We followed Kaoru to Yokohama yesterday and took the worlds fastest lift (45seconds for 69 stories) to the top of Landmark Tower. The view was amazing. We could see lots of stuff, including a roller coaster which looked tiny from the height we were at. Still we made it our mission to go and ride the big pink one! (a roller coaster ride).
The ride was fun, but more so James saying 'genky denky' instead of Arigato (thankyou) 'genky denky' actually means good electric! We don't know where he picked that one up!
We joined Kaoru and Gareth for their friends wedding reception in the evening. The reception was held in an Irish pub, we felt as if we were back in Hong Kong! Had a fun night though.
Today we have shopped in Shinjuku, which was ok, but typical Japanese do not seem to sell ladies boots as it is the 'wrong' season. Which of course left Sian a little sad that she could not buy what she wanted.
Sian has had a cooking lesson with Yuka, Kaoru's mum, which was fun, and eating the gyoza even better! Mr Kodama has introduced us to Saki and beer cocktails which has left all the boys feeling a little worse for wear.
The hospitality of Japanese people is amazing. We dont want to leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, March 28, 2005
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Buddah, temples, mountains and colds (Sian)
As Steve was ill yesterday James and I followed Kaoru to a town near her work and ventured off on our own to Kamakura where their is a huge Buddah. Being left on our own was interesting, we had to work Japaneese trains! Normally the trains would not be a problem but as very little people will speak English we felt very left out in the cold. We made it to the sight of the Buddah very easily and managed to walk inside it. We were most shocked that Buddah had his own slippers hanging on the wall!
Getting home after a lovely cup of coffee was another adventure. I stopped someone in a tourist shop to ask where the Bus stop was, only to find out it was right next to us!
Kaoru's family are excellent hosts. James and I got back to find Steve all tucked up in the warm, with a box of Sushi a bowl of corn flakes and a cup of green tea! Mrs Kodama had been nursing Steve back to health extremley well.
Last night we experienced a traditional Japanese pub, it was really sweeｔ, I really enjoy sitting on the floor in pubs it is a shame we don't adopt this custom in England.
Today we awoke to another wonderful breakfast cooked by Mrs Kodama, I am really enjoying all this home cooked food!
At 10.30 we took a train to Nikko which is a small town north of Tokyo. The train took 2 hours and brought us through the mountains. It was so beautiful. The mountains were snowcapped with lots of Cedar trees climbing up the side. Although it was really cold we went to visit some of the mountain temples. Steve and I have experienced Temples in most places we have visited, but in Japan they are very different. The temples were made from wood with lots of gold trimmings. (the photo's will show you what they looked like). It was really cold in the mountains and we got to see snow for the first time in ages... beautiful.
Getting home after a lovely cup of coffee was another adventure. I stopped someone in a tourist shop to ask where the Bus stop was, only to find out it was right next to us!
Kaoru's family are excellent hosts. James and I got back to find Steve all tucked up in the warm, with a box of Sushi a bowl of corn flakes and a cup of green tea! Mrs Kodama had been nursing Steve back to health extremley well.
Last night we experienced a traditional Japanese pub, it was really sweeｔ, I really enjoy sitting on the floor in pubs it is a shame we don't adopt this custom in England.
Today we awoke to another wonderful breakfast cooked by Mrs Kodama, I am really enjoying all this home cooked food!
At 10.30 we took a train to Nikko which is a small town north of Tokyo. The train took 2 hours and brought us through the mountains. It was so beautiful. The mountains were snowcapped with lots of Cedar trees climbing up the side. Although it was really cold we went to visit some of the mountain temples. Steve and I have experienced Temples in most places we have visited, but in Japan they are very different. The temples were made from wood with lots of gold trimmings. (the photo's will show you what they looked like). It was really cold in the mountains and we got to see snow for the first time in ages... beautiful.
Friday, March 25, 2005
Oh my god, I've bought a Kimono!!!! (Steve)
23/3/05 - Today featured a trip out of town to James's tailors and Kimono suppliers. Took a while as most things are not in english once away from the touristy parts. Made it interesting though. Eventually we arrive at the place with a hard to remember name, and found ourselves in traditional Japanese clothing world. Sian and me got dressed up and had another mock wedding the result being me buying the kimono, but I needed a dressing gown for, er....sometime in the future.
James went for many items including a cool wig, and an 'under Kimono', amazing what you can buy here.
It was our last night in Kyoto so we decided that a nice dinner (in the spirit of saving money!!!) was in order. What we found was a buffet, the best feature being unlimited Sake!! Thats rice wine by the way. Its best served warm, so muggins here keeps downing his little glasses, only to get a bit too drunk considering our 5.45am start to get the Shinkansen (bullet) train to Tokyo......
5.45am 24/3/05. We've felt better, I seem to have come of worst but at least I can sleep on the train. Well, not to start with, these trains go bloody fast, making the 661km journey take just under 2.5 hours, thats with 6 stops!!!!
On arrival in Tokyo, we play a lovely game of find the Kaoru, with only 1 mobile phone in Kaoru's possesion this was a task in itself, Tokyo Station is huge. Its so nice to meet up her after 5 months, we've been so lucky to have so many friends come out to see us at various places.Eventually we head for the Emporers castle for a bit sight seeing. Sadly I have come down with the cold James brought with him from London, feeling worse than at any point on the trip so far we go to Kaoru's house in eastern Tokyo, our home for the next 2 weeks or so, and somewhere for me to have a bit of a kip. Her family were so exited to meet us and are looking after us fabulously, and the house is so cute too, a proper Japanese house with straw mats everywhere, and little sliding glass doors, need to mind your head though, height is a hazardous thing here, bad luck James.
We love Japan!!!!!!! Sayonara for now.
James went for many items including a cool wig, and an 'under Kimono', amazing what you can buy here.
It was our last night in Kyoto so we decided that a nice dinner (in the spirit of saving money!!!) was in order. What we found was a buffet, the best feature being unlimited Sake!! Thats rice wine by the way. Its best served warm, so muggins here keeps downing his little glasses, only to get a bit too drunk considering our 5.45am start to get the Shinkansen (bullet) train to Tokyo......
5.45am 24/3/05. We've felt better, I seem to have come of worst but at least I can sleep on the train. Well, not to start with, these trains go bloody fast, making the 661km journey take just under 2.5 hours, thats with 6 stops!!!!
On arrival in Tokyo, we play a lovely game of find the Kaoru, with only 1 mobile phone in Kaoru's possesion this was a task in itself, Tokyo Station is huge. Its so nice to meet up her after 5 months, we've been so lucky to have so many friends come out to see us at various places.Eventually we head for the Emporers castle for a bit sight seeing. Sadly I have come down with the cold James brought with him from London, feeling worse than at any point on the trip so far we go to Kaoru's house in eastern Tokyo, our home for the next 2 weeks or so, and somewhere for me to have a bit of a kip. Her family were so exited to meet us and are looking after us fabulously, and the house is so cute too, a proper Japanese house with straw mats everywhere, and little sliding glass doors, need to mind your head though, height is a hazardous thing here, bad luck James.
We love Japan!!!!!!! Sayonara for now.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Green Tea and Geisha!! (Steve)
22/3/05 - This afternoon we headed to Gion, the district in Kyoto that is home to the Geishas and Maiko (trainee Geisha). Most of Kyoto is not that pretty but Gion was what we hoped it would be. Old, cute wooden tea houses and houses, and if you're lucky a glimpse of a Geisha or Meiko on thier way to or from an appointment.
Exited by traditional Japan only made our love for this country worse, dont think we'll want to leave on the 10th April!!!
Anyway we find Gion corner (a tourist orientated show of traditional Japanese arts) where we are treated to a tea ceremony, or rather Sian was after volunteering, which involved green tea and cakes, very nice too.
The show had many parts, one of the funniest being a dance using a collecton of old men playing a collection of instruments, the result actually being similar to giving a group of children some random instruments, if you can imagine.....no-one listening to anyone else and I think a couple of tone deaf musicians may have sneaked in.
In fact, the best part of the show was the dance by two Maiko, they were really good at what they did, and we all sat in wonder.
An amusing play and interesting puppetry were also on the menu, a good job that in the programme it told us what was going on, would have been most confuseing otherwise!!
We're loving it so much in Japan, shame its not as cheap as everywhere else we've been but you get what you pay for......
Exited by traditional Japan only made our love for this country worse, dont think we'll want to leave on the 10th April!!!
Anyway we find Gion corner (a tourist orientated show of traditional Japanese arts) where we are treated to a tea ceremony, or rather Sian was after volunteering, which involved green tea and cakes, very nice too.
The show had many parts, one of the funniest being a dance using a collecton of old men playing a collection of instruments, the result actually being similar to giving a group of children some random instruments, if you can imagine.....no-one listening to anyone else and I think a couple of tone deaf musicians may have sneaked in.
In fact, the best part of the show was the dance by two Maiko, they were really good at what they did, and we all sat in wonder.
An amusing play and interesting puppetry were also on the menu, a good job that in the programme it told us what was going on, would have been most confuseing otherwise!!
We're loving it so much in Japan, shame its not as cheap as everywhere else we've been but you get what you pay for......
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Japan (Sian)
We arrived in Japan on Sunday evening without any pre thought and were nearly not alowed in to the country as we had not pre booked anywhere to stay! Immigration are really strict here and as we had no forwarding address we were nearly sent back where we came from. Luckily James came to the rescue as he had been waiting for us at Kansai Airport for the previous 3 hours. We booked ourselves in to the airport hotel for the night and caught up with all the news and gossip from London. All 3 of us were really excited about how cute and clean Japan is and even more so about the bidet in our bathroom!
We made our way to Kyoto yesterday and checked out all of the local hotels only to find that quite a few of them were already booked up! Still we were succesful in finding a place eventually and bizarely it is one of the better value ones.
James was still feeling a little poorly so Steve and I left him nursing his virus whilst we explored the city. It is all very new and clean here. The traffic lights sing when it is the pedestrian's turn to cross the road. All the shops display appertising plastic foods which are rather scary, but still the food is nothing short of excellent. We are having a few language problems but I am sure that as our Japaneese improves communication will become easier. We were turned away from a beautiful restaurant last night as they had no English Menus. It was ashame as the waitress was in traditional costume, and the resturant looked rather cute.
This morning James and I have been drooling over Komono's and Obe's this morning, if only we could buy all the beautiful things here.
James is blogging on www.jamesmudd.blogspot.com if you want to catch up with his version of our adventure.
We made our way to Kyoto yesterday and checked out all of the local hotels only to find that quite a few of them were already booked up! Still we were succesful in finding a place eventually and bizarely it is one of the better value ones.
James was still feeling a little poorly so Steve and I left him nursing his virus whilst we explored the city. It is all very new and clean here. The traffic lights sing when it is the pedestrian's turn to cross the road. All the shops display appertising plastic foods which are rather scary, but still the food is nothing short of excellent. We are having a few language problems but I am sure that as our Japaneese improves communication will become easier. We were turned away from a beautiful restaurant last night as they had no English Menus. It was ashame as the waitress was in traditional costume, and the resturant looked rather cute.
This morning James and I have been drooling over Komono's and Obe's this morning, if only we could buy all the beautiful things here.
James is blogging on www.jamesmudd.blogspot.com if you want to catch up with his version of our adventure.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Police Raid!!!!!!! (Steve)
19/3/2005 Well, our last night in Hong Kong started rather 'normally', as in with some shopping , again, this time over on Hong Kong Island. That said even I have failed to resist the allure of cheap nice clothing......but enough of that.
At 2.30am we decided to head out to find a club of some description. What we found was called Cyber Club and after jumping the queue ( being white seems to make everything `blaggable` in Asia) we entered a fairly typical club. Kelly managed to pull two women and one bloke within about 2 minutes with the use of her pole dancing skills. But within another two the lights cames on, the music went of and we westerners were hurried into the back as the police launched a full raid on the place!!! So the next hour or so was spent in a smoky room with a few other tourists and as we hadnt even had time to go to the bar we were forced to make do with water for all the time we spent in there!!!
An experience in itself that certainly was, but the rest of the night didnt really have the same level of exitement about it, but we enjoyed a bit of a dance and being stared at, in fact the time then went rather quickly as we didnt get to bed till 6am, with a flight to Japan early afternoon. I didnt feel too good after 3 hours sleep........
Sad to leave Kate and Kelly as quickly as we`d found them but we`ll see them both in Melbourne very soon and it looks like a house share is on the cards........
At 2.30am we decided to head out to find a club of some description. What we found was called Cyber Club and after jumping the queue ( being white seems to make everything `blaggable` in Asia) we entered a fairly typical club. Kelly managed to pull two women and one bloke within about 2 minutes with the use of her pole dancing skills. But within another two the lights cames on, the music went of and we westerners were hurried into the back as the police launched a full raid on the place!!! So the next hour or so was spent in a smoky room with a few other tourists and as we hadnt even had time to go to the bar we were forced to make do with water for all the time we spent in there!!!
An experience in itself that certainly was, but the rest of the night didnt really have the same level of exitement about it, but we enjoyed a bit of a dance and being stared at, in fact the time then went rather quickly as we didnt get to bed till 6am, with a flight to Japan early afternoon. I didnt feel too good after 3 hours sleep........
Sad to leave Kate and Kelly as quickly as we`d found them but we`ll see them both in Melbourne very soon and it looks like a house share is on the cards........
Sunday, March 20, 2005
How Bizare (Sian)
Just wanted to add a note about the turn of events since St Patricks day. We hooked up with Kelly and Pete the night after the night before. We were all feeling a little worse for wear but pleased to all meet up none the less.
Kelly lives in Melbourne and is looking for flat mates... Guess who will be moving in!!! Yeay, Sian, Steve and Kate have found a place to stay!
Anyway Kelly is absolutely fabulous and the biggest shoppoholic I have ever met, what is even better is she has a size 8 figure so she can fit in to all these fabulous clothes that are on sale in Hong Kong. I felt like she was my real size Barbie last night when we were shopping in the Temple street market, it was fab!! Pete is great too, I think he is really enjoying showing Kelly shopping in Hong Kong, and to be honest I can really see why - HONG KONG IS FAB!!!
Any how, we have had a brilliant time, have checked out most of the sights and got to know each other which is fab and we are really enjoying ourselves.
Kelly lives in Melbourne and is looking for flat mates... Guess who will be moving in!!! Yeay, Sian, Steve and Kate have found a place to stay!
Anyway Kelly is absolutely fabulous and the biggest shoppoholic I have ever met, what is even better is she has a size 8 figure so she can fit in to all these fabulous clothes that are on sale in Hong Kong. I felt like she was my real size Barbie last night when we were shopping in the Temple street market, it was fab!! Pete is great too, I think he is really enjoying showing Kelly shopping in Hong Kong, and to be honest I can really see why - HONG KONG IS FAB!!!
Any how, we have had a brilliant time, have checked out most of the sights and got to know each other which is fab and we are really enjoying ourselves.
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