5 Day Okinawa Trip

This is going to be our last luxury holiday in Japan.We are in Okinawa again, probably the most popular holiday place for Japanese people. I found a great deal on the Internet, 4 nights at a luxury hotel with all meals included, return airfare and free coffee & ice cream for $500.

There will also be a lot of free things. I am very proud of myself finding this deal.Okinawa is Southern Japan close to Philippine, so it is already hot (could be humid...) and we can swim in a pool and ocean.

I am very excited and I am going to blog it everyday so come back here everyday people!!!!

Ameyoko Market

At the market with Maiko.

After the Cat Cafe,we went to a famous market called "Ameyoko". I had heard the name before but did not know they had such absolute bargains!!!

We bought rugby tops for $4 each (excellent quality), Rob's Asics runners cost $35 and my sandals were $20. There were also cheap Fruits, veggies and seafood. Now when I think back, I should have bought more stuff such as clothing, shoes and bathers!!!!After the shopping spree, we went to see the Tokyo Sky Tree Tower.

"Tokyo Sky Tree" was built for digital broadcasting. Like Australia, analog broadcasting will finish and shift to digital in Japan. The tower is planning to be completed in 2012 and with a height of 634m, the tower will be one of the world's tallest!!!



Mami and Maiko with the Sky Tree in the background.

Cat cafe

Today is Monday and we took a packed train to Ikebukuro. Because we got on the train after 10am, it was not as packed as it would have been earlier in the morning during rush hour. There wasn't anyone pushing us to get on the train with a pole like you see on the ads. However you can see from the pictures it was still pretty crowded.I wish I could have filmed rush hour in Tokyo to show you how busy it gets, but that would have meant me getting up early so bad luck!!
After a short train ride, we caught up with Maiko. She used to teach Japanese at South Oakleigh SC and lived with us for a year. She is currently teaching English in Japan, and seems to be enjoying her job. After a few hugs, we all headed to a Cat Cafe in Ikebukuro.

　

At the entrance, you are given a card with the entry time on it. It costs 200 yen ($2.50) for every 10 mins you stay.There were about 12 - 15 cats and you can pat them, while enjoying a coffee, tea or soft drink. There were also copies of the latest magazines and comic books. We spent 50mins patting cats and taking photos. I could easily have spent all day there but I suppose there are other places to visit in Tokyo.

Earthquake.

A couple of days before leaving for Tokyo, Rob was saying that he would like to feel an earthquake, as long as it was not too big and it caused no damage to life or property.
Well our first morning in Tokyo Rob woke me about 7.00am and said 'Wake up! It's an earthquake!". I sat up, which rocked the bed a little, and still a bit drowsy replied 'I don't think so'.
Rob then told me to lie back and keep still, which I did and sure enough the bed was moving about 5 cm side to side in a gentle rocking motion. We lay there going 'OMG!'.
You have no control and as we were on the 11th floor of the hotel and still getting that sort of movement, it was awesome to think about the power in that quake.
The earthquake lasted about 15 seconds but was big enough to wake Rob up, so it may have been going for a little while before he woke. We turned on the TV and a report came up saying it was a fairly big one, about a 6 on the Reichter scale, with the epicentre somewhere off the coast of NE Japan. It was soon followed by an announcement from the hotel manager reassuring all guests that everything was fine.
Rob was very calm throughout, even though we were on 11th floor. He thought the movement was very fluid and gentle and before hearing the newscast had thought the quake must not have been very big. Luckily we were nowhere near the epicentre or it may have been a different story!
It might be politically incorrect, but Rob certainly got what he wished for.


Tokyo Tower

Harajyuku and akihabara

We again went to see Cosplay in Harajyuku. For those not sure of what Cosplay is, it is Japanese people, usually teenagers, dressing up in costumes, like manga characters for example, and walking through the streets. Harijuku is famous for its Cosplay.

However, there were nowhere near as many people in costumes as there was 4 years ago.I took a few long shots at the station before picking up the courage to ask some people if they would mind having their photo taken. As you can see on the photos, some people go to quite a lot trouble to dress up and were quite happy to have their picture taken. They parade up and down this street called Taleshita doori which is renowned for Cosplay.
We then headed to Yoyogi Park. We were gobsmacked to find such a lush abundance of natural beauty in a middle of one of the world's most densely populated cities. In the Yoyogi Park, there were a few Elvis impersonators, people practicing juggling and hula hoops and others having picnics. They are all seemed very relaxed.



We decided to visit another 'dressing up' town, Akihabara. This time, girls were dressed up as maids. In fact, they're working as waitresses, but treat the costomers as if they are a king. Mami wasn't game enough to go to one of those maid's cafes. I think she thought I might get ideas of subserviance and there are a heap of Cosplay shops where maid uniforms can be bought!!Oh well, we can always dream I guess!

Tokyo Day 1

Four hours by Shinkansen was all it took for us to get to Tokyo, which is about 1000km away from where we live. Quite amazing, isn't it?? That means we were travelling at an average speed of 250kph with stops at Hiroshima, Okayama, Shin Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and Shin Yokohama. As usual, Rob loved the train trip.
We arrived at Shinagawa station, and we looked for the hotel I had booked on the net. It was supposed to be 5 mins walk from the station but there were so many buildings it took us 15 mins to figure out how to get there. I totally lost my temper, and kept saying “I HATE Tokyo!!” and a few more words that I shouldn’t have said in the crowd. For once it was Rob who was calm and telling me to settle down there was no rush!!
We finally found the hotel, after several misleading directions, and on checking in found that we have been upgraded to a room where you had a great view of the city and could see the Tokyo Tower. That cooled me down a lot more than Rob telling me to calm down.
We then caught up with Matt and Joy Venz, friends from Melbourne, currently living and working in Tokyo. We had a lovely afternoon with them in a great coffee shop we found very close to our hotel. Then Matt and Joy took us on a walk and showed us which trains to catch to get to Odaiba. Tokyo is huge!!!!
In Odaiba we visited a car theme park and saw the latest Prius wagon which seats 7 people but still has the same economy rate as the Prius sedan. An amazing vehicle. There were also many other Toyota hybrid vehicles that we don’t have in Australia, like the Ractus (small & boxy), Harrier (similar to the Kluger but more sleek) the the Bb (similar to the Ractus). They are all capable of getting about 40kpl which is pretty incredible considering the size of the bigger vehicles listed here.
It is only our first day but I am already exhausted!!! I have decided to have a late start tomorrow.

My Friend, Nozomi

Today I caught up with Nozomi, a friend from junior high school. I had been wanting to catch up with her for a while but our communication has been poor, with both of us a bit unsure of ourselves after not seeing each other for so long.
She is opposite to me in many ways. She is tall, non sporting and very feminine in the Japanese sense, i.e. conscious of how she looks.
When she heard I had come back to Japan for 6 months, she thought maybe my marriage had not worked, as this was the case with her. She was happy for me when I contacted her and asked if she would mind if Rob came along to our lunch date. Seeing each other again was great and Rob just sat back and watched us talk for over an hour over lunch. It was really good for her to be able to tell me about her marriage break-up because even though divorce is easy to get in Japan it is still often seen in a bad light and considered to bring shame on the family.
I was glad she could talk to me about it. She is working in a jewellery shop in Hofu, about a 35 minute drive from Shunan. We are going to catch up with her at her shop and she has said she wants to polish our wedding rings for us. I am really glad we were able to see each other again. Hopefully she will come and see us in Australia one day.

Yoshi's Birthday

Yesterday was Yoshinobu's birthday. As usual the person whose day it is chooses the restaurant. Pity my birthday isn't happening during this trip!! We gave him a Hiroshima Carp bag and a limited edition Hiroshima Carp towel, which fans take to the game, similar to out footy supporter staking a scarf in club colours. This is probably to wipe the sweat as baseball is a summer game and it does get quite hot and humid in summer over here.
Yoshi chose a restaurant in Yamaguchi city which is about an hours drive from Shunan. It was a restaurant with European type menu. you could get pastas, paellas, pizzas and various cakes and ice-creams for dessert

It was a very nice meal and the restaurant itself was set up on a hill and had a really nice waterfall visible from the side windows. We walked the short distance to the waterfall after the meal. It was quite spectacular as there has been a lot of rain recently. We all thoroughly enjoyed the night.

Train Trip

Rob loves train trips. We talked about doing train trips a few times in Australia. However we only managed to do Oakleigh to Geelong once.
I used to think train trips are sooooooo slow and boring unless you are a reader. Anyway, having plenty of time and being a bit of a tight a**e myself, we decided to travel from my city to Hiroshima by a local train. It costs 1/3 the price of a Shinkansen ticket,but takes 2 hours instead of 30 mins.
This is actually our 2nd trips to Hiroshima to watch our beloved Hiroshima Carp baseball team. The local train travels along the coastline and it's so beautiful and I, surprisingly, found it is very relaxing and throughly enjoyable. It did not even feel like a two hour trip. They say time flies when you're having fun.

Mothers’ Day.

We took Yoko and Nana out to dinner for Mothers’ Day. Not far from our house in Shunan, there is an Italian Restaurant. I pass it every day driving to gym and have often wondered what the food was like.

I was rapt when Yoko chose this restaurant as the one she would like to go to to celebrate Mothers’ Day. Nana went ahead of us to make sure we could get in as we hadn’t booked. Luckily there was room to take us all but we were seated on two separate tables. Why couldn’t we move them together, you ask? Because no one has ever done that before so therefore you cannot do it. Change is something that happens with glacial speed in Japan.

The food however was absolutely delicious and the service was first class. Mami and her mum selected a set course of sashimi, small but unbelievably tasty, grilled chicken in red wine sauce, perfect, and then a main of pasta with chicken and mushroom in a basil cream sauce, absolutely sensational!! Desert followed, a peach sorbet with chocolate mud cake and a latte`.
One of the best meals we have had this trip. Mami and I will be going back again before we leave. It really was first class and Yoko and Nana had a great Mothers’ Day celebrating with the family.

Mami the Travel Agent

We will be returning to Australia on 21st June arriving on the 22nd June. We aim to do a few trips before our return. Mami the travel agent has been busy short listing places to visit, and the cheapest way to get there.

Next weekend, we will be visiting Tokyo for 3 days. It takes 4 hours by Shinkansen. It’s the first time Rob has had a chance to go on Shinkansen this visit, so he is really looking forward to it. I have been searching the net for places to visit in Tokyo, and I found a ‘Cat Cafe’ and an Aussie Sports Bar. A Cat Café is where you pay about $15 for an hour, and you can chill out at a cafe and be surrounded by cats. Some places allow you to cuddle them, too. I will tell you more about it when we visit this place. The Aussie Sports Bar is for, of course, watching AFL. If we planned to get there on Friday night, we could have watched the Cats vs Blues, but we have now settled for the Swans vs Hawks. We are also hoping to catch up with some of our friends, Matt & Joy Venz, and Maiko.

After the Tokyo trip, we are going back to Okinawa. I found a great deal, 4 nights 5 days with all meals included for $900 for two, with a lot of free things! So I could not resist it. There is also an outdoor pool, a library and a spa!! Only worry is there is a lot of rain at this time of the year, so it might be a bit too hot and humid for Rob. But we are going to totally chill out at the resort for 5 days, so it should be fine.

Next, we will be visiting Kyoto. Hiromi, my bridesmaid, will be joining us for 2 days and Maiko is also planning on coming. It will be like old times with the four of us back together again. We will be taking the dominoes! I still have a lot of planning to do for that trip.

So if you found this blog slow and boring, there is going to be a lot of pictures and surprises! Stay tuned!!!!

GOLDEN WEEK

We had Golden week this week. Many Japanese workers get about a week off around the end of April and beginning of May. This is because there is a cluster of national holidays during this time.　The "week" starts on April 29, a National holiday for nature appreciation. This year, it was on Friday, therefore most of people had 3 days off. May 3 is Constitution Memorial Day and May 5 is Children's Day, set aside to pray for the healthy growth and happiness of boys and girls. Because May 4 falls between two holidays, this day was also designated a national holiday. Some companies give employees a day off or two in between holidays, so some can have 7 to 10 days off. That’s why we call this week ‘GOLDEN’ well, I think it means something extremely valuable!! (Rob says I have Golden Week every week at the moment!)

One bad thing is that EVERYONE tries to go somewhere at once. Imagine 130 million people on the move at once. Crazy!!!!!!!!




Anyway, in keeping with the tradition, we too made a short trip to Sera Kogen, Hiroshima. Sera Kogen is located in the mountains and is famous for flowers. We left home at 7am in the morning ( Yes I was awake) and drove 2 hours to get there.　First, we went to see some tulips, and then moved to see Shiba Zakura, which means lawn-cherry blossom. The vast array of flowers looked like a huge carpet.


On the way home, we saw a 30 km traffic jam on the highway. It is not new to me so I will leave thoughts on the traffic and craziness of the Golden Week for Rob to write about in the next blog.