Catch-up

Okay, so I've been pretty slack with the whole blog thing. Since my last post we've visited Osaka and Hiroshima and tomorrow we will leave Hiroshima for Hakone, near Mt. Fuji.

Here's a list of things we've done/seen in the last week or so.

Visited Osaka Castle

Went to Osaka Aquarium, one of the largest in the world.

Dined at an interesting little Australian themed restaurant, with a killer view. 

Climbed to the top of the Sky Tower in central Osaka

Visited the A-bomb Dome (the site of the first atomic bomb)

Took a ferry to Miyajima Island

Made friends with some local Deer

Walked out to the Torii Gate at sunset while the tide was out

Went up Mt. Misen, overlooking Hiroshima and it's islands.

 

Tried a Long Island Iced Tea

Lots of pictures this time,as you can probably tell we've been really busy. I think both me and Zak are looking forward to relaxing in Hakone for a few days.

Kyoto Ryokan and Temples

So, it's been a few day since my last blog post as I've had limited internet access while staying in Kyoto. Right now we are in Osaka, and will stay here for the next few days. After leaving Nagoya a few days ago, we stayed in a traditional Japanese Inn, known as a Ryokan. We stayed in a Japanese style room, with tatami mats and slept on futons laid on the ground.

On arrival, we were greeted by the friendly staff who served us green tea and Japanese sweets in the lobby.  The lobby was well decorated with a 'mini-garden' and various Japanese ornaments.

We were then taken to our room by one of the staff members. 

An origami crane placed on our pillow. 

We checked out a few temples while in Kyoto, the first being Hingashi Honganji, right in the heart of Kyoto.

That night we sampled some of the local Ramen (Japanese noodle soup) in a tiny, hidden Ramen shop in Kyoto. Washing it down with some Sake...okay i drank most of the Sake...no photos of this.

Yesterday, we also checked out Byodo-in temple, much further out of central Kyoto. This particular temple is special because it it almost 1000 years old and features on the Japanese 10 yen coin. 

Me squinting standing in front of a bridge in Uji

A street in Uji, leading to the temple

The Phoenix Hall in all it's glory!

So that's the last few days wrapped up, we'll have to continue finding things to do in Osaka and will report back with photos!

Tokyo Game Show 2011

After much anticipation, the day of one of our most looked forward to events finally arrived. The Tokyo Game Show, held in Chiba brings together some of the biggest video game companies under one roof to demonstrate their upcoming games and technology.

Excited to try out some of these new games, we made our way to the Makuhari Messe, the location for the Tokyo Game Show, for what was by far the most disappointing day of our trip thus far.

Yes I know, how could such a large, important, international event be such a disappointment?

Let's start at the very beginning.

As we arrived, we were greeted by mass queues of thousands of people waiting to get into the hall. As we made our way along the path, we were herded like cattle into separated pens to await our turn. With hundreds of people in each pen, we waited about half an hour to be let out. Once we were allowed to exit, we made our way to the ticket gates with our pre-purchase tickets. This was another long line to wait in just to hand in our ticket and move past the security checkpoint. After all that standing around waiting in the heat, you'd think we'd be able to enter. However, there was still more queueing to do, although this line remained moving it looped around the entire facility (this place is massive) and at some points it looped back on itself several times. As the mercury rose, we shuffled along with hundreds of other sweaty video game fans wondering if the entry even existed.

Just a small section of the extraordinary line to enter the game show.

After walking for what seemed like an eternity, we were tired and hot. They actually had the nerve to try and sell us cold drinks towards the end of the line, for much more than we would pay anywhere else. Needless to say, Zak and I chose not to buy any, we'd rather give our money to a vending machine.

Finally, after about an hour and a  half, maybe two hours, we made it into the venue. It was packed, and I mean packed. Busier than Shinjuku and Tokyo station combined. As we slowly walked around, we looked for something to do, perhaps try out a new game or check out a PlayStation Vita. As it turned out, after the hours of queuing outside, pretty much the only thing to actually do at the show, was to queue. Minimum wait to play any game was about 60 minutes, with anything good getting up to 2 hours. The queues weren't even clearly marked, so it was hard to tell what you were actually lining up for. We walked around, having a look at the merchandise area, to our surprise (not really) you had to queue to even look at most of the stores.

I think that the main thing that really annoyed Zak and I was that when we tried to catch a glimpse of a particular video game, not play or anything, just watch someone else play, we were told to move along and line up.

We ended up leaving the show about midday, meaning we spent more time lining up outside than actually at the show. We decided to catch the train to Tokyo Station and explore the surrounds a little, which turned out far more interesting than the show itself.

Had we known that the TGS would have been such a disappointment, I think we would have chosen to stay in Shinjuku for longer, as there is actually stuff to do there. Unlike the small, boring town we ended up staying at for the Game Show.

I apologise for such a long rant, but I think it was necessary. Today has been a far better day. We took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo to Nagoya, our current place of accommodation. It's lovely area and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.




Me about to board the Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

 Thanks for reading!

Tokyo Tower and Odaiba

Hi all, what an exhausting few days!

Yesterday we visited Tokyo Tower, a giant radio tower larger than even the Eiffel Tower. From the 360 degree observation deck you can see pretty much all of Tokyo.

There was a wax museum in the tower, yes quite a strange place for a wax museum.

Me and Einstein discussing theoretical physics.

The view from the observation deck 

The "Lookdown Window"

But that wasn't the end of our day, after that we headed to Odaiba, a giant, man-made island in the middle of Tokyo bay. We accessed it by train over a large bridge, playfully named the "Rainbow Bridge", not to be confused with the dreaded Rainbow Road from Mario Kart, this was much easier to cross. 

Rainbow bridge as seen from the train

Fuji TV studio

Also decided to hit up New York 

Today, we decided to slow down a little and visit a few of the nearby shopping towns, including Harajuku. To our surprise (and delight) Gwen Stefani was nowhere to be seen. Harajuku is an interesting place, one side of the station is a tranquil, picturesque walkway leading to the Meiji Shrine, and the other side is a busy, shop filled metropolis.

So all in all it has been a busy couple of days. We've seen some sights, enjoyed some of the local cuisine, and just started to get used to Shinjuku, even though we leave tomorrow for a brief stay at Chiba for the Tokyo Game Show. Then it's all aboard the Shinkansen (bullet train) for Nagoya/Kyoto/Osaka!

Oh and guess what, just now while writing this we experienced our first earthquake up in our 12th floor hotel room. The room shook for about a minute. Apparently it was felt all across Tokyo however it seems no one is at all concerned, I can see one man continuing painting on the roof of a nearby building.

Until next time,

Sayonara!