Day 25 - Back to Tokyo, Hard Rock Cafe and Ginza

I arrived in Tokyo at about 2pm after sleeping solidly for the entire train journey. Actually I did mange to stay awake long enough to eat my bento box! I had seen these at every station I had been in, and today I just went ahead and bought a little one. It was nice and filling, and it came in a really cool box :)

I went home and dropped my bag off, then headed straight back out to Roppongi, where the Hard Rock Cafe is. I arrived at about 4 and bought a hoodie. I didn't wait to eat there, but I took some photos and listened to the bands' rendition of Ghostbusters. Which was really funny.

I stopped off at Ginza on the way home, which is a posh shopping district. There were lots of shops like Armani, Gucci etc, and I felt really underdressed compared to everyone else, which was kinda funny. I went into the big Sony store, and there were loads of random fish tanks!? It was strange, but cool. I didn't stay for long before heading back home.

I went to McDonalds on the way (I'd like to see you eat nothing but Japanese food for a month, straight) and for dessert I went to get a pie. There were pictures of cherries where the pies were kept, and I could see there was a flavour other than apple, so I got really excited. The packaging was yellow, and gave no indication of the flavour, so I bit into it, excited to discover a new sweet treat...

It was a bacon and potato pie. I almost laughed out loud on the spot. It was savoury! I ate it though, and then I went back to get an apple pie :P

I'm back home now, and excited for the Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation tomorrow!

Day 24 - Shitennoji Temple, Osaka Castle, Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel and Dotonbori again. Whew!

This morning my Dorm-mate and I went to Shitennoji temple, the oldest buddhist temple in Japan. We were lucky enough to be there to witness the morning prayer, which was really cool. There were about 5 monks, and thy sang their prayer in unison (sort of) and it was very interesting to watch. After a while they started to circle the big buddha statue in the middle, and when they got to the front again, they'd throw a few pieces of coloured paper, like big confetti. Then they'd start to circuit round again, and this other monk or temple worker or something would come and quickly pick up all the bits of paper from the floor. Then the monks would get back to the front and throw more paper! And the poor guy just kept cleaning up after them. I felt a little bit bad watching him, but it was also kind of amusing...

After that, we went to Osaka castle. It was slightly different to Matsumoto, in that it was so newly rebuilt, and there was an elevator inside and air conditioning throughout the building. And marble floors. Basically it was a new building, with an old-style exterior. The outside did look really nice though, and the views at the top were pretty awesome. While in the castle I bumped into the girl I met in Miyajima, and the German teacher from last night!

Dorm-mate and I

I went to the bay area on my own after that because the weather was good and  I wanted to go on the ferris wheel. I waited a little longer to go in the transparent car (of which there are only 4), but it was really worth it, the views were so good, I only wish I had more time in there! It was about 15 minutes to go round once.

I headed back to the hostel to get showered up and then Justine and I headed out back to Dotonbori because I realised I hadn't seen the most famous attractions! The running Glica mad and the river! So we went and got our picture there, then we went looking for some food and I found a really good gyoza (dumpling)  place :)

For dessert, we went to Starbucks. Before you say or think anything, I know Starbucks is a rip off and it isn't even Japanese etc etc. But I couldn't just walk past a green tea frappuccino without trying it once! And it was really good! A lot of people don't seem to like the green tea flavour very much, but I love it :)

Only in Japan would they hand write 'Thank You' on every cup...

We headed home after that, and I have just finished packing fro Tokyo tomorrow. I can't believe it's already time to go back to Tokyo...but I'm really looking forward to seeing my family there again.

Till tomorrow!

Day 23 - Aquarium and Dotonbori

It took me 7 trains to get to the aquarium this morning. It should have taken me 2. It's because whilst I was on the train to the correct station, I was misled by my guide into thinking that I had to go to a different station, so I transferred twice to get to that station, then realised I was in completely the wrong place, met two Swiss brothers who were also trying to get to the aquarium, then we all made our way to the correct station, which required 3 more trains. It was frustrating, but I had company for the second half, and I was under no time pressure. We finally made it to the aquarium around midday, after about 2 hours, and stopped to get lunch before going in.

The aquarium was very busy, despite it being a weekday. There were lots of elderly people and lots and lots of very little people, but despite this, it was still a nice aquarium. All my pictures are rubbish from  the low light, and I'm not sure how good my videos are either, but the whale sharks were very cool. I also loved the jellyfish, but the highlight for me were the Japanese Giant Spider Crabs that stood on their back 6 legs with their front two raised up. They were so massive, and so creepy, and I don't think I had seen that type of crab before, so that was my favourite part.

These are from Google Images...Mine were rubbish.

It only took around an hour and a half to go around, and the weather was so bad today that I didn't think it was worth going on the Ferris wheel nearby, so we went briefly into the 'Marketplace' opposite the aquarium, but it was basically a small mall. I did buy some Hello Kitty chopsticks though, just because I couldn't leave Japan without having purchased something from one of the many Hello Kitty shops. Yes, they have whole shops dedicated to Hello Kitty merchandise. This country is crazy for kitties.

I went back to my hostel around 3ish and on my way, as I was going up the escalator in the subway station, I saw a girl going down waving at me and I realised they were the cousins I had met in Nijo Castle in Kyoto! What a little coincindence! Anyway back at my hostel I had some down time before heading out to a place called 'Dotonbori' which is basically this long street with loads of alleyways and there are just hundreds of shops and restaurants, and it's all lit up and lively at nighttime. I started walking down the main street and I thought I saw the same guy that I had shown the way to the hostel in Hiroshima, but he didn't see me and I wasn't sure it was him, so I walked on.

Then I turned around. If it was him, I couldn't just ignore him, and sure enough, he saw me and he was the same person! Crazier coincidence! We found a busy Okonomiyaki place (someone had said to me in Hiroshima that the Okonomiyaki here is really different to in Hiroshima and that I had to try it) and ate outside in the main street. I found out that he was a high school teacher of Maths and Geography, which made me feel a little weird at first because all of a sudden I felt like I was hanging out with one of my teachers in Osaka :P but we chatted for like an hour after eating and it was just really awesome.

Dotonbori itself was a really cool street with crazy things above restaurants like a giant octopus and a giant crab and dragons. And everything was lit up, and it was really bustling with people. The atmosphere was just great, I may go back tomorrow night :P

But for now, I'm really tired, as you may have already garnered from the quality of writing in this post, so I'm going to go to sleep.

Day 22 - Going (eventually) to Osaka

Garsh, don't you just love reaching the top of the escalator after running through the station with your heavy luggage to find the train you were meant to be on leaving the platform? And that, kids, is why the snooze button is not your friend. 

Life lessons, eh?

So I missed my train. Luckily, I have a Japan Rail Pass so it didn't cost me anything extra to get to Osaka eventually. Unluckily, the pass is not valid for the two most common Shinkansen bullet trains, so I had to transfer at Okayama and had to wait and stuff.

I didn't mind...that much :P

I did eventually arrive in Osaka, then had to go to Tennoji, and my hostel was a short walk from there. I was quite tired out after having to catch a total of 4 trains to get there, so I stayed in my room for a while. Then it started to rain. A lot. So I waited till it stopped before going to get some dinner. I found a Japanese curry house really close by, and saw that you could choose what level of spiciness to have. Seeing as I haven't had anything even remotely spicy in over 3 weeks, it was nice to have something a bit hot.

I got back and met the other girl in my dorm, who is Australian and really nice, and she'll be here for all 3 nights! So I won't be without company. At the moment I think it's just the two of us in the hostel! It's really quiet...

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to the aquarium and various other things, I'll tell you all about it tomorrow :)

Day 21 - Hiroshima Fireworks Festival

So today I really had nothing to do.  There aren’t many other attractions in Hiroshima other than the museum and Miyajima, so I just decided to take it easy for the day. I had, however, heard that there was a massive fireworks festival here tonight, at the port, so I planned on going there in the evening. I saw my friend who was at the okonomiyaki place yesterday, and we planned to leave around 7. Then I went into my dorm and found a girl there who was Polish and had just arrived in Japan from London, so I invited her along as well. So at 7, we all walked to the train station, and took a tram to the port. We were on the tram longer than expected, and after a while we heard some seriously loud bangs, and then we could see the fireworks in the distance…well, not that distant. We all got off at the next stop, it was too maddening being stuck in the tram moving so slowly and stopping so frequently. The crowds were already huge as we made our way through towards the waterfront, and everytime a firework went up, everybody made this great 'oooo' sound in admiration. It was very funny, and the fireworks were so good.

We managed to find a really good place to stand for the remainder of the fireworks, and they were really spectacular. I managed to get the two main displays on video, I'm having trouble uploading them here but they are on Facebook :)

After that, we decided to take a wander down the street to get some food from the various stalls that were set up. I ended up having some takoyaki (I just love that stuff) and this weird rolled up savoury pancake thing...It was nice, and filling, so my tummy was happy.

We tried to take some pictures of ourselves as well, but I ended up asking some young Japanese boys, and they ended up joining in the photo with us :) It was all good fun.

It was about 10 by the time we got back to the tram, and we waited for what seemed like ages but was probably less than half and hour before getting the tram home, and it was so packed, we were on our feet for most of it, but we were all on a high from the fireworks, so we didn't really mind.

All in all, I would say it was the perfect way to spend my last night in Hiroshima :)

Day 20 - Miyajima

Really great day today.

Four of us from the hostel went to Miyajima this morning. We had to take the train to Miyagimagichi station where we caught the ferry to Miyajima Island. To my delight, all of this was covered by my Japan Rail pass!

It was just a 10minute boat ride to the island, and another 10minute walk along the 'beach' to the main attraction, the red gate in the sea. No, that is not its official name. Oh well. On the way I saw a guy selling grilled oysters, apparently this area is famous for oysters, so I had to try some :) They were good

It was certainly a lovely red gate (now I'm thinking it was more like a big archway?) so we spent a little time taking photos around there before going into the shrine directly opposite. Because it's high tide in the morning, the shrine looks like it's floating, as does the archway, and it looked really nice.

After the shrine, I left the group because they wanted to climb up to the top of the mountain on the island, and I thought it was probably best I didn't try that. Instead I bought a ticket for a round trip on the cable cars up to near the summit, where there is a viewing platform. As I was walking up to the cable car station, I heard English, so I introduced myself to the source and discovered 3 teachers who are teaching English in Japan. One was from New Zealand, one from Singapore and the third was from Canada. they were really good company, we went up in a cable car together.

At the top there was a small cafe where we got some lunch. I had cold Udon noodles that had to be dipped in this cold sauce. There were ice cubes mixed in with the noodles, it was so bizzare, but it tasted really good, and I liked the idea of a cold meal in all this heat.

Then we went to the top of the viewing platform, which was just outside the cafe, and took some photos. They then went to climb to the summit, so I just chilled in a small gazebo for a while.

After some time, a group of Japanese girls came and sat by me, chatting happily away. I realised that one of the girls wasn't Japanese, she just spoke it very well. They were in quite a large group, so for once, I didn't introduce myself for a while, but I didn't wait long before they asked me where I was from and we got into a conversation. The foreign girl with them was half Polish and half Austrian, living in London and studying Japanese. Crazy.

We went back down in one of the gondolas at around half 3ish, and I had to say goodbye to them at the bottom so I could meet up with my group at 4. On the way, I say that the tide was low, and I could now walk to the archway-gate-thingy. I had to go that way to get to the meeting spot anyway, so I snapped a couple of good pictures on the way.

Apparently touching the archway will give you good luck for the next year, so heres hoping!

They were all pretty tired out, so we decided to go back to the ferry. Once we were on the train back to Hiroshima station, I managed to find a seat, but I gave it up to a dad carrying his baby. The mum turned out to be a former English teacher, so we had a good long chat on the journey home, which was about 35 minutes. I was really grateful for the company, especially since I was standing. Her baby was also seriously cute.

Then I headed back to the hostel for a shower. On the way I noticed Karl Pilkington with a suitcase examining a map and going in my direction. I asked if he was looking for Hana hostel (where I'm staying) and he was! So I showed him the way (didn't get lost this time, thank God!). I feel like I have done some good deeds today :) Karl makes a reappearance in Osaka.

At around 8, a bunch of us went to an Okonomiyaki place which had lots of okonomiyaki stalls side by side. We picked one and I ordered one with oysters in it. The size of it was daunting. I struggled to eat just over half before giving up, but it was so delicious. So so good. Aaaah.

Dad! I had some Shochu with soda! It was nice :)

After paying up I headed back to the hostel and now I'm sitting in the common room typing this up and listening to some music before bed :)