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So, this is goodbye

Now that the trip to Japan is over, there will obviously be no more posts, unless Nik wants to add things here and there. It was a great deal of fun, and I want to thank Nik and Ali for being genuinely great travel companions - we had alot of laughs together, and no tears, so that's a plus.


I think I can speak with Ali and maybe Nik when I say this isn't the last time we as individuals will visit the great island nation of Nippon - it's quirkiness and beauty charmed us such that the thought of never going there again is implausible to me at least.

-Dan

Day Twenty-Two and onwards: Tokyo to Perth (Land of the Setting Sun)

Our final day was fairly uneventful, we packed our bags at the hotel, as rain fell on Tokyo for the first time during our visit. After checking out, and leaving our bags at the hotel, we went back to Daikanyama to spend our yens - Ali and I both found some suitably great purchases, including Ali's 90% off mohair jumper. After Daikanyama, we wandered Shibuya for a bit, visiting the Krispy Kreme we had walked by the prevous day (when there was a line of about 50 people coming out of the door). Once in the queue, we were each given a freshly baked dougnut from the shop as a free sample - it was amazingly delcious - soft, warm and fresh from the oven(?).

We eventually returned to the hotel and waited in the lobby for a bit, before heading off to catch the Narita Express we had booked the previous night. After an hour and a half on the train, we reached the gargantuan line at the Qantas check in area. Here we observed as numerous Qantas customers (jerks) tried to have their ridiculously overweight baggage checked in at no cost, or get upgraded to buisness class because they were "sick", whilst delaying the already long line. Eventually we got to the front of the line, and managed to get seats at the front of a section - meaning extra leg room. We ate some dinner (ramen of course), and wandered the airport until our flight was ready.

The third person on the middle three seats was a snowboarder from Sydney, who we shared stories about Japan with - unfortunately, we never found out his name. It was however, a nice change from the usually obnoxious Australians visiting Japan. After 10 hours of on and off sleep, we touched down in Perth, and thus our journey had come to an end.

-Dan

Day Twenty-One: Tokyo (It's not so bad once it's in your mouth)

Again we were up at 9am, but this time with purpose - our Tokyo Free Guide, was meeting us in the flower shop of the Keio Plaza at 10. We managed to get there just before she arrived. We had worked out a vague itinerary through email, so she immediately took us to our first destination - Shinjuku Central Park - which of course is located in western Shinjuku.

Despite being late winter, thus no cherry blossoms were out, it was a very beautiful place - testimony to this was the large amounts of people with impressive cameras, lenses and tripods, patrolling around and taking photos.

We eventually moved on, headed for Shinjuku station, via a few stores, including a vast food court full of expensive sweets (causing Ali to remark "I can't wait to come back to Japan when I'm rich"), as well as a rather Ikea like store that also sold food and clothes - where we got some apple crisps, and these delecious mini dried fish with peanuts;

Eventually we got to Shibuya from Shinjuku station, and caught a bus to Daikanyama - a district which was new to us. It was filled with trendy clothes stores, as well as some kooky little places that sold all manner of bizzare things - including a replica of the Terminator's head from Terminator 2, rabbit fur hats, and thankfully - Cherry Cola! We found a store selling amazing (and expensive) t-shirts, unfortunately, my gaijin dimensions got the better of me, as their sizes did not accomedate my lankyness.

We returned to Shibuya by train, and after an excellent ramen lunch, started to walk towards Harajuku. We looked into the small, interesting shops along the way - these were places we never would have found without Yuko - previously we had been rather dissapointed and jaded with Harajuku. We ended up at Harajuku station, and went up to the bridge nearby to see the strangely dressed girls who come out of the wood work on Sundays. We were quite late, so most of them were gone, but we did see a few, including a pack of girls dressed in pink, squatting and feeding each other;

From Shibuya, we headed to Akihabara - passing the usual rabble of people handing out pamphlets, and creepy maids. We ended up in a small, multi storey shopping centre, much like the one we went to on our first trip to Akihabara with Nik. After passing through a few floors of strange, we stumbled across a performance by a wanna-be J-Idol, singing to her fans (mostly creepy dudes) from a small stage. As with all things in Akihabara, it was an odd experience.

We eventually parted ways with Yuko at Akihabara station, where she presented us with some of her favourite snacks she had bought earlier on, we felt quite guilty about having nothing for her, but we thanked her heartily for what was a great day around Tokyo.

After relaxing for a bit at Keio Plaza, we headed to Ebisu, to find a Katsu restaurant I had read about online. We managed to find it with ease - it had a line of seats outside due to its popularity meaning people usually have to cue for a while. Thankfully it was about 9:30pm by the time we got there, so we got a table immedietly, and sat down to an awesome dinner of Tonkatsu (Pork katsu). The meal was expensive, but worth it, being our last in Japan for this trip. Afterwards we picked up some celebratory pastries at a bakery that was closing down for the night, and devoured them, to complete a night of culinary bliss.

-Dan

Day Twenty: Tokyo (What's so unnatural about the other Lawson?)

A lazy start, as we got up at 9, but didn't really get out of Keio Plaza 'til 10:30. After grabbing some breakky at the "Natural Lawson" down the road (not to be confused with the "Lawson Station" across the street from it), we headed for Akihabara. We wandered the street, again very much disturbed by the variety of "maids" handing out pamphlets for their maid cafes - especially scary were the ones with hair bleached pure blonde, a look that may be appealing to some, but looked quite terrifying to us. We wondered aimlessly for a while, stopping at a Taito arcade to play some Street Fighter 4 at one point.

We eventually ended up at the pork and noodles place we went to on the first day in Tokyo, which seems like ages ago now. The fatty pork was just as delicious as we remembered, and after draining our bowls, we left Akihabara, though I doubt for the last time.

The next place we headed for was Harajuku - I wanted to get some Ghibli toys for my nephew and nieces. After stopping by our hotel, we hopped on the Yamanote loop to Harajuku, and headed to Kiddyland - a five storey monstrosity of a toy store that we had been to previously. I ended up getting some plushies.

We eventually decided we should head to our hotel to relax for a bit before heading out again, both of us were still tired from our long journey. After a couple of hours chilling in our room, we set out to explore the area we were in - Shinjuku - a bit more. Heading west from the station, we ended up at a large stationary store, where Ali bought some Japanese paper for his folks. We again failed to find a restaurant reccomended in the Lonely Planet Tokyo book, due to it's incredibly vague maps and descriptions, so we decided to head to the Hobgoblin bar in Shibuya - owned by the small, British, Wychwood Brewery. For the third time this trip, we had a burger, this time accompanied by a pint Hobgoblin beer - which was very nice.

We proceeded to a club called Gaspanic in Shibuya, but after a beer we decided it wasn't our thing, and left for Shinjuku, ready to be up early for what was to be a busy day.

-Dan

Day Nineteen: Hakuba to Tokyo (Real technology brings you an aromatic coffee break and a fine life)

The day began early again, and it had a promising start - there had been a great snowfall during the night, and it seemed like it was going to be a nice day for skiing. Unfortunately, the weather turned soon after our awakening, and the rain began to fall. After eating a quick breakfast, we headed to Happo One again. However after a few hours of skiing in the rain, we were too wet and cold to continue, and decided to call it a day and head to Tokyo.

After grabbing lunch at the local 711, we packed up and got a lift to Hakuba station, where we caught a bus and subsequent train to Tokyo, and then onto Shinjuku. We got to our hotel about 6pm - we were immediately surprised by the obsiquious nature of the staff, however the hotel was very nice. We settled in and showed, and then headed out for a bit - going to a nearby Nike store, and a Bic camera, looking for places to spend our Yens.

Eventually we grabbed some dinner, at a nearby restaurant, which was delicious after a long day without much food. Before heading back to the hotel, we grabbed some Sapporo Beer and Meiji chocolate, enjoying them in our room

-Dab

Day Eighteen: Hakuba (Snow Problems)

Late post because of the terrible internet here.. though we are in Japan, it is nice to know the Aussies can bring a bit of the shitty internet access from home here with them

Getting up at 7:30am was a struggle for us after a pretty exhausting day, even so, we struggled out of bed and got us some free continental breakfast. We then had to wait a while for the ski rental place to pick us up, fit us out, and send us back, by which time it was 10am, and we felt like our early start was somewhat wasted.

Regardless, we hit the slopes at about 10:30am, and tentatively eased back into skiing. It had been a year since both of us were in Megeve skiing, so we managed to get back into the swing of things fairly quickly. I ended up on my arse on three occasions - though in my defence, once was because I threw myself into the snow to prevent myself from falling off a cliff, thus I'm not sure if it counts... Ali however, managed to stay upright all day. The mountain we were on is called Happo One, and it was absolutely amazing - great runs from top to bottom, though they are not as well marked for difficulty, so we ended up on some tough runs before we had really found our feet.

Unfortunately, as the small Canon we had wasn't charged, and I wasn't willing to haul my camera around, we didn't get any shots of us or the amazing views.

We returned to the lodge for about 4:30 pm, after a long day of skiing. We relaxed for a bit, before heading off to the Echoland area again for dinner - failing to find anything that really ticked our fancy, we ended up (shamefully) at the same Mexican restaurant. It was just as delicious a second time.

Later on, we went to the local Onsen, just down the road from the lodge. This place was nowhere near as nice as the one at Shirakawa-go (so don't feel you missed out, Nik), it was however very relaxing after a reasonably hard day. After getting back to the lodge to find the internet was down yet again, we decided to wander around in the snow, back to the distant convience store, for some much needed snackage. After eating a bunch of Oreos, we turned in for another early morning start

-Dan