right next to the tracks. Everything was closed, but then Rob saw a really small gap between two of the shops and when we went through that, there was another alley way (an alley way inside an alley way) that had more traditional restaurants. It looked really cool, it was like a really small version of Hardware Lane in Melbourne - except everything was closed there too.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9svMNVpheK9fDsYiWLOfYCm8e8VxztcxEYrYINiV8Xs02i2-uu3q08-DatvisNRK7csqFmgKh_gEHSV2f-pm7lZWIgT-tw9irIPEiOAn7w6k4fDZzjENr0cJ9MOMGn4U7t7_91Ig20vc/s1600/DSC_7051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9svMNVpheK9fDsYiWLOfYCm8e8VxztcxEYrYINiV8Xs02i2-uu3q08-DatvisNRK7csqFmgKh_gEHSV2f-pm7lZWIgT-tw9irIPEiOAn7w6k4fDZzjENr0cJ9MOMGn4U7t7_91Ig20vc/s320/DSC_7051.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance to "Nonbei Yokocho"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-49wH4yzbJnE/UOl-Z7ErKiI/AAAAAAAAAq0/LVdAv8fVsB8/s1600/DSC_7053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-49wH4yzbJnE/UOl-Z7ErKiI/AAAAAAAAAq0/LVdAv8fVsB8/s320/DSC_7053.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nonbei Yokocho</td></tr>
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We moved on to find somewhere to eat and ended up at a Japanese fast food place. I got a meal set for less than $5 that included grilled pork, coleslaw, rice and miso soup.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uyLLkhCInZU/UOl-Z1Rt1vI/AAAAAAAAAqw/pwipjSM677g/s1600/DSC_7058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uyLLkhCInZU/UOl-Z1Rt1vI/AAAAAAAAAqw/pwipjSM677g/s320/DSC_7058.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch, with Jono showing off his money</td></tr>
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From there we followed Jono for a bit longer to do some more shopping and then met up with the others. Our meeting place was the famous Starbucks above the busy intersection. We ordered a drink and snack, waited for some seats to become available and watched the intersection in action for a little while.<br />
It's pretty mesmerizing, as the traffic is going trough the intersection, the number of pedestrians on the side walk waiting to cross slowly build up and then the lights change, the traffic stops and people from every side move into the intersection travelling in every direction.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWW9mxM2LuBLTHBiVsuQopfCK_spijfF4ZLiNmdb4fs1mEKJAauPI2SwdBfDBwx_qbhvqcOGEGWfvY_oaWNt4eAQ2Mlq81Fn8cjvGivlIWoABorW-dB8GiRH1PBq7KC7F3g7BKq8yWvE/s1600/DSC_7063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWW9mxM2LuBLTHBiVsuQopfCK_spijfF4ZLiNmdb4fs1mEKJAauPI2SwdBfDBwx_qbhvqcOGEGWfvY_oaWNt4eAQ2Mlq81Fn8cjvGivlIWoABorW-dB8GiRH1PBq7KC7F3g7BKq8yWvE/s320/DSC_7063.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The busiest intersection in Shibuya</td></tr>
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After that we went back to the Disney store to buy our DisneySea tickets and then made our way to Don Quixote, which is like a multi level reject shop, that sell everything! To give some examples, some of the items include: food, tools, clothes, toys, sporting goods, pet food and accessories, office equipment, underwear, costumes (both kids and adult), games, BB guns, fireworks, porn, watches, kitchen and electrical items, shavers, fans, crockery, makeup and bedding! ...It's really quite amazing!</div>
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From there we headed back towards to the hotel and went for a walk through Akihabara to find some dinner. Rob and Sarah didn't want Japanese food, and Rob F and Jono didn't want western food, so we split up. We ended up looking at a few different places, but they were well over priced. We ended up getting some discount vouchers from some street salesmen and found a very popular Japanese restaurant that looked pretty good. Their menu had a few weird items on it, like fried gizzards, pig ears and raw horse meat, but amongst the weirdness there were a few good ones and it was a lot cheaper than the other restaurants in the building.</div>
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I ordered some Salmon sashimi, a cheese filled rissole, a really tasty fillet of Mackerel and a drink all for less than $10.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-HhuCJUIYT2I/UOl454wb5cI/AAAAAAAAAqE/aQMCdsUhLP0/s320/20130106_203159.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner</td></tr>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com3Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan35.6640352 139.6982121999999435.6124342 139.61753119999995 35.7156362 139.77889319999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-30213752179736397412013-01-05T04:57:00.003-08:002013-01-06T01:55:38.710-08:00Day 9 - Arriving in TokyoToday we are leaving Kyoto and going to Tokyo. Checkout time is 11:00AM at our hotel, but there was one thing that we didn't get around to doing, so we did our best to fit that in this morning.<br />
Directly opposite our hotel there is a castle! It is right on our door step and we haven't looked at it yet, so for breakfast we finished off the last of our groceries, collected all our things, checked out of our hotel and asked the staff to hold our bags for a little while before heading over. We had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, which was better than the regular Macca's breakfast!<br />
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nij%C5%8D_Castle" target="_blank">Nijo Castle</a> doesn't look that big from the front, but it is on a huge property! The castle has a giant wall and a mote around the outside, with another wall and mote inside, really nice gardens throughout the entire grounds and two palaces, one of which was a ruin that was currently closed. The Ninomaru Palace was open to the public, but to preserve it you have to take off your shoes to go inside and walk along a special path. There are barricades and glass blocking certain parts, but even though we had to follow the route through the palace, it was really nice to see! I wasn't allowed to take photos, but the ceilings and walls of the palace, especially inside the interior rooms, are all covered in very elaborate artwork with gold-leaf. The floors of the castle are designed to make noise when walked on to alert the guards to intruders, but when there is a constant flow of tourists walking through, it sounds pretty cool!<br />
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After walking through the palace, we did a lap around the castle grounds to take a look at the gardens. We were a little bit rushed, but what we did see was very nice. It seems like all these old structures and areas like temples and castles require a constant effort to keep them in pristine condition. Every temple we saw had information boards explaining how the restoration process works and how recently it was restored.<br />
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We got back to the hotel to meet up with others at about 11:30AM, collected our bags from the service desk and caught the next bus to Kyoto station. We bought tickets for the bullet train to tokyo, which is a Nozomi N700. This train is one of the fastest trains in Japan and can travel at speeds up to 300km/h, making the ~500km trip to Tokyo take only about two and half hours.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nozomi N700 Shinkansen (Bullet train)</td></tr>
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Our bullet train experience was not as nice as we would have liked though. After we bought our tickets, we were a bit rushed to get to the train. We got to the platform and the train was ready to leave. We ended up jumping in the wrong carriage and the train conductor couldn't speak English, but directed us towards the back carriages of the train, so we started walking through the train to the other side. As we were pushing our luggage through the train, it departed the station. It picked up speed pretty quickly, but we couldn't tell. For such a powerful system they are incredibly smooth! We got towards the end and there were a bunch of people in the way, so we stopped there. We were trying to find our seats, but the tickets were all in Japanese too, so we tried asking some strangers, but they didn't understand either. We had exhausted our options, so with the risk of being told off, we sat in the nearest seats. The seats are like first class aeroplane seats, with enough leg room that we could wheel our luggage between us and the seats in front of us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of leg room!</td></tr>
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We stayed there for about half an hour. In that time we got a great view of the snow capped mountains and Japanese country side, but the nice seats and the nice view came to an end when the ticket inspector came past!<br />
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It turns out that when you buy a ticket for the bullet train with such short notice, you don't get a seat, just standing room. For us, that meant we needed to stand for another two hours with luggage in between the isles. Not what we had expected! It wasn't very fun, most of us went from being excited about a bullet train to beingo tired and a little annoyed from dodging people in such a cramped space, but we got through it ok. We were kind of stuck in between carriages, so people were trying to get passed us to get to the toilet, on and off the train, etc.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 180° shot of our cramped space on the bullet train</td></tr>
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We eventually made it to Tokyo and found our way to our hotel, compared to our previous two hotels, this one was no where near as fancy. The building was a lot smaller, and rooms where proportionally smaller too, but we don't plan on spending that much time at the hotel, so it didn't really bother us. We were just used to the fancy ones now! This hotel includes a breakfast, so hopefully that is ok and we don't need to struggle to find some in the morning.<br />
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Another good thing about this hotel is how close it is to Akihabara! It's about a 10 minute walk! After dropping our bags in our rooms, we walked down to check it out. There were people everywhere and we walked through a few electronics shops. I bought a new memory card for my camera and a tiny hex key set. After a little while we headed back to the hotel, dropped off our new toys, met up with my parents and found a place to get dinner.<br />
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Today is my dad's birthday and he wanted Ramen for dinner. There was a Ramen place fairly close to our hotel, so we ended up going there. It was pretty good, the waiter couldn't speak English, but he tried hard. We learned some more Japanese from him and he learned some English from us, it was good fun! This was the first time I tried bamboo shoots too, which weren't too bad!<br />
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After dinner we headed back to the hotel, this hotel didn't have wireless, just a cable socket on the wall for internet, but being a nerd, I brought a little pocket router, so I set up the power adapter and the wifi access point and managed to catch up on these blogs - I'm up to date now!<br />
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com3Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan35.6940027 139.7535950999999835.642414699999996 139.67291409999999 35.7455907 139.83427609999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-39405591249608726742013-01-04T08:12:00.001-08:002013-01-05T06:23:40.514-08:00Day 8 - Temples, shops and swimmingToday was a bit of an unplanned day where the group kind of split up and went their own ways. We had a bit of a sleep in, which was definitely needed! When we got up, we decided to go back to the Italian-Japanese restaurant and try their lunch menu. We sat there and ate lunch, while it was snowing outside - it's a pretty nice restaurant. From there we went back to the hotel and caught the bus to Kyoto station.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Late lunch</td></tr>
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On the bus ride to Kyoto station we go past a really big temple, it was a little bit of a walk from where the bus drops us off, but we decided to go check it out either way. We walked for about 15-20 minutes, it was lightly snowing, but it wasn't too bad. When we got there, there was a couple of big separate courtyards with different temples in each one. The entire temple grounds were pretty big! It was a couple of city blocks easily and looked really nice from the street.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The large temple grounds from the street</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first section of the temple grounds with adjoined temples</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paper doors and walls</td></tr>
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I'm not sure if it was because it was cold and lightly snowing, but there was barely anyone around, which made it great for us. Because we don't really understand the customs there, it was probably a good thing no one else was around, we were able to go inside and still comment on the intricate work on the interior without disturbing anyone in the middle of prayer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside one of the temples</td></tr>
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We moved on to the next section, which was a lot bigger and had a few more people around. There seemed to be quite a few people going into one particular temple, so took off our shoes and took followed along.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The next temple court yard</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another adjoined temple</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The inside of one of the temples</td></tr>
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Inside were a group of about 50 people or so sitting on the floor waiting for a ceremony to start, so we decided to sit there too and see what was happening.<br />
After a couple of minutes, some very official looking people came out to conduct the ceremony. There were a couple of monks sitting at the front of the alter with large books in their hands and they both started chanting simultaneously. The chants were long, constant, repetitive phrases that we obviously couldn't make out, but between the two of them there were no gaps in the chant, so it was like a constant noise, almost like music for the entire ceremony.<br />
At this point people started leaving, it seemed like during this ceremony people made their prayers and left straight after. It was quite strange to see as a foreigner without understanding what is happening, but it was an interesting experience either way.<br />
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The snow stopped and I had taken the photos I wanted to, so we walked back to the station. One of things Jonathan wanted to do on this trip was spend some time doing the shopping, so we spent a little while going from shop to shop. Jono bought some clothes, so he was happy with that.<br />
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Our hotel has a spa, a swimming pool and a gym, etc. The gym is off limits because working out on a holiday is against all the rules, to go into the spa you need to be naked, so none of us were comfortable doing that, but the pool was fine. I brought some board shorts, but Jono and Rob didn't have any, so while we were at the shops, they bought some for around $25. Rob didn't really want to get into the pool, but we talked him into it anyway.<br />
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We went back to our hotel to meet up with the others for dinner. We all swapped stories of what we did. The others went to the imperial palace which sounded really nice, but we weren't going to have enough time to do that. We started walking down the street to find a place to eat. There are not a lot of places to eat around our hotel, but we eventually found a place that looked inviting. I went inside to see if they could accommodate us and the chef came out from behind the kitchen to greet me and show me a menu. The restaurant was a Japanese restaurant with French influences - the chef described it as "Imagination food".<br />
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The menu was only in Japanese, but the chef was really friendly and spoke quite good English, so he read out every item for us! He pushed some tables together and we sat down. This is when we realised that he was the only staff member there, which explains why he kept referring to the restaurant as "his" restaurant!<br />
The menu had about 30 meals on it, and we all ordered a different dish. Everything from grilled salmon and pork to soups and desserts and this guy managed to run around to take our orders, cook the food, serve us and the other patrons and try his best to translate for us - it was incredible! The food wasn't just slapped together either, it was like being in a five star restaurant, really tasty and very well presented.<br />
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It was so impressive we got a photo with him, it was a one man show that was much better than a lot of the fancy restaurants I have been to!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BgM8tFXeJyYHs9iWg8cVe55_vC7ZBL6oM-YQAiVYpzzg_83am21OW8wQQj1RuGJNje3RMUs8kM-5K_z5EK7v48oSPk5ul4jONzUnRXSfyHAFH0q9ppIZ9RXjthhpLIHUlrikD9vWLrI/s1600/20130104_211843.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0BgM8tFXeJyYHs9iWg8cVe55_vC7ZBL6oM-YQAiVYpzzg_83am21OW8wQQj1RuGJNje3RMUs8kM-5K_z5EK7v48oSPk5ul4jONzUnRXSfyHAFH0q9ppIZ9RXjthhpLIHUlrikD9vWLrI/s320/20130104_211843.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chef/receptionist/waiter/owner and us</td></tr>
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After dinner we went back to the restaurant to go for a swim. After 7:00pm it costs about $10 to get into the pool (instead of the usual $15). Rob was dreading going, but he came along anyway. After spending about an hour and a half in the pool, Rob changed his mind. It was nice and relaxing to just have a kick around. They provided free rental towels, goggles, swimming caps and even kick boards.<br />
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After feeling refreshed, we went back to our hotel room, did our best to dry off the board shorts and pack our things so we could check out the next morning. The pool was pretty good and it would have been nice to utilise it a bit more, but at least we got to use on our last day.<br />
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com1Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan35.0116363 135.7680293999999334.5959053 135.12258239999994 35.4273673 136.41347639999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-56069984732446070762013-01-03T05:47:00.001-08:002013-01-04T08:08:59.917-08:00Day 7 - NaraToday we went to Nara!<br />
Our hotel provides a shuttle bus to and from Kyoto station every 15 minutes, which would have been nice to know earlier when we were arriving at the hotel with all our luggage, but better late than never I guess. We caught the shuttle bus to Kyoto station, grabbed some breakfast, then got a train to Nara.<br />
The trip took about half an hour from Kyoto station and cost 500 Yen for a normal train ticket and an additional 600 Yen to get on the special train to Nara.<br />
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While we were waiting for the train, we went to a vending machine to get a drink and we got a hot caramel milkshake! It was awesome! It tasted just like a paddle pop in a hot liquid form.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaG76_r5fFa-GXfkOsfpkFQ6Irj60JAd0lAEXLW1oT6KWC9H3q4cOLuTOvKaGLqAvE9QZ2V9BBu3ZFTYjv15fgfhYExEMQJVKsLX1Fpk5Au0NgtsL3CUduUqKsnMtmFWEIc4cayJoM68/s1600/DSC_6640.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcaG76_r5fFa-GXfkOsfpkFQ6Irj60JAd0lAEXLW1oT6KWC9H3q4cOLuTOvKaGLqAvE9QZ2V9BBu3ZFTYjv15fgfhYExEMQJVKsLX1Fpk5Au0NgtsL3CUduUqKsnMtmFWEIc4cayJoM68/s320/DSC_6640.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hot caramel milkshake in a can</td></tr>
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The train ride was pretty nice, it went through more rural areas of Japan and there were vast fields, which seems quite uncommon when you spend time in built up places like Osaka and Tokyo.<br />
On the way there we went past a temple. There was a random stranger sitting next to me and he saw me taking photos, so he gave me a heads up that there was an old temple coming up so I could get ready to take a shot and explained some of its history.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeq7khHVsf6pReKf3NjIrMAaw1eHeDIOh73lFC9aiGgM4Oho_MmJsFeUU3TntA90hVbXoIhGKS8Sb4JM5JoepXv8RqGx7IZdwy25-gxh89OBXMK4yARX60Qt2qxGLjc4MWQB0LDcdAaA/s1600/DSC_6664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeq7khHVsf6pReKf3NjIrMAaw1eHeDIOh73lFC9aiGgM4Oho_MmJsFeUU3TntA90hVbXoIhGKS8Sb4JM5JoepXv8RqGx7IZdwy25-gxh89OBXMK4yARX60Qt2qxGLjc4MWQB0LDcdAaA/s320/DSC_6664.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old temple on the way to Nara</td></tr>
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We arrived at Nara and there were a lot of people there! The main attractions for tourists at Nara are the bowing deer, the big bronze Buddha, a collection of temples, shrines and museums and a market.<br />
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When we got to the park we were greeted by a museum that showcased a collection of statues from ancient times and the "Family temples of the Fujiwara Clan", which included a 5 story pagoda that is the second tallest pagoda in Japan.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVALUTd1I-wHeH0AFiiP0PBn6VcYHfrEnNdsT0UUfaG6zrXNA4x5wTj5zTXBTnU7lAuIZI3HIezPEDjrw_C3Xk1BqTI3crivWUASwJ4viDIOap26iFZXedpn7azTiT8PCnXHn_wGoGEnk/s1600/DSC_6712.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVALUTd1I-wHeH0AFiiP0PBn6VcYHfrEnNdsT0UUfaG6zrXNA4x5wTj5zTXBTnU7lAuIZI3HIezPEDjrw_C3Xk1BqTI3crivWUASwJ4viDIOap26iFZXedpn7azTiT8PCnXHn_wGoGEnk/s320/DSC_6712.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Family temples of the Fujiwara Clan</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRx9CZHTSmxnT9g0-BnsE7F3zWsb978LFCMmoa8MArjakzR8H5s9lRlFEOrBAMK9xSt_zcyYE4Z0zWCbfBBtobGiRmZDWGEeHzaLZE6Mlzp9GGpG-WWbd3-HGDSSLf1VpltF3FXvcnTHQ/s1600/DSC_6680e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRx9CZHTSmxnT9g0-BnsE7F3zWsb978LFCMmoa8MArjakzR8H5s9lRlFEOrBAMK9xSt_zcyYE4Z0zWCbfBBtobGiRmZDWGEeHzaLZE6Mlzp9GGpG-WWbd3-HGDSSLf1VpltF3FXvcnTHQ/s320/DSC_6680e.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 5 story pagoda</td></tr>
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After we went through the museum we continued on to the park area. This park is famous for the bowing deer. There a bunch of stands selling deer food and if you present the food to the deer, they will bow for you to ask for it. The deer here are wild, but they must be very used to people because even though there are signs warning people about being attacked by deer, they are very tame. They just wander around the park following people and looking for food or sleeping - even tame enough to give them a pat.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0symGoca5cqLCpcRqi259CpOvRXWdogMXvTrbFnMZD9ulSZk5-kTid2a1szoz0oClflzoRFeKljwyyu8RyKUDacHO1kV5CJCJ2kkUnpNwlfnZAtlmmpOWU9O_EfZnLECMGwaQ1LXObM/s1600/DSC_6742.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0symGoca5cqLCpcRqi259CpOvRXWdogMXvTrbFnMZD9ulSZk5-kTid2a1szoz0oClflzoRFeKljwyyu8RyKUDacHO1kV5CJCJ2kkUnpNwlfnZAtlmmpOWU9O_EfZnLECMGwaQ1LXObM/s320/DSC_6742.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A deer bowing for Sarah's food</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh07sPi7e5xHVSEmXXdnStwTMlPM-xyA1qDh-Ip7w-i8yVTJ0dMkVRWRHQUOCfa4X9vyygCynCXHW1japewky5aSCphlZYcU3Gz8zIvtgNABBbGggZaSob1xKSp8D5zBI65jeosDNxNsZM/s1600/DSC_6728.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh07sPi7e5xHVSEmXXdnStwTMlPM-xyA1qDh-Ip7w-i8yVTJ0dMkVRWRHQUOCfa4X9vyygCynCXHW1japewky5aSCphlZYcU3Gz8zIvtgNABBbGggZaSob1xKSp8D5zBI65jeosDNxNsZM/s320/DSC_6728.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deer resting around the park</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6aIBlS60MMU/UObvaAUXCqI/AAAAAAAAAkU/Uh0PCrVcp2E/s1600/DSC_6846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6aIBlS60MMU/UObvaAUXCqI/AAAAAAAAAkU/Uh0PCrVcp2E/s320/DSC_6846.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking around the deep obstacles in the path</td></tr>
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We spent some time feeding the deer and going through a couple more museums, where we saw some ancient scrolls and more statues and fragments from as far back as the 13th century. They were quite interesting, but my memory isn't good enough to recite the facts - Rob probably remembers more than me, he was quite intrigued.<br />
After that we reached the main attraction - The Todaiji Temple, home of the giant bronze Buddha. Todaiji Temple's main hall is the worlds largest wooden building and houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha. The Buddha is 15 meters tall and the photos really do not do it justice, its pretty impressive close up.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjilZYN4ogQGntdGEW1qAahwSGVvHu-Y5sKY0WoxLdZWRsc2VG9e_7aqPpXM0JsLXtgFeKgJe-xfvTEBgyT-pgynb4i7LPiDzleqoAHyMTt81qh5c1E579kfwqmv51DS8OlMjynDZviU/s1600/DSC_6779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjilZYN4ogQGntdGEW1qAahwSGVvHu-Y5sKY0WoxLdZWRsc2VG9e_7aqPpXM0JsLXtgFeKgJe-xfvTEBgyT-pgynb4i7LPiDzleqoAHyMTt81qh5c1E579kfwqmv51DS8OlMjynDZviU/s320/DSC_6779.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Todaiji Temple's main hall</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBs_q-DTQs2QDqneP00J-SW6_Rn9A_C9xETVVt9xwRl-3-Ioiky7gNaxRdzFk0Qaw_6DKktVPfnCqhqxX4ZWtsYl2hRvqK5vw-DioaQU8DsnocbHs_ghICo3eE0sbU4UZA7mUQbMqD2k/s1600/DSC_6796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBs_q-DTQs2QDqneP00J-SW6_Rn9A_C9xETVVt9xwRl-3-Ioiky7gNaxRdzFk0Qaw_6DKktVPfnCqhqxX4ZWtsYl2hRvqK5vw-DioaQU8DsnocbHs_ghICo3eE0sbU4UZA7mUQbMqD2k/s320/DSC_6796.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The giant bronze Buddha</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNZm_MjwC7Lfq3VXAxult2-E9p9oALVtloyRQUCP6Anxh8FhQ1imy69wQHMAQio3ME6owSKo-5F6-OZujl5qXKVDlC5R9xa7VK7pA2x1fsM50fVx3jiBzhvG21VUPyrz7bX7spMmBAk0/s1600/DSC_6828.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnNZm_MjwC7Lfq3VXAxult2-E9p9oALVtloyRQUCP6Anxh8FhQ1imy69wQHMAQio3ME6owSKo-5F6-OZujl5qXKVDlC5R9xa7VK7pA2x1fsM50fVx3jiBzhvG21VUPyrz7bX7spMmBAk0/s320/DSC_6828.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The temple grounds</td></tr>
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On the way back we walked through the market, which was a couple of streets of hawker stalls mostly selling food. Everything there costs roughly 500 Yen each, including the museums, entrance into the temples and even most of the food items. There was a decent variety of food there, including Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, Yakitori, roasted corn, hot dogs, pancakes and lots more, but for 500 Yen, the servings were a bit small.<br />
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After a whole day of looking at temples, museums and deer, we headed home. Today was Rob and Sarah's 4th anniversary, so they went out together, my parents went their way and Jono, Rob and I got dinner at a more traditional Japanese Ramen restaurant. The food was pretty good, but my meal had two courses, which was way too big, so I did my best and left the rest.<br />
From there we managed to catch the last shuttle bus back to the hotel and call it a nightStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com2Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan34.6850869 135.805000234.4761084 135.4822767 34.8940654 136.1277237tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-65746319971046063042013-01-02T04:10:00.000-08:002013-01-03T06:29:49.132-08:00Day 6 - Easing into Kyoto<div dir="ltr">
The plan was to explore the local area today and spend tomorrow at Nara.<br />
Being a quiet time of year, we thought Kyoto would be the easier portion of our trip, so we plan on taking it a little slower here than Osaka and Tokyo.<br />
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We asked the hotel staff about where else to go for breakfast nearby, but due to the holiday season most things are shut, but if we head to the main strip there is a big shopping centre with more choices.</div>
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The group had their heart set on a Maccas breakfast, so we went in search of that. Breakfast seems to be the hardest part of our day, we're all looking forward to the next hotel where the buffet breakfast is included!<br />
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We followed the map to where McDonalds was supposed to be, but it wasn't there. We asked a local to see if we where just reading the map wrong, but it looked like it had been moved to a more central location, so we followed the directions from the local and eventually found it.</div>
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The main street was a lot busier than where our hotel is - it was a lot more like Osaka and there were plenty of people around.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DhtKoKvRAXU/UOWGxKgJhaI/AAAAAAAAAgo/xFapRsKv5wo/s1600/DSC_6532.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DhtKoKvRAXU/UOWGxKgJhaI/AAAAAAAAAgo/xFapRsKv5wo/s320/DSC_6532.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The CBD in Kyoto</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITZrJvWquORPOf_tLgTfNBbe9Lu22C9mAr8_LCp2M80_AShrBQxN4PE4tqrzOhYY89yVnjbihzIZrQB8q3_cCedWwFVnv85fidn39adHus5QkK_LoS9xqxMx2QTgxs_PxRjTGpms9yLw/s1600/DSC_6518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhITZrJvWquORPOf_tLgTfNBbe9Lu22C9mAr8_LCp2M80_AShrBQxN4PE4tqrzOhYY89yVnjbihzIZrQB8q3_cCedWwFVnv85fidn39adHus5QkK_LoS9xqxMx2QTgxs_PxRjTGpms9yLw/s320/DSC_6518.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Maccas breakfast</td></tr>
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From the main street, we continued on to the Nishiki Food Market. There was all sorts of food there from fairly standard western food to stuff I have never seen before! Alot of the stalls give out free samples, so we got to try some different food and buy some snacks<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjthwOCoQz1OC0Pi1WoVeb-qKmXIyXFK8eIBO_HObBGTHUxK3YodQ4m-bwp5t9u6NRv_Pc4DbrjSinRm4n45E-S_kZweZa4cHwwuDiztAMctJ3E-0MZsNd41xNlcDjdxIy6YAsxJfJvs/s1600/DSC_6542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjthwOCoQz1OC0Pi1WoVeb-qKmXIyXFK8eIBO_HObBGTHUxK3YodQ4m-bwp5t9u6NRv_Pc4DbrjSinRm4n45E-S_kZweZa4cHwwuDiztAMctJ3E-0MZsNd41xNlcDjdxIy6YAsxJfJvs/s320/DSC_6542.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Nishiki market</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4oq8mw4S527XjCw_Jo3cYMQR_e3ttkbXCdKNcP1FG84PmLnhFw9Z3YvPgxDkOI2n4B6Jg8Ej9h92SKG6ZzWQJjR2EEeUspNE2WMTCPZLNB0ngeeGx0no1rEWSS760cmBd01mx6sesUg/s1600/DSC_6535.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4oq8mw4S527XjCw_Jo3cYMQR_e3ttkbXCdKNcP1FG84PmLnhFw9Z3YvPgxDkOI2n4B6Jg8Ej9h92SKG6ZzWQJjR2EEeUspNE2WMTCPZLNB0ngeeGx0no1rEWSS760cmBd01mx6sesUg/s320/DSC_6535.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The weird and wonderful foods on sale</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh produce on sale at the Nishiki food market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh produce on sale at the Nishiki food market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chestnut stand</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mini donuts</td></tr>
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After we passed through the food focused areas, it turned to more souvenirs and gifts. In between all the shops, tucked down little alleys were temples and shrines. It was pretty cool to see a really busy shopping district where there's lots of noise, but then turn a corner and the sound dies down and there are people praying. As a stubborn westerner, I would have thought the religious sites and the loud shops would have been separate, but they are all mixed together quite nicely. I guess it shows that religion is a big part of the day-to-day life here.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temple down an ally from the shops</td></tr>
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This market was not where we were expecting to see our first traditional Japanese temple for the trip, but some of them were really nice and we got to see the local culture first hand.<br />
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After the markets, we made our way back to the train station. On the way there, we went past the Kyoto Town Hall to take a couple photos. Then back at the station we saw a kids magic show! It was a Japanese Charlie Chaplin and the kids (including us) loved it! There was also a person playing keyboard to make it more like a silent movie, but the keyboard was on wheels and he was able to play while we was walking around, it was pretty well done. From there Robert and Sarah went their own way and we got lunch at a local cafe. For lunch we had a burger (without the bun) with some rice and salad.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyoto Town Hall </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese Charlie Chaplin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking keyboard player</td></tr>
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We went back home and took it easy for the rest of the day. We relaxed for a couple of hours before we got ready to go dinner. I caught up on my blogs and we watched some Japanese tv for a little while.<br />
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For dinner we asked the hotel staff for a local recommendation. Funnily enough, they recommended an Italian restaurant! Most other places were closed, but the hotel staff even called the restaurant to make sure they would be open.<br />
We arrived at the restaurant and it looked fairly average from the outside, but on the inside, it was a mix between Japanese and Italian. There was some soft jazz playing in the background and a nice atmosphere, inside a Japanese style building with exposed beams on the inside. I didn't bring my camera, but I did get the waitress to take a photo of us with my phone.<br />
The food at this place was incredible! Italian food in Japan is popular, but they rarely get it right - not this time.<br />
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We ordered a set menu for about $36 which started out with a salad, then an antipasto platter with sweet vegetables, a bean and meat mix, a quiche, some fish pieces, some salmon sashimi and some bread. The main course was a pizza or a pasta of our choice - I got a prosciutto pizza that was cooked very nicely. After that we had the "special main" dish, which was a slow cooked piece of Wagyu beef that just melted apart. Then to finish it off we had a dessert platter that had a scoop of Earl Grey Tea ice cream, a panna cotta with strawberry topping and a piece of chocolate cake along with some coffee or tea.<br />
Not only was it one of the best meals I've had, but for $36 it was amazing!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Italian-Japanese restaurant</td></tr>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan35.0116363 135.7680293999999334.5959053 135.12258239999994 35.4273673 136.41347639999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-5942054618296077282013-01-01T05:27:00.000-08:002013-01-02T00:51:24.741-08:00Day 5 - Arriving in Kyoto<div dir="ltr">
After very little sleep we met in the lobby and checked out of our hotel. We asked the hotel staff to hold our luggage while we went to Shinsaibashi to find some breakfast. We ended up in yet another cafe that stunk of cigarettes, but they did have a breakfast menu. There was a few mix ups with breakfast, but overall it was ok. We did a little bit of shopping before heading back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. From there Robert navigated us to Kyoto via train. The whole trip probably took about an hour.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the train to Kyoto</td></tr>
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Once we got to Kyoto the first thing that stands out is just how much more space there is. Compared to Osaka, it felt like we were in a rural suburb! Walking down the smaller streets was even more interesting. Some of the houses had the stereotypical Japanese roof line that you see in the ninja movies - it looked very cool, can't wait to see more of the traditional side of Japan!</div>
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When we arrived at the hotel, it looked quite plain from the outside, but inside was really nice! The first thing that stood out was over to the right was a restaurant/bar with a view of a small waterfall as part of the hotel! Unfortunately the fancy places also come with fancy prices. The buffet breakfast wasn't included again, but if we wanted to pay for it, it would cost about $45! There is a few options for dinner in the hotel too, a dinner buffet which costs $65 (or $45 after the new year celebrations finish on the 3rd) and a nice looking steak house, which costs $100-$150 per person.<br />
We decided to try to find somewhere else to eat!</div>
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Walking around the streets of Kyoto is nothing like Osaka, at least where our hotel is. It's a lot quieter and there aren't many people walking around in comparison. This time of the year is very quiet in Kyoto. There is a large focus on family time and prayer. While this is a nice change, it did make it hard to find somewhere to eat because most places are closed.</div>
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We eventually came across a 24 hour fast food place, but not the western variety, a proper Japanese fast food place. They have a small diner with a machine where you pick your meal and pay, but it was all in Japanese. Luckily the staff spotted that and handed us a laminated sheet of paper that had English instructions on it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese fast food place</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The machine where you order</td></tr>
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On one side it had a few meals with English descriptions and on the other side some text apologising for not speaking English very well and asking us to take a seat and pick form the English paper menu instead of using the machine. When we ordered, the waiter then put our order into the machine for us.<br />
The food was out in a couple of minutes and it was pretty good and unlike our hotel, this tasty meal only cost about $4!</div>
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We left there and picked up some junk food from a nearby 7-11, before heading back to the hotel.<br />
Back at the hotel, we got speaking to the hotel staff who spoke very good English! It turns out that most of Kyoto is closed until the day we leave, then things start opening again. We sort of knew this would happen, but the hotel staff gave us a map and showed us where we could find restaurants, shops, temples, gardens and even where to go for a chance to see the training geisha girls, known as "Maiko".</div>
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It was a long day, so we just spent the rest of the night relaxing at the hotel. I caught up on blogs, and we even watched a couple of episodes of The IT Crowd!</div>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com3Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan35.0116363 135.7680293999999334.5959053 135.12258239999994 35.4273673 136.41347639999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-69429775326128828562012-12-31T11:13:00.002-08:002013-01-01T05:24:05.001-08:00Day 4 - New Years EveThis morning was the usual routine, we tried to find a new place for breakfast. This time we walked through Shinsaibashi and thought we'd find a cafe that serves breakfast, well that ended up being harder than we thought! We went into a cafe that looked like a Starbucks because they had a breakfast menu out the front, I ordered their "breakfast set", then the others did after me, but after about 2 of us ordered that, they were supposedly sold out and the rest had to order something else!<br />
The breakfast set included a toasted sandwich and a hot drink, but the sandwich was just a really small piece of thin bread microwaved with a slice of ham and some grated cheese. It was pretty crap!<br />
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From there we continued to walk down Shinsaibashi to find the bank. Apparently Citibank have a branch in Shinsaibashi and the map made it look like it was along the main strip, so we walked up a down a couple of times to no avail. We tried every ATM we came across, whether it be from proper banks or convenience stores, none of them would give us cash so Citibank seemed like our last hope!<br />
The map lead us to a Citibank billboard, which had an arrow on there, but there must be a different way to interpret arrows in Japan or something because we eventually found it with the help of a local, and it was not in the direction of the arrow!<br />
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After finally finding the Citibank branch, we were able to withdraw cash and we could finally make our way to Universal Studios! Robert navigated us to Universal Studios and when we got there, it was snowing! I had never seen so many snow flakes falling from the sky, so that was pretty nice... even though it was freezing!<br />
We arrived at about 2:30PM, normally this would be quite late to arrive at a theme park, but we wanted to be there for the new years eve celebration, so that still left us with plenty of time.<br />
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Universal Studios has its own train station and between that and the park is "Universal CityWalk", which is about 3 stories of souvenir shops and restaurants. Rob picked up our tickets from the JTB office here and we headed over to the gates with a quick stop at the iconic Universal Studios globe for a photo.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJX_itW6Rj1AkCE8OhFSZLOPxYgHkMHs5le7miPdHp9kN3F0u5L9l8GfqXT_YlN0iiegG5hSiBeXh7bMlGC1UoUef5KCVRJ3nTmjJdDBRqU-LYkLeWUo1x_hn9BZxXMRSBuNnj1tztW8/s1600/DSC_6158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJX_itW6Rj1AkCE8OhFSZLOPxYgHkMHs5le7miPdHp9kN3F0u5L9l8GfqXT_YlN0iiegG5hSiBeXh7bMlGC1UoUef5KCVRJ3nTmjJdDBRqU-LYkLeWUo1x_hn9BZxXMRSBuNnj1tztW8/s320/DSC_6158.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Universal Studios globe</td></tr>
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All excited we got to the gate, handed in our tickets, only for the ticketing assistant to point out that our tickets don't start until 7:00PM!<br />
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When we booked the tickets, we bought normal day tickets for the 31st, assuming it would last until the new years eve celebration, but instead, they kick everyone out of the park at 5:00PM, then people with the special "Countdown Ticket" are allowed back in at 7:00PM. So the people at JTB said that we could pay extra and upgrade our ticket to a "Countdown Ticket", so we did. Well it turns out that that extra cost is not just an upgrade to our ticket, or even a replacement for our ticket, it is a whole new ticket that does not let us in during the day, only from 7:00PM until 8:00PM the following day!<br />
There was obviously a miscommunication, but after talking with JTB and trying to work out why weren't allowed in, it came down to 2 options, we could buy a day ticket, which would cost about $60 and only last for 2-3 hours until everyone is kicked out, or we could kill 4 hours and go in at the designated time, so we did that.<br />
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It was pretty cold and we had some time to spend, so I ended up buying my first ever scarf and a new jumper. The jumper is pretty cool (pardon the pun), it is just like a normal hoody, but it has an extra strip of material that can be pulled over your head to cover your neck and face. Being all grey, Jonathan has dubbed it the "Dolphin Suit".<br />
The weather was changing quite frequently, there would be low winds and sun (but still cold), then it would just change to a small snow storm and a lot of people took cover to hide from the wind.<br />
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Universal CityWalk has a kind of food court that looks more like a bunch of hawker stalls. One of these little areas was called the "Takoyaki Museum", so we ended up ordering some freshly cooked Takoyaki by picking a random button on a machine. The takoyaki I ordered were a bit soft, but they were quite nice.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Takoyaki</td></tr>
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We spent the rest of the time at The Hard Rock Cafe in the warmth!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQYYQ-RsloveaPxZhNPbewPEzPV6t0-5masZRGujxuVXRYf1u1e81sUZZn0JRjIwgaGsos7niCMZI6Wc7NDWvUhHBmsZkDnTKCyhygPwahyphenhyphenxhGMLoYn0uSQZRXAKn6YMYhelfSrwLlJA/s1600/DSC_6159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQYYQ-RsloveaPxZhNPbewPEzPV6t0-5masZRGujxuVXRYf1u1e81sUZZn0JRjIwgaGsos7niCMZI6Wc7NDWvUhHBmsZkDnTKCyhygPwahyphenhyphenxhGMLoYn0uSQZRXAKn6YMYhelfSrwLlJA/s320/DSC_6159.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard Rock Cafe at Universal CityWalk</td></tr>
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The time to enter Universal Studios finally came around and went in! The park looked pretty good at night and they do a pretty good job of the surroundings, but being at night, I didn't take as many photos as I probably would have during the day. Alot of the rides and attractions were exactly the same as Universal Studios in Singapore (such as Shrek 4D Cinema, the Backdraft special effects demonstration and the Waterworld show).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fcQaL2TlaWA/UOLTtq1Y5HI/AAAAAAAAAa4/D5wr3-x8IN4/s1600/DSC_6179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fcQaL2TlaWA/UOLTtq1Y5HI/AAAAAAAAAa4/D5wr3-x8IN4/s320/DSC_6179.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front entrance of Universal Studios</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mOshHnZv954LMSQBVjTNa_DXge8iOG1_n2moYpo9vUVHdo0_-GzHz301rWGJVlxTl6AyIofnOQnWbFZnI4OlSPzl97vzWdyDs9EyMjXHDdS2LzRLp6kNWKchQ3PxaXqpUz3xojAbrOA/s1600/DSC_6185.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5mOshHnZv954LMSQBVjTNa_DXge8iOG1_n2moYpo9vUVHdo0_-GzHz301rWGJVlxTl6AyIofnOQnWbFZnI4OlSPzl97vzWdyDs9EyMjXHDdS2LzRLp6kNWKchQ3PxaXqpUz3xojAbrOA/s320/DSC_6185.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo booth</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RaBo0eVGF74/UOLY_kX2KrI/AAAAAAAAAbc/DVbMzOIkdV8/s1600/DSC_6191.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RaBo0eVGF74/UOLY_kX2KrI/AAAAAAAAAbc/DVbMzOIkdV8/s320/DSC_6191.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random building </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WDwtmu5M951VXyU3VmiblrOVou1BsIsiqW6DDCYHXhcSoJwxFa46brWeX5mFPE_QANCoOdhHHtflj8Srhw-XVG8T8gz2x83M7Cog-l6niqZj6KzZUgDpbaaU5QizFXlxYpJk99nbCxk/s1600/DSC_6370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WDwtmu5M951VXyU3VmiblrOVou1BsIsiqW6DDCYHXhcSoJwxFa46brWeX5mFPE_QANCoOdhHHtflj8Srhw-XVG8T8gz2x83M7Cog-l6niqZj6KzZUgDpbaaU5QizFXlxYpJk99nbCxk/s320/DSC_6370.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Hollywood Dream" roller coaster</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1S8hkP-k_aM/UOLZk83CXpI/AAAAAAAAAdU/RYn5DMX3U0g/s1600/DSC_6392.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1S8hkP-k_aM/UOLZk83CXpI/AAAAAAAAAdU/RYn5DMX3U0g/s320/DSC_6392.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Monster Rock Show</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-181ehQK-FrI/UOLZzWw4tRI/AAAAAAAAAdc/r-tHy7T0CBg/s1600/DSC_6399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-181ehQK-FrI/UOLZzWw4tRI/AAAAAAAAAdc/r-tHy7T0CBg/s320/DSC_6399.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random building </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vSau-AW8T7U/UOLZBhK070I/AAAAAAAAAbk/Dv4mMxS13Sc/s1600/DSC_6193.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vSau-AW8T7U/UOLZBhK070I/AAAAAAAAAbk/Dv4mMxS13Sc/s320/DSC_6193.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lake in the middle of the park</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMFiXmbdFO4m08hMzkM3BCoU3UkfV9aS6-mjjNZuphDwG2S4NEcQBRLgzewuuGbHrg2uqMYuHADp5dHGhToMofFnbudEZirzqjicYNCDUpyHQzZS8tgXeXU-88zekNjWNtLxRyzmizJs/s1600/DSC_6200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMFiXmbdFO4m08hMzkM3BCoU3UkfV9aS6-mjjNZuphDwG2S4NEcQBRLgzewuuGbHrg2uqMYuHADp5dHGhToMofFnbudEZirzqjicYNCDUpyHQzZS8tgXeXU-88zekNjWNtLxRyzmizJs/s320/DSC_6200.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random cafe </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSsi-yiLRjk/UOLZGAiVvsI/AAAAAAAAAb4/eyphWlIp45o/s1600/DSC_6204.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSsi-yiLRjk/UOLZGAiVvsI/AAAAAAAAAb4/eyphWlIp45o/s320/DSC_6204.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back to the Future ride </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixStf1wSXjt-jeyapF8MvxnyEMPZkLirCwlVdGBezxheu7PxBAt7O5mlVH6p1EqAEMn30kPmGVH8DBV2ptCgNwCCWmIqGPwpdHbD_3ChiaLuzDgBfSqI0C9XWg3Bds2usPgrZOkazYFzw/s1600/DSC_6208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixStf1wSXjt-jeyapF8MvxnyEMPZkLirCwlVdGBezxheu7PxBAt7O5mlVH6p1EqAEMn30kPmGVH8DBV2ptCgNwCCWmIqGPwpdHbD_3ChiaLuzDgBfSqI0C9XWg3Bds2usPgrZOkazYFzw/s320/DSC_6208.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Delorean </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vSho0Zc8SX_0lEpFOFhAfyCmsckPv5uba9RRi1KFgOmJgFe7NroU4AOBhaZcwgXH2Xz-MjZfOgHWQHliz01WsmOMRYrdot-FBTqxks8s25d878rTm82vmnHBJkkTVZVoBmVD4gViNRs/s1600/DSC_6256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vSho0Zc8SX_0lEpFOFhAfyCmsckPv5uba9RRi1KFgOmJgFe7NroU4AOBhaZcwgXH2Xz-MjZfOgHWQHliz01WsmOMRYrdot-FBTqxks8s25d878rTm82vmnHBJkkTVZVoBmVD4gViNRs/s320/DSC_6256.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Waterworld show</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiYSlF05L5Jr2_GGzXYiODPaAY4BUsjVyr5LiuFEyAUyaWXZnOMiXUulrxT9ddnsC9TyuqhneU3BSmEFu2xmVrJDNRr1Mem0WgPfgJLmvVoRHHypHJK_jsGa3_m0ZgHPpY-mfzFO3lwgw/s1600/DSC_6293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiYSlF05L5Jr2_GGzXYiODPaAY4BUsjVyr5LiuFEyAUyaWXZnOMiXUulrxT9ddnsC9TyuqhneU3BSmEFu2xmVrJDNRr1Mem0WgPfgJLmvVoRHHypHJK_jsGa3_m0ZgHPpY-mfzFO3lwgw/s320/DSC_6293.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The huge Christmas tree next to the stage</td></tr>
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I didn't really go on any rides, but the others did. It almost seemed like I had been there before with the amount of similarities to Singapore, but it was still pretty cool. I was pretty impressed to see how many people still got wet at the Waterworld show considering how cold it was! We had hot weather in Singapore for the same show, so seeing someone jump in the water from a height was fairly normal, but here in Japan, they must have been freezing!</div>
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Midnight came around and they had a fireworks display around the lake. We started walking in that direction, but the amount of people was incredible! The crowd was flowing for a little while, but eventually it just gridlocked and no one was going anywhere. Luckily the spot we got stuck was halfway between the stage and the lake, so our view was relatively good.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I0kyPrNJ-Jo/UOLZOHKrDYI/AAAAAAAAAcg/mE0TutFhME4/s1600/DSC_6329.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I0kyPrNJ-Jo/UOLZOHKrDYI/AAAAAAAAAcg/mE0TutFhME4/s320/DSC_6329.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">New Years Eve celebration</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">New Years Eve celebration</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">New Years Eve celebration</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Our group in the new year!</td></tr>
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After the big celebration, Jono and Rob lined up for about an hour for the big roller coaster and we headed home. It was a pretty big day!</div>
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When we got home we were all pretty tired, but we needed to pack and get ready to leave for Kyoto the next day. Because I bought the new luggage, I moved all my stuff from one suitcase to the other and made sure I would be ready to go to Kyoto in a zombie state.</div>
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I ended up taking some last photos of our hotel which made me actually look out the window, something I never really did properly until now. The view from our room was quite nice!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from our hotel room</td></tr>
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On our way home Rob and Jono bought some McDonalds. Rob was pretty tired, but he was still eating and talking just like normal, but then about 30 seconds after he was talking to us he was asleep... in his clothes... surrounded in McDonalds... I couldn't help but take photo :P<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKYkLbRf3v0XYUEgkQDG3QDxlrflM_fWPF-sXTWmscxyIijs02LwUlTLY3ys7DugnwEdjiAsZqqb-1vn9v92lDA_CRz-wiLSJqB-ogfaR7Ao3OGgbQdcYD2w2P42aUcwUszRcreV5TMo/s1600/DSC_6432.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKYkLbRf3v0XYUEgkQDG3QDxlrflM_fWPF-sXTWmscxyIijs02LwUlTLY3ys7DugnwEdjiAsZqqb-1vn9v92lDA_CRz-wiLSJqB-ogfaR7Ao3OGgbQdcYD2w2P42aUcwUszRcreV5TMo/s320/DSC_6432.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rob asleep in his clothes surrounded in McDonalds!</td></tr>
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Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com1Universal Studios Japan, 2丁目-1-33 Sakurajima, Konohana Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 554-0031, Japan34.665947 135.43231934.456888500000005 135.1095955 34.8750055 135.7550425tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-44310153747003781612012-12-30T08:29:00.001-08:002012-12-30T08:29:28.456-08:00Day 3 - Kaiyukan AquariumToday was our last full unplanned day in Osaka, because tomorrow we are going to Universal Studios to celebrate new years eve, so today we went to go see the aquarium.<br />
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We went to find some breakfast, and ended up in another western-ish cafe near our hotel. It was an Italian place, but we ended up getting bacon, eggs and toast. I like most things about Japanese culture, but I hate the fact they still smoke indoors, so unfortunately this place was a bit smokey for our liking.<br />
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After that we made our way to the aquarium. It was raining most of the day today and while Jono brought an umbrella, none of us did. Last time we went to Japan, we did not get a single day of rain, so we assumed it would be the same this time, but that's not the case!<br />
On our way to the aquarium, we stopped at a convenience store and bought some umbrellas. They cost 550 Yen, and they are everywhere! People even leave them around, so my mum didn't even need to buy one, she just found an abandoned one lying around.<br />
Out the front of most places, they have disposable umbrella sleeves too, and they fit the cheap umbrella's perfectly, its a good system!<br />
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We got to the aquarium, and spent 2-3 hours there. The aquarium walks you through various sections that represent different parts of the world. Rather than describing all the areas, I'll just upload a bunch of photos. It was a bit hard to take photos in there with the low light, fast moving fish and just my kit lens, but with a high enough ISO, some of them turned out ok.<br />
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After the aquarium, we went across the road to a shopping centre for some lunch. We got our first proper Japanese lunch. I ordered a pork and egg okonomiyaki and it was really nice! (I'm not a big fan of okonomiyaki in Melbourne, they have too much cabbage! but there is lots of variety in Japan!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My okonomiyaki lunch</td></tr>
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After a bit shopping, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up. Before we went to dinner, we headed back to the shops from yesterday to buy the luggage I had my eye on. We found another place that sells luggage and they had a lot more variety! I thought we hit the jackpot until I realised I was converting the prices incorrectly. I found some luggage that I liked, and I thought it was $60, but it turns out if was $600... and all the others were around the same price. So we left there pretty quickly! :P<br />
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During lunch at the aquarium my parents got talking to some locals, and they recommended a restaurant where we actually fish out a your own fish to cook. They gave us a business card and said to look out for the giant crab on top of the building.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUSrvY_Dsk6uz9l1XWwDdB84E6mF8kSZ-fquhyphenhyphenHt4slXSpvTi-tKHSh028UnmqihaZwZbE-bqckLUrYU6JjwSKu740szUhvhQakYox8jG4NX9TmscpIeJVxcyKudyKktxAllYpRaxlO0/s1600/20121230_193655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUSrvY_Dsk6uz9l1XWwDdB84E6mF8kSZ-fquhyphenhyphenHt4slXSpvTi-tKHSh028UnmqihaZwZbE-bqckLUrYU6JjwSKu740szUhvhQakYox8jG4NX9TmscpIeJVxcyKudyKktxAllYpRaxlO0/s320/20121230_193655.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This building seemed to fit the bill, and they were booked out, so we waited an hour to get in... and then we realised it wasn't the right place! It was the first time I had fresh crab though, and it was a really nice restaurant! It looked like a traditional Japanese restaurant with our own private room with cardboard walls and the low table.<br />
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After dinner we just headed home, picked up some junk food and tried to find a suitable ATM.<br />
It turns out that the ATMs in the convenience stores don't accept non-Japanese cards, even though they have the Visa logo on them, it rejected my Visa card, so tomorrow we need to find a bank that will accept international cards!<br />
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Going to bed now at 1:30AM was probably not a great idea considering tomorrow night (aka tonight) is new years eve... hopefully I don't fall asleep during the celebrations!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Kaigandori, Minato Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 552-0022, Japan34.6517698 135.4386272000000434.6387078 135.41845720000003 34.664831799999995 135.45879720000005tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-29747773496012622692012-12-29T07:16:00.000-08:002012-12-30T06:52:24.482-08:00Day 2 - ShinsaibashiAs promised, the first thing I did after getting up was take a few photos of our hotel.<br />
Jonathan seems to be impressed with the color schemes, but other than that, it does look pretty fancy! It has a church on level 22, and there seems to be a lot of bridal shops, there is a few fancy restaurants around and an art gallery on the ground floor. The elevators have a kind of steam punk feel to them too, they have a fan in them that looks like a propeller and the buttons are little glass spheres.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--Ik75St1_bg/UN77dPm37EI/AAAAAAAAAT8/OFxffcnur8U/s1600/DSC_5668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--Ik75St1_bg/UN77dPm37EI/AAAAAAAAAT8/OFxffcnur8U/s320/DSC_5668.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hotel lobby</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A church on level 22 of the hotel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fan inside the elevator</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XcQIXJH_nDg/UN77mNtydpI/AAAAAAAAAUY/RlztjpKosv4/s1600/DSC_5671.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XcQIXJH_nDg/UN77mNtydpI/AAAAAAAAAUY/RlztjpKosv4/s320/DSC_5671.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance to the hotel</td></tr>
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We missed the hotel breakfast, but by looking at the menu, the buffet breakfast costs $25, which we thought was a little expensive, so we went for a walk instead.<br />
It was a nice sunny morning, the air was crisp, but we were all expecting it to be much colder so it was a pretty pleasant walk.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkJOs72auQbvWcB1njmcK3oCMOnufMRUDOfSMdSP03Ue3vc8CYRXQkCBLUjd0RKYNN71gXbUsIGOyGgF-eyNfvzJ-KBH2ZHJIkQZENx_seHRm753AUy8X9xQedUDvdsZtrNllFYKW_ZM/s1600/DSC_5673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkJOs72auQbvWcB1njmcK3oCMOnufMRUDOfSMdSP03Ue3vc8CYRXQkCBLUjd0RKYNN71gXbUsIGOyGgF-eyNfvzJ-KBH2ZHJIkQZENx_seHRm753AUy8X9xQedUDvdsZtrNllFYKW_ZM/s320/DSC_5673.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back streets near our hotel</td></tr>
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Most places seemed like they only served lunch and dinner and alot of places were just setting up for the day ahead, but we eventually found a place that had a breakfast menu.<br />
As it turns out, we missed breakfast there too, but there lunch menu still had pancakes, raison toast, etc. so we just ordered and used that time to work out what we wanted to do with our limited time in Osaka.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DCftqVhGqEw/UN77t5RSXwI/AAAAAAAAAUs/acxYRcQ0AmE/s1600/DSC_5679.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DCftqVhGqEw/UN77t5RSXwI/AAAAAAAAAUs/acxYRcQ0AmE/s320/DSC_5679.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raison toast with freshly squeezed orange juice</td></tr>
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We decided that the 3 main attractions we all wanted to see were the Osaka Castle, the Osaka Aquarium and some of the shopping areas. We headed back to our hotel to get some information from our concierge. We found out that alot of things are shut between Christmas and New Years, including Osaka Castle, so that left the shopping and the aquarium on the list.<br />
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We ended up going to a shopping area called "Shinsaibashi". It is a long (mostly undercover) street with lots of shops from food and coffee places to clothes and even a pachinko parlour.<br />
We spent a couple of hours doing random shopping before meeting up at around 3:30PM.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdWNPHMUGdgLncsr-bmNXqbUjttBocQM7GdvhZxcfrMhmqVnitSD9tAR_Q_0A5alFtEtZ0rE2jhHfzMG3flU1cG6Hj9aUBVBX4l9v_NOux-Vx2lD7GvrGbDeIN8AmUjspsaOWnOQV9O0/s1600/DSC_5689.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdWNPHMUGdgLncsr-bmNXqbUjttBocQM7GdvhZxcfrMhmqVnitSD9tAR_Q_0A5alFtEtZ0rE2jhHfzMG3flU1cG6Hj9aUBVBX4l9v_NOux-Vx2lD7GvrGbDeIN8AmUjspsaOWnOQV9O0/s320/DSC_5689.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shinsaibashi </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4umUpPqvsRFKnGdLjeQuWPKolEV5lSGdyxSP0g8RG9ZxdoSo6gduHNitVJycBNWSiJwTICq_J8BZ5oEAlnCMdwtvsAzuK3CEAYM4uMF7d1rWo2Z_ppPn9u0yA1Je3KfBk1qiOWB2Q4Ms/s1600/DSC_5693.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4umUpPqvsRFKnGdLjeQuWPKolEV5lSGdyxSP0g8RG9ZxdoSo6gduHNitVJycBNWSiJwTICq_J8BZ5oEAlnCMdwtvsAzuK3CEAYM4uMF7d1rWo2Z_ppPn9u0yA1Je3KfBk1qiOWB2Q4Ms/s320/DSC_5693.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shinsaibashi</td></tr>
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Rob and Sarah met up with us a little bit earlier, so we thought we should check out the patchinko palour. Last time Rob and I were in Japan, we took a look inside one of these places, but we didn't play, so this time, we thought we'd give it a go!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWnaB3e_a3ACuaL9jW-hCJGnyPB0zC04ai3StA7VpaF1onlvlmjlfqRIl1jQoXX8GdCx-WURrUOISfa_1W5r_1cJ4cWxvsHU6zRCZYHSaB43j-KaS-hgDWv8Aep5ashyphenhyphen3hrJATkHJbMA/s1600/DSC_5692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvWnaB3e_a3ACuaL9jW-hCJGnyPB0zC04ai3StA7VpaF1onlvlmjlfqRIl1jQoXX8GdCx-WURrUOISfa_1W5r_1cJ4cWxvsHU6zRCZYHSaB43j-KaS-hgDWv8Aep5ashyphenhyphen3hrJATkHJbMA/s320/DSC_5692.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patchinko Parlour</td></tr>
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We got some English instructions from the desk and eventually (sort of) worked it out.<br />
You basically have to buy some ball bearings by putting some money in the Patchinko machine. The balls are collected in a tray at the base of the machine, and to play you have to turn a dial to start shooting the balls through a pinball looking obstacle course. Most of them simply fall to the bottom and disappear, but the goal is to get as many balls as you can into a small hole just above the bottom of the course, which is quite difficult. If you get enough in, then you can jackpot and win more ball bearings. The more you turn the dial, the faster the balls are launched into the course, so you need to keep adjusting the power until you find a level that works, that is the only control you have.<br />
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Every game is slightly different, but they all seem to have the same basic goal.<br />
There may be a little more to it than that, but that was all we could gather from the instructions and an awkward conversation with the non-English speaking assistant. Needless to say I quite quickly lost my 1000 Yen with nothing to show for it! But I can say I've done it now :)<br />
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From here we headed to Umeda, where we wanted to go to the observation deck of the Umeda Sky Building. The building was pretty fancy looking and had a nice view of Osaka from the top.<br />
We had our fill of sights, got a drink and then headed back to the Shinsaibashi shops and then back to the hotel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyn4qR_HKyA8ihUbFNvYmXegv2s_JUGBuJz6dfhVx3AP_TawiKWQpXFmyky-ivNTpekFs1kco0eiFKCxkDQc8Q9u0W_EdVjOdNXGOaiQ3IfpuMUm8KCYa0Nf2czCzj32KO7v1Fo9F62Y/s1600/DSC_5697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyn4qR_HKyA8ihUbFNvYmXegv2s_JUGBuJz6dfhVx3AP_TawiKWQpXFmyky-ivNTpekFs1kco0eiFKCxkDQc8Q9u0W_EdVjOdNXGOaiQ3IfpuMUm8KCYa0Nf2czCzj32KO7v1Fo9F62Y/s320/DSC_5697.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The base of the Umeda Sky Building</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEK6MQxos1ER-9aAEprRMdHYP7yWWVUE1ng1Jhen7j4X_aRGA8KkZTVu2h8KVbeirCnblUPntizbEOaVN8FT3z_cp-nKgctF6wTaQNSOSAs06ZoVueEQb4nFCbskmYGEWNVNj_xg8L2Q/s1600/DSC_5704.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEK6MQxos1ER-9aAEprRMdHYP7yWWVUE1ng1Jhen7j4X_aRGA8KkZTVu2h8KVbeirCnblUPntizbEOaVN8FT3z_cp-nKgctF6wTaQNSOSAs06ZoVueEQb4nFCbskmYGEWNVNj_xg8L2Q/s320/DSC_5704.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from the top</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tKC1RB8Ddks/UN78wvPbyqI/AAAAAAAAAVY/464-Wi2e6dc/s1600/DSC_5707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tKC1RB8Ddks/UN78wvPbyqI/AAAAAAAAAVY/464-Wi2e6dc/s320/DSC_5707.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">The view from the top</td></tr>
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It was a pretty good day and we had done a lot of walking, Shinsaibashi is quite a long stretch of shops, so we were all ready to put our feet up!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0Shinsaibashi Station, 4丁目-4 Minamisenba, Chuo Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan34.675012 135.5003299999999634.6619535 135.48015999999996 34.6880705 135.52049999999997tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-68553191906610285222012-12-28T07:47:00.001-08:002012-12-30T06:52:36.710-08:00Day 1 - Arriving in OsakaWe made it!<br />
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The plan was to get to bed early, so we could leave our place at 3:30AM to get our 6:00AM flight from Melbourne. Jonathan was getting is own way there and he arrived half an hour before us, while Rob was going to drive to our place, leave his car there and get a taxi with us at 3:30AM.<br />
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We were all ready at 3:30AM and the taxi arrived right on time, we were just waiting for Rob to arrive. We loaded up our bags and then I got a call from Rob - he was lost, and instead of just being lost in our suburb, he was half an hour away!<br />
We couldn't wait from him to arrive at our place, so we tried to offer suggestions for Rob but we had to leave if we were going to make our flight. Rob ended up driving through quite a few suburbs and ended up getting a lift from his dad. Surprisingly, he arrived not that long after us, which is quite impressive considering the detours and panicking before hand.<br />
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We checked in our luggage and went to get some breakfast, but even that took longer than expected, so by the time Rob and Jon had there meal, they had 5 minutes to eat it before our plane was boarding. We ended up getting on during the final call!<br />
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We arrived at Cairns and had to collect our baggage from the domestic terminal and check it in to the international terminal. Unfortunately they couldn't be checked right through from Melbourne to Osaka, but it was ok because we had a 3 hour stop over there, so plenty of time to kill!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_eOuKXPD-KA/UN258qHC1WI/AAAAAAAAATc/LJhl5q34218/s1600/DSC_5656e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_eOuKXPD-KA/UN258qHC1WI/AAAAAAAAATc/LJhl5q34218/s320/DSC_5656e.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from Cairns Airport</td></tr>
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My luggage has already been a bit damaged over the years, one zipper has broken, and some of the plastic was missing, but it was still going strong. Unfortunately while we were in line to check in at Cairns, the handle broke off! So I think its safe to say it's done its fair share of travelling and I'm ready for a new one! Dragging it by a strap is not very fun!<br />
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After what seemed like a long flight, we finally arrived at Osaka and got some food... yea we got western food, we were all tired, it was a 'safe' option for everyone and we all wanted to see how different Japanese Macca's was like.<br />
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After that we found the train station. Before the trip I used Google Maps to find the best route from the airport to our hotel via public transport. The route I found was going to cost about $6, but had 2 change overs, but when we got to the station, there was another train network (Nankai) that had a direct route to Namba, where our hotel is, and it only cost us $12, which is still pretty cheap for a 35 minute train ride.<br />
The train looked really cool too! It kind of had a steam punk feel to it and it was incredibly smooth! The inside was pretty good too, the seats had heaters under them and the seats could be rotated 180 degress with a foot pedal. It was a nice introduction to the awesome Japanese train system!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-408b_g6n9Bw/UN26hDYMUXI/AAAAAAAAATs/IReZc5XCsBc/s1600/DSC_5663_NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-408b_g6n9Bw/UN26hDYMUXI/AAAAAAAAATs/IReZc5XCsBc/s320/DSC_5663_NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy looking Nankai train</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpeWcjFGpk39GnVOd45S9QMTWrxKD0-MtffT-qEaZrT7Lk359VhRMrXKZq2v7dZ98Csc7afeu-fs2Aq4RU7nwF3gjXMNIgMHb_p6YnRDC7K9YJ6Kh2WG42XIYmpR10_1C83MvHyzuZQHc/s1600/DSC_5659_NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpeWcjFGpk39GnVOd45S9QMTWrxKD0-MtffT-qEaZrT7Lk359VhRMrXKZq2v7dZ98Csc7afeu-fs2Aq4RU7nwF3gjXMNIgMHb_p6YnRDC7K9YJ6Kh2WG42XIYmpR10_1C83MvHyzuZQHc/s320/DSC_5659_NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy tourists!</td></tr>
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<br />
After walking through the rainy streets of Osaka, we found the building of our hotel ok, but getting in was a bit more difficult. The hotel shares the building with other businesses as well, including an art gallery, and they all have very similar names!<br />
<br />
We finally found the hotel reception desk, it happened to be on level 22, but the elevators were a little hidden, and I'm sure there were plenty of signs, but they were mostly in Japanese!<br />
The hotel is really nice! I haven't actually taken many photos yet, but I will soon!<br />
We checked in and then went for a quick walk down the street to get some supplies before calling it a night. Most of us had gone for quite a while without much sleep, so we were looking forward to getting to a real bed!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-13735925648495135832012-12-22T00:30:00.000-08:002012-12-22T00:30:13.937-08:00Mobile phones in JapanThere are not many things I don't like about Japan, but one of them is the difficulty that foreigners have to set up a SIM card, unlike most other places I've been to, I can't just go to the local 7-11 and pick up a pre-paid card.<br />
<br />
While there are travel companies that will rent you a phone for your stay, a quick an easy alternative is to buy a Telstra pre-paid here in Australia before you go. Normally Telstra are the most expensive option, but in this case these SIM cards come with international roaming already setup and ready to go as soon as they are activated, and for basic SMS's, etc. the price is pretty affordable.<br />
<br />
I bought a $30 prepaid Telstra SIM card from Kmart, activated online within about 15 minutes (although it can take up to 4 hours) and I was ready to go. While we are in Japan, SMS's between us will cost 75c and calls will cost $1.48/minute.<br />
Also, if we happen to use more than $30 in our short 2 week trip, we can top them up online just like we were in Australia.<br />
One more thing to note, is that most phones come locked to their provider, so if you're with Optus, etc. you might want to either look at getting your phone unlocked or some alternatives.<br />
<br />
For more details on pricing, check out this page<br />
<a href="http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/international-roaming/pricing-compatibility/">http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/international-roaming/pricing-compatibility/</a>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4603254495521279888.post-79598930375340946612012-12-11T04:28:00.000-08:002012-12-16T18:28:32.559-08:00Travel Money<style>
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For most of my overseas trips, I have used the Commonwealth Banks prepaid "Travel Money Card", but my last trip was an exception.<br />
<br />
As part of my usual research I came across the NAB "Gold Card" (or something like that).<br />
This worked out better because it wasn't prepaid, there was a monthly fee (of which I would only ever have to pay once) and it was free to open, close, convert currency, etc.<br />
Well it turns out that product has been discontinued, in favour of the NABs prepaid "Traveller Card".<br />
<br />
Another suggestion was the JetStar Travel Card, which have a special on at the moment where they are waiving the initial load fee. Comparing the three, here is how the fees are structured:<br />
<br />
<table id="pricing" style="text-align: center;">
<tbody>
<tr style="background-color: #dddddd;">
<th>Fee</th>
<th><a href="http://www.nab.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/nab/nab/home/Personal_Finance/1/5/9/">NAB Traveller Card</a></th>
<th><a href="http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/international/travel-money-card.html">CBA Travel Money Card</a></th>
<th><a href="http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/travelcards/home">JetStar Travel Card</a></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Open account</th>
<td>Free</td>
<td>$15</td>
<td>Free</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Close account</th>
<td>Free</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td>$10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Initial load</th>
<td>1%</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td>Free<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(normally $15)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Reload</th>
<td>1%</td>
<td>1% (max $15)</td>
<td>1%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Currency conversion</th>
<td>4%</td>
<td>Free</td>
<td>Free</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ATM withdrawal in Japan</th>
<td>Free</td>
<td>220 Yen</td>
<td>Free<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(normally 325 Yen)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ATM withdrawal in Australia</th>
<td>$3.75</td>
<td>Free from CBA ATMs<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">($3.50 otherwise)</span></td>
<td>$3.95</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
As JetStar are currently having a sale, their option seems to be the most cost effective, otherwise the CBA Travel Money Card would probably be the best option.<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>A (possibly) better option</b><br />
<br />
Robert Filippone mentioned a Citibank account that may be suitable, so I went down to the Melbourne branch to ask some questions. They way I understand it, it turns out their "<a href="http://www.citibank.com.au/aus/banking/everyday_banking/citibank_plus.htm" target="_blank">Citibank Plus</a>" account is very similar to the product I had from the NAB before they discontinued it. They claim to have "no fees"... at all.<br />
<br />
It is not designed specifically for travel, but being a Visa card, it's accepted all over the world. This also means that we just load up Aussie dollars, and we get the exchange rate for that day, which could be better or worse depending on the rate at the time.<br />
<br />
In terms of fees, well its free to open, free to close, free to transfer money to and from the account, free to exchange currencies (i.e. no fee for withdrawing cash in a foreign country's currency via an ATM) unless I was to use a third parties ATM, then the third party would charge an ATM fee, but it seems <a href="http://www.citibank.co.jp/en/banking/branch_atm/index.html" target="_blank">Citibank have their own ATM's in Japan</a>, so if we use them, even that is free.<br />
<br />
I've opened an account with them, and I'm hoping it is all setup and ready to go before the trip. The guy at the branch said he could organise express delivery, so hopefully it all goes well.<br />
<br />
My plan is to use this account for Japan, then re-evaluate my own everyday banking.<br />
If if the account works well, having this convenience in my everyday banking account will mean one less thing to organise for my next overseas trip.<br />
Hopefully the lack of Citibank branches won't prove to be a problem!Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17635851344281945521noreply@blogger.com1