Today we headed out from Kyoto to Hiroshima after spending a great 4 days there. Hiroshima turned out to be greys skies and showers, which created the right atmosphere for what we were about to visit - the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Seeing the images of the tragedy that befell Hiroshima on that day in August 1945 really almost brought me to tears - no one should have to go through the horrors that the people of Hiroshima went through after the A-Bomb hit. It really does highlight to me the sinfulness of man, and the absolutely hopeless situation that we're all in, if not for Jesus.
Turning to food, Hiroshima really served it up to us really well; I had two great meals here so far, one of a seafood combo thing with prawns, mussels, etc in a light batter served with rice and miso soup and one other with pork chop, prawn and beef in an omlette with rice and miso soup; both were absolutely superb.
Anyhow, I'm being kicked off this computer, so I'd better say goodbye.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
1st, 2nd and 3rd Days in Kyoto
A lot has happened since the last post, as blogger.com has been inaccessible to me for 2 days now; quite unfortunate. However, since my last post, we have arrived in Kyoto from Tokyo, and have proceeded to then visit (in rough order) downtown Kyoto, Gion to see geisha, Sansusangen-do, the National Museum of Japan, the Philosopher's Path, Kiyomizu-dera, Gion again for the tea ceremony, Fushimi Inari-taishi with the tunnels made of torii gates (like the one in Memoirs of a Geisha), cycling in Nara, Nara Park and deers, Todai-ji (which we couldn't really see because it was closed by the tie we got there) and a cool onsen near our hotel which has great facilities. The hotel's very good too :).
Anyhow, it's getting late, and I'm tired again :P.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Anyhow, it's getting late, and I'm tired again :P.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
3rd Day in Tokyo
I'm blogging in the following morning again, and my sister is tell me to hurry up in finishing up using the laptop, so I'll be quick. Yesterday, we went over to Shibuya after having a very long sleep-in. Shibuya was great - we walked through a shopping mall of girl's clothes, checked out a book store and an electronics store and I got myself a camera bag (I now understand the brilliance of the idea of having your camera strapped around your neck rather than your wrist - you can do stuff without killing your camera!!) and a new XD card (coz I've been using up the memory on my camera card like there was no tomorrow). We then headed over to Shinjuku, and even though the station was pretty busy, it didn't seem to be much busier than any other station that I've been to at its busiest. The station was very big though, and there was still crowds when it was like 10:30pm. We went along the trail of the Shinjuku East walking path as described in the Lonely Planet, and visited Kinokuniya, a shoe store, looked at Isetan (but didn't go in coz it was closed), saw a Buddhist shrine, walked through the Golden Gai, got lost and wandered through the Shinjuku red light district and (maybe) saw the Kabuki theatre. Also, I was in shorts again, and it was like 5 degrees last night - I was shivering my pants off (not literally :P even though I didn't have a belt on).
Anyhow, that's it for today.
Lawrence
Anyhow, that's it for today.
Lawrence
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
2nd Day in Tokyo
We headed off to the Tsukiji Fish Markets, Imperial Palace, Ginza and the Sensoji Temple yesterday (yes, I'm one day behind in blogging, but what can you do? I was pretty dead yesterday evening...).
Tsukiji was pretty interesting because of the manic pace that everything went at. And the stupidly large array of seadfood lying around - yum!! However, we did get rorted whilst trying to find some good super fatty tuna - it was like 735 yen for 1 tuna sushi piece (over 10 aus bucks - faint...). All we could do was to resign ourselves to the fact that it was pretty good tuna.
Before we got to the Imperial Palace, everyone was so dead that we stopped in the park across the road and rested for about 1/2 hr before we summoned up the strength to go on. The stupid thing about the Imperial Palace is that you can't really see much of it; there's a few gates and a few monuments, but we couldn't find the place where you can actually see the palace grounds. I suppose that's for security reasons, but it was still pretty disappointing.
We ate McDonalds for lunch... feeling the pinch after the sushi.
Ginza was cool. No, seriously cool. The Sony Building is a must see if you ever go to Tokyo; it's got so much gadgetry, any serious geek would be in heaven! Plus, I scored a free shirt :). We also went to several department stores, and took heaps of snaps of pretty cakes (seriously, the Japanese really know how to do pretty) and snaps of weird and wonderful gadgets. And Ginza at nightfall, with all the lights and Christmas decorations... wah!!!!!! I can definitely understand why consumerism would be a problem in Japan, even for a Christian - it's just so loaded with tempting stuff!!!
We ate Yoshinoya for dinner... again, pinch...
Sensoji Temple in Asakusa was spectacular at night. There were very little people about, so whilst it was a bit spooky around some of the Buddhist statues, the whole place was lighted up so that it made for really excellent photo opportunites. Plus, it was only less than 5 minutes walk from where we were staying. We also found out that Asakusa has heaps of cheap eats... man, why didn't we look around where we were staying first??
My stomach just growled. I'd better go.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Tsukiji was pretty interesting because of the manic pace that everything went at. And the stupidly large array of seadfood lying around - yum!! However, we did get rorted whilst trying to find some good super fatty tuna - it was like 735 yen for 1 tuna sushi piece (over 10 aus bucks - faint...). All we could do was to resign ourselves to the fact that it was pretty good tuna.
Before we got to the Imperial Palace, everyone was so dead that we stopped in the park across the road and rested for about 1/2 hr before we summoned up the strength to go on. The stupid thing about the Imperial Palace is that you can't really see much of it; there's a few gates and a few monuments, but we couldn't find the place where you can actually see the palace grounds. I suppose that's for security reasons, but it was still pretty disappointing.
We ate McDonalds for lunch... feeling the pinch after the sushi.
Ginza was cool. No, seriously cool. The Sony Building is a must see if you ever go to Tokyo; it's got so much gadgetry, any serious geek would be in heaven! Plus, I scored a free shirt :). We also went to several department stores, and took heaps of snaps of pretty cakes (seriously, the Japanese really know how to do pretty) and snaps of weird and wonderful gadgets. And Ginza at nightfall, with all the lights and Christmas decorations... wah!!!!!! I can definitely understand why consumerism would be a problem in Japan, even for a Christian - it's just so loaded with tempting stuff!!!
We ate Yoshinoya for dinner... again, pinch...
Sensoji Temple in Asakusa was spectacular at night. There were very little people about, so whilst it was a bit spooky around some of the Buddhist statues, the whole place was lighted up so that it made for really excellent photo opportunites. Plus, it was only less than 5 minutes walk from where we were staying. We also found out that Asakusa has heaps of cheap eats... man, why didn't we look around where we were staying first??
My stomach just growled. I'd better go.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Monday, November 17, 2008
Day in Nikko
Today's trip was to Nikko, the site of many world heritage listed Buddhist / Shinto shrines and temples.
We took a shinkansen from Ueno after having bought breakfast on the platform, of which the salmon(?) roe sushi was definitely the highlight; it was soooo tasty! Getting off at Utsunomiya, we then changed to the JR Nikko line to head to Nikko. The scenery on the way on the Nikko line was quite cute; Japanese countryside, mountains and autumn leaves area a good mix.
First impressions of Nikko from the JR station - it's a dump. The place was so run down! However, there was plenty of things to see walking up to the shrines from the station (don't take a bus if you're thinking of going; walking only takes 1/2 hr and it's an easy walk). The shrines themselves and the surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous. My sister was going nuts being so happy about the red autumn leaves and the beauty of the area. We also got to do the whole ritual in front of the Shinto shrine with 2 bows, 2 claps and a final bow, and also the wash hands and wash mouth thing at the fountain. In one of the shrines, the priest was demonstrating the bowing and clapping ritual, and in another, the acoustics of the room with some wooden blocks and how when he was hitting them right under the image of the dragon's head on the ceiling that it would echo and produce a noticeably louder sound. The walk up to Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb was a trek though; everyone was panting by the end of it.
We then found a place for lunch, which was kinda pricey (everything in Nikko is) but the upshot was that it was pretty fine soba noodle that was served - thin bits and thick bits and all yum. I ordered the udon though... man, what a waste.
After that, we went up to Chuzenji to look at the waterfall and have a soak in an onsen. However, we didn't exactly realise what we were getting ourselves into. Tokyo is very temperate and still feels like summer, so I wore shorts not thinking that Nikko and its surround would be much different. How wrong I was. Chuzenji is up on a mountain, and it was cold, foggy and felt like 10 degrees max not counting wind chill. I was absolutely freezing, and so was my sister. However, it costed about 1000 yen per person to get a bus up there, so we weren't about to give up just yet, even though the fog meant that going to the Kegon waterfall was pretty pointless. Even though not being able to see the waterfall and paying the exhorbitant price for the bus was disappointing, the onsen there was very nice, with excellent facilities (but again was expensive... 900 yen is pricey for an onsen). The water was so hot - I read a sign that said that the water was somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees, and I wouldn't have for one moment doubt that claim. I'd last for something like 2 minutes before I had to get out and either douse myself in cold water or sit where the window was open. We also goofed about when nobody was about, doing underwater laps of the onsen pool, doing bombs and playing frisbee with the washing basins. Good times.
We then went back to Utsunomiya and had gyoza at a place across the road from the JR station. Not much to really report on here other than we all were so fully buggered from the whole trip today, and it really showed both at dinner and on the way back.
Anyhow, I'm pretty tired, and as you can probably tell, more than a bit incoherent because of that. Hopefully my sentence construction will be better tomorrow; however, we're heading to Tsukiji Fish Market early, so I doubt that I'd be any more awake for the next post. Ah well.
Signing out,
Lawrence
We took a shinkansen from Ueno after having bought breakfast on the platform, of which the salmon(?) roe sushi was definitely the highlight; it was soooo tasty! Getting off at Utsunomiya, we then changed to the JR Nikko line to head to Nikko. The scenery on the way on the Nikko line was quite cute; Japanese countryside, mountains and autumn leaves area a good mix.
First impressions of Nikko from the JR station - it's a dump. The place was so run down! However, there was plenty of things to see walking up to the shrines from the station (don't take a bus if you're thinking of going; walking only takes 1/2 hr and it's an easy walk). The shrines themselves and the surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous. My sister was going nuts being so happy about the red autumn leaves and the beauty of the area. We also got to do the whole ritual in front of the Shinto shrine with 2 bows, 2 claps and a final bow, and also the wash hands and wash mouth thing at the fountain. In one of the shrines, the priest was demonstrating the bowing and clapping ritual, and in another, the acoustics of the room with some wooden blocks and how when he was hitting them right under the image of the dragon's head on the ceiling that it would echo and produce a noticeably louder sound. The walk up to Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb was a trek though; everyone was panting by the end of it.
We then found a place for lunch, which was kinda pricey (everything in Nikko is) but the upshot was that it was pretty fine soba noodle that was served - thin bits and thick bits and all yum. I ordered the udon though... man, what a waste.
After that, we went up to Chuzenji to look at the waterfall and have a soak in an onsen. However, we didn't exactly realise what we were getting ourselves into. Tokyo is very temperate and still feels like summer, so I wore shorts not thinking that Nikko and its surround would be much different. How wrong I was. Chuzenji is up on a mountain, and it was cold, foggy and felt like 10 degrees max not counting wind chill. I was absolutely freezing, and so was my sister. However, it costed about 1000 yen per person to get a bus up there, so we weren't about to give up just yet, even though the fog meant that going to the Kegon waterfall was pretty pointless. Even though not being able to see the waterfall and paying the exhorbitant price for the bus was disappointing, the onsen there was very nice, with excellent facilities (but again was expensive... 900 yen is pricey for an onsen). The water was so hot - I read a sign that said that the water was somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees, and I wouldn't have for one moment doubt that claim. I'd last for something like 2 minutes before I had to get out and either douse myself in cold water or sit where the window was open. We also goofed about when nobody was about, doing underwater laps of the onsen pool, doing bombs and playing frisbee with the washing basins. Good times.
We then went back to Utsunomiya and had gyoza at a place across the road from the JR station. Not much to really report on here other than we all were so fully buggered from the whole trip today, and it really showed both at dinner and on the way back.
Anyhow, I'm pretty tired, and as you can probably tell, more than a bit incoherent because of that. Hopefully my sentence construction will be better tomorrow; however, we're heading to Tsukiji Fish Market early, so I doubt that I'd be any more awake for the next post. Ah well.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Sunday, November 16, 2008
First day and night in Tokyo
Our trip from Osaka to Tokyo sure was an adventure.
Firstly, we headed off to find some breakfast, and came to this alleyway near the hotel that sold udon - super cheap (< 300 yen per bowl) but kinda super lacking in meat (i.e. I got the Tempura Don and the tempura consisted of one bit of prawn tale and a lot of tempura batter).
Then the train trip. We got on the JR at Shin-something or other and got the Osaka Loop line, then had to change trains to get to Shin-Osaka to get the Shinkansen, then proceeded to board the Shinkansen in the wrong class and having to walk something like 8 carriages before we got seats for the four of us. I thought I had lost my camera too, but it was in my pocket the whole time. The whole trip was something like 4 hours to Tokyo. One thing I learnt on the bullet train is that Japanese squat toilets don't flush very well. You've been warned.
Having got to Tokyo, we then had to get to Asakusa. First, the JR to Ueno, which was amazingly similar to the trains in Osaka. Then the famous Tokyo Metro from Ueno to Asakusa. The hotel is very close to the station, but is on one really really dodgy alleyway... I suppose that's how it is in Tokyo.
We spent our afternoon and evening in Akihabara. The amount of electronic stuff there lives up to its reputation. However, we were also in search of manga stores, and there was one particularly seedy one which had typical manga comics in the front of the first floor and then porn in the back and in each of the proceeding levels... we reached the second floor and realised that there wasn't going to be anything good in there. Man, talking about backroom operations...
There was also one particularly pretty waitress at the curry restaurant that we went to next to Akihabara station. However, I think she noticed that I was sorta ogling her and when I went up to pay the bill, she spoke so much Japanese so very quickly that I couldn't even get an arigato in there... ah well. :) The rest of my friends just teased me all the way back.
She was some looker though.
Ah well, we're heading off to the Tsukiji Fish Market tomorrow morning. At 4 am. it's 11:15 pm, I'm buggered, and I've probably written more than enough.
Well, again, until next time,
Lawrence
Firstly, we headed off to find some breakfast, and came to this alleyway near the hotel that sold udon - super cheap (< 300 yen per bowl) but kinda super lacking in meat (i.e. I got the Tempura Don and the tempura consisted of one bit of prawn tale and a lot of tempura batter).
Then the train trip. We got on the JR at Shin-something or other and got the Osaka Loop line, then had to change trains to get to Shin-Osaka to get the Shinkansen, then proceeded to board the Shinkansen in the wrong class and having to walk something like 8 carriages before we got seats for the four of us. I thought I had lost my camera too, but it was in my pocket the whole time. The whole trip was something like 4 hours to Tokyo. One thing I learnt on the bullet train is that Japanese squat toilets don't flush very well. You've been warned.
Having got to Tokyo, we then had to get to Asakusa. First, the JR to Ueno, which was amazingly similar to the trains in Osaka. Then the famous Tokyo Metro from Ueno to Asakusa. The hotel is very close to the station, but is on one really really dodgy alleyway... I suppose that's how it is in Tokyo.
We spent our afternoon and evening in Akihabara. The amount of electronic stuff there lives up to its reputation. However, we were also in search of manga stores, and there was one particularly seedy one which had typical manga comics in the front of the first floor and then porn in the back and in each of the proceeding levels... we reached the second floor and realised that there wasn't going to be anything good in there. Man, talking about backroom operations...
There was also one particularly pretty waitress at the curry restaurant that we went to next to Akihabara station. However, I think she noticed that I was sorta ogling her and when I went up to pay the bill, she spoke so much Japanese so very quickly that I couldn't even get an arigato in there... ah well. :) The rest of my friends just teased me all the way back.
She was some looker though.
Ah well, we're heading off to the Tsukiji Fish Market tomorrow morning. At 4 am. it's 11:15 pm, I'm buggered, and I've probably written more than enough.
Well, again, until next time,
Lawrence
Saturday, November 15, 2008
First morning in Osaka
Sarah and I have just woken up; it's quarter-past 7 in the morning and it's still warm. Totally didn't expect the weather to be so temperate - maybe we might be able to go play in the surf when we hit Miyajima next week?
Besides that, it's not that much different; had a box of sushi last night from the local convenience store to tide the hunger for 398 yen; there was also a chicken katsu don for that money, but I didn't know that a pair of chopsticks were included in the price and didn:t want to eat oyaki don (I think that's the Jap name for it) with my hands... ah well.
I'm currently waiting to get stuff to go take a soak in the hotel onsen atm. The hotel is seriously clean - I'm very impressed, it's not what I expected for paying about 2000 yen per night. It's a little run down (like, as in it looks like it was built in the 70's), but I'm liking this place.
There was also this Japanese cooking show last night that was a real blast. There was a jap idol showing the audience her cutie pose, and the middle-aged male host was copying the poses - the one where he tried to look cute with a chopping board was a classic!
There's also vending machines everywhere, mostly of drinks, but a few of ciggies as well... methinks they haven't cottoned onto the idea of lung cancer yet. Ah well.
Waking up to the sound of the trains is somewhat nostalgic, I must say; my grandparents' old place used to be directly under the flight path of the planes when they were using the old Kai Tak airport. Canberra is another world away in this respect - I still think it's a super huge country town - but it has it's own charm.
I again think I'm now just ranting again, so I'll see how it all pans out. Also, the blog website has listed my blog as a spam blog; hopefully they'll rectify the situation soon.
Signing out,
Lawrence
Besides that, it's not that much different; had a box of sushi last night from the local convenience store to tide the hunger for 398 yen; there was also a chicken katsu don for that money, but I didn't know that a pair of chopsticks were included in the price and didn:t want to eat oyaki don (I think that's the Jap name for it) with my hands... ah well.
I'm currently waiting to get stuff to go take a soak in the hotel onsen atm. The hotel is seriously clean - I'm very impressed, it's not what I expected for paying about 2000 yen per night. It's a little run down (like, as in it looks like it was built in the 70's), but I'm liking this place.
There was also this Japanese cooking show last night that was a real blast. There was a jap idol showing the audience her cutie pose, and the middle-aged male host was copying the poses - the one where he tried to look cute with a chopping board was a classic!
There's also vending machines everywhere, mostly of drinks, but a few of ciggies as well... methinks they haven't cottoned onto the idea of lung cancer yet. Ah well.
Waking up to the sound of the trains is somewhat nostalgic, I must say; my grandparents' old place used to be directly under the flight path of the planes when they were using the old Kai Tak airport. Canberra is another world away in this respect - I still think it's a super huge country town - but it has it's own charm.
I again think I'm now just ranting again, so I'll see how it all pans out. Also, the blog website has listed my blog as a spam blog; hopefully they'll rectify the situation soon.
Signing out,
Lawrence
First night in Osaka
We've just arrived at our hotel in Osaka from Kansai International Airport. Never really imagined I'd be here in Japan writing a blog about my travels, but this is a beginning.
Some of the really interesting things I've though about whilst being in Osaka so far:
1. The trains bong just like in Neon Genesis Evangelion whilst going across a railway crossing
2. The houses look just like how they draw them in the manga series
3. The Japanese actually dress quite conservatively
4. There are Japanese church buildings (this probably points at my ignorance of the world at large, but yeah... I'm trying to learn)
I'm mumbling, but that's because I've had 3.5 hrs sleep last night and am a bit hungry. Will probably write more the next chance I get. :)
For now,
Lawrence
Some of the really interesting things I've though about whilst being in Osaka so far:
1. The trains bong just like in Neon Genesis Evangelion whilst going across a railway crossing
2. The houses look just like how they draw them in the manga series
3. The Japanese actually dress quite conservatively
4. There are Japanese church buildings (this probably points at my ignorance of the world at large, but yeah... I'm trying to learn)
I'm mumbling, but that's because I've had 3.5 hrs sleep last night and am a bit hungry. Will probably write more the next chance I get. :)
For now,
Lawrence
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