Day 5 – Tokyo Disney

Leigh and I had wanted to go to Tokyo Disney since we got to Tokyo, but it was getting closer to the day we would be leaving for Hiroshima and the weather forecast wasn’t looking good. However last night we checked the weather forecast and we figured today would be our last chance if we wanted to go, so when we got up and saw that it wasn’t going to rain any time soon we packed up and set off. We initially thought that Tokyo Disney was at the end of the line and that it was going to cost about $80 to get there and back, but after studying the map we realized it was actually only a few stops away and probably only cost us $6 return. Entry was about $65 or something, but all the rides were free. There's too much to say about Tokyo Disney, just check out some of the photos. It was really fun and we were exhausted by the end of the day. One interesting thing of note was that they encouraged visitors to come in fancy dress (“cosplay”) and some were so good we couldn’t tell if they were actual actors from the park or visitors.

 We're ready for Tokyo Disney, but is it ready for us?

 The Pumpkin King

 and his friend

 Truer words were never spoke

 Fighting the good fight.

 The Disney Resort train line

 "Another photo? Really?"

 Me on the train

Here we go!

 Cosplay Goofy and real Goofy hanging out at the entrance

 Cosplay!!

 The whole themepark had a halloween theme

 Not sure which dwarf this is, but he was very friendly

 BFFs

 Remeniscing with Roy and Minnie

 In the world's fair/main street section with our trusty map

 The castle was an impressive sight

 Lots and lots of shops full of merchandise

 Truly the happiest place on earth!

 The entrance as seen from further into the park

 Cool optical illusion statues

 Cosplayers

 Hundreds of them!

 and more!

 And even more!

 And the princesses, of course

 The world of tomorrow peeking through the trees

 Instant Maleficent, just add chin putty

 Even the toilets were impressive

 Here we got a "fast-track" ticket for the Haunted Mansion ride. We could queue up for 70mins now to go on it, or we could come back in about five hours and show our ticket and go straight through.

 All the main rides had queues of at least an hour. We couldn't be bothered waiting for Splash Mountain.

 Time for my stoutness excercise

 Space Mountain. We would come back to go on this.

 More World of Tomorrow.

 Goofy was out when we dropped by.

 Slowly making our way in the Space Mountain queue.

 Mid-queue entertainment

 Still in the Space Mountain queue. It was an indoor rollercoaster in the dark except for stars projected on the walls and roof

 Even Oogie Boogie has to check his emails

 Night falls

Finally getting somewhere in the Haunted Mansion queue. We abandoned the quick-pass ticket idea and just queued up.

 The Electric Light Parade.

The Halloween Parade (Video)

Day 4 – Akihabara pt.2

Today we went into Akihabara again to satisfy our nerd cravings once more. It rained all day, but it was still as fun as it was yesterday. Actually it was probably more fun, as we were taking our time more and we decided to visit one of the major attractions of Akihabara: the Maid Café. These are cafes where the girls who serve you dress up as maids and act ridiculously cute for an hour. It was very fun, and we all had magical “delicious” spells cast on each of our meals before we ate and got a photo with our favourite maid. Just wish we had been allowed to film it all! After that we shopped around for a little bit more and went back home for a rest.

We decided to go back in to Akihabara again later that night for dinner. We had passed an English theme pub every time we went, so we decided we should finally go in and check it out. We each ordered a meal there, but the size of everyone’s but mine was more Japanese than English, and everyone except me was still starving at the end of it. So after we left the pub we went into a massive complex nearby that was full of restaurants and had a more filling Japanese meal.

 Rainy japanese day

 The cars are all small and square, and they're all really clean for some reason. In fact everything seems to be slightly smaller and tightly packed

Hundreds of "gachapon" machines, where you put the money in and get an egg with a toy in it. I had a few favourites, but a highlight was a blue whale that looked like it was vomiting.

 David Z and David W

 Leigh and the two Davids are in there somewhere

 I really like this street that we pass on the way to the train station

 Enjoying a beverage. There is a vending machine at LEAST every second intersection, each with more wacky drink contents than the last.

 True love <3

Day 3 – Akihabara (Electric Town)

Today we caught the train to Akihabara, or “Electric Town”. The games, DVDs and anime hub of Tokyo. My head exploded and now I am dead. However I shall continue to write from beyond the grave, such is my dedication to you the reader. Highlights included a 7 storey high video game arcade. a multitude of cheap electronic gadget stores, mammoth computer stores, 5 storey high anime stores and probably more that I can’t remember. It was all too much and I had to go back to the hotel room to have an afternoon nap! Later that night we decided to go for a walk and it was amazing how busy the street was at 11pm at night! I was also starving and I ate a weird noodle-filled roll. I’m not sure it agreed with me.

Oh and just to clarify, in the photo of the toilet in the first blog entry the water is coming OUT of the toilet, not going IN!

A local street corner

Hi, Leigh :)

Target aquired

Heaven

 Japan

 Us in Japan

 Seven storey arcade

 Breakfast of champioins

 Japan's interpretation of an iced coffee was slightly different to mine

Not sure why I chose to photograph this aisle in particular, but that is a lot of keyboards

 Not sure what size people these elevators were designed for

 Games... as far as the eye can see...

 A shrine we stumbled upon during an evening walk

Look at me, I'm a tree

 A massive multi-storey complex full of restaurants

Day 2 - Shinkansen (the Bullet Train) and Tokyo

After some delicious pork buns for breakfast/lunch we ventured forth beyond the airport. The day was mostly spent in transit – either trying to find trains, waiting for trains, or on trains, or even finally in a taxi with a driver that got lost and had to pull over and ask people on the street for directions. The main trip was on the bullet train (Skinkansen) from Osaka to Tokyo where we were booked in for the first week at the Hotel Yanagibashi. It was a two hour journey and unfortunately I didn’t get a window seat so I didn’t get to see much scenery. Now, before we actually set off on the flight I was quite impressed to find out that David Z had booked a 5 star hotel for our first night and naturally thought that would set the trend for the rest of the hotels he had booked for us. So I was a bit surprised when I saw that this hotel was going to be one and a half stars, but I kept an open mind. They might have different star ratings in Japan, after all! After our taxi driver finally delivered us to our hotel we got our keys and were given a complimentary network cable. Internet! Promising. We hopped in the elevator went up to our room and… well check out the video and photos down the bottom to see what we found :)

Actually, although it may not look like much, it is actually quite cosy - with a TV, fridge, toilet, air-con and internet when we finally got it working. We ended up having McDonalds for dinner and even there I realised how lost I am without being able to communicate. I need to expand beyond “thank you” I think, so tomorrow I will attempt to use “sumimasen” (“sorry”).

 

Osaka - Lost already (still in the airport)

 

Osaka - Delicious Ice-cream

 

Osaka - Aboard he train out of the airport

 

Osaka/Everywhere - Hot chocolate in a can from a vending machine... Genius!!

Osaka - The Bullet Train arrives (video)

Osaka/Tokyo - On board the Bullet Train

Tokyo - Our first glimpse of Tokyo from the train

Tokyo - If only we had recorded our initial reaction upon opening the door to our one-and-a-half star Tokyo hotel... (video)

Tokyo - Lots of room to spread out

Japan: Day 1 - Osaka

Having to wake up at 3am after being up late from the cd launch was a bad idea. We took a taxi to the airport and met up with the two Davids there. I was looking forward to a maccas breakfast but all the shops were closed so early in the morning except for a couple of cafes, so I just had some raisin toast, while Leigh decided to live on the edge and wait for hungry jack's to open at 5:30am (the departure time was 6am). We arrived in the Gold Coast a couple of hours later where it was really humid and had to wait in the airport for another couple of hour for our flight to Osaka.2

After the longest flight ever (actually it was only about 9hrs from the Gold Coast, and I slept for about 4hrs of it) we finally saw lights below... We were in Japan!! We navigated our way through customs and after catching a mono-rail thing to get our luggage we escaped the airport. It was overcast and raining when we made it outside. We soon found our way to our luxurious 5 star hotel rooms at the airport (which is actually a huge manmade island) and then I had my first meal outside of Australia in one of the restaurants at the airport. The lack of wifi was interesting, but I managed to pull out the ground pin of an American power converter so at least I knew I could get my laptop going. I also decided I would try and learn a phrase and number a day, so tomorrow's would be "hitots" (one) and "aregato gozaimas" (thank you).

Oh yeah, and I got to experience my very first bidet.

Gold Coast - The first of our many attempts to access free wifi, and we hadn't even left Australia.

Gold Coast - I am tired.

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Five star luxury!

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Our room

Kansai Airport, Osaka -The novelty of Japanese TV begins...

Kansai Airport, Osaka - ...as does the novelty of pretty much everything Japanese.

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Our maturity knows no bounds...

Kansai Airport, Osaka - ...as does our indecisive nature

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Kampai (cheers)!

New food category announced!

In case you haven't heard, scientists have announced a new food category. The new group will be referred to as the "salads", and the transferal of foods from their old categories to this new category will be done in stages to minimise disruption to supermarkets. It has been suggested that the first foods to be reclassified will include lettuce (previously a vegetable), celery (previously also a disgusting vegetable), tomatoes (previously a fruit and vegetable) and eggs (previously unidentifiable).