Day 20 - Nara

I planned to go to Nara for the entire week but it just never happened... until today that is :D

Uppon arriving and walking accross the main street leading up to the temples there was a matsuri going on, lucky me :o

After walking through the entire mob I reached the first temple, nothing much to see except for a shrine with 5 roofs.

Some people posing for the camera:

The second temple however holds the worlds largest Budha statue.

The third temple I visited was located in woodland area.

I think I saw more schoolchildren today in Nara alone than on my entire vacation together.

Day 19 - Den Den Town & Cinema

Not much to say today really, I woke up ON TIME and it was bloody raining :(

After the rain stopped it was already past noon so I decided to head to Den Den Town again. About 3 hours later I returned to the appartment with about 20000 yen less ;3

My suitcase is packed for now, everything fits inside save for the "extra" clothing I got with me. It weighs about 20.5 kg which should be just fine to pass through the airport weighing scale :]



After returning "home" I had a little chat with my neighbours upstairs (Django, Gwen and the rest of the "gang"). Eventually I started getting hungry so I went to CoCo's again (yeah I'm kind of getting addicted to curry :3 ). Around 8 'o clock I decided I wanted to do something semi-usefull with my time instead of just wasting it in the appartment and I went to the local Toho Cinema. Sadly enough they weren't showing any of the movies I wanted (Naruto Shippuuden / Evangelion 2.0) so I went to the only movie that interested me... "G.I. Joe".
It was better than I thought but in my eyes it was a bit too futuristic :<

Tomorrow probably Nara on the menu, if the weather doesn't suck that is >______<

P.S.: the random pics in this post are some nice itasha cars (cars with huge anime-themed stickers on them) in Den Den Town.

Day 18 - Shigureden (Arashiyama) & Oude Kaas

Today I went to Arashiyama (litterally translated: new mountain, I don't know if that is the actual meaning though :3 ).
It was only a short trip by shinkansen to Kyoto and then a local JR train to Arashiyama station. Once there it was a 15 minute walk to the place I was looking for.


Shigureden, a museum about 100 famous poems written by Japanese top poets, but in Nintendo style! The entire museum used the Nintendo DS technology which allowed to do everything in realtime action.

At first I could use the DS I was given as a sort of GPS system, a bird would appear and guide me to the place I pinpointed on my DS. After a while the entire floor started flashing and a minigame started, some sort of "find the picture". I ended up being first, but it was kind of an unfair battle seeing as all of my opponents were children xD
I returned back to the station right on time because it started raining as soon as I boarded my train.

At nightfall I went with some other people to Osaka's "Oude Kaas" restaurant. It's run by a chef who lived 14 years in the Netherlands, and he actually speaks Dutch!
I treated myself to a good old-fashioned pancake with bacon and a Duvel :] . I also took a bite of the "vlammetjes" they served, and daaaaamn they sure do serve their name xD

Day 17 - Tokyo Day 2

Ah man, there's such a wooooooorld of difference in levels of comfort between Toyoko Inn and Weekly Mansion O_O

Anyway, back on track! Today we went to south-east Tokyo named Daiba.
About 5 weeks ago they erected a 1:1 size model of a Gundam there to celebrate Gundam's 30th anniversary.


It was really huge and quite a nice view was to be had.

After the oversized tin can (just kidding ofcourse) we went hunting for some yukata's. Yesterday I mailed back and forth with Niels for some names of stores we could go to. I only got one, the bazaar at Harajuku. No problem we thought, on the Yamanote line to Harajuku, 30 mins later arriving there. Then we had a short walk down the street, only to see that the store was closed on thursdays (oh noes D: ).

Well after that small set-back, I luckily had a back-up plan with me. Only 5 minutes away by train there was a shop in Shibuya. I'm 100% sure it was the smallest shop I've ever seen in my entire life xD .

That put asside, the personel of the shop was very nice to us and one of the ladies even spoke fluent English, so asking for certain details was no problem at all :)

After half an hour George, Gwen and myself exited the shop with our yukatas (finally the search was over :p).

Out of the blue: A Belgian waffle chain!

Day 16 - Ghibli Museum & Tokyo

Today I had to get up at 4.30 in the morning to catch the 6 'o clock shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo. We arrived at the Ghibli Museum at around 11 'o clock and spent a good 1.5 hours exploring the place, and ofcourse buying the necessary merchandise from the Ghibli movies :)
The Ghibli Bus:


Taking pictures wasn't allowed inside the museum, however outside it was allowed :)
Giant Robot from Laputa:


After the museum we went to the Square Enix showroom where some rare goodies were to be found. At first we accidentally ended up in the Square Enix Headquarters, where some very confused Japanese people started staring a bit at us xD

The Showroom:


After the Square Enix showroom we spent a few hours around Shinjuku station, eventually ending up playing a game called "find your coinlocker" (well actually it wasn't mine, it was the girl's coinlocker, and they lost the way -.-' )

Around 7.00 we headed for Akihabara (otaku heaven ya rly), and even though I was only there for a mere 2 hours I already spent the royal sum of 15000 yen (a bit over 100 euros) on cd's, a blue-ray, a pluchy, and some small merchandise.

A piece of the loot from Akiba:



I hope I won't get sucked up by Akiba's enticing atmossphere tomorrow, else I might go home with an empty wallet xD.

Tomorrow: the report of our second day in Tokyo!

Day 15 - Shinsaibashi

I woke up late again because I didn't put on my alarm and nobody bothered to wake me up D:

I just went for a short trip to Shinsaibashi (which is a huuuuuuuuuuge shopping district).

One "hall" of about 1 km length worth of shopping "pleasure":


With close to 10 kilometers of shopping malls (constructed in a square formation) I spent about 3 hours walking back and forth through it.

Some nice store names were to be found in Shinsaibashi:


I did however find the thing I was looking for (not telling, nananananana xD)

Intermezo: "And I know, that my heart will go oooooooon aaaaaaaand ooooooooon....."

Day 14 - Shopping in Den Den Town

After a laaaaaaaaazy morning (I woke up at 1 PM xD) Gwen and me went to Den Den Town to start exploring some shops and maybe find some interesting stuff to buy.

After about 3 hours of randomly visiting stores we went to Melonbooks, there a Japanese guy suddenly started talking to us. Eventually he wanted to show us some stores he likes (K-Books, Animate, etc..). For only being 15 years old he spoke pretty decent English. After a few more hours we treated him to katsu curry at a local curry restaurant and we all went our seperate way.

Again no pictures today, cause silly me forgot his camera at the hotel -_____-'

Tomorrow: random target :3

Day 13 - Arrival at Osaka

Today at 16.30 we arrived with the Shinkansen at Shin-Osaka, after a few subway rides we arrived at Tanimachi 4-Chome which is about 100 meters from our hotel.

After unpacking we went with a small group to the nearby Yodobashi Camera (electronics store) which is about 2 times bigger than the one in Hakata.

Tomorrow the first thing on our list is Den Den Town.



P.S.: the internet here is super crappy and if there are no posts some days don't panic, I'm trying my best to keep this Blog up to date.

Day 12 - Shopping in Hakata

Today I went out to Hakata Station and Yodobashi Camera to pick up a new Phrasebook by Lonely Planet. I also bought the 6th movie of Kara no Kyookai (Garden of Sinners).

I don't own the first 5 movies, but if I like the 6th I'll buy the other 5 aswell o.O (yeah makes perfect sense!).

For the rest nothing interesting happened today :(

We went eating at Fugetsu in the evening though (Okonomiyaki... OM NOM NOM NOM :D )

Tomorrow we'll be moving to Osaka!

Day 11 - Nagasaki

Yet again we had to get up early today to catch our train to Nagasaki (for those who don't know, this is one of the two cities that were bombed with atomic bombs during the 2nd world war). After leaving the station we crossed paths with our fellow Shiranai travel buddies on various ocassions. We grabbed ourselves a day pass for the streetcar and a ticket card for 3 randomly selectable hot spots.

Our first one was the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, in here the real missery and pain that followed after the bombing on August 9th 1945 was displayed. All kinds of items were on display like: charred treestumps, molten bottles, pictures of half burnt people, bent iron constructions etc...
The museum showed us how the use of nuclear energy for destructive purposes can be so devastating and it really was twisted.
Atomic Bomb Museum Dome:

Ground Zero:


After the museum we took a look inside the adjecent Memorial Hall which was constructed to commemorate the people that died due to the Nagasaki bombing. It was a very tranquil place with absolute silence.
Memorial Hall:


After the museum, the memorial hall and it's closeby ground zero we decided to go to Nagasaki's Cultural Museum, where we got some nice explinations on the trade post of Dejima. At first we were struggling to find our orientation on the map when an old lady started talking to us asking if we needed directions. She was even friendly enough to accompany us to the museum itself (seriously, Japanese hospitality really shines here).

Shortly after exiting we once again crossed paths with a small group of our friends and together we headed towards Dejima which in the Edo era (current Tokyo) was a foreign exchange post. It was an artficial island created to isolate foreigners. At some point all foreign people were forced to remain on Dejima and weren't allowed any entry into the country in order to prevent economic instabilities.
Dejima:


At sunset we took a ropeway ride up the mountains to have a nice view over the city before we headed back to the hotel.
Nagasaki by night:

Day 10 - Shopping in Hakata

Today we got up a bit later than usual (11.30 h), so since the day was already half over we decided to go to a local sightseeing point.

I eventually wanted to go to the Saibu Gas Museum (lots of optical illusions and other various cool stuff) but the lady at the bus terminal told me it was no longer open for public :(

So then we decided to go to Tenjin for some shopping. I bought some cool gadgets there and a few gifts :)

No pictures else it would spoil the fun ^_________^


Tomorrow we're going to Nagasaki, I hope my feet can keep up because I've already got two blisters D:

Day 9 - Kagoshima (Furusato Onsen)

I thought it was time for a little relaxing so all we did today was:

- Sit in trains for 6 hours grand total
- Enjoy a dip in the Furusato Onsen
- Eat some Shabu Shabu at the Ichi Ni San restaurant near the Kagoshima train station

The active vulcano here is Sakurajima:

Furusato Onsen offers you an outdoor onsen experience (for those who don't know what an onsen is: it's a hot bath that mostly has it's own hot water source, if not then it's a fake onsen). The Furusato Onsen is mixed bath at a shrine, so this means that everyone has to wear a yukata when they enter (else you might stir and upset the dragon god that lives there).

Overview of the onsen:

Group picture (excluding Kaj, he was the photographer):


Pictures from the Ichi Ni San restaurant:

Day 8 - Mt. Aso & Aso Shrine

Getting up early was once again the message of today, this time our target was Aso, which is an active vulcano. Some of the Shiranai companions took the sightseeing train, but I went with a group of 7 other people and took a faster train.

After a bit more than 3 hours of riding the JR tracks we arrived at Mt. Aso where we had to wait a bit for the local bus up to the vulcano viewscape. It was surely worth the trip there and we were lucky enough to have a full safe zone (no alarms or fume warnings) so we could have a good view on everything. I got myself one of those memorial medallions (like the ones I got last year from 2 other places) for a few hundred Yen.


After we scrounged the entire viewscape path we took the cable car back down and decided to look for Aso Shrine. It took us various stops at local shops to ask some directions with the locals but we finally made it. The funny thing was when we saw the guy from the FamilyMart we stopped at (for asking directions) at the shrine, he followed us there to check wether or not we actually found it or not :') (I seriously love this country ^__^).


At first we all thought it would be a tiny shrine, but it ended up being quite a large and nice one. One of the locals gave us some empty bottles to take some of the blessed spring water back with us :).

After the one hour walk to the shrine, half of us decided to head for the nearest station (which was only a 10 min walk from the shrine) and eat there. The other 4 were stubborn and went all the way back to Aso station and didn't had anything to eat because they just made it in time for the train :3

Look at me, I'm a vulcano O_o :

Day 7 - Transfer to Hakata

Today we got up at around 10 'o clock (check-out time) and in the early afternoon we started heading towards the Naha Kuuko Airport where our flight to Hakata was waiting.

After arriving in the hotel at around 17.00 h local time we didn't do much, I went out for a small snack and a little walk but that's about it.

One of the books I'll most likely pick up is:


Oh and for those checking Photobucket now and then, I just got a notification that I exceeded my limit, so until I find a solution to this (no I'm not going to make a second account) there won't be any new pics there, sorry.

Day 6 - Yonabaru Tug of War Matsuri

Today it was a pretty lazy day to start with, we planned to do some stuff in the morning but eventually we ended up sitting in the hotel lobby for about 2 hours doing nothing but talking, a well deserved rest I guess :p

In the afternoon myself and Gwen headed for a small walk to find a Chinese garden, which eventually appeared to be inexistant because the area where is was supposed to be was a barren wasteland which was closed off by chains and a small gate.

In the late afternoon we took a taxi and went for the Tug of War Matsuri which was held in Yonabaru. Basicly it's a small version of Naha's Tug of War but it's held midsummer instead of in October. We had a bit of bad luck right when we got out of the taxi because it suddenly started raining like mad but luckily after 30 minutes it already stopped raining.

The participants moved 2 ropes of well over 10 meters length through the streets to the event court where they put the 2 pieces on the ground and connected both pieces with a huge toothpick (sort of xD). The main idea is that the West side of the town fights against the East side in a enourmous Tug of War game.



There were two rounds and in the end it resulted in a tie. After the Tug of War some people cut a piece of the rope off which is a charm for good luck. After all the performances there was fireworks which on my camera appearantly showed like:

"Red Lightning":


Tomorrow we will be leaving for Hakata (a small flight of only 2 hours).

Day 5 - Naha Cruise, Perfectural Museum

A day too late but better late than never :)

Yesterday we went with a few Shiranai travel buddies on a mini cruise outside Naha Wharf (the bay, if you want to call it like that). It was only a half hour trip grand total but the in-ocean view was quite astounding.

In the afternoon Gwen and me hopped on the monorail in the direction of Onomorimachi, which housed a nice Department Store with _ALLOT_ of shops :p
Our main target was the DeoDeo electronics store, where I bought my new Sony Memory Stick (8GB) and a little Logicool mouse for my laptop.

Actually that's what we did after we visited the Okinawan Perfectural Museum, because at first we couldn't find the place :')

Day 4 - Northern Okinawa Tour

After getting up early (6.45 is EARLY >_____>) we hiked for the second day in a row to the Naha Bus Terminal where our new tour guide welcomed us for our second Okinawa Island Tour.

This time we went to the north of the island. We started out with Ryukyu Village where we were able to see some restored old Japanese buildings from before the Meji Era. Also there were various workshops around the park (i.e.: glassblowing, jewelery crafting, pottery).
Next we stopped at Manza-mo Cape - a huge cliff overlooking the ocean with some very nice scenery.


After a short bus ride to the Okashi-goden (sweet shop) we had our pre-defined lunch, which consisted of mostly stuff I didn't like (and I can assure you I wasn't the only one xD).
After a rather disappointing lunch we headed for the world's second largest aquarium "Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium". There were quite allot of fish and other sea-creatures to be seen and I made a few nice shots, but dispite them advertising the aquarium as being the world's 2nd largest we were outside the exit in less than 40 minutes. This compared to Kagoshima's Sea-Side aquarium I visited last year seemed rather small.


When you're done with the aquarium there's plenty of other stuff to do at the Ocean Expo area of the aquarium ground. There were 3 beaches, a culture museum, a few fountains here and there and some glass houses that held plants and flowers inside.
I went for the Tropical Dream Center by electric car (hey, walking in this heat is seriously not so fun :3 ) after some American (I think atleast) gave me his ticket for the public transport in the park (he was leaving).


Sadly enough, just like yesterday there was a great lack of time to be able to enjoy every aspect of the places we visited.

After returning to the hotel Gwen and myself headed out into the streets of Naha in order to find something to eat. While hopping from street to street we came accross Niels and some other Shiranai people who just happened to exit the building we were entering. So we decided to find a place to eat together, which proved to be a quite problemous task. After a while we found a place which served allot of different dishes. We met a Dutch guy in the restaurant who is also here on vacation and had a chat with him meanwhile.

I haven't got a clue what's up for tomorrow, I'm still trying to figure something out xD