cor blimey.

arrived safely in the u of k. it was a testing twenty hour travelling experience that i'd rather not do again. we traversed many time zones, and lost god know how many hours sleep, but we've made it. the lovely simon picked us up from manchester airport, and drove us back to his place in the midlands, which was very nice of him. found myself acting like a two year-old in the back seat, trying to keep my eyes open, but my head was nodding, and i had to give in to more than one power nap on the trip home.
it was lovely to wake up in country england, with cows mooing in the back paddock, and not a neon light to be seen. took us a few days to shake the jetlag off completely, but i think we're onto a natural sleeping pattern once again. fingers crossed.
my good friend marcucs organised a stellar weekend in london for me when i arrived, so i've hopped on a bus, and come down to see him. yesterday we went to the tate modern and a leisurely four hour walk around the various rooms. all i can say is wow. it's really an experience, and seeing as most of the permenant collection they have is free, i can't recommend going and havng a peep enough. it was a bit overwhelming to see so many beautiful and inspiring artworks in just one day, so i'll be going back for sure, to have another squizz. i'll be in london for a few days yet, just having a look around. hoping to get up to meet the relatives in scotland soon, with my cousin nick. until then i'll open my arms to the queen, and see what she has to offer...


marcus and christey sharing a beverage with me after a walk through the tate modern, down by the thames.


me riding front seat in a double decker in the midlands. it's pretty scary. it feels like there isn't a driver. i'm not sweating it though. taking it all in my stride.

goodbye to goodness

well, it's our last night here in tokyo. i know i haven't posted for a while, but i really wanted some time to just chillax and take it easy. i didn't really end up doing that, but at least i got away from the computer for a while, which was nice.
our last week or so in tokyo has gone so fast. still, i'm one hundred percent sure that we could not have crammed any more into our trip, which leaves me satisfied, and exhausted. i'll miss lots of different things about japan, that i don't even know yet. i'll miss the beer in vending machines, the warm electric toilet seats, the lovely helpful people that don't even know what you're asking, the neon lights, unhelpful sounds, and the automated and sensor activated everything. japan was interesting to me while i was living in australia, and after exploring this country, it's still just as interesting. we've seen so much since we've been here that i'm not sure it's all registered yet. it will, and i'll love it. of that much, i'm sure. i really hope i get to come back to japan at some stage in my life and experience all it's craziness, interestingness and amazingness again. my english had suffered, but my japanese is worse, and people have seemed to like that. ahhh japan.
we fly off to the uk tomorrow for the next leg of our "world super power tour". not sure what will happen, but that's fine with me. got plenty of couches to take in, and friends to catch up with, so it really doesn't matter.


the guy on his bike, with the orange helmet is my favourite. although, the happy guy in the white hat on the right, seems, well, happy? yes that's it.


this tron influenced bridge was a five minute bike ride from our building.


on my last day in japan, i put on a puppet show for about ten kids, at james and tamaki's school. the play was rich in plot, but the production budget left the cast crying into martinis in the green room. most of the cast are now doing panto in england.


poised in a cat-like-state-of-readiness, i grabbed a piece of sushi. it happened more than once during the trip.


the view from 2211 was amazing. i only found tonight that nj said, on clear day, he saw mount fuji.

back in tokyo

well, we survived the trip back. towards the end of the ride down to tokyo, we were all pretty sick and tired of riding the shinkansen, but we made it back in one piece, and wihtout ripping each others heads off. beign back in tokyo felt liek coming home to me. we had our place that james and tamaki have let us stay in, and the rest of our luggage, to make us feel welcome. i think becasue we had been a full week in here before we took off for hiroshima, the familarity, although very small, was a welcome experience. time for some sleep, and to recharge those batteries.
woke up and had the luxury of spending about three hours before i had to do anything, which had to be a first for me here in japan. i chilled out a james and tamaki's drank some coffee, read a book and watched some sumo. met up with elise and the others in the afternoon, and helped drop some fliers into letterboxes for the english school. the weather was nice so we decided to have a bbq down by the river. james bought us delicious meats and equally delicious beers, and once everyone had arrived we had the makings of a feast. the rain that had been threatening to dampen our plans all day, even held off long enough for us to all finish. it was a touch of back home, to bbq by river, and a really lovely night.

the next day, elise i had the pleasure of looking after the adoreable alina for the afternoon. we rode bikes into town, to a gallery owned by the who started bridgestone tyres. he has an amazing collection of artworks, by almost every european artist you can think of. we saw works by picasso, monet, renior, miro and so many more, that i can't even remember. we stayed just as long as a six-year-old could handle (which was pretty good alina), and then got some lunch and ate it down by river. tamaki had told her cousin adn husband that we were in the country, and they'd offered to show us around their end of town for the rest of the day, and we'd meet up with tamaki for some dinner later on. we caught the subway with alina over to meet them. i've got say that keeping in form with all the great people we've met in japan, these guys were no exception. mosako and akira were really lovely, and showed us the sights around a really popular, and upmarket part of town. over teh last few weeks, our budget had taken a pounding, so we were a little concerned when we passed an ice cream shop that had scoops for a thousand yen. we kept our appitetites and wallets in our pockets, as we checked out some great clothing shops, and yet another truly excellent toy store. we went out for dinner at a sushi train. there were plates, tables and conveyer belts everywhere. at one hundred yen a plate (about AU$1.20), we ate till sushi came out our ears. had a great time with tamaki, alina, akira and mosako, and arranged to meet up the next day.


you'd be forgiven for thinking that this bbq was taking place in australia mate. nj and james played the part.


tokyo takes on completley different view at night, and the night view from our bbq spot, was no exception.


can't quite put my finger on what it is with japanese and their dogs. these guys are just a sample.


bambi shot with an accessory gun, in one of the displays in a downtown clothing store.


akira and mosako playing with alina.

stop. sakura time.

we didn't end up seeing as much of the cherry blossums as we would have liked, but before our departure from sapporo, we had a really nice walk around one of the parks in the city. these shots are really nice, so for once, i think i'll let them speak for themselves. i know, not like me at all, but that's what japan has done for me.

sapporo and beyond

well, yet another three hours on the train, and we'd arrived sapporo. keeping the plans really loose here, we're just going to go with the sapporo flow. sapporo is up the northern end of japan, and those not lucky enough to possess the japan rail passes that we have, might not be able to afford to come all the way up here on a whim like us. i think from tokyo i would cost at least AU$200 one way. sapporo is japan's fifth largest city, so aint the sticks, but it boasts some really nice parks and gardens in the middle of the city centre. our plan was to just get a few drinks, and go and sit in the park that runs throught the town's middle. we didn't book any accomodation, as we wanted to go and stay in "love hotel" for the experience. nothing seedy going on, it's just a good option for travellers. if you check in after 11, then you can stay overnight for a lot cheaper than it would cost all three of us, to stay in a dodgy hostel. so that was the plan for the night, and we had all afternoon to kill, soaking sapporo up.

sapporo felt to me, alot like melbourne with all it's small cafes, cool people just hanging around, and greenery right at your finger tips. didn't fell as rushed as tokyo, or kyoto, so justing sitting aroudn was a great option. the park seems to be where alot of cool japanese youth go to chill in the afternoon, so people watching (coupled with delicious local beer) was entertaining enough for us. nj and i saw a guy dressed in a black full body stocking (balaclava included), that was just running around and doing silly things for shits and giggles. he was doign sit-ups, stretchign and running aournd, it looked so funny. after a few hours, we'd met a two lovely japanese girls, who just came up to say hello, and have a drink in the park with us. we told them all about our travels, and they spoke pretty good english, so it was easy to get along. night fell and we were getting hungry. sapporo is famous for it's ramen noodle district, so with our new tour guides leading the way, we found the good places really easilly. we ate delicious food, drank saki, and laughed alot, into the ni ght. after dinner we went to a bar called the 500 yen bar. you can have any drink on the menu (cocktails included) for 500 yen. there was an option to pay 2000 yen and drink all you want, but seeing as we'd been drinking since about three or four that afternoon, one drink at a time seemed alright. maybe next time.

eleven o'clock approached, and it seemed like the right time to go in search of our love hotel accomodation. both japanese girls were curious to see what they were like, so in all, we had five people in our posse. we were'nt sure how easy it would be to get five people into the one room, but discretion being the love hotels unofficial motto, we didn't think we'd have a problem. all check-ins arre automated, so don't even have to deal with any staff. just choose a room, push a button, and go on up. after sussing a few places out, we decided on a place called hotel rio. found a cheap room, and went in. the we had to get people up there in shifts, as not to be suspicious, so it was a millitary style operation. once we had everyone inside, the phone rang straight away, and we were busted. they thought we had four in the room (we had five), and we had to get two people out, or pay more for the room. our japanese tour guides, bid us farewell, and let us stay in the room for the night. it was all a bit abrupt, but what could we do. we couldn't even work the remote control for the tv without them, as everything was in japanese. they had some free kareoke in the room, but we couldn't find out how it worked. all of us a bit drunk, we just decided to call it a night, with sapporo in our dreams.

we all woke up with killer hangovers, and most our japan budget spent. with about a week to go in japan, we decided to put ourselves through hell again, and train the ten hours back down to tokyo. we didn't do all we'd liked to in sapporo, but we feel that we got enough of a feel, to appreciate the place. shinkansen away!


sapporo at night. all the streets were really wide, and lit up by amazing displays of neon. this was a ferris wheel in the middle of town.


ramen posse. full of drinks, food and hapiness.


i think this guy got kicked out of the blue man group, for showing too much of his dark side. he was really funny, and posed for us. i have some video footage too. classic.


the view from the park in the middle of sapporo, where we chilled out.


me, nj and our local guides. you know what they say. when in sapporo...

chasing flowers

well, we check the cherry blossum report the other night (updated daily. oh yeah, sure. only in japan), and realised that there was a pretty good chance that we'd miss them in sapporo, which is one thing that we'd all talked about doing in japan. it was make or break. we could get from kyoto to sapporo, but it would take us twelve continuous hours of train travel to get there. we ummed and ahhhed for a little while, but ended up deciding to go for it. well, a more realistic version of the plan was to catch three separate trains (nine hours on trains in total) up to hakodate, stay the night, and then train the last three or four hours the next morning to sapporo. the journey up wasn't as bad as we had thought, and we only really realised the size of the days journey, when a japanese family bought us rice and drinks, after asking us what the hell we were doing in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a train. we arrived safe and sound in hakodate at about ten at night, and had a brisk stroll around in the crisp night air, before getting some shut eye.
elise woke us early for a quick trip to the fish markets next door. we could smell the seafood from our window, but i don't think we were prepared for what we saw. massive tanks of crabs, and odd looking squid just laying about. it didn't create the hunger for seafood that we'd all hoped it would. in fact. none of us really feel like eating seafood today at all. funny that.
hakodate has lots of beautiful gardens and trees scattered around, and we ventured out to an old fort, that has lots of the cherry blossums, that we'd travelled almost the whole length of the country for. although sapporo will no doubt be the main course in our cherry blossum feast, hakadote was a really nice entree. we're now on a train headed for sapporo to see the last of japan's cherry blossums for this season. it'll be nice to stop travelling (even for a night), and appreciate the natural beauty, that japan is so famous for. more blossum updates soon, flower lovers.


in hakodate, they have these weird bronze sculptures on the streets. they remind me of tim burton's animations, but less disturbing.


at the fish market, this guy was standing in a vat of crabs, yelling about the bargains to be had. not sure why he couldn't do this on dry land, but it seemed authentic.


there's a star shaped fort in hakodate, that dates back along time, and has something to do with battles. now it's full of cherry blossums, and is really stunning place to visit.


once i found out the vending machines in japan, had hot coffee in a can for about two dollars, i've become hooked. well, i was hooked to begin with, but this makes it easier for me. they really are hot cans. brilliant.


crabs gallore at the fish markets. this one was writhing around, whilst being weighed. who's a big boy...

kyoto

elise and i went in kyoto to have a walk around, and see what this amazing town had to offer. we found a really great temple, and we got have a peek inside while a service was going on. we then went to a really beautiful garden in center of town, that was very quiet, green and lush. there's some great photos that i'll let speak for themselves.
nj (who had a bad experience in rainy kyoto the day before, and fled to tokyo) was coming up to meet us in kyoto and stay with us a yukari's, so we met up with him in the afternoon, and went to a funky suburb of kyoto called gion. it reminded me alot of ginza in tokyo, with all it's clubs and nightlife, and flashy lights. elise stalked a fat geisha, which turned out to just be soemone who had dressed up like a geisha, in true paparrazi style. we walked around for a while and then grabbed a few drinks, and sat by the riverbank, and relaxed. earlier in the day, yukari had promised to help us cook some traditional japanese pancakes back at her place, so when we got back, she was as good as her word. we all had a go at cooking and i must say it was very oyushi (yummy), and good fun.


inside the temple.


a view from outside the temple gates. all the temples were this pretty.


elise & nj, just hanging out in gion.


down by the river, where we drank some booze, watching the sun go down.


elise in a teriffic park in the centre of town.

ukari to the rescue

on the trip from osaka to kyoto, to meet with my old friend from university, yukari, i lost both members of my travel team. elise wasn't feeling great, and wanted a nights rest in our relaxing apartment in tokyo, and nj decided to go it alone in kyoto for the night. that left just me to meet up with yukari, some twenty minutes out of kyoto. i was greeted by a smiling yukari, and although i hadn't seen her for six years, it felt like yesterday. her lovely husband kim, and her adorable little boy, junior, were waiting for me in the carpark at the station. they took me out for lunch, and then took me to a museum all about lake biwa. i'll try not to be all adam about this, but lake biwa has been around for four million years, and has played an important part in japan's cultural history. the best part of the museum, was the aquarium with heaps of fish native to the lake. we were lucky enough to see feeding time, and some seriously weird looking fishies were singing very odd songs for their supper. yukari then introduced me japan's equivalent of australia's two dollar shop, where everything in the store costs one hundred and five yen. not too sure how they arrived at one hundred and five, but there was lots of stuff. i have to tip my lid to the hospitality of yukari, kim and junior, because they made me feel right at home from the start. my other friends from university, ben and nicole, had told me how lovely yukari had been to them, as they were in japan just a week before me, but it had to be experienced to be believed. thank you so much yukari.

elise caught the shinkansen down to meet us the next day, and kim had planned a day out in nagahama for us all. we went to a beautiful old style village, that had glass blowing, and figurine museum (sorry ben...), and japan's biggest kalideskope. we all had such a great day shopping, and walking around, it was really special. the figurine museum that kim and i went to, was amazing. they had tiny little models of everything from apes, to sea creatures, to all sorts of japanese curiosities. they even had lots of models of godzilla through the years, so you got know the real godzilla. it was like watching the olsen twins grow up on "full house". kim then took elise and i to a really cool shop on the way home, that had toys, clothes, cds, dvds, and everything else you could poke a chopstick at. the store was massive, and it was so cool, thank you kim.


ukari, kim, junior and me in nagahama.


will the real godzilla please stand up?


a mini version of the dawn of man.


japan's biggest kelidascope view.

osaka

enroute for kyoto, we called for accommodation but learned that everywhere we wanted, or could afford to stay, was booked out for the weekend. we made the decision to hop off the train at osaka and try our luck there. it was about nine o'clock at night, so options were running out fast. on our way to where we thought we'd try to stay, we bumped into a scottish gent named duncan macbeth, who told us where he was staying. after a strange and one-sided phone call to make a booking with no success, we decided to just show up and see what would happen. getting off the train, we quickly realised that we were on the wrong side of the tracks. it was raining and dark, and there was trash everywhere, also with homeless men roaming the streets. with no other options up our damp sleeves, we decided to get to the hostel, and just accept whatever was on offer. the hostel was an old converted hotel, and seemed to mainly occupied by really old, not very healthy looking single japanese men. nj got a single room that smelled so bad of cigarettes, he couldn't even stay in there for a minute. we went in, and yes, it stunk real bad. it wasn't just like someone had been smoking in there, it was more like someone had rubbed an ashtray all around the room, then smoked a whole packet, then rubbed the ashtray around the room again. funky. he gave up on the room, and joined elise and i in our twin room, which didn't stink. pretty damn hungry and tired at this stage, so we went in search of something to eat. we chose a place one block from where we were staying, and walked in. it was more like a bar, that had some raw meats laid out in a glass case in front of us. out of options, and tired, we thought we'd give it a go. some old, and quite sad japanese people were sitting on bar stools singing karaoke, while we came to grips with what we had walked into. funny thing about japan is, that even in the dodgiest part of town, you don't really feel unsafe.

a beer to calm the nerves, and i decided to pop our japanese karaoke cherry with a rendition of footloose. i went down well with the surly crowd, and eased all our nerves. after a few songs each (elise sung a simply beautiful version of lionel richie's hello. just beautiful and NJ sung a quite scary version of come as you are, which somehow seemed appropriate), we decided to call it a night and head back to our hostel. we asked for the bill, and they tried to rip us off, but not wanting to be taken for such and obvious ride, we dug our heels in. it took about twenty minutes of broken english, and three or four rundowns of what we had consumed for us to convince them, that we weren't paying for what we hadn't had or hadn't done. due to communication problems, it didn't end up as cheap as we thought, but we had to pay, so we stomped out of the bar without saying thanks or goodbye, which was the harshest thing we could think to do, without causing any trouble. i stole a lighter which made us a little happier, but not much. back at the front door of our hotel, we saw a strange man, sitting on the ground laughing to himself, popping medication (i think). nj said he saw him fall into some bushes earlier on in the evening, which came as no surprise. a very strange night indeed. it all just seemed to re-enforce how well we've been looked after in tokyo. we all laughed about it in the morning, and vowed not to let it soil our view of osaka.


the travellers live to fight another day.


waky, waky. let's get out of here.


the stunning view form our hostel room.

miyajima

from hiroshima you can catch a train and then a ferry to a beautiful island called miyajima, and because we didn't think we'd done quite enough for the day, why not? miyajima hosts a giant floating gate that has been around for four hundred years, so it attracts quite a few tourists from japan and abroad. coming off the ferry we were met with some deers that seem to roam the town at their own will. it was a bit sad as most of them are a bit smelly and crusty, and seem to rely on tourists scraps for food. i saw one pull a cigarette packet out of an ashtray and eat it. foil, plastic, and all. then it chomped down some cigarette butts for dessert. i thought afterwards that we should come back with some nicotine patches, and try to help these poor deer kick the habit. i wrote down the quitline number on some paper, and figured that was about all i could do for them. nj and i rented bikes and rode around the island for about two hours just checking it all out. miyajima has an aquarium which has a panda dolphin that i really wanted to see. but it was really expensive, and looked a bit dodgy. nj thinks that maybe it's just a regular dolphin, that they just spray painted to look like a panda. i'm undecided... anyway, it looked cool in the photos. at about five o'clock, we decided to head off, and stay the night at kyoto, before meeting up with my good friend from university, yukari, the next day.





plenty of activities for kids on the island. can't resist, never will.


the very stunning orange gate of miyajima.


one of the manky deer that roams the island, in search of cigarette packets.


there are many temples adn shrines on the island.

hiroshima

ola amigos, i must apologise for the lack of updates. i've been cramming so much into the days, and haven't found time to write to y'all. my camera has been running red hot, and my mind has been storing as much of this "japan" thing in it as humanly possible. i'll bring you all up to speed on what's been happening...

we left tokyo on the shinkansen, bound for hiroshima. the shinkansen is a very fast train that covers most of japan, and boasts speeds of up to 400km/ph. with the japanese on average being alot smaller than us westies, we were pleasantly surprised that these trains had lots more space inside than those back home. tokyo to hiroshima by shinkansen takes precisely four and a half hours, and if i've learned anything at all about the japanese public transport, it's that they are always on time. we left tokyo in the rain, and were warmly greeted with lots of sunshine and greenery. hiroshima has a street car system, that is very much like the trams of melbourne. the hotel room we booked was quite cheap, so we didn't expect the stunning 180 degree views of the city with a mountain backdrops that we got. we decided to celebrate our good fortune by tucking into some of the duty-free vodka that we purchased back at sydney airport.

after a few bevvies, we went in search of dinner. we'd heard about the infamous hiroshima-yaki, which is sort of a pancake with noodles and vegetables, that is specific to the region. the guy working the hot plate told us that thorpie had been there for a sample too, which didn't impress us much. there was a tv playing in the background while we ate, with a show about rich japanese ladies and their trophy dogs, dressed identically (i don't think i'll ever understand dressing dogs in clothes. do they like it? do they care?) and doing yoga together. very japan. nj and i went for a few beers afterwards and only just made the hotel's twelve o'clock curfew by about thirty seconds. a good night's sleep was on the cards...

next day we woke and checked out, got some cheap treats from the supermarket, and sat in the park to collect our thoughts, and plan the day's activities. we decided that we'd go to the hiroshima museum and have a look around. i was really surprised by the attitude of the japanese, considering the bomb. it was a very anti-nuclear sentiment. they had some artwork from the survivors downstairs, with accounts of what they had gone though, and i must admit, i found it really hard to digest. i don't think i can really express in words what it was like but i found it all really emotional, and sad. i went outside into the beautiful park, and tried to collect my thoughts. i'd only been sitting for a few minutes, when i was joined by about ten japanese school girls on a volleyball trip. they all wanted to find out where i was from, and test their english skills, which were pretty good. they seemed to multiply when nj came over, and soon there were about twenty five of them. just trying to get out of the park and go somewhere else was really hard. we kept getting mobbed whereever we turned. we bumped into a old japanese lady who related us to american movie stars. nj was jude law (spoken jude raw), elise was julia roberts, and i was josh harnett, (whoever the fuck he is). her eyes glazed over a little, and then she told us that she'd like to kill george bush, so we decided to get the out of there.


the signs and posters of japan, make you feel welcome, and are always willing to extend a helping hand.


me and nj posing infornt of the reconstructed abomb zone. it was a little errie, but really beautiful.


how many japanese men does it take to fix a computer? well three. and even then, they aint to so good with macs.


nj and the hiroshima volleyball team.


the beautiful view from our hotel.

slow the pace down

today we walked around the imperial gardens which are just stunning. beauty everywhere. a bit touristy, but quiet and peaceful, which was a welcome change from the pace we've been going at. not one person yelling at you to buy something. phew... also we went to an exhibition by a japanese artist called leonard foujita, at the national museum of modern art. it was so ace. just kicking back with some duty free at the moment, thinking of how lucky i am to be here. i'll pour another glass and think of you all. enjoy the photos. kampai!


look. there is a swan. oh yes.


i wasn't welcome in the royal family. it didn't make me sad.


beautiful dew on the trees.


massive gardens in the middle of tokyo. really beautiful.