p3tri

Half way there... I should have a post up soon

Well I was going to blog my trip in Japan as it was going but on arrival and experiencing first night I knew that it would just not be possible xD 7 people… one laptop… so I shall blog about it now… well blog what I remember because a lot happened and some of the minor details may have been lost somewhere in between.
Day 1
Most of day 1 was spent en-route to Japan. Got up at 2:30 I think it was and started getting ready to to, finished last minute packing which was really the packing that I had begun only 3 hours prior lol. Moving on, I remember it being really warm still because I was sitting in mums room with the aircon on for a bit… before long the family was up and we were out of the house on the way to the airport… on the way I received well wishes from Chloe and Xin which was nice  as I was nervous about the trip it kinda eased my nerves a lot. Arrived at the airport at some time around 4 I think where we saw Seng, Will and Alec already there. A short farewell with my family commenced and soon I was with the other guys waiting for Alice, Jun and Aaron to arrive and so we could check-in. It was a fair while before they arrived and we moved on into the terminal to await our flight to the Gold Coast. It was about this time that Pineypoo rung lol… god knows why Elaine was awake at such an hour but she sounded tired :P lol chatted to her for a bit before I let her get to sleep or was it Elaine wanting to go to sleep.. something like that. Anyway, there was some time left and I decided to nap for a bit before the flight.

Before long we boarded and were off to QLD, during the trip I slept to make up for the missed sleep.

Arrived into a VERY humid Queensland, I just can’t bear that type of weather… the air feels almost like it’s solid and it’s hard to breathe >< Well it was a 3 hour wait here so after checking into the flight we went to get some food… and boy is the food at the Gold coast airport expensive _ _ I paid 9 dollars for an egg and cheese roll which had like no cheese and was mediocre to say the least. Passing through customs was a breeze and before we knew it there was another wait for the plane. 2 hours later we finally boarded and were on our way to Narita International Japan where the weather would be more to my liking – a frosty 8 degrees I think it was. Like the trip to Queensland I slept most of this one only waking up in the last 2 hours to buy some Nissin Noodles and talk with Alec and Will who were in front of me lol (I was sitting separate since I booked my seats late >___>)

Arrived in Japan at Narita international at approximately 8 something there time :D very approximate I know ;) we were then lead by Alice who knew what to do. Firstly we went to the train ticket office where Suica cards (a JR railway card) and Narita Express tickets were purchased. A short walk later we found ourselves at the train terminal where we admired the Japanese trains. Some of them even had two levels! :O they also went quite fast xD. The Narita Express (N’ex) arrived promptly on time and even arrived in the correctly marked positions on the ground (they have stickers on the ground saying where each carriage should stop) which was pretty cool. We then made our way onto the train and made ourselves comfortable. It was about now that I inspected the ticket to see that it had an arrival time on it which was strange… you don’t see anything like that normally. Anyway I put it to the challenge and kept track of the time during the 1 ½ hour trip to Shinjuku, the station where we would be transferring to another train and I’ll be damned... the train arrived PERFECTLY on time... actually it arrived about 30 seconds early but disembarking took about that long so wow O________O I was pretty amazed xD. Caught a connecting train to Shin-Okubo (I think that’s what it was called/spelt) and walked about 2 min’s down the street to where we were staying – “Tokyo Plaza hotel” Surprisingly the receptionists were Korean but spoke enough English to get by. Will, Seng, Alec and I were sharing a room for the first few nights so we headed up. Unpacked and then went down next door to find a ramen store xD lol. First meal in japan was pretty good :D, afterwards it was pretty much too late to really go do much and everyone was tired so we returned back to the hotel to test the internet xD (yes that is quite sad but oh well) and wow, Japanese internet just owns all... we almost fainted when we saw the speeds we were getting... it was something in the order of 2 – 3 MB a second :O Will was pretty much in heaven and began downloading, a ritual that would be continued every night of our trip in Japan that would finally result in over 200 gb downloaded in just a matter of 10 days.
Day 2
Awoke in this foreign land to see that it was raining outside. Made a quick trip to the convenience store to find some umbrellas and then we were off to Shibuya to explore for the day. Shibuya was amazingly busy even in the wet climate; there was literally a sea of umbrellas as people went shopping or about their daily lives. We went and did lots of shopping since Will, for some reason even though the exchange rate was retarded, wanted to do lots of shopping lol. Went around all over the place, mainly to clothes shops but we also went to some other interesting ones too... Like Loft which is like smiggle evolved into an ikea lol. Saw lots of cool looking stuff there like a weird as Rubiks cube with uneven sides ... since I had a lot of teh other cubes I decided just to continue the trend and buy one of these too xD ask for me to bring it when I see you if you wanna look at it... anyways, it was time for lunch now and since we spent most of the day walking around Will spotted one of his favourite restaurants in japan – Coco Ichibanya which is like a Japanese curry franchise xD It was nice, but very filling.... like VERY filling... It also made me not want any curry anymore for a long long long time lol... After the food we went browsing the shops a bit more and then headed back to the hotel to have a taste of Japanese TV.
Day 3
Our second full day in Japan or third since we were in the country was to be spent in Harajuku. Once more it was raining so that spoilt our hopes of seeing the Harajuku girls, the very tb ones that dress up in all this random stuff lol... not that our trip there was totally in vain since there were a few wondering around. I think the highlight today would have to be the 100 Yen shop... not everything in there was 100 yen (approx $1.90?) but the majority of it was... for a cheapo like me while I was in Japan it was so good... they had everything in there xD I wouldn’t be too sure about the quality of some of the items but the majority of it was pretty decent :O Spent hours in there I think... there were 4 levels... or was it 5... Pretty much afterward it followed the same pattern as the previous day.. shop for clothes... and more clothes... though we found a pretty good Ramen place for lunch =D Oh Seng, Will and Alec bought face masks that are to be used for ill people _ _ lol their glasses kept fogging up though so it failed epically when they were trying to walk around. For dinner that night we decided to have Sushi on a sushi train lol... I must say I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would’ve, the sushi in Japan is considerably smaller (well it was in this place) and it didn’t taste as good... well I didn’t really find it to my liking xD... we made up for this meal on our way home by stopping at the Mc donalds which is literally a 2 min walk from the hotel... Late night snacks! :D since all Mc Donald’s are open for 24 hours over there.
Day 4
I’m not too sure what we got up to today, I remember Alice said she was meeting up with a friend so we were left to our own devices for the day. We went to Shinjuku today and that remains my favourite station lol, its one of the most busiest stations in Japan and I just loved the bustling crowds. It was walking today, a lot of walking. Up and down the streets we went, looking for clothes really. Went to some big electronic stores too which was pretty cool... I mean 7 or 8 levels of just electronics :D who can resist that? Anyway by mid afternoon Will was hungry and determined that there was a Coco Ichibanya in Shinjuku and lead us on a quest to find it. I think it was about 3 or was it 5 hours later that Will finally gave up? We walked basically half of Shinjuku and I must say no-one was happy at all lol... Will just kept leading us while we were complaining... thinking back on it now it was quite funny but at the time all we were thinking about was our sore feet and I was worried about the blisters that were starting to form >___> eventually went to an alright ramen place where I ordered what I thought ramen, I got a huge bowl of lettuce and bean sprouts in soup with a tiny bit of noodles at the bottom o.O i was like eh? D= all that walking for a tiny bit of ramen? Nah it actually wasn’t that bad, japan seems to have a shortage of fresh vegies and the like so I gladly ate the greens. Started off on another walk for a quick look for Coco Ichibanya again =.=” and then eventually went home. Not long after we got back to the hotel Alice arrived with Jun’s cake because it was his birthday the next day. When Jun finally arrived home (post meridian) we had a mini birthday ceremony and then dug into cake. Talked into the early hours and then went to bed resting our feet and readying ourselves for the trials of the dawning day.

Day 5
The first day where we didn’t dedicate it to just shopping. Today was our hot spring day lol. Woke up late because we had a late night before >__> I don’t think we slept till about 3 – 4 am lol, woke up at ¼ past 9 I think and the train left at 9:30... or was it the same times but at 8... anyway we were late and everyone was panicking running around like idiots lol. We got ready and made it to the station in 15 minutes but it was too late, our train had left minutes before =[ So we had a short wait to get breakfast and then paid a small fee to get onto the next train on our way to Hakune, the place where the hot springs were located. I remember this day being freezing and by the time we got to the top of this mountain thing it was cold enough we saw a bit of snow :O it wasn’t much but it was still some snow... looked so cool. Anyway, we paid for a package thing so it was up the mountain by cable thingy and then down it again to a lake where we boarded a ship tour thing that was meant to be for us sightseeing people who wanted to see mount Fuji, the boat ride commenced but our wishes of seeing the famous mountain failed as it was too cloudy =[ Arrived at port in about an hour and then took a bus ride to the onsens. Mmmm onsen.... lol they were so good, nice and hot... so very relaxing  anyway, spent 2 or 3 hours there and it was dark when we left. Arrived at the train station 2 hours early so we went to find some food... since it was a quiet tourist town everything was WAYY over priced... we eventually gave up looking for food and went to 7/11 where we had a budget dinner on instant noodles and melon bread in some cases lol... it was a simple meal but it was kinda fun too, we looked like bums as we sat on the side of the street eating our dinner lol. Arrived home feeling quite content. Washed my clothes (they smelt like sulphur and those who have smelt sulphur know how bad it smells) and then went up to Will’s room (that day the rooms were rearranged so I was staying with Alec in one with Seng and Will in the room above us... they had no window and it smelt like cigarettes) spent a bit of time there but eventually retired to our rooms early.
Day 6
Over half way! :O Well day six was another touristy kind of day. First of all it was being introduced to Alice’s friend, Haruka, she was a pretty nice girl and spoke pretty decent English which was very handy. After the small talk and introductions we went down to have a look at what was meant to be a pretty awesome Japanese garden. I kinda forgot to charge my batteries the night before so i was being a little more conservative on the number of shots I took... anyway when we arrived at the suburb I guess you’d call it, I can’t remember the name but I remember we went to look for breakfast and found this awesome bakery on one of the streets. I think I liked that place more than breadtop xD Everything tasted so good that I bought some extra stuff to snack on while we were in the gardens. Must I say the gardens were pretty cool, I know we missed the snow of winter, orange and gold wonders of autumn, and just a tad bit too early for the Sakura in spring but it was still quite pretty. There was this massive hill right in the middle of it that looked over the lake in the garden and everyone was impressed with the view because it was stunning... Pics are on Seng’s facebook of course! I can’t really remember what we did that night... oh wait I do now, we went to have this traditional Japanese meal thing where you order stuff on skewers lol, that was pretty cool and the food tasted awesome, for the very first time that trip I decided to spend that little bit extra and just dig in... that’s how good it was xD Everyone had sake of course... cept me since I don’t drink and Aaron because he was just way under aged lol It was a good meal and everyone was so full afterwards. We walked along the streets happy and full, eventually making our way back for the evening.
Day 7
Another touristy kinda day, the last I think for the trip. We went to Asuksa to visit this temple which was supposed to be a really big tourist attraction. I was astounded by the size of the lanterns at that place. They were huge! And not to mention the market that lined the street right up to the temple. Bustling crowds, school kids, adults, tourists mingling together looking for a good bargain, it was quite fun! I think I spent the most there too, it was the perfect place to get gifts and most of us guys bought a shirt which had kanji on it lol, I refer to it now because it relates to later that night. Anyway, we went to the temple and looked around... even did that fortune telling thing where you shake the joss sticks around until one comes out and then you read your fortune... It was kinda fob-ish but I got “regular fortune” which meant that my life was going to be okay... We were all curious about what would happen if we did it again so most of us did it a second time >__> This time I got “very bad fortune” which is a price to pay for doubting my first one i guess xD lol... better than Alice who got bad fortune twice in a row though =[ Anyways, following local customs we went up to the temple and made a coin donation before making a prayer. I took this opportunity to get a couple of photo’s because the temple had really nice surroundings. Most of my best photo’s were from that day I think. After we were done at the temple we just wandered around the markets around the place. I mean the whole area we went to seemed to be one big market... lots of shady shops too though lol. One cool shop we found had about 8 levels full of the anime stuff... like gundam, models, and puzzles... it was so cool and we scoured up and down to our hearts content. Not long after we separated so that Jun and Alice went off and did their thing while the other 5 of us just wandered Ueno. This night was also the night that Aaron broke his glasses I think... i’m starting to mix up events of day 7, 8, 9 and 10 xD... it was quite funny because he was going on about how flexible it was... anyways, that night when we get home Will comes into our room saying he got gg’ed, since he normally buys shirts extra large in japan he bought the touristy kinda shirt as extra large as well xD he came into the room and it looked so big it was hilarious. Seng’s was a bit big too so the two bro’s spent the night trying to shrink it by throwing it into a bathtub of hot water >__> and then blowdrying it on super hot.... lol quite amusing to watch.
Day 8
I don’t even remember if this was day 8 or not lol >___> It was Akihabara. Nothing much to blog about it because it was only shopping, we mainly were in the big electronic department stores or the mini stores dotted on the streets dedicated to anime items and collectables. I just know that I love Akihabara <3 so much anime stuff... and it wasn’t too badly priced too...
Anyways I think I might end my Japan blog with this... The last 3 days weren’t ,much different from day one or two. We mostly went shopping and looking for last minutes gifts and stuff. Oh we did spend a day at Ginza which is like the rich Hollywood side of Tokyo and that was cool... the remainder of the time was spent revisiting places like Shinjuku... Harajuku, Shibuya again to revisit stores we had been to. Fast forward to the last day. We woke up early so Alec and I got ready and chilled in our room because we had spent the night before packing, just put a few last minute things together and we were in the lobby waiting for the others. Eventually they came down and we left our stuff in the lobby to go a few places before our train left at 3. We shopped, managed to see the Harajuku girls and then arrived back at the hotel and made our way to the train station where we would once more be boarding the Narita Express to the airport and finally back home. The flight to Australia was delayed but I won’t bore you with the details of what we tried to occupy ourselves with at the airport... besides finding giant pocky and random flavours lol.

The trip was good... I had fun and I loved being in Japan, but it made me realise that I missed a lot about Australia... the wide open spaces, the green... the grass (even though it’s kinda dead right now) and specially you guys. Coming back and knowing that you guys were gonna be here when we got back. Anyway I shall post this now and then start on my post Japan blog entry.