Only 40 days to go. And seeing as how I haven't written since May, I'll have to fill you in on a few things as well.
I've been having dreams lately of being in Japan. I'll either be snowboarding down some of the runs I've previously talked about, or walking down streets and areas that we've visited (photographic memory) or just imagined places that I haven't been to before and possibly don't exist, but the setting is the same. This is good in some ways, as if I wasn't getting excited about travelling, then there would be no point to it. But I can't wait for when I'm on that plane asking to put my seat belt on because we'll be touching down in Narita shortly.
Anyway, to some developments.
The plan for us this time is different to previously. Usually our plan is 1 week at Shiga Kogen, 1 week in Tokyo. It's been a good plan for us, but we are ever the intrepid explorers, so this time we've changed it slightly. Yes we are going to SK and Tokyo, but the length of times will be different and we'll be throwing in a few more things to the mix.
The rough itinerary is:
Arrive and stay the night in Tokyo
Leave first thing in the morning for Shiga Kogen and stay for 4 nights.
Travel to Yuzawa and stay 4 nights.
Travel to Osaka and stay 4 nights.
Travel to Tokyo and stay 5 nights.
So we're still snowboarding for 7 days or so, but we get to check out different areas. Because I've done a lot of the planning again, I wanted to check out various areas around Yuzawa, namely Kagura & Naeba, Gala Yuzawa and also Maiko resorts. Dean was all up for it, and with Yuzawa being a proper little town, rather than just a resort town, I'm hoping Mum and Whitney will enjoy themselves like Furano.
Another difference will be our travel partners. Unfortunately Conrad couldn't make it this time, but we have 2 friends from the Sunshine Coast coming instead. Neither have been to Japan or snowboarding, so while it will be slightly annoying teaching someone again, we'll be teaching them on familiar slopes at SK whilst still enjoying lots of silliness that comes with us on tour. Because they bought the tickets the day or so after us (we said do it) It's made booking quite easy. Some of the accommodation has been booked since June, while a lot of the others were booked in either September or November.
For the snowboarding legs, we'll also have a couple of friends coming with us, Tim and Kerry who have snowboarded before, so we'll probably have a few people spurring us on to do stunts or something. They only decided recently that they wanted to come, so booking accommodation was slightly harder, especially with a budget to stay under. Unfortunately, they won't be staying at any of the same hotels, but they won't be far away, so except for sleeping, they'll probably hang with us the whole time.
Now usually being 40 days to go, I will be stressing about what has to be needs to be done still, but because we've had a long run up and I've started saving/paying for stuff earlier, it's made a bit of a difference. We've got all our accommodation booked, travel insurance sorted, hire car organised, boards waxed and new gear bought. Even the board bag is packed and ready to go. My carry on luggage has been packed as well (I'm putting all my snow gear in it this time and packing other stuff in the main suitcase), so the only thing left to sort really is the train tickets. Fortunately we still have 40 to go, and everyone is cognisant of the cost, so there won't be any nasty surprises.
Roll on Feb 7, I can't wait.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The "Oh noes, what have I done, pass the panadol morning after" post
Actually, this has nothing to do with an alcohol affected decision. I'll start from the beginning
So yesterday, me and Mum get an email through from Jetstar with a "bring a friend for free" offer. We weren't able to see what flights were on the go til 5pm (the email arrived around 4:20pm), but soon after we checked to discover 2 for 1 flights to Japan. Now usually, the times are all wrong for us, being that they usually are on special before the winter starts, or after it finishes., but on checking, the dates were good... 5th of Feb to the 29th March.
After umming and arring about it for a couple of hours, we bit the bullet. $2375 for 4 people to get to Japan and back was too good to refuse, considering we paid $4800 last year. So the deal is done. We're heading back to the land of the rising sun next February for 18/9 days... Now the planning and saving begins. Fortunately, we're becoming professionals at this, so I won't be so stressed out about all the arrangements (I don't worry about much, but I do stress that I've done the best I can and everybody enjoys themselves). Given that the places we're staying at will be the same ones as this year (minus the expensive side trip to Kyoto), we should be able to get them early, and I don't have to worry if they are up to the task, because we know they are...
So there you have it. Less than 4 months after getting back, we've already started booking. That's nearly a record for us, as even after the first time, while we wanted to go back straight away, we didn't book anything until probably September
I'll try to keep you all informed.
So yesterday, me and Mum get an email through from Jetstar with a "bring a friend for free" offer. We weren't able to see what flights were on the go til 5pm (the email arrived around 4:20pm), but soon after we checked to discover 2 for 1 flights to Japan. Now usually, the times are all wrong for us, being that they usually are on special before the winter starts, or after it finishes., but on checking, the dates were good... 5th of Feb to the 29th March.
After umming and arring about it for a couple of hours, we bit the bullet. $2375 for 4 people to get to Japan and back was too good to refuse, considering we paid $4800 last year. So the deal is done. We're heading back to the land of the rising sun next February for 18/9 days... Now the planning and saving begins. Fortunately, we're becoming professionals at this, so I won't be so stressed out about all the arrangements (I don't worry about much, but I do stress that I've done the best I can and everybody enjoys themselves). Given that the places we're staying at will be the same ones as this year (minus the expensive side trip to Kyoto), we should be able to get them early, and I don't have to worry if they are up to the task, because we know they are...
So there you have it. Less than 4 months after getting back, we've already started booking. That's nearly a record for us, as even after the first time, while we wanted to go back straight away, we didn't book anything until probably September
I'll try to keep you all informed.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Holy Delays Batman. I think I see another hold up on the horizon
So I have to admit, although it was unforeseen, I was quite enjoying the extra night in Japan, especially at someone else's expense. Only problem was, I didn't have the funds in my bank account to pull out any more money (You can only pull 10,000Y multiples from 7-11 ATMs). Fortunately I have people who love me, so Dean pull out some money and shared it with me.
After waking up late (I'm turning into such a princess), I got some pants on before the others got up/came in. We were getting hungry for breakfast, but Conrad in his single room was either lightly dozing or had just woken up when I phoned his room. He said he'd meet us downstairs, so we went down and sat in the lounge area outside the dining hall. This place has a chapel next to it (probably owned by the hotel), and there were gardens and a gazebo you could take your wedding photos in. There was a little fountain thingy as well, with half the water frozen and the other half flowing.. It looked cool so I took a picture while we were waiting. We soon got tired of waiting (a hungry clan member is never a happy clan member), so we started breakfast without him. Again it was a buffet affair. There were croissants, danishes, buns, waffles, pancakes, toast, bacon, scrambled egg, omelets made to order, as well as more traditional Japanese food. They had juices and cake and other stuff as well, but I wanted to try it all. Plus with trying to spend as little as possible, I figured a good breakfast would keep me full all day (which it did).
After breakfast, there was no packing to do, however I did need a shower, but with all the luggage packed up, I need underwear, so after going for a walk with Mum, I bought a fresh pair from 7-11, as well as socks, as the ones I had been wearing the day before, could knock a titan out at 10 paces with their smell. We got back but it was still only 11 o'clock, so Dean and I watched a couple of football matches that we'd been waiting to see. That pretty much sums up our day til we checked out at 4pm.
After checking out and waiting a couple of minutes, we were soon loaded on the bus to Narita. It's only a couple of kilometres, so we were there in no time. Problem was, our flight didn't leave til 9.20pm, so there was at least a couple of hours wait til the check-in opened. What else was a guy supposed to do but sleep? So I did, while the others went for a walk upstairs to the shops. Conrad was busy playing around with his ipad, but I curled up and slept for probably an hour. By this time it was getting close to check in time. Fortunately they opened the check-in counter early, but we could see there was going to be more frustrated Jetstar passengers. The Gold Coast flight had been cancelled this time, so there were some worried faces, until they were informed they were getting put up like we did for the night.
One thing I have to give the Narita staff (who must hate working for such a piddly airline) is they are efficient. The flight would have to have been booked out, but it only took them about 30mins to process all the passengers. With many people having skis/boards, this was actually a good effort. It was still about 3 hours til boarding, so we went upstairs and had some dinner. Nothing too flash, just a katsudon for me (although I was still full from breakfast!) and a shochu to help me sleep later on.
Unlike last time, we gave ourselves plenty of time to get through customs (a rather painless process in Japan), so we had left ourselves nearly an hour and a half to look around. We checked the liquor vendors, as well as other bits and pieces. I have to mention Liquors Hasegawa once more though. It's cheaper than even their own duty-free shops. A bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin (shouldn't it be PC'd to Mumbai Sapphire? :P) set Mum back 1580Y at LH (Even Donki had it for 1680Y). At the Narita Duty-free, it was 2000Y for the same bottle. At Cairns DF, it was $34! Double the price!!! Anyhow, after pottering around, Dean and I decided to head for a nightcap which we finished at 8.35. This gave us a good 15mins to get the shuttle to the outer wing, where our gate was.
So there we are at the gate, when we hear an announcement... The flights been delayed. Then at 8.50 another announcement saying the flight is delayed a little more. With all the delays and such, it ends up being 9.20 before we even get on the plane! Then after boarding we wait.... And wait... and wait... What's taking so long? Apparently there was a mix up with the baggage. In the end, the flight didn't leave until nearly 11pm! Add to that, Dean, Me, Whitney and Mum must have been sat in the row that got missed for cleaning, as there was drink residue, left over bits of rice and chips and fingerprints from some frolicking dirt child that had been on the flight over. Poor showing Jetstar.... They had to make it up to a lot of people, so free "Comfort packs" were given. At least the eye-masks made it easier to sleep with the guy in front of us seemingly reading all night. It wasn't great sleep, but if I hadn't been woken up for a craptastic free meal (they were really trying to get back some brownie points) I think I would have slept right up until we landed in Cairns, but that's a story for another day.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Queue Peer Gynt music...
It was Monday. Nothing good about Monday's according to Garfield, and I tend to agree. This was to be the day we headed for home. But I got a fantastic sleep. Didn't wake up until about 8.30, so I must have needed it and with an overnight flight with broken sleep planned, I would need all the sleep I could get. After grabbing a quick but rather unsatisfying breakfast from Cafe Pronto, we headed back to the room to get packed and ready to go. It had been nice staying at the Smile Hotel. We were left to our own devices, the rooms were bigger than the Center and were adequately furnished (though free wifi in the rooms would be one improvement) but ultimately, it's not the same as home, where you have your own room and are free to dance around in your underwear should you choose.
I always plan on travelling light, but by the end, it never ends up that way. To counteract my clothing purchases, I put as much of the clothes I had brought over in space bags and put them in the black suitcase. We borrowed a small, asmathic handheld vacuum from the maids, and sucked the big bag flatter, but had to make do with sitting on the smaller bags to let the air out. We got it all in though, and after putting our bottles of booze in our snowboard boots (keeps them protected very well) and sorting our snowboard bag out, we got everything sorted. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to Takkyubin our bags from the hotel to the airport. With the bags now weighing probably an extra 10kgs from when we arrived, we weren't looking forward to lugging them the 1 or 2 kilometres back to Tokyo station. Everyone wanted the easiest option, so it was to send Mum and Whitney in one taxi with all of their luggage, one of us (ended up being me) in another taxi with our black suitcase and all the backpacks while the other 2 lugged the snowboard bags the distance back to the station. I had an driver called Nishimura (I read the kanji of his name correctly - Yay!), but not wanting the old guy to hurt himself, I did all the lugging of the bags in and out of the boot and backseat.
It would still be another 10mins or so before the other 2 reached us, so I quickly popped downstairs to mail back Yoshi's spare mobile phone and wifi router (which hadn't worked for us, but it was probably a proxy setting we couldn't touch). After coming back up, it was only a couple of minutes before we saw Dean's little cap heading down the street. Once inside the station, we got our N'EX (Narita Express) tickets sorted first, before worrying about anything else. It was about 11.45, but to give ourselves enough time, we reserved our seats on the 1.03 train. This gave us enough time to go to the loo and buy some cakes. There was a crepe place, and I had fully intended on grabbing a crepe, but when we got there, it was either closing down, or moving everything out for refurbishment. What is it with my luck of crepe luck? It's crepe Ray.
I had to settle with stuff from Daimaru instead, so after grabbing a couple of bits of karaage chicken, I went to the confectionary level and decided on a Strawberry shortcake and Creme Caramel (something I don't think I've eaten that much of this time, but Mum does it best anyway) before heading back to the others, who had already gotten theirs. We now had about 30mins before the train left, so we headed for platform. This was one reason why I'm glad we Takkyubin'd the bags everywhere else. A 166cm, 32kg board bag is an unwieldy thing, and trying to to get it up and down escalators, into and out of lifts and on and off trains whilst trying not hit anyone is a mission.
We waited on the station platform (which is below ground 5 levels) for about 15mins, before one short train arrived. There was an american businessman who didn't know if this was the correct train, but once I explained it was only half of it, he said "That's stupid". I then explained that the Narita express can be taken in 2 different directions. One goes to Shinjuku and Ikebukuro (when coming from the airport), while the other goes to Yokohama and Odawara in the south. He didn't have anything to reply to this other than "Oh", especially as the next train arrived soon after and was joined in about 10secs.
After hopping on and getting ourselves sorted, we sat down to enjoy the journey. It was only after we got out of the underground tunnel and into the open air that I received any mobile signal. All of a sudden I had 2 messages, one from the Brisbane Council warning of bad weather for the SE, while the other one was from Jetstar. "Your flight has been cancelled" were the sum total of the words. I showed Dean, then Mum and Whitney, absolutely floored. If I had signal I would have received it at 12.54, nearly 10 mins before we boarded the train, but it wouldn't have done much good anyway, we still needed to go to the airport to get things sorted.
Once we got there, we tried getting information, but as it was only 2pm and the flight not leaving until 8.10 none of the Jetstar counters were open. The Narita staff didn't know much about the situation, so other than wait, there was not much we could do. At least we had some wifi to let people know. So after sending a couple of emails, I went upstairs to find the crepe place that I had seen 2 years ago. I must have angered someone, because the crepe place was not there. I searched high and low, but turned up nothing. I even asked a girl at another information desk, but nope, no crepe places. Damn it! I miss out on crepes again (I did have one in Harajuku though, so it's better than none at all). There were shops to buy souvenirs and restaurants around, but with limited funds, and having eaten my cake and creme caramel on the train, I wasn't really in need of food. I headed back towards where Dean and Conrad were, before passing out for about an hour. I must have just hit comatose when Mum shook me saying the others had gone to get something to eat. It was about 5.15pm now, so I didn't mind eating, so headed upstairs to find them. I did a couple of laps before finding the restaurant they were in and had just sat down to eat when I get a ring. I haven't really had any phone calls whilst over here and have avoided sending messages so my next bill isn't astronomical, but when your flight has been cancelled and a +613xxxxxxxx number calls you, you have to answer. There was a foreign lady on the phone and I had hoped that I wasn't being telemarketed overseas, because I wouldn't have found it funny, but fortunately it was a lady from Jetstar.
We had a brief conversation. She was informing me the flight had been cancelled (already knew that...) and apologising for the inconvenience. That's all very well and good, but a) how am I going to get home, and b) what was going to be done in the meantime. She said that they could stick us on the flight back to Cairns tomorrow night (the Gold Coast flight on Monday was fully booked apparently), so we had to take what we could get. Then I asked about accommodation. I can sleep anywhere, but the others wouldn't take too kindly to sleeping in the airport. She said that it was Jetstar's policy (in the small print) that they can cancel flights at anytime. So basically we were up the creek. Dean and I (after finishing eating) then spent the next half an hour running around trying to call reverse charges to our travel insurance company (which we supposed to call reverse charge before making a claim). Every number we tried either didn't work or we got some guy from KDDI saying he was unable to collect call that number... Great... In the end, Dean ended up using my phone to call them directly, and they advised that it would be $100 excess per policy if a claim had to be made, but said we were better off checking with the airline first. So we did. We trekked to the end of the check-in terminal (the Jetstar gates are A and B, while we were seated between E and H) to see a line up forming. It was for the Gold Coast flight, but there was a lady holding a Cairns sign and told us to join another line. Fortunately it didn't take too long (efficient airport staff) before we were told that we were being put up for the night, with dinner and breakfast included. By this time I had started getting an ulcer on the inside of my lip, so it was a bit of welcome relief.
After booking us in for the flight the following night, they gave us our marching orders, so we headed for the bus where a guy was holding up a sign for our hotel. We boarded the bus before we spent 5 mins or so driving to the hotel. It looked huge, especially in comparison to all the other hotels we had stayed at this trip. After getting inside, we were checked in and given our dinner and breakfast coupons. We hauled our gear up to the rooms (Dean and I were in a twin, Mum and Whitney in another, while Conrad got a single to himself), before meeting up again. We had only eaten an hour or so before at the airport, so we didn't feel like eating just yet (wouldn't have spent that money if we had known), so we headed to the top floor to the "Sky Lounge". It was a pretty swanky place, with dim lighting, jazz music playing, nice decor and a view of all the lights of the airport precinct. Dean and I grabbed a stress relieving beer, while Mum grabbed a Campari, bitters and soda for something to suit the location. We sat around letting the drinks soothe our frazzled nerves before we decided to head downstairs for dinner. It was a buffet... Not the best quality buffet I've ever had, but pretty good and for free, I wasn't complaining... just eating. I was stuffed to the gills, before Mum said that she wanted to get more money out. Fortunately there was a 7-11 just next door. She grabbed some money and drinks, which we shared, before we had to pass out from exhaustion.
I always plan on travelling light, but by the end, it never ends up that way. To counteract my clothing purchases, I put as much of the clothes I had brought over in space bags and put them in the black suitcase. We borrowed a small, asmathic handheld vacuum from the maids, and sucked the big bag flatter, but had to make do with sitting on the smaller bags to let the air out. We got it all in though, and after putting our bottles of booze in our snowboard boots (keeps them protected very well) and sorting our snowboard bag out, we got everything sorted. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to Takkyubin our bags from the hotel to the airport. With the bags now weighing probably an extra 10kgs from when we arrived, we weren't looking forward to lugging them the 1 or 2 kilometres back to Tokyo station. Everyone wanted the easiest option, so it was to send Mum and Whitney in one taxi with all of their luggage, one of us (ended up being me) in another taxi with our black suitcase and all the backpacks while the other 2 lugged the snowboard bags the distance back to the station. I had an driver called Nishimura (I read the kanji of his name correctly - Yay!), but not wanting the old guy to hurt himself, I did all the lugging of the bags in and out of the boot and backseat.
It would still be another 10mins or so before the other 2 reached us, so I quickly popped downstairs to mail back Yoshi's spare mobile phone and wifi router (which hadn't worked for us, but it was probably a proxy setting we couldn't touch). After coming back up, it was only a couple of minutes before we saw Dean's little cap heading down the street. Once inside the station, we got our N'EX (Narita Express) tickets sorted first, before worrying about anything else. It was about 11.45, but to give ourselves enough time, we reserved our seats on the 1.03 train. This gave us enough time to go to the loo and buy some cakes. There was a crepe place, and I had fully intended on grabbing a crepe, but when we got there, it was either closing down, or moving everything out for refurbishment. What is it with my luck of crepe luck? It's crepe Ray.
I had to settle with stuff from Daimaru instead, so after grabbing a couple of bits of karaage chicken, I went to the confectionary level and decided on a Strawberry shortcake and Creme Caramel (something I don't think I've eaten that much of this time, but Mum does it best anyway) before heading back to the others, who had already gotten theirs. We now had about 30mins before the train left, so we headed for platform. This was one reason why I'm glad we Takkyubin'd the bags everywhere else. A 166cm, 32kg board bag is an unwieldy thing, and trying to to get it up and down escalators, into and out of lifts and on and off trains whilst trying not hit anyone is a mission.
We waited on the station platform (which is below ground 5 levels) for about 15mins, before one short train arrived. There was an american businessman who didn't know if this was the correct train, but once I explained it was only half of it, he said "That's stupid". I then explained that the Narita express can be taken in 2 different directions. One goes to Shinjuku and Ikebukuro (when coming from the airport), while the other goes to Yokohama and Odawara in the south. He didn't have anything to reply to this other than "Oh", especially as the next train arrived soon after and was joined in about 10secs.
After hopping on and getting ourselves sorted, we sat down to enjoy the journey. It was only after we got out of the underground tunnel and into the open air that I received any mobile signal. All of a sudden I had 2 messages, one from the Brisbane Council warning of bad weather for the SE, while the other one was from Jetstar. "Your flight has been cancelled" were the sum total of the words. I showed Dean, then Mum and Whitney, absolutely floored. If I had signal I would have received it at 12.54, nearly 10 mins before we boarded the train, but it wouldn't have done much good anyway, we still needed to go to the airport to get things sorted.
Once we got there, we tried getting information, but as it was only 2pm and the flight not leaving until 8.10 none of the Jetstar counters were open. The Narita staff didn't know much about the situation, so other than wait, there was not much we could do. At least we had some wifi to let people know. So after sending a couple of emails, I went upstairs to find the crepe place that I had seen 2 years ago. I must have angered someone, because the crepe place was not there. I searched high and low, but turned up nothing. I even asked a girl at another information desk, but nope, no crepe places. Damn it! I miss out on crepes again (I did have one in Harajuku though, so it's better than none at all). There were shops to buy souvenirs and restaurants around, but with limited funds, and having eaten my cake and creme caramel on the train, I wasn't really in need of food. I headed back towards where Dean and Conrad were, before passing out for about an hour. I must have just hit comatose when Mum shook me saying the others had gone to get something to eat. It was about 5.15pm now, so I didn't mind eating, so headed upstairs to find them. I did a couple of laps before finding the restaurant they were in and had just sat down to eat when I get a ring. I haven't really had any phone calls whilst over here and have avoided sending messages so my next bill isn't astronomical, but when your flight has been cancelled and a +613xxxxxxxx number calls you, you have to answer. There was a foreign lady on the phone and I had hoped that I wasn't being telemarketed overseas, because I wouldn't have found it funny, but fortunately it was a lady from Jetstar.
We had a brief conversation. She was informing me the flight had been cancelled (already knew that...) and apologising for the inconvenience. That's all very well and good, but a) how am I going to get home, and b) what was going to be done in the meantime. She said that they could stick us on the flight back to Cairns tomorrow night (the Gold Coast flight on Monday was fully booked apparently), so we had to take what we could get. Then I asked about accommodation. I can sleep anywhere, but the others wouldn't take too kindly to sleeping in the airport. She said that it was Jetstar's policy (in the small print) that they can cancel flights at anytime. So basically we were up the creek. Dean and I (after finishing eating) then spent the next half an hour running around trying to call reverse charges to our travel insurance company (which we supposed to call reverse charge before making a claim). Every number we tried either didn't work or we got some guy from KDDI saying he was unable to collect call that number... Great... In the end, Dean ended up using my phone to call them directly, and they advised that it would be $100 excess per policy if a claim had to be made, but said we were better off checking with the airline first. So we did. We trekked to the end of the check-in terminal (the Jetstar gates are A and B, while we were seated between E and H) to see a line up forming. It was for the Gold Coast flight, but there was a lady holding a Cairns sign and told us to join another line. Fortunately it didn't take too long (efficient airport staff) before we were told that we were being put up for the night, with dinner and breakfast included. By this time I had started getting an ulcer on the inside of my lip, so it was a bit of welcome relief.
After booking us in for the flight the following night, they gave us our marching orders, so we headed for the bus where a guy was holding up a sign for our hotel. We boarded the bus before we spent 5 mins or so driving to the hotel. It looked huge, especially in comparison to all the other hotels we had stayed at this trip. After getting inside, we were checked in and given our dinner and breakfast coupons. We hauled our gear up to the rooms (Dean and I were in a twin, Mum and Whitney in another, while Conrad got a single to himself), before meeting up again. We had only eaten an hour or so before at the airport, so we didn't feel like eating just yet (wouldn't have spent that money if we had known), so we headed to the top floor to the "Sky Lounge". It was a pretty swanky place, with dim lighting, jazz music playing, nice decor and a view of all the lights of the airport precinct. Dean and I grabbed a stress relieving beer, while Mum grabbed a Campari, bitters and soda for something to suit the location. We sat around letting the drinks soothe our frazzled nerves before we decided to head downstairs for dinner. It was a buffet... Not the best quality buffet I've ever had, but pretty good and for free, I wasn't complaining... just eating. I was stuffed to the gills, before Mum said that she wanted to get more money out. Fortunately there was a 7-11 just next door. She grabbed some money and drinks, which we shared, before we had to pass out from exhaustion.
Penultimate Lap
So today was Sunday, the day before we were due to ship out. We had planned on going to the meeting, but as the meeting wasn't on until 12.30 and we had already bought clothes, it meant that we could sleep in. I've been having a lot more sleep ins this time, as usually I'm up at dawn then have to amuse myself until the others get up. Doesn't matter though. The shops don't open til later and a well rested Steven is a happy Steven.
Well, today, we were dragging the chain compared to the girls, who were hungry. We said that we'd meet them at Jonathan's, so after they had already been seated, we brought up the rear. Today though, a bacon sandwich wasn't going to suffice, so I ordered the full-sized breakfast for 598Y. That included 2 eggs, a thick bit of toast, bacon, sausage, salad and drinks bar. I ended up getting 2 double-shot espressos from the machine, and it kept me alive and alert all day.
After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to get ready. I was in dire need of a shower shave, so I enjoyed a decent one, before putting on my Sunday bests (well, actually they aren't my Sunday best, just a pair of chinos and a shirt I bought at Uniqlo). Hella comfy, as the chinos were 100% Cotton, as was the shirt, with a silk tie I bought for 987Y. Unfortunately, I didn't find any shoes in my size for cheap, so I had to make do with cleaning my etnies, which stand out like a sore thumb being bright white.
I received a message from Yoshi saying that he had a fever, so wouldn't be able to make the meeting, so he asked me to call another brother called Kiyoshi. I phoned him before we got the subway, but soon we were on our way to Asagaya, a suburb west of Shinjuku and Nakano. After letting Mum get changed in the station toilets (It was too cold for her to wear a skirt), we soon met Kiyoshi and another couple of brothers, who then guided us through a few left and right hand turns before we came across the little kingdom hall. If Nundah hall is small, this place was positively miniscule, as there were about 60 of us in attendants with only 1 or 2 seats free. We soon found out, it was Kiyoshi giving the talk, so we were glad we hadn't held him up by being late. I was so glad to be back at a meeting, but the different thing was, for an English congregation, there was probably only 4 or 5 native speakers. There were a couple of brothers that had gone to the French group before it was disbanded, but for the most part, they were Japanese who were just trying there best. Kiyoshi wasn't a bad speaker and actually used an illustration that I might flog should the situation arise. There was an English brother conducting the Watchtower study, with a Kiwi (who had a slight american accent) doing the reading. Not much else to report really, but it's great to know that anywhere you go in the world you can immediately have 60 new friends.
Kiyoshi guided us back to the station before returning to the hall, but by now it was nearly 3pm, so we were getting a little hungry. Not wanting to repeat the Mos Burger problem of the day before, we decided to stop anywhere we could find. (Silly thing is, after having so much difficulty trying to track down a MOS Burger, we saw 2 or 3 the next day). There was a soba place at Yotsuya station where we were changing trains, but although there was a steaming pot and it was supposed to be open, the door was locked, so we got on a subway train headed for Ginza.
Dean and I had been to Ginza about 3 years ago (when we sat in the GTR), but hadn't really explored the area. Ginza literally means Silver Mint, and was where the reserve bank and coins used to be located. It's still a pretty flashy area, as a lot of your high end European fashion companies have their flagship stores here, as well as a few upmarket department stores. We wanted to find somewhere cheap to eat though, so after finding an ATM, we decided on a Korean place in the basement of Marui City (OIOI). The food was awesome, Dean, Conrad and I got a Kimchi meat thing set which while Dean said it wasn't the very best he's had was still fairly close. The price was good too, though the service was a little lacking. The head waitress/maitre'd wouldn't shut up, so Whitney couldn't even ask about the seperate booth that wasn't being used or reserved, so we had to split up. Another thing about Japan is that they don't tend to cater for groups of more than 4 people. Most places will happily join tables together for you to seat 5 or 6, but on average most have only 2 or maybe 4 seat tables.
The whole reason why we had gone to Ginza was to check out the shopping, but with prices in general being higher than everywhere else, we didn't really care to hang around. So after catching the Maranouchi subway line to Tokyo station, we walked through some of the shops there, before heading through Yaesu to Liquors Hasegawa. After trying quite a few different things, Dean, Mum and I eventually bought a couple of bottles towards our duty-free quota. It may seem silly to buy it here, where we still had to pay 5% tax, but even then it was still cheaper than Duty Free at Narita, and probably about half of what Duty free in Australia would have cost.
We made it back to the hotel in one piece, but we were all running low on funds. I had got some money out, but had kept enough to get on the train the next day and buy some food, but not much else. So after all the walking and whatnot, we decided to head to Yoshinoya again (well, this was Mum and Whitney's first time, and the one we had gone to was over 80km away). After having some difficulty with the door (I didn't realise I had to press this tape strip. I was tired OK) we got in. We had only had lupper (lunch-supper) about 3 hours before , so weren't absolutely hungry, but knew we needed to eat anyway. I got a small bowl this time (payed only 380Y for a set) but Mum and Whitney had got normal size bowls, not knowing that there's more than enough in them to fill a ravenous sumo. Doesn't matter anyway, as with it only costing pocket change, you don't mind leaving some if you don't feel like eating.
Back via the 7-11 and Lawson's (Dean and I went to 7-11, but the others didn't follow) for a couple of chu-hi cans and an ice cream (cornetto type thing or 128Y) we retired to our room. As we had nowhere early to be the next day, we put on some music, had some drinks, strawberries, chocolate and stuff in our room. We got a couple of bangs on the wall (probably some drunken businessman trying to sleep before work the next day) before we got too tired and turned in about 10.30. We still had to pack, but after a busy day, we needed sleep.
Well, today, we were dragging the chain compared to the girls, who were hungry. We said that we'd meet them at Jonathan's, so after they had already been seated, we brought up the rear. Today though, a bacon sandwich wasn't going to suffice, so I ordered the full-sized breakfast for 598Y. That included 2 eggs, a thick bit of toast, bacon, sausage, salad and drinks bar. I ended up getting 2 double-shot espressos from the machine, and it kept me alive and alert all day.
After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to get ready. I was in dire need of a shower shave, so I enjoyed a decent one, before putting on my Sunday bests (well, actually they aren't my Sunday best, just a pair of chinos and a shirt I bought at Uniqlo). Hella comfy, as the chinos were 100% Cotton, as was the shirt, with a silk tie I bought for 987Y. Unfortunately, I didn't find any shoes in my size for cheap, so I had to make do with cleaning my etnies, which stand out like a sore thumb being bright white.
I received a message from Yoshi saying that he had a fever, so wouldn't be able to make the meeting, so he asked me to call another brother called Kiyoshi. I phoned him before we got the subway, but soon we were on our way to Asagaya, a suburb west of Shinjuku and Nakano. After letting Mum get changed in the station toilets (It was too cold for her to wear a skirt), we soon met Kiyoshi and another couple of brothers, who then guided us through a few left and right hand turns before we came across the little kingdom hall. If Nundah hall is small, this place was positively miniscule, as there were about 60 of us in attendants with only 1 or 2 seats free. We soon found out, it was Kiyoshi giving the talk, so we were glad we hadn't held him up by being late. I was so glad to be back at a meeting, but the different thing was, for an English congregation, there was probably only 4 or 5 native speakers. There were a couple of brothers that had gone to the French group before it was disbanded, but for the most part, they were Japanese who were just trying there best. Kiyoshi wasn't a bad speaker and actually used an illustration that I might flog should the situation arise. There was an English brother conducting the Watchtower study, with a Kiwi (who had a slight american accent) doing the reading. Not much else to report really, but it's great to know that anywhere you go in the world you can immediately have 60 new friends.
Kiyoshi guided us back to the station before returning to the hall, but by now it was nearly 3pm, so we were getting a little hungry. Not wanting to repeat the Mos Burger problem of the day before, we decided to stop anywhere we could find. (Silly thing is, after having so much difficulty trying to track down a MOS Burger, we saw 2 or 3 the next day). There was a soba place at Yotsuya station where we were changing trains, but although there was a steaming pot and it was supposed to be open, the door was locked, so we got on a subway train headed for Ginza.
Dean and I had been to Ginza about 3 years ago (when we sat in the GTR), but hadn't really explored the area. Ginza literally means Silver Mint, and was where the reserve bank and coins used to be located. It's still a pretty flashy area, as a lot of your high end European fashion companies have their flagship stores here, as well as a few upmarket department stores. We wanted to find somewhere cheap to eat though, so after finding an ATM, we decided on a Korean place in the basement of Marui City (OIOI). The food was awesome, Dean, Conrad and I got a Kimchi meat thing set which while Dean said it wasn't the very best he's had was still fairly close. The price was good too, though the service was a little lacking. The head waitress/maitre'd wouldn't shut up, so Whitney couldn't even ask about the seperate booth that wasn't being used or reserved, so we had to split up. Another thing about Japan is that they don't tend to cater for groups of more than 4 people. Most places will happily join tables together for you to seat 5 or 6, but on average most have only 2 or maybe 4 seat tables.
The whole reason why we had gone to Ginza was to check out the shopping, but with prices in general being higher than everywhere else, we didn't really care to hang around. So after catching the Maranouchi subway line to Tokyo station, we walked through some of the shops there, before heading through Yaesu to Liquors Hasegawa. After trying quite a few different things, Dean, Mum and I eventually bought a couple of bottles towards our duty-free quota. It may seem silly to buy it here, where we still had to pay 5% tax, but even then it was still cheaper than Duty Free at Narita, and probably about half of what Duty free in Australia would have cost.
We made it back to the hotel in one piece, but we were all running low on funds. I had got some money out, but had kept enough to get on the train the next day and buy some food, but not much else. So after all the walking and whatnot, we decided to head to Yoshinoya again (well, this was Mum and Whitney's first time, and the one we had gone to was over 80km away). After having some difficulty with the door (I didn't realise I had to press this tape strip. I was tired OK) we got in. We had only had lupper (lunch-supper) about 3 hours before , so weren't absolutely hungry, but knew we needed to eat anyway. I got a small bowl this time (payed only 380Y for a set) but Mum and Whitney had got normal size bowls, not knowing that there's more than enough in them to fill a ravenous sumo. Doesn't matter anyway, as with it only costing pocket change, you don't mind leaving some if you don't feel like eating.
Back via the 7-11 and Lawson's (Dean and I went to 7-11, but the others didn't follow) for a couple of chu-hi cans and an ice cream (cornetto type thing or 128Y) we retired to our room. As we had nowhere early to be the next day, we put on some music, had some drinks, strawberries, chocolate and stuff in our room. We got a couple of bangs on the wall (probably some drunken businessman trying to sleep before work the next day) before we got too tired and turned in about 10.30. We still had to pack, but after a busy day, we needed sleep.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Fuji, Fuji-Q, where are you?
A hiccup in our plans. Although I had factored costs associated with going to Fuji-Q amusement park, Dean was getting near broke, and I wasn't far behind. I'd have still loved to go to the amusement park, but it just wasn't to be. We had decided this the night before, so after getting a bit of a sleep in, we sat around blogging and doing some research. We were probably going to do some more shopping as well as go to the Government building in Shinjuku, so we set off after breakfast to go explore.
After getting the Yamanote line to Shinjuku (it was longer than taking other routes, but as nothing opens til at least 10 o'clock it didn't matter), we pottered around Shinjuku for a while. Or that was the plan.
We got out of the train station (busiest in the world), but as we were walking an old lady fell on mum and Whitney. She apologised, before going splat head first into the wall. She must have already been bleeding when she hit Mum, as she got some blood on her jacket, but after she hit the wall the claret started flowing. Whitney quickly went and alerted a couple of policeman standing around, while some by-standers stayed with the lady to make sure she was concious, but after alerting the police, we kept going. Mum was obviously shaken after this and felt sorry and wondered if there was aything they could have done to help the old lady, but without knowing the language or circumstances, there was little we could have done. We walked around some random streets before stopping in at a Yodobashi Camera. I needed some batteries, and Conrad wanted to get some more high spec film, but after this, we headed for the Government building. It was a freezing cold day with a solid wind blowing, so anywhere that was in the shade and wind was absolutely frigid. We walked for about 500m before finding the building. It actually has 2 observatories, one in the north tower, one in the south. But with both of them offering nearly the same view, we just did one, taking plenty of pictures of the view.
We went downstairs next, and I got directions for the nearest MOS burger. I felt like a bit of a pillock, but I didn't want to go home without at least having a chilli cheese burger. We wound our way through the streets, before I realised I'd taken a wrong turn. I headed into a convenience store, got some clarification then headed through a back street. By this time, the tribe were getting irritable, having not eaten since about 8, so I suggested they just stop and eat wherever they thought looked good. The lady in the Lawsons had told me to go over the train tracks, but it was actually a subway, so it was under the road. Once we had made it back to a major street (which still wasn't named) we headed down, trying to find a way to get over the train tracks. Whitney then spotted the MOS Burger across the street from a 7-11, just like the lady at the government building had said.
We headed in and found a seat. I ordered a Double Chilli Cheese burger, with the others ordering there own. After a few hours of solid walking, it was never going to suffice though, so after I finished it, I went and grabbed a chilli hot dog to share with Dean. Now that we had food, we were a little happier, but over Shinjuku (the prices aren't that great, and unless you feel like trekking through endless department stores, there isn't many small shops). The plan now was to head to Nakano, which we had skipped on Tuesday. We got off at the station, and walked through the "Sun Mall" a closed in street with little shops lining the sides. This was a Saturday though and filled with people, so getting around was harder. We had only eaten an hour before, so we didn't feel like anything to eat, but with a cake shop up for grabs, I ordered a Strawberry shortcake with the others ordering what they felt like. One qualm I have about Japan is there are never enough seats/benches to sit on. The people are used to eating standing up, so it mustn't worry them, but when you are trying to eat a soft, creamy cake, you really need to sit down. In the end, I found a telephone I could rest my cake box on (they package it nicely, and put some dry ice in as well), and ate my cake, probably getting a ton of cream and crumbs on my face. Fortunately, I had serviettes as well. Now that I had eaten, we checked in quite a few shops. This mall is called Broadway, which would have to be the biggest misnomer around. It's cramped and narrow. Even though this is where Robot Robot is (a store I mentioned in my last trips blog), Dean just was over it at this time. Mum didn't really care if she went to the material shop or not, so with everyone just getting grumpy from the crowds and sore backs/feet, we headed back to Hasegawa. We tried a few things, but by this stage we just wanted some good food (MOS burger is tasty, but it's fast food). We wandered around briefly, grabbing a beer at Brasserie Lion (I grabbed some beer I have never heard of) before we decided we wanted to find a little hole in the wall type ramen place.
We walked up a couple of streets towards the hotel, before finding one across the road from the Center Hotel (where we've stayed before). It was empty, but had a couple of seats reserved. After being seated straight under the air conditioning unit, we had to move (having hot air coming straight on your head is draining), so they sat us in the reserved seats. We then ate some very tasty ramen. While not the best ramen I've ever had, it was pretty tasty. Following a big bowl, the only thing left to do was head back to the hotel and sleep.
After getting the Yamanote line to Shinjuku (it was longer than taking other routes, but as nothing opens til at least 10 o'clock it didn't matter), we pottered around Shinjuku for a while. Or that was the plan.
We got out of the train station (busiest in the world), but as we were walking an old lady fell on mum and Whitney. She apologised, before going splat head first into the wall. She must have already been bleeding when she hit Mum, as she got some blood on her jacket, but after she hit the wall the claret started flowing. Whitney quickly went and alerted a couple of policeman standing around, while some by-standers stayed with the lady to make sure she was concious, but after alerting the police, we kept going. Mum was obviously shaken after this and felt sorry and wondered if there was aything they could have done to help the old lady, but without knowing the language or circumstances, there was little we could have done. We walked around some random streets before stopping in at a Yodobashi Camera. I needed some batteries, and Conrad wanted to get some more high spec film, but after this, we headed for the Government building. It was a freezing cold day with a solid wind blowing, so anywhere that was in the shade and wind was absolutely frigid. We walked for about 500m before finding the building. It actually has 2 observatories, one in the north tower, one in the south. But with both of them offering nearly the same view, we just did one, taking plenty of pictures of the view.
We went downstairs next, and I got directions for the nearest MOS burger. I felt like a bit of a pillock, but I didn't want to go home without at least having a chilli cheese burger. We wound our way through the streets, before I realised I'd taken a wrong turn. I headed into a convenience store, got some clarification then headed through a back street. By this time, the tribe were getting irritable, having not eaten since about 8, so I suggested they just stop and eat wherever they thought looked good. The lady in the Lawsons had told me to go over the train tracks, but it was actually a subway, so it was under the road. Once we had made it back to a major street (which still wasn't named) we headed down, trying to find a way to get over the train tracks. Whitney then spotted the MOS Burger across the street from a 7-11, just like the lady at the government building had said.
We headed in and found a seat. I ordered a Double Chilli Cheese burger, with the others ordering there own. After a few hours of solid walking, it was never going to suffice though, so after I finished it, I went and grabbed a chilli hot dog to share with Dean. Now that we had food, we were a little happier, but over Shinjuku (the prices aren't that great, and unless you feel like trekking through endless department stores, there isn't many small shops). The plan now was to head to Nakano, which we had skipped on Tuesday. We got off at the station, and walked through the "Sun Mall" a closed in street with little shops lining the sides. This was a Saturday though and filled with people, so getting around was harder. We had only eaten an hour before, so we didn't feel like anything to eat, but with a cake shop up for grabs, I ordered a Strawberry shortcake with the others ordering what they felt like. One qualm I have about Japan is there are never enough seats/benches to sit on. The people are used to eating standing up, so it mustn't worry them, but when you are trying to eat a soft, creamy cake, you really need to sit down. In the end, I found a telephone I could rest my cake box on (they package it nicely, and put some dry ice in as well), and ate my cake, probably getting a ton of cream and crumbs on my face. Fortunately, I had serviettes as well. Now that I had eaten, we checked in quite a few shops. This mall is called Broadway, which would have to be the biggest misnomer around. It's cramped and narrow. Even though this is where Robot Robot is (a store I mentioned in my last trips blog), Dean just was over it at this time. Mum didn't really care if she went to the material shop or not, so with everyone just getting grumpy from the crowds and sore backs/feet, we headed back to Hasegawa. We tried a few things, but by this stage we just wanted some good food (MOS burger is tasty, but it's fast food). We wandered around briefly, grabbing a beer at Brasserie Lion (I grabbed some beer I have never heard of) before we decided we wanted to find a little hole in the wall type ramen place.
We walked up a couple of streets towards the hotel, before finding one across the road from the Center Hotel (where we've stayed before). It was empty, but had a couple of seats reserved. After being seated straight under the air conditioning unit, we had to move (having hot air coming straight on your head is draining), so they sat us in the reserved seats. We then ate some very tasty ramen. While not the best ramen I've ever had, it was pretty tasty. Following a big bowl, the only thing left to do was head back to the hotel and sleep.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
Ok, so after the frigid events of Thursday, today we were taking Conrad to the zoo. We had been to Ueno Zoo about 3 years ago, but Conrad had never been. After breakfast at Jonathans, we headed back to the hotel to get ready. It was another cold day in Tokyo. The max temperature for the day was only going to be 7 degrees, but with wind chill it felt a lot less. We had to take the motorbikes back to SCS first, so after suiting up and getting them out of the tiny alley we parked them in, we were soon winding our way through the streets of Tokyo. I only had my normal jacket on, so I was still a little chilly, but not as frostbitten as the day before. We had to fill the bikes up before returning them, so after shooting past the rental place, we did a U-turn before finding a petrol station. It seems fuel prices here vary from station to station, and although I haven't driven here long, it seems that Eneos is the most expensive. Also, some streets are one way from certain times of the day (usually 9-19.00). This meant that we must have rode down the streets the wrong way, but as they were back streets with little traffic , no one seemed to mind.
We dropped the bikes off without much fuss before starting the walk back towards Ueno Zoo. It was Friday, but with some areas of the city receiving very little sunlight due to high buildings on one side and expressway on the other, there was still snow/ice from Monday night on the ground. The wind was blowing as well, so we grabbed a hot can of coffee from a machine to keep ourselves warm while moving to meet the girls at the front of the zoo.
As I may have mentioned a couple of years ago, Ueno is a lower class area, with the black market springing up there after WWII. It's a little more sanitary these days, but with a big park, there is also quite a number of homeless people. Here though, it seems like in return for not being bothered, the homeless have to help with keeping the area clean, as we saw quite a few bums with hi-vis vests on and rubbish bags. Also, there are a large number of feral cats around. They look pretty well fed, and they keep the hobos company. (I actually saw one hobo sleeping in a corner with a cat sleeping on him).
After paying the 600Y entry fee, we noticed that there was a new panda exhibit. When we came a couple of years ago, their panda had died about 8 months before we came, and they hadn't been able to get another one. Now they had 2, with it feeding time. We watched as the keepers put fresh bamboo in the area, as well as hiding carrots as treats. Then they got out of the cages and let the pandas go in. We had to fight through the hoards of prams, school girls, old people and others, but I think Conrad and Dean managed to snap some good photos. Just after this, the batteries in my camera gave up the ghost, so I only had my phone and video camera. We walked towards the birds of prey and I got some nice shots (I think) of some owls, eagles, vultures and stuff.
As you keep on walking, there was the tiger and lions exhibit. I feel sorry for these animals, as they are used to warmer climes, but today it was frigid at best. We got some shots of them, but had to keep moving to keep warm. It was a Friday and there must be quite a few schools nearby, as there were school kids ranging from short grade 1 or 2 kids (with matching hats) to seniors. So they were noisy, but only in the subdued Japanese way... I don't know, maybe it's because I can block them out because they're speaking a different language, but I can ignore them a lot better.
We next saw some gorillas, polar bears, seals, and tapirs, before deciding to get something to eat. It's possibly expensive for here, but for 1200Y or so I got a chicken and chips basket (with a little salad) and a beer... I still love that you can get beer on tap anywhere here, and don't know where else you can get a pint of beer in a zoo for 500Y. Unfortunately for us, it was feeding time at the zoo.... There was a myriad of crying babies, so we needed to leave as we were starting to get crowded our by the pram parade. We quickly saw a bison, some marmosets and spider monkeys and a prairie dog, before we headed across the overpass to the west side of the zoo. We then spent about 3 hours winding our way through the fluffy cute animals (Mum and Whitney had to pat the bunnies) and then small mammals, nocturnal animals, flamingoes, then hippos, rhinos, okapis before we reached the vivarium (reptiles, snakes and lizards). If nothing else, it confirmed for me that the most poisonous/deadly creatures come from Australia. There was a saltwater croc, which is huge compared to other crocodiles, and the look in his eye made him look like he was plotting how to kill you. There were some really annoying american kids with the little girl wearing Minnie Mouse ears, star sunglasses and generally acting like a prima donna. She was also loud, so I wouldn't have minded feeding her to the crocodile (remember, women and children first :P) It was now approximately 4pm, so we headed for the South exit and headed to Ameyokocho(?). It was a street market area (used to be black market) that had bags, clothes, food and more. I grabbed a strawberry skewer, but I didn't really like these markets that much. Maybe it was the crowds, the small claustrophobic shops, or the not so market prices on the items, but I didn't really feel like hanging around.
After I grabbed a kebab pita (nice and spicy) from a Japanese speaking leb, and the others grabbed some sweet thing from a street vendor, we started making our way to the subway station. We wanted to head back to Yaesu, so after grabbing the orange line to Nihombashi we stopped in at Yaesu to try some more stuff from Hasegawa, as well as grab a massage. We stopped in at the massage place only to be told there was a 40 min wait, so we headed for a bar place across the aisle. I didn't feel like having anything to eat just yet, so I just grabbed a beer, while Dean grabbed an antipasto happy hour set. Heineken on tap is good, a massage to your tired bones better, though not as cheap.
After getting pounded and prodded (the person massaging me said I had very tense shoulders), we headed back toward the hotel. Mum and Whitney in the exploring while we were biking had found another gyoza place just down the street from us. It won't replace the one that was in Yaesu mall, but that had a decent go of it. We ordered a few plates of gyoza and a tall glass of beer (Dean reckons gyoza is nearly the perfect beer food). The gyoza was good quality and they had a few different types to try. The problem I had, was that being a whole in the wall type joint, it was all smoking. I could only stand a few people doing it before my lungs gave up. I waited out in the cold while the others finished their gyoza, with the shop attendant beckoning me in, and me in my broken Japanese trying to say that the smoke was making me cough.
After leaving the warmth of the gyoza place, the wind and cold outside was noticable, but it didn't stop us going to Lawson's and getting some ice cream. Once in the safety of our hotel, we had a couple of Chu-hi's, with Conrad nipping downstairs to put some washing on. After what was supposed to be a relaxing day (how can walking heaps be relaxing?), we were all tired and headed for bed.
We dropped the bikes off without much fuss before starting the walk back towards Ueno Zoo. It was Friday, but with some areas of the city receiving very little sunlight due to high buildings on one side and expressway on the other, there was still snow/ice from Monday night on the ground. The wind was blowing as well, so we grabbed a hot can of coffee from a machine to keep ourselves warm while moving to meet the girls at the front of the zoo.
As I may have mentioned a couple of years ago, Ueno is a lower class area, with the black market springing up there after WWII. It's a little more sanitary these days, but with a big park, there is also quite a number of homeless people. Here though, it seems like in return for not being bothered, the homeless have to help with keeping the area clean, as we saw quite a few bums with hi-vis vests on and rubbish bags. Also, there are a large number of feral cats around. They look pretty well fed, and they keep the hobos company. (I actually saw one hobo sleeping in a corner with a cat sleeping on him).
After paying the 600Y entry fee, we noticed that there was a new panda exhibit. When we came a couple of years ago, their panda had died about 8 months before we came, and they hadn't been able to get another one. Now they had 2, with it feeding time. We watched as the keepers put fresh bamboo in the area, as well as hiding carrots as treats. Then they got out of the cages and let the pandas go in. We had to fight through the hoards of prams, school girls, old people and others, but I think Conrad and Dean managed to snap some good photos. Just after this, the batteries in my camera gave up the ghost, so I only had my phone and video camera. We walked towards the birds of prey and I got some nice shots (I think) of some owls, eagles, vultures and stuff.
As you keep on walking, there was the tiger and lions exhibit. I feel sorry for these animals, as they are used to warmer climes, but today it was frigid at best. We got some shots of them, but had to keep moving to keep warm. It was a Friday and there must be quite a few schools nearby, as there were school kids ranging from short grade 1 or 2 kids (with matching hats) to seniors. So they were noisy, but only in the subdued Japanese way... I don't know, maybe it's because I can block them out because they're speaking a different language, but I can ignore them a lot better.
We next saw some gorillas, polar bears, seals, and tapirs, before deciding to get something to eat. It's possibly expensive for here, but for 1200Y or so I got a chicken and chips basket (with a little salad) and a beer... I still love that you can get beer on tap anywhere here, and don't know where else you can get a pint of beer in a zoo for 500Y. Unfortunately for us, it was feeding time at the zoo.... There was a myriad of crying babies, so we needed to leave as we were starting to get crowded our by the pram parade. We quickly saw a bison, some marmosets and spider monkeys and a prairie dog, before we headed across the overpass to the west side of the zoo. We then spent about 3 hours winding our way through the fluffy cute animals (Mum and Whitney had to pat the bunnies) and then small mammals, nocturnal animals, flamingoes, then hippos, rhinos, okapis before we reached the vivarium (reptiles, snakes and lizards). If nothing else, it confirmed for me that the most poisonous/deadly creatures come from Australia. There was a saltwater croc, which is huge compared to other crocodiles, and the look in his eye made him look like he was plotting how to kill you. There were some really annoying american kids with the little girl wearing Minnie Mouse ears, star sunglasses and generally acting like a prima donna. She was also loud, so I wouldn't have minded feeding her to the crocodile (remember, women and children first :P) It was now approximately 4pm, so we headed for the South exit and headed to Ameyokocho(?). It was a street market area (used to be black market) that had bags, clothes, food and more. I grabbed a strawberry skewer, but I didn't really like these markets that much. Maybe it was the crowds, the small claustrophobic shops, or the not so market prices on the items, but I didn't really feel like hanging around.
After I grabbed a kebab pita (nice and spicy) from a Japanese speaking leb, and the others grabbed some sweet thing from a street vendor, we started making our way to the subway station. We wanted to head back to Yaesu, so after grabbing the orange line to Nihombashi we stopped in at Yaesu to try some more stuff from Hasegawa, as well as grab a massage. We stopped in at the massage place only to be told there was a 40 min wait, so we headed for a bar place across the aisle. I didn't feel like having anything to eat just yet, so I just grabbed a beer, while Dean grabbed an antipasto happy hour set. Heineken on tap is good, a massage to your tired bones better, though not as cheap.
After getting pounded and prodded (the person massaging me said I had very tense shoulders), we headed back toward the hotel. Mum and Whitney in the exploring while we were biking had found another gyoza place just down the street from us. It won't replace the one that was in Yaesu mall, but that had a decent go of it. We ordered a few plates of gyoza and a tall glass of beer (Dean reckons gyoza is nearly the perfect beer food). The gyoza was good quality and they had a few different types to try. The problem I had, was that being a whole in the wall type joint, it was all smoking. I could only stand a few people doing it before my lungs gave up. I waited out in the cold while the others finished their gyoza, with the shop attendant beckoning me in, and me in my broken Japanese trying to say that the smoke was making me cough.
After leaving the warmth of the gyoza place, the wind and cold outside was noticable, but it didn't stop us going to Lawson's and getting some ice cream. Once in the safety of our hotel, we had a couple of Chu-hi's, with Conrad nipping downstairs to put some washing on. After what was supposed to be a relaxing day (how can walking heaps be relaxing?), we were all tired and headed for bed.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
*BEep Flippin *beep *beep cold
Sorry for the triple post, but I have to catch up...
Today was sort of a Conrad day. He requested we go motorbike riding whilst in Japan, so after a bit of back and forward, I managed to hire some bikes from SCS Ueno (I'd recommend them if you want to hire bikes. Friendly to deal with). After a breakfast at Denny's we went back to the hotel to get suited up. In another brainspasm, I think Jonathans is better than Denny's. Better value, better prices and more range. Anywho, after saying our farewells to the girls, I left my phone with Mum and we headed for Ueno. Fortunately, the subway station near the foot of our hotel is on a line that goes straight to Ueno, so after hopping on, 10 mins later we were there.
As I may have mentioned before, I don't really deal in particulars or details. After briefly getting spun around, I pointed us in the right direction. From my google street viewing, I knew that it was basically on the main road north of Ueno station, but do you think I could remember the exact address? So after asking a friendly bike shop owner, he pointed us in the right direction, 3 blocks up and across the road. We soon found the shop, and were cordially invited in and sat down. We must have spent about 30 mins getting all the paperwork (international licences, insurance policies and other stuff) sorted. Then after rolling the bikes onto the street, and running through the controls and stuff with us, we were off. Albeit very briefly.....
After setting off from the store, we headed down Showa-dori. Being Tokyo, there was actually an entrance for the Expressway in the middle of the road, rather than to the left. I turned, then Dean turned, but Conrad missed the turn off. ARggh.. We hadn't even gone 5km and we had already lost Conrad. After riding down the expressway for about a kilometre, Dean and I stopped on the side of the road and waited for Conrad. He had seen us turn off, so all he had to do was loop around and return to where he had lost us, and he'd be fine.. except that Conrad is directionally challenged. After waiting on the expressway for about 10 minutes, he finally found us and we were off again. Straight down the C1 loop. I had raced this plenty of times before on Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero (PS2 game), so at least the turns and stuff were semi-familiar. We looped around Meguro, before turning off onto the Tomei expressway near Shibuya. Our first stop was meant to be Riders (Up Garage for bikes) at Minami Machide, but it seems the winds were against us... For one thing, it was so cold, I thought I'd get frostbite in my fingers. Usually, I'm fairly insulated and fine when it comes to the cold, but this is the middle of winter in a country that gets a proper winter. It was about 3 degrees, but with windchill, it must have been in the negatives. My fingers were frozen, but I'd just have to grin and bare it. After getting off the Tomei Expressway at the correct exit, there was a bit of a mix up with the Tolls. The roads and exits can be pretty confusing especially if you don't have any sat nav with you...
It seems that you have to pay to get on, then after about 20km, you have to pay again. I had gotten a ticket from the gate, but Dean and Conrad had driven right through. So after paying 3x over (I was designated spokesperson) we stopped on the side of the road again. We headed left, but in reality to get to Up Garage, we had to go right.... After stopping a kilometre up the road, I scrapped that idea, as it would have required us to try and navigate back the other way and then get off at the correct exit.
We continued down the road for a while before I saw a familiar name. Fortunately I have a photographic sort of memory, and from the google mapping and also seeing the road sign from the Shinkansen on Monday, I remembered that Odawara was near Hakone our destination. So after doing a couple of ramps, we pointed our bikes in the right direction. By this stage it was after 12.30, and as we were getting a little hungry, we stopped at the Family Mart located on the expressway at Totsuka. We had a couple of pork bun things, before I got some clarified instructions from the shop assistant. We just had to keep heading the way we were going.
We started off (after paying another toll) down the road, before it connected with Route 1. This was the road we had to stay on to reach Odawara and then Hakone. The problem with it is, that it goes through all the towns and suburbs between there, so every traffic light and slow turning vehicle held us up, not to mention the 40 and 50km/h speed limits. We could have got there much quicker by getting back on an expressway, but the guys would rather have spent more time riding, than pay for tolls. By the time we reached Odawara, it was close to 3pm! We had been riding for nearly 4 hours, but according to the signs we were only 85km from Tokyo... Now I'm not sure if they measure their distances as the crow flies, but it sure felt a lot more than that, especially with the wind off the Pacific Ocean feeling like it was coming from the north, rather than the south.
We stopped off for a feed and relieve at KFC then made our way towards Hakone. Unfortunately we missed the turn off for the Hakone Turnpike (sponsored by Toyo) so we had to loop back til we found it. Then after going through the little toll road booth (It's classified as a private road), we were on our way... Up the Hakone I had read about in those old Street Drifting articles and such. Brrrr... It was even more frigid. I only had the motorcycle jacket, jumper and T-shirt on, with Jeans and boardies underneath. Dean didn't realise this, and was surprised later to find out, as he and Conrad both had thermals and underlayers on as well, and they were still cold. We were warned by the the toll booth attendant that it was slippery on the road, so take it easy and as we got back on the bikes (we stopped to take pictures) we could see why. There was a heap of snow and ice on the ground, with black ice everywhere. We took it cautiously and got up the hill before sundown. We were treated with a magnificent view of Mt Fuji at sunset, the townships and the lakes, as well as looking down the coast towards Izu Peninsula.
We had intended to go down the Izu Skyline, but with the light dying and all of us feeling like we were arctic explorers already, we decided to make our way home. After heading back, we decided to grab a cheap feed at Yoshinoya on the outskirts of Odawara. For the exorbitant sum of 480Y, we had a big bowl of Gyuudon, coleslaw or kimchi, and some Miso soup. This kept us fuelled a little longer (you use more energy trying to keep warm), so we headed off towards home. It didn't feel half as long this time, with much less traffic on the roads, so it didn't take us half as long to get back towards Totsuka. This time though, I wanted to head to Daikoku-futo, a big parking area on Yokohama bay where there was supposed to be car meets on Thursday nights. After getting better directions from a service station attendant, we headed in the right direction. If the wind was cold at Hakone at 3pm, then it was positively icy on Yokohama Bay. We crossed the Yokohama Bay Bridge before pitting in at Daikoku. We would have had to come this way to get back to the hotel, but I was in need of a pee break (my kidneys were freezing, so I had been busting for a couple of hours) and Dean and Conrad needed to warm up a bit. We sat around having a vending machine break, but except for a couple of 370Z's and an R32 Gtst, there wasn't much to be seen. Conrad and Dean took some pictures before we headed off home. I was a little disappointed as I would have loved to see all the modified cars, but I suppose it was brass monkey weather, so given the option of standing around on Yokohama bay freezing and talking about cars, or being at home, I could understand their choice. Back up the corkscrew that brings you down to Daikoku and we were on the Wangan (Bayshore Route), a road famous for the original Midnight Club and other illegal street races. As it was nearly 10, we just wanted to get back to the hotel, but at least with the Tunnels underneath Haneda and other bits of water, it was actually warmer than during the day in the wind.
We crossed Rainbow Bridge (actually, me and some guy in an JZA70 Supra were mucking around), before we went up the guts of C1 inner again. We kept rolling before turning off to go to Nihombashi, near where it splits off from C1 and Wangan. We parked the bikes down a tiny alley to the side of the hotel, before we got all the gear off for the night. An enjoyable ride, thoroughly freezing, with us missing some bits I wanted to do/show the other 2, but it didn't matter. If the shots from Hakone turn out, as well as the experience of riding some of the most famous street racing roads in the world, it was all worth the planning.
Today was sort of a Conrad day. He requested we go motorbike riding whilst in Japan, so after a bit of back and forward, I managed to hire some bikes from SCS Ueno (I'd recommend them if you want to hire bikes. Friendly to deal with). After a breakfast at Denny's we went back to the hotel to get suited up. In another brainspasm, I think Jonathans is better than Denny's. Better value, better prices and more range. Anywho, after saying our farewells to the girls, I left my phone with Mum and we headed for Ueno. Fortunately, the subway station near the foot of our hotel is on a line that goes straight to Ueno, so after hopping on, 10 mins later we were there.
As I may have mentioned before, I don't really deal in particulars or details. After briefly getting spun around, I pointed us in the right direction. From my google street viewing, I knew that it was basically on the main road north of Ueno station, but do you think I could remember the exact address? So after asking a friendly bike shop owner, he pointed us in the right direction, 3 blocks up and across the road. We soon found the shop, and were cordially invited in and sat down. We must have spent about 30 mins getting all the paperwork (international licences, insurance policies and other stuff) sorted. Then after rolling the bikes onto the street, and running through the controls and stuff with us, we were off. Albeit very briefly.....
After setting off from the store, we headed down Showa-dori. Being Tokyo, there was actually an entrance for the Expressway in the middle of the road, rather than to the left. I turned, then Dean turned, but Conrad missed the turn off. ARggh.. We hadn't even gone 5km and we had already lost Conrad. After riding down the expressway for about a kilometre, Dean and I stopped on the side of the road and waited for Conrad. He had seen us turn off, so all he had to do was loop around and return to where he had lost us, and he'd be fine.. except that Conrad is directionally challenged. After waiting on the expressway for about 10 minutes, he finally found us and we were off again. Straight down the C1 loop. I had raced this plenty of times before on Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero (PS2 game), so at least the turns and stuff were semi-familiar. We looped around Meguro, before turning off onto the Tomei expressway near Shibuya. Our first stop was meant to be Riders (Up Garage for bikes) at Minami Machide, but it seems the winds were against us... For one thing, it was so cold, I thought I'd get frostbite in my fingers. Usually, I'm fairly insulated and fine when it comes to the cold, but this is the middle of winter in a country that gets a proper winter. It was about 3 degrees, but with windchill, it must have been in the negatives. My fingers were frozen, but I'd just have to grin and bare it. After getting off the Tomei Expressway at the correct exit, there was a bit of a mix up with the Tolls. The roads and exits can be pretty confusing especially if you don't have any sat nav with you...
It seems that you have to pay to get on, then after about 20km, you have to pay again. I had gotten a ticket from the gate, but Dean and Conrad had driven right through. So after paying 3x over (I was designated spokesperson) we stopped on the side of the road again. We headed left, but in reality to get to Up Garage, we had to go right.... After stopping a kilometre up the road, I scrapped that idea, as it would have required us to try and navigate back the other way and then get off at the correct exit.
We continued down the road for a while before I saw a familiar name. Fortunately I have a photographic sort of memory, and from the google mapping and also seeing the road sign from the Shinkansen on Monday, I remembered that Odawara was near Hakone our destination. So after doing a couple of ramps, we pointed our bikes in the right direction. By this stage it was after 12.30, and as we were getting a little hungry, we stopped at the Family Mart located on the expressway at Totsuka. We had a couple of pork bun things, before I got some clarified instructions from the shop assistant. We just had to keep heading the way we were going.
We started off (after paying another toll) down the road, before it connected with Route 1. This was the road we had to stay on to reach Odawara and then Hakone. The problem with it is, that it goes through all the towns and suburbs between there, so every traffic light and slow turning vehicle held us up, not to mention the 40 and 50km/h speed limits. We could have got there much quicker by getting back on an expressway, but the guys would rather have spent more time riding, than pay for tolls. By the time we reached Odawara, it was close to 3pm! We had been riding for nearly 4 hours, but according to the signs we were only 85km from Tokyo... Now I'm not sure if they measure their distances as the crow flies, but it sure felt a lot more than that, especially with the wind off the Pacific Ocean feeling like it was coming from the north, rather than the south.
We stopped off for a feed and relieve at KFC then made our way towards Hakone. Unfortunately we missed the turn off for the Hakone Turnpike (sponsored by Toyo) so we had to loop back til we found it. Then after going through the little toll road booth (It's classified as a private road), we were on our way... Up the Hakone I had read about in those old Street Drifting articles and such. Brrrr... It was even more frigid. I only had the motorcycle jacket, jumper and T-shirt on, with Jeans and boardies underneath. Dean didn't realise this, and was surprised later to find out, as he and Conrad both had thermals and underlayers on as well, and they were still cold. We were warned by the the toll booth attendant that it was slippery on the road, so take it easy and as we got back on the bikes (we stopped to take pictures) we could see why. There was a heap of snow and ice on the ground, with black ice everywhere. We took it cautiously and got up the hill before sundown. We were treated with a magnificent view of Mt Fuji at sunset, the townships and the lakes, as well as looking down the coast towards Izu Peninsula.
We had intended to go down the Izu Skyline, but with the light dying and all of us feeling like we were arctic explorers already, we decided to make our way home. After heading back, we decided to grab a cheap feed at Yoshinoya on the outskirts of Odawara. For the exorbitant sum of 480Y, we had a big bowl of Gyuudon, coleslaw or kimchi, and some Miso soup. This kept us fuelled a little longer (you use more energy trying to keep warm), so we headed off towards home. It didn't feel half as long this time, with much less traffic on the roads, so it didn't take us half as long to get back towards Totsuka. This time though, I wanted to head to Daikoku-futo, a big parking area on Yokohama bay where there was supposed to be car meets on Thursday nights. After getting better directions from a service station attendant, we headed in the right direction. If the wind was cold at Hakone at 3pm, then it was positively icy on Yokohama Bay. We crossed the Yokohama Bay Bridge before pitting in at Daikoku. We would have had to come this way to get back to the hotel, but I was in need of a pee break (my kidneys were freezing, so I had been busting for a couple of hours) and Dean and Conrad needed to warm up a bit. We sat around having a vending machine break, but except for a couple of 370Z's and an R32 Gtst, there wasn't much to be seen. Conrad and Dean took some pictures before we headed off home. I was a little disappointed as I would have loved to see all the modified cars, but I suppose it was brass monkey weather, so given the option of standing around on Yokohama bay freezing and talking about cars, or being at home, I could understand their choice. Back up the corkscrew that brings you down to Daikoku and we were on the Wangan (Bayshore Route), a road famous for the original Midnight Club and other illegal street races. As it was nearly 10, we just wanted to get back to the hotel, but at least with the Tunnels underneath Haneda and other bits of water, it was actually warmer than during the day in the wind.
We crossed Rainbow Bridge (actually, me and some guy in an JZA70 Supra were mucking around), before we went up the guts of C1 inner again. We kept rolling before turning off to go to Nihombashi, near where it splits off from C1 and Wangan. We parked the bikes down a tiny alley to the side of the hotel, before we got all the gear off for the night. An enjoyable ride, thoroughly freezing, with us missing some bits I wanted to do/show the other 2, but it didn't matter. If the shots from Hakone turn out, as well as the experience of riding some of the most famous street racing roads in the world, it was all worth the planning.
Too much shopping, not enough buying.
Wednesday was originally planned as being the day we went to Fuji-Q Highlands, a wicked looking amusement park at the foot hills of Mt Fuji. But with Whitney out of action (probably wouldn't be nice have your feet whacked around in a rollercoaster carriage), we decided to postpone it. Whit's foot was feeling a little better, so people decided they wanted to do some shopping instead. (How this could be worse than a rollercoaster I don't know)
We decided to make our way down to Johnathan's, a cheap family restaurant chain just down the street. We mustn't have been feeling very adventurous, because Dean, Bubz and I all ordered toasted bacon and cheese sandwiches, while Mum and Conrad got the bacon and egg set meal. Was pretty cheap, and with the drinks bar included in our meals, unlimited coffee and softdrink for 514Y. This meant I got to press my own buttons, so a triple-shot espresso it was. There was a girl to the left doing what looked to be a logic puzzle, but with the x and o or whatever, it ended up producing a picture of a girl. In the time that we were there, she finished one and got started on a second one. With lots of caffeine coursing through my veins, it wasn't long before I was super-energetic and had to get moving.
We headed back to the hotel to grab some stuff, before heading down to Kayabacho station. There after getting on, we got off at Otemachi to change trains. Maybe it's me, but Otemachi seems like the anti-thesis of Japanese efficiency. Yes, you have the most of subway lines going into your station, but the walking distance actually covers several large city blocks on the surface. Anyhow, we changed trains for the Chiyoda line heading towards Meiji-Jingumae, the closest stop to Harajuku. Dean, Conrad and I were wanting to head to UT (the shirts in a can place), but as they and most of the shops around them didn't open til 11 (it was only 10.20) we had to wait around and find a loo for the time being. We went into the Starbucks that was close by, but with no decent coffee, and a false toilet code, we didn't hang around there long.
Back up the street to UT and it had opened it's doors by now. While Dean, Conrad and I perused the selection of T-shirts, Mum made use of their facilities. I like UT and Uniqlo, as they tend to use a lot more natural fibres, so 2 pairs of jeans and 3 or 4 shirts, and my wallet felt lighter. It was a pity they didn't stock more M and L sized shirts, as all that was left seemed to be XS, but judging by the amount left on the shelf, even the Japanese aren't that size. If they had them, my wallet would have felt lighter still.
We now decided to head around the corner and down Omote Sando-dori to the Oriental Bazaar. We hadn't been here for a few years, and Conrad had never been here at all, so while he looked around, I sat down, taking the weight off my already tired feet. We then headed back up the street, but at the place where Kiddy Land was meant to be, there was now a construction site... Oh noes!!! Don't tell us that Kiddy Land has gone the way of our favourite Gyoza place and the Mos Burger near our hotel!! But as we got up the street, we noticed a sign saying it was around the corner while it was being rebuilt. Down the side street, we stopped via a handmade candy kitchen, the Burton flagship store and a grocers until we found the illustrious Kiddy Land. The layout was slightly different, but it was still full to the brim with so much cuteness and sweetness, that you though you were going to have a toothache afterwards. We looked around there a bit, lamenting the fact that we don't have room in our house for a model trainset, as well as seeing all the cool toys we'll probably never get over in Australia (I'll have to see if they have a Rakuten shop). When we felt like all our teeth had rotted, we left, heading towards Takeshita-dori, where a whole heap of subcultures started. We looked, walked, didn't make eye contact with the Nigerians trying to lure you to their hip-hop gear shop, and generally just window shopped. There was plenty to buy, but with funds and room limited, only the most discerning products get bought...
By now it was after 3pm, and with all of us getting tired, we decided to head back to Yaesu mall. It was a good afternoon, with me trying various different cognacs, whiskeys, and expensive stuff that I'll never get to have again. It's funny, but I can easily go through 1000 or 1500Y there buying tastes of various things, but I never seem to walk sideways. Just as well, because I don't really want to fit in with the business men after a Japanese business meeting. It was now getting later, and with a big day planned for tomorrow, we decided to quickly look around for somewhere to eat. After poohpoohing all ideas around Yaesu, we stuck Whitney (who still had a sore foot, but by now the painkillers had worn off) into the back of a taxi along with Mum and Dean, while Conrad and I walked back. We eventually decided just to head downstairs to the restaurant under the hotel, as Dean wanted a steak. I ordered a 5 types Cheese pizza, which from what I could taste/read was Mozarella, Gorgonzola, cream cheese, and a couple of others. It was nice enough, but the service at the restaurant wasn't that good, and the rest of the food was a little greasy. There are plenty of other places around here we could have gotten better food at a cheaper price. Afterwards, we headed outside to Lawson's Station, before heading back upstairs for some beer/drinks and tele. We had to get an early night though, as tomorrow was going to be a big day.
We decided to make our way down to Johnathan's, a cheap family restaurant chain just down the street. We mustn't have been feeling very adventurous, because Dean, Bubz and I all ordered toasted bacon and cheese sandwiches, while Mum and Conrad got the bacon and egg set meal. Was pretty cheap, and with the drinks bar included in our meals, unlimited coffee and softdrink for 514Y. This meant I got to press my own buttons, so a triple-shot espresso it was. There was a girl to the left doing what looked to be a logic puzzle, but with the x and o or whatever, it ended up producing a picture of a girl. In the time that we were there, she finished one and got started on a second one. With lots of caffeine coursing through my veins, it wasn't long before I was super-energetic and had to get moving.
We headed back to the hotel to grab some stuff, before heading down to Kayabacho station. There after getting on, we got off at Otemachi to change trains. Maybe it's me, but Otemachi seems like the anti-thesis of Japanese efficiency. Yes, you have the most of subway lines going into your station, but the walking distance actually covers several large city blocks on the surface. Anyhow, we changed trains for the Chiyoda line heading towards Meiji-Jingumae, the closest stop to Harajuku. Dean, Conrad and I were wanting to head to UT (the shirts in a can place), but as they and most of the shops around them didn't open til 11 (it was only 10.20) we had to wait around and find a loo for the time being. We went into the Starbucks that was close by, but with no decent coffee, and a false toilet code, we didn't hang around there long.
Back up the street to UT and it had opened it's doors by now. While Dean, Conrad and I perused the selection of T-shirts, Mum made use of their facilities. I like UT and Uniqlo, as they tend to use a lot more natural fibres, so 2 pairs of jeans and 3 or 4 shirts, and my wallet felt lighter. It was a pity they didn't stock more M and L sized shirts, as all that was left seemed to be XS, but judging by the amount left on the shelf, even the Japanese aren't that size. If they had them, my wallet would have felt lighter still.
We now decided to head around the corner and down Omote Sando-dori to the Oriental Bazaar. We hadn't been here for a few years, and Conrad had never been here at all, so while he looked around, I sat down, taking the weight off my already tired feet. We then headed back up the street, but at the place where Kiddy Land was meant to be, there was now a construction site... Oh noes!!! Don't tell us that Kiddy Land has gone the way of our favourite Gyoza place and the Mos Burger near our hotel!! But as we got up the street, we noticed a sign saying it was around the corner while it was being rebuilt. Down the side street, we stopped via a handmade candy kitchen, the Burton flagship store and a grocers until we found the illustrious Kiddy Land. The layout was slightly different, but it was still full to the brim with so much cuteness and sweetness, that you though you were going to have a toothache afterwards. We looked around there a bit, lamenting the fact that we don't have room in our house for a model trainset, as well as seeing all the cool toys we'll probably never get over in Australia (I'll have to see if they have a Rakuten shop). When we felt like all our teeth had rotted, we left, heading towards Takeshita-dori, where a whole heap of subcultures started. We looked, walked, didn't make eye contact with the Nigerians trying to lure you to their hip-hop gear shop, and generally just window shopped. There was plenty to buy, but with funds and room limited, only the most discerning products get bought...
By now it was after 3pm, and with all of us getting tired, we decided to head back to Yaesu mall. It was a good afternoon, with me trying various different cognacs, whiskeys, and expensive stuff that I'll never get to have again. It's funny, but I can easily go through 1000 or 1500Y there buying tastes of various things, but I never seem to walk sideways. Just as well, because I don't really want to fit in with the business men after a Japanese business meeting. It was now getting later, and with a big day planned for tomorrow, we decided to quickly look around for somewhere to eat. After poohpoohing all ideas around Yaesu, we stuck Whitney (who still had a sore foot, but by now the painkillers had worn off) into the back of a taxi along with Mum and Dean, while Conrad and I walked back. We eventually decided just to head downstairs to the restaurant under the hotel, as Dean wanted a steak. I ordered a 5 types Cheese pizza, which from what I could taste/read was Mozarella, Gorgonzola, cream cheese, and a couple of others. It was nice enough, but the service at the restaurant wasn't that good, and the rest of the food was a little greasy. There are plenty of other places around here we could have gotten better food at a cheaper price. Afterwards, we headed outside to Lawson's Station, before heading back upstairs for some beer/drinks and tele. We had to get an early night though, as tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Hobble, Hobble, Toe and trouble
We had all decided to have a little sleep in. After a week of snowboarding then a couple of days of tearing around like mad men, we need that little bit of extra sleep that can sometimes seem like a luxury. After waking up and getting decent, we knocked on Mum and Whitney's door to find that Whitney's foot had swelled up even more, and that she could barely walk. Tragedy!?!? In a city like Tokyo where everything is geared around you walking/riding the subway, not being able to walk can be a major headache.
Yoshi had the day off, and was happy to just tag along with what we were doing. So after meeting up with us just after 9am, we walked down the corner to Cafe Pronto, one of the many coffee chains here. Usually at the coffee shops here, you can get a cheap but tasty feed, so for the princely sum of 328Y, I got a muffin with Bacon and cream cheese (toasted) and a coffee. As I've said before, with Japan being invaded by the US post-WWII, it is hard to get a decent coffee. I have noticed though that it is becoming easier. Sure, there is still a lot of places serving horrible blend coffee, but more and more, you are starting to see machines take the place of drip filters. With some food and coffee in us, we were ready to start exploring. Today had been planned as a go-easy day, but it was especially so as Whitney was all but crippled. After getting the subway from Kayabacho to Nihombashi, we got out and up the guts of Takashimaya. This may have sounded easy, but with lots of stairs, (not that many escalators or elevators in the subway) and a sister that could walk, it required a bit of time and patience. More than a few times, Dean and I had to piggy-back her, or fireman chair her just to speed up the process.
To make matter worse, it was a very frigid day in Tokyo. After the night before's rain then snow, there was a lot of ice around. Throughout the morning we had regularly seen workers shovelling snow and ice off the foot path and road, and had also seen some near falls and people going splat. Surprisingly, there were no "steven moments", despite me wearing my trusty skate shoes.
Anyhow, after much grunting, whimpering and lifting, we finally made it to the Bridgestone Museum of Art, which also had wheel chair Whitney could use. Bridgestone was founded by a fellow whose last name was Ishibashi (stone bridge), and he was also quite a collector of art. The display this time was one he had shown in Paris in 1962, as well as a few newer works. We got to see paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Gaugin, Monet and other famous people, as well as other Japanese painters who don't have the same pull as the big names. I have to admit, when it comes to art, I'm a bit uneducated. I like what I like, for whatever reasons, but have no qualms about calling a painting crap if I don't see the art in it. (Pollock and Picasso come to mind). This ate up a bit of our time but by 12.30, we had seen pretty much everything in the small gallery. So we made our way across the street and downstairs to Yaesu Mall. Everyone else wanted sushi, so we headed to the nearest one, which was also very cheap. With fish, fish and more fish on the menu, my choice was limited. I can't eat cooked fish, and can only stomach a little bit of sushi/sashimi, before my stomach turns into a pyroclastic display. I've tried to eat fish a number of times when we've been here, just to see if I can get over it, but every time, the same result. :-(## I stuck with a couple of aburi hotate (seared scallop), and a beer. Everyone else ate well, getting this and that, but when they had finished, I went around and grabbed some Whack Arnolds (google Dave Chappell). In my defense, it was a teriyaki mac (only available in Japan) and a Blueberry Cheesecake pie (more likely cream cheese). By this time, Whitney now had some cabbage wrapping her foot (best thing for bruising I've found) as well as pain killers.
After we were all fed and watered, we were off to our next destination. It was originally inteded to be Nakano, with it's street mall, but even with Whitney dosed up on ibuprofen, we decided to give it a miss and head to Sunshine City Mall in Ikebukuro. After a short (but slow) walk from the station to the mall, we grabbed another wheel chair and set off. Our destination in Sunshine City wasn't the many designer shops, but the Aquarium on the rooftop. I have to admit, I didn't really care about seeing fish. It was included on our itinerary as others wanted to do it, and it was supposed to be a relaxing day. However, for an aquarium built on top of a shopping mall, it wasn't too bad. Not quite the size of Underwater World, but they had a lot of variety, including seals and penguins (which stink terribly of fish). We spent the next 3 or so hours walking around the different levels here, with Conrad shooting his way through the thick perspex. Fish are hard to photograph, as just as you get the focus right, they can then change direction, so rather than getting a broadside, you get a front or rear side shot of them. For a place not ventured to by that many foreigners, there was a japanese-american mother and her incredibly annoying children. After being around the fairly subdued Japanese (even excited school girls are easy enough to block out), a loud, nasally american accent can be heard of the top of everything. The kids weren't even well behaved, so compared to the fairly quiet, disciplined locals (there are some brats, but on average disciplined) they stood out like a sore thumb. Nevermind.
As the sun was setting, it started getting really cold. There was ice still to be found everywhere, and with the wind like a blast from an eskimos backside, we tried to keep warm, before heading downstairs to find something to eat. We were nearly at the stage where you get so hungry that you don't know what you feel like, or can't make a decision. So after quickly checking around some of the restaurants in their restaurant court, we just chose one that had stuff that looked nice. I can't remember what I ate, but it was filling, and along with a beer, it only cost about 1200Y. The one problem I still have with Japan is the smoking. Although some places are getting better (and have been progressively getting better since we first came), smoking is still allowed in a lot of places and a lot of places still don't have a no smoking section. There was a japanese business meeting going on behind, and just one person at the table was smoking, but he seemed to be nearly chain smoking. It was getting to the stage where I couldn't breathe properly (I seem to be having more difficulty coping with smoke this time) I left my money for someone else to pay and beat a hasty retreat back into the mall area.
By this time it was only around 6pm, with a lot of the shops still open, so we had a look around, before heading off. We farewelled Yoshi, (we wear him out with all our walking) and got on a train back to Kayabacho. We had intended to drop by Liquors Hasegawa, but it was already nearly 7.30 by the time we got near Nihombashi, and with our speed reduced because of Bubz, we gave it a miss (it closes at 8pm).
Back to the hotel via the Lawson's downstairs where we grabbed an ice cream and watched some TV, before we retired for the night.... And this was supposed to be a relaxing day.
Yoshi had the day off, and was happy to just tag along with what we were doing. So after meeting up with us just after 9am, we walked down the corner to Cafe Pronto, one of the many coffee chains here. Usually at the coffee shops here, you can get a cheap but tasty feed, so for the princely sum of 328Y, I got a muffin with Bacon and cream cheese (toasted) and a coffee. As I've said before, with Japan being invaded by the US post-WWII, it is hard to get a decent coffee. I have noticed though that it is becoming easier. Sure, there is still a lot of places serving horrible blend coffee, but more and more, you are starting to see machines take the place of drip filters. With some food and coffee in us, we were ready to start exploring. Today had been planned as a go-easy day, but it was especially so as Whitney was all but crippled. After getting the subway from Kayabacho to Nihombashi, we got out and up the guts of Takashimaya. This may have sounded easy, but with lots of stairs, (not that many escalators or elevators in the subway) and a sister that could walk, it required a bit of time and patience. More than a few times, Dean and I had to piggy-back her, or fireman chair her just to speed up the process.
To make matter worse, it was a very frigid day in Tokyo. After the night before's rain then snow, there was a lot of ice around. Throughout the morning we had regularly seen workers shovelling snow and ice off the foot path and road, and had also seen some near falls and people going splat. Surprisingly, there were no "steven moments", despite me wearing my trusty skate shoes.
Anyhow, after much grunting, whimpering and lifting, we finally made it to the Bridgestone Museum of Art, which also had wheel chair Whitney could use. Bridgestone was founded by a fellow whose last name was Ishibashi (stone bridge), and he was also quite a collector of art. The display this time was one he had shown in Paris in 1962, as well as a few newer works. We got to see paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Gaugin, Monet and other famous people, as well as other Japanese painters who don't have the same pull as the big names. I have to admit, when it comes to art, I'm a bit uneducated. I like what I like, for whatever reasons, but have no qualms about calling a painting crap if I don't see the art in it. (Pollock and Picasso come to mind). This ate up a bit of our time but by 12.30, we had seen pretty much everything in the small gallery. So we made our way across the street and downstairs to Yaesu Mall. Everyone else wanted sushi, so we headed to the nearest one, which was also very cheap. With fish, fish and more fish on the menu, my choice was limited. I can't eat cooked fish, and can only stomach a little bit of sushi/sashimi, before my stomach turns into a pyroclastic display. I've tried to eat fish a number of times when we've been here, just to see if I can get over it, but every time, the same result. :-(## I stuck with a couple of aburi hotate (seared scallop), and a beer. Everyone else ate well, getting this and that, but when they had finished, I went around and grabbed some Whack Arnolds (google Dave Chappell). In my defense, it was a teriyaki mac (only available in Japan) and a Blueberry Cheesecake pie (more likely cream cheese). By this time, Whitney now had some cabbage wrapping her foot (best thing for bruising I've found) as well as pain killers.
After we were all fed and watered, we were off to our next destination. It was originally inteded to be Nakano, with it's street mall, but even with Whitney dosed up on ibuprofen, we decided to give it a miss and head to Sunshine City Mall in Ikebukuro. After a short (but slow) walk from the station to the mall, we grabbed another wheel chair and set off. Our destination in Sunshine City wasn't the many designer shops, but the Aquarium on the rooftop. I have to admit, I didn't really care about seeing fish. It was included on our itinerary as others wanted to do it, and it was supposed to be a relaxing day. However, for an aquarium built on top of a shopping mall, it wasn't too bad. Not quite the size of Underwater World, but they had a lot of variety, including seals and penguins (which stink terribly of fish). We spent the next 3 or so hours walking around the different levels here, with Conrad shooting his way through the thick perspex. Fish are hard to photograph, as just as you get the focus right, they can then change direction, so rather than getting a broadside, you get a front or rear side shot of them. For a place not ventured to by that many foreigners, there was a japanese-american mother and her incredibly annoying children. After being around the fairly subdued Japanese (even excited school girls are easy enough to block out), a loud, nasally american accent can be heard of the top of everything. The kids weren't even well behaved, so compared to the fairly quiet, disciplined locals (there are some brats, but on average disciplined) they stood out like a sore thumb. Nevermind.
As the sun was setting, it started getting really cold. There was ice still to be found everywhere, and with the wind like a blast from an eskimos backside, we tried to keep warm, before heading downstairs to find something to eat. We were nearly at the stage where you get so hungry that you don't know what you feel like, or can't make a decision. So after quickly checking around some of the restaurants in their restaurant court, we just chose one that had stuff that looked nice. I can't remember what I ate, but it was filling, and along with a beer, it only cost about 1200Y. The one problem I still have with Japan is the smoking. Although some places are getting better (and have been progressively getting better since we first came), smoking is still allowed in a lot of places and a lot of places still don't have a no smoking section. There was a japanese business meeting going on behind, and just one person at the table was smoking, but he seemed to be nearly chain smoking. It was getting to the stage where I couldn't breathe properly (I seem to be having more difficulty coping with smoke this time) I left my money for someone else to pay and beat a hasty retreat back into the mall area.
By this time it was only around 6pm, with a lot of the shops still open, so we had a look around, before heading off. We farewelled Yoshi, (we wear him out with all our walking) and got on a train back to Kayabacho. We had intended to drop by Liquors Hasegawa, but it was already nearly 7.30 by the time we got near Nihombashi, and with our speed reduced because of Bubz, we gave it a miss (it closes at 8pm).
Back to the hotel via the Lawson's downstairs where we grabbed an ice cream and watched some TV, before we retired for the night.... And this was supposed to be a relaxing day.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sort of another manic Monday
We only had a limited time in Kyoto, so we were determined to use it to the full. After getting to bed reasonably early, Dean, Conrad and myself decided to get up early (6.30 is way before anything opens here) and started cycling to and around Gion, the older section of Kyoto where we had been last night. The previous night it had taken about 1 hour to walk back from here to the hotel, but even with snapping photos every couple of metres and taking slight detours (just to see something cool we caught a glimpse of) it only took us an hour to get here and back. We returned just before 8 to meet up with the girls for breakfast downstairs. Breakfast was nothing of note, although they had some nice fresh bread which I whacked some egg on, and got a decent espresso for 250Y. If you are ever in Kyoto, I can recommend K's House. It's only classified as a backpackers/hostel, but with families staying there it's quiet and clean.
We wanted to do something cultural, but with most of Kyoto's sites being either Shinto or Buddhist shrines and temples, it actually doesn't leave that much to do in my opinion. I pulled out the map, and saw Nijo Castle and Gardens, so after checking out and storing our luggage, we decided to cycle there. Now Mum hasn't ridden a bicycle in 37 years, but after quite a few wobbly moments, she's riding with some decorum, and Whitney is doing about the same, so after about 45 mins we've cycled the 4 kms or so to the castle.
Unfortunately, a lot of Kyoto's sites attract tourists, so they like to get some tourist dollars... It was 200Y to park our bikes, and 600Y to get in, though after we were in, I'd gladly pay 800Y for the experience. Here there are actually, 2 castles within the walls, Hamamaki? and Nijomaki castles, as well as gardens surrounding them. Considering you'd pay $10 for Bli Bli Castle, which is just a cheap, gaudy imitation of an English castle, the amount of time you can spend here vs the cost of entry makes it good value for money. We walked around, in and out, up and down as well as went inside one of the castles. I felt like a taskmaster, because I had to keep everyone moving. We were expecting to get the shinkansen at around 2pm, so I didn't want to miss that and have more stress. We also got to see everything, and take plenty of photos/video, so we'll probably bore you with these when we get back.
Just as we got out of the castle, it started spitting, though this didn't hang around, so we took the most direct path back to the hotel. I'd like to say it was uneventful, but it wasn't. Because Dean and Conrad were still stopping to take pictures, and Mum wasn't cycling as fast as the rest of us, we kept getting seperated by sets of light. Anyhow, at one section where Mum, Dean and Conrad had fallen behind, I am cycling when I hear a crash behind me.... Whitney had dropped her bike (thin skinny tires and water in the gutter don't mix) and it had landed on her foot, sandwiching her between the bike and the pavement. Now I must tell you that these bikes, although newish, are built old-school, with a lot of thick steel and weight a ton. I could barely bunny hop these things, while I could hop/mono my MTB at home with ease. And all this weight came down on the Bubz's foot. Damn... She said she was alright and and we got back to the hotel quickly after that. About this time, she started complaining that her foot was sore, but it's not that far to the station, so we walked it in about 10 mins.
After studying the boards, we decided to get the 14.29pm Hikari Shinkansen. This gave us about 1.25hrs before we had to get to the platform, so we booked the tickets then went in search of food. Dean didn't want to stress about getting to the right platform and having enough time, so after a brief look around, we grabbed some stuff from a place called Vie de France. It sold baked goods, similar to Bread Top in Brisbane, so the others picked out a few things, then I went and grabbed my. I think I had a big eyes, little belly, because I grabbed a few different things and it came to nearly 1700Y. I did want some stuff for the journey though, as the Hikari Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo takes nearly 2.75hrs, so I didn't want to be hungry. Anyhow, one of the things I grabbed was a Calzone (tasty) as well as a Curry Donut. I was expecting it just to be a bun, as the japanese it used was for bread, rather than donut, but after eating, I'd say the English is more correct. The dough was sort of sweetish, and it actually went really well with the curry. I ate a couple of things before we headed upstairs and through the rabbit warren that is a japanese train station, before we found the right track and went there.
It was actually really cool in Kyoto, with the temperature staying about 2 degrees C, and a chilly wind blowing. It meant that standing on the platform was a little cold, as we'd all worked up a sweat carrying bags around with our jackets on. But it didn't matter too much, as the train soon arrived, and we hopped on. The rest of the journey was uneventful. I blogged, Dean did a little, as well as snoozed and Conrad read his book on Steve Jobs on his iPad. We arrived in Tokyo about 4.45pm, but with the sun setting early here, it was dusk before we got out of the station.
In previous years, we have either sent backpacks with Mum and Whitney in a taxi, and dragged luggage to the hotel ourselves or just walked it, but we're either getting softer or smarter. We had sent our main luggage to the hotel via Takkyubin, so all we had was our backpacks. But this time, Dean, Mum and Whitney jumped in a taxi, while Conrad and I jumped in another. Most of the Taxis in Tokyo are either new (old) Toyota Crowns, new (old) Nissan Cedrics, or a mix of Prius and other modern 5 seaters. With 5 of us in the travelling party and no maxi-taxis, we had to split it 3 and 2. We must have got the dumb one, because Dean said they showed theirs the address, and he went straight there. I showed our one the address and he couldn't understand it, so he actually asked us for the hotels phone number and rang them for directions. Anyhow, I got Conrad to get this one, as I didn't have any schrapnel on me. But at 710Y, it was probably worth it not to have to walk the 2 kms or whatever to the hotel.
By this time we were starting to get a little hungry, but we checked in and headed upstairs. The Smile Hotel was only refurbished January last year, so a lot of the decor is clean and new. The beds are king singles and there's a good amount of amenities in the room. As were were getting ourselves freshened up, we get a phone call from the front desk. Yoshi, a brother we know here (used to live in Brisbane) was ringing us, and said he'd come over. So about 25mins later we were downstairs and looking for somewhere to eat. We decided to just go to the restaurant (Cherbourg) downstairs in the BF floor of our hotel. The prices are actually quite reasonable. I got the sirloin steak for 1300Y, and we shared pitchers of beer. Yoshi also invited another brother that works with him, so we got to meet someone new as well. We were sitting around eating and talking, when Yoshi disappears for a few moments. He comes back with a receipt! The sneaky little fellow had paid the bill for us! We'll pay him back sometime, but he must have really like the pizza when he came over in September.
After going to Lawsons (convenience store), which is next door to our hotel, we headed back upstairs. Whitney was already reclining on her bed. During the train trip, her foot had swelled up something fierce and was now really aching. But as we weren't doing any more walking, we just sat around and had a couple of drinks, before retiring for the night around 9pm.
We wanted to do something cultural, but with most of Kyoto's sites being either Shinto or Buddhist shrines and temples, it actually doesn't leave that much to do in my opinion. I pulled out the map, and saw Nijo Castle and Gardens, so after checking out and storing our luggage, we decided to cycle there. Now Mum hasn't ridden a bicycle in 37 years, but after quite a few wobbly moments, she's riding with some decorum, and Whitney is doing about the same, so after about 45 mins we've cycled the 4 kms or so to the castle.
Unfortunately, a lot of Kyoto's sites attract tourists, so they like to get some tourist dollars... It was 200Y to park our bikes, and 600Y to get in, though after we were in, I'd gladly pay 800Y for the experience. Here there are actually, 2 castles within the walls, Hamamaki? and Nijomaki castles, as well as gardens surrounding them. Considering you'd pay $10 for Bli Bli Castle, which is just a cheap, gaudy imitation of an English castle, the amount of time you can spend here vs the cost of entry makes it good value for money. We walked around, in and out, up and down as well as went inside one of the castles. I felt like a taskmaster, because I had to keep everyone moving. We were expecting to get the shinkansen at around 2pm, so I didn't want to miss that and have more stress. We also got to see everything, and take plenty of photos/video, so we'll probably bore you with these when we get back.
Just as we got out of the castle, it started spitting, though this didn't hang around, so we took the most direct path back to the hotel. I'd like to say it was uneventful, but it wasn't. Because Dean and Conrad were still stopping to take pictures, and Mum wasn't cycling as fast as the rest of us, we kept getting seperated by sets of light. Anyhow, at one section where Mum, Dean and Conrad had fallen behind, I am cycling when I hear a crash behind me.... Whitney had dropped her bike (thin skinny tires and water in the gutter don't mix) and it had landed on her foot, sandwiching her between the bike and the pavement. Now I must tell you that these bikes, although newish, are built old-school, with a lot of thick steel and weight a ton. I could barely bunny hop these things, while I could hop/mono my MTB at home with ease. And all this weight came down on the Bubz's foot. Damn... She said she was alright and and we got back to the hotel quickly after that. About this time, she started complaining that her foot was sore, but it's not that far to the station, so we walked it in about 10 mins.
After studying the boards, we decided to get the 14.29pm Hikari Shinkansen. This gave us about 1.25hrs before we had to get to the platform, so we booked the tickets then went in search of food. Dean didn't want to stress about getting to the right platform and having enough time, so after a brief look around, we grabbed some stuff from a place called Vie de France. It sold baked goods, similar to Bread Top in Brisbane, so the others picked out a few things, then I went and grabbed my. I think I had a big eyes, little belly, because I grabbed a few different things and it came to nearly 1700Y. I did want some stuff for the journey though, as the Hikari Shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo takes nearly 2.75hrs, so I didn't want to be hungry. Anyhow, one of the things I grabbed was a Calzone (tasty) as well as a Curry Donut. I was expecting it just to be a bun, as the japanese it used was for bread, rather than donut, but after eating, I'd say the English is more correct. The dough was sort of sweetish, and it actually went really well with the curry. I ate a couple of things before we headed upstairs and through the rabbit warren that is a japanese train station, before we found the right track and went there.
It was actually really cool in Kyoto, with the temperature staying about 2 degrees C, and a chilly wind blowing. It meant that standing on the platform was a little cold, as we'd all worked up a sweat carrying bags around with our jackets on. But it didn't matter too much, as the train soon arrived, and we hopped on. The rest of the journey was uneventful. I blogged, Dean did a little, as well as snoozed and Conrad read his book on Steve Jobs on his iPad. We arrived in Tokyo about 4.45pm, but with the sun setting early here, it was dusk before we got out of the station.
In previous years, we have either sent backpacks with Mum and Whitney in a taxi, and dragged luggage to the hotel ourselves or just walked it, but we're either getting softer or smarter. We had sent our main luggage to the hotel via Takkyubin, so all we had was our backpacks. But this time, Dean, Mum and Whitney jumped in a taxi, while Conrad and I jumped in another. Most of the Taxis in Tokyo are either new (old) Toyota Crowns, new (old) Nissan Cedrics, or a mix of Prius and other modern 5 seaters. With 5 of us in the travelling party and no maxi-taxis, we had to split it 3 and 2. We must have got the dumb one, because Dean said they showed theirs the address, and he went straight there. I showed our one the address and he couldn't understand it, so he actually asked us for the hotels phone number and rang them for directions. Anyhow, I got Conrad to get this one, as I didn't have any schrapnel on me. But at 710Y, it was probably worth it not to have to walk the 2 kms or whatever to the hotel.
By this time we were starting to get a little hungry, but we checked in and headed upstairs. The Smile Hotel was only refurbished January last year, so a lot of the decor is clean and new. The beds are king singles and there's a good amount of amenities in the room. As were were getting ourselves freshened up, we get a phone call from the front desk. Yoshi, a brother we know here (used to live in Brisbane) was ringing us, and said he'd come over. So about 25mins later we were downstairs and looking for somewhere to eat. We decided to just go to the restaurant (Cherbourg) downstairs in the BF floor of our hotel. The prices are actually quite reasonable. I got the sirloin steak for 1300Y, and we shared pitchers of beer. Yoshi also invited another brother that works with him, so we got to meet someone new as well. We were sitting around eating and talking, when Yoshi disappears for a few moments. He comes back with a receipt! The sneaky little fellow had paid the bill for us! We'll pay him back sometime, but he must have really like the pizza when he came over in September.
After going to Lawsons (convenience store), which is next door to our hotel, we headed back upstairs. Whitney was already reclining on her bed. During the train trip, her foot had swelled up something fierce and was now really aching. But as we weren't doing any more walking, we just sat around and had a couple of drinks, before retiring for the night around 9pm.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday is not a fun day, Bangles
After packing the night before, Sunday started with the same apprehension I get everytime I leave Shiga Kogen. I was awake early, so I started making sure the room was all clear of our stuff.
The designated route planner (Me) had to find the best way to get to Kyoto, while giving us enough times to make transfers and eat and explore Kyoto. Unfortunately this meant we had to get the 8:17 bus, so everyone, whether they liked it or not had to be up at an early hour. Mum was up early, and Dean needed a prod but was moving quickly, but our travelling companion was dragging the chain as usual. Considering he hadn't fully packed up, this was not good, but quickly got up to speed as he realised time goes quickly when there's a bus to catch. Before breakfast at 7.30, we organised for our luggage to be takkyubin'd to our hotel in Tokyo. We checked out early, and received little okojo Shiga Kogen pins from the day manager. We then headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. I ate a little less than I did the day before as we weren't going to be snowboarding, but I wished we had later.
After breakfast, we quickly went upstairs to say goodbye and thank you to the staff. Kim, the korean porter wished us well and thanked us for making him laugh, and the other manager who spoke english said thanks to us, while we told him to pass on our thanks for their hospitality to the rest of the staff. We then quickly headed downstairs and went to the toilet, before heading outside to the bus stop (It's virtually out the front of the hotel). After about 10 mins waiting, with a couple of pictures and mucking around thrown in for good measure, we got on the bus (which was on-time, just) to Nagano. It wasn't long before we were winding the course down the mountains towards Yamanouchi, Nakano and then Nagano. Judging by the clock, traffic and such, I gathered that rather than arriving at the expected time of 9.50, we'd arrive around 10 mins earlier (I was write, we hopped off the bus at 9.39). This gave us approximately 20mins to make the next train or wait around for an hour before the next train. Dean didn't want to stress, so suggested we get the later train, but I thought there would be more than enough time to get upstairs, buy tickets and get to the correct track. After getting the tickets, we still had about 10 mins to get downstairs to the Wide View Shinano track. The Wide View Shinano is a limited express train that winds its way from Nagano to Nagoya, via the back country. It goes through about 3 or 4 different valleys, with the forestry/scenery changing from the white birch, to conifer forests to bamboo. Only problem is, that it takes about 3hrs to get from Nagano to Nagoya then 37 mins from Nagoya to Kyoto on a shinkansen. It's a problem, because we didn't get time to grab food from Nagano station, either from a cafe or a station kiosk. We didn't really find anything on the little push cart that we felt like (except beer), so we didn't eat on the WVS. We had a very limited time to switch trains in Nagoya, so except for a bento kiosk on the shinkansen platform, there wasn't really any time to grab anything. By this time, no one felt like eating bento, except Conrad, so we let it go. Well, after getting out at Kyoto, our next main task was to find our way to our hotel, so we could shed our backpacks.
My internal compass/GPS was telling me we were on the South side of Kyoto station, but with everyone else not wanting to rely on that, I went to information desk and asked for directions. I was right, we were on the south side, but I grabbed a map while there as well as some directions. After walking all the way down to east side of the station, we headed down to the subway level and walked all the way through this mall/tunnel that went under the road. After successfully directing us to the hotel, we paid for the room, but were told it wasn't ready yet, so we chucked our backpacks into the storage room, before we headed out in search of food. During my intrepid googling of Kyoto, I had read about a food market, so after consulting the map, we started on a trek to it, deciding to stop for food on the way. About 15mins after walking from our hotel, we came across Nakau, a bowl of something restuarant (looked like a chain) that was open 24hrs, but was cheap. I ordered a medium bowl of Gyuu don (beef on rice) for the princely sum of 250Y. Mum got some Katsudon, and I can't remember what everyone else got, but with the dearest thing seeming to be Dean's set for 650Y. I didn't find it too bad, but after not eating for close to 7hrs, a low flying duck would have been a great option.
We then continued on our expediton to the food market, passing through the ritzy? downtown area of Kyoto. In about 4 blocks, it houses Takashimaya, Daimaru and Marui city (department stores) as well as a lot of flagship stores. We weaseled our way through the crowds (it was awfully crowded for a Sunday afternoon, but learnt it was because a lot of places were having sales), til we found the food market street. This tine lane stretches for abotu 5 blocks, but there are various alleys coming off it. As the video ref will prove, there was a lot of places selling fish, quite a few selling knick-knacks, fruit and veges and various home grown goods. Between the crowds and all of us stopping to look at various times, it took us ages to get through from one end to the other. Some of the smells were divine (Tofu doughnuts, who knew?) while others were horrid (fish/seafood). There were places to buy freshly shucked oysters with lemon for 680Y, others selling dried fish and more. We walked around the food basement level of Daimaru before deciding that it was too expensive, so we walked back onto the street and stopped at a coffee shop selling cake that we'd spotted earlier. Dean, Conrad and I ordered a cake set, while Mum finally got some tea (she's been bereft of a good ceylon tea since Australia) and Whitney got some chocolate cake and iced cocoa. We hung around eating for a little while, before venturing out onto the street.
I probably failed to mention, but I had after walking from the station, I was sweating in the 10 degree "heat", so I decided to leave my coat at the hotel with my backpack, walking around in a pair of Jeans, t-shirt, gloves and beanie. Except when the wind blew, I was fine, but I attracted a few strange looks from the locals (probably thinking baka gaijin). Dean though attracted more than a strange look. A couple of local university students interviewed him, supposedly about "foreigners sightseeing in Kyoto", but I think it was just an excuse to take a few pictures and talk talk with the only blonde hair, blue eyed person for miles.
We kept on going down the alleys, checking out various shoe and clothing stores. There were quite a few coats, but I'm more scottish than I am cold, so I didn't buy any. By this time, Dean and Conrad were wanting to see somewhere a little more traditional/old, so after directing us out of the rabbit warren of the shopping area, I pointed us over towards Gion, an area famous for it's old buildings and geisha (geisha aren't prostitutes as is often incorrectly insinuated, they are entertainers/hostesses). We found some cool old streets with traditional buildings, but weren't willing to pay the exorbitant prices for food just to see geisha. By this time we were getting a little tired, and being after dark, there was only so much detail you could have in pictures before getting too much noise from high ISO shots, so we headed back to the hotel, as we had sort of read that there was cheap beer and food there. It was quite a walk, and if there is an opportunity, I'll check it in Google Maps, because all up, I think we would have walked for about 8kms.
We made it back to the hotel at about 8.15, and sat down at the back of the bar/cafe. Dean ordered a jug of beer for us to share (Sapporo draft for 1150Y), while Mum got a little wine and Conrad got a mega sniff of shochu for very little. Food was quite simple and not really what we had in mind, but I had cornchips and salsa, Dean, Conrad and Mum got mixed pizzas (nothing really wierd on these ones), while Whitney got Takoyaki and potato wedges. By the time we ate and drank, we were all bushed so we went to bed, ready to explore the next morning.
The designated route planner (Me) had to find the best way to get to Kyoto, while giving us enough times to make transfers and eat and explore Kyoto. Unfortunately this meant we had to get the 8:17 bus, so everyone, whether they liked it or not had to be up at an early hour. Mum was up early, and Dean needed a prod but was moving quickly, but our travelling companion was dragging the chain as usual. Considering he hadn't fully packed up, this was not good, but quickly got up to speed as he realised time goes quickly when there's a bus to catch. Before breakfast at 7.30, we organised for our luggage to be takkyubin'd to our hotel in Tokyo. We checked out early, and received little okojo Shiga Kogen pins from the day manager. We then headed downstairs to grab some breakfast. I ate a little less than I did the day before as we weren't going to be snowboarding, but I wished we had later.
After breakfast, we quickly went upstairs to say goodbye and thank you to the staff. Kim, the korean porter wished us well and thanked us for making him laugh, and the other manager who spoke english said thanks to us, while we told him to pass on our thanks for their hospitality to the rest of the staff. We then quickly headed downstairs and went to the toilet, before heading outside to the bus stop (It's virtually out the front of the hotel). After about 10 mins waiting, with a couple of pictures and mucking around thrown in for good measure, we got on the bus (which was on-time, just) to Nagano. It wasn't long before we were winding the course down the mountains towards Yamanouchi, Nakano and then Nagano. Judging by the clock, traffic and such, I gathered that rather than arriving at the expected time of 9.50, we'd arrive around 10 mins earlier (I was write, we hopped off the bus at 9.39). This gave us approximately 20mins to make the next train or wait around for an hour before the next train. Dean didn't want to stress, so suggested we get the later train, but I thought there would be more than enough time to get upstairs, buy tickets and get to the correct track. After getting the tickets, we still had about 10 mins to get downstairs to the Wide View Shinano track. The Wide View Shinano is a limited express train that winds its way from Nagano to Nagoya, via the back country. It goes through about 3 or 4 different valleys, with the forestry/scenery changing from the white birch, to conifer forests to bamboo. Only problem is, that it takes about 3hrs to get from Nagano to Nagoya then 37 mins from Nagoya to Kyoto on a shinkansen. It's a problem, because we didn't get time to grab food from Nagano station, either from a cafe or a station kiosk. We didn't really find anything on the little push cart that we felt like (except beer), so we didn't eat on the WVS. We had a very limited time to switch trains in Nagoya, so except for a bento kiosk on the shinkansen platform, there wasn't really any time to grab anything. By this time, no one felt like eating bento, except Conrad, so we let it go. Well, after getting out at Kyoto, our next main task was to find our way to our hotel, so we could shed our backpacks.
My internal compass/GPS was telling me we were on the South side of Kyoto station, but with everyone else not wanting to rely on that, I went to information desk and asked for directions. I was right, we were on the south side, but I grabbed a map while there as well as some directions. After walking all the way down to east side of the station, we headed down to the subway level and walked all the way through this mall/tunnel that went under the road. After successfully directing us to the hotel, we paid for the room, but were told it wasn't ready yet, so we chucked our backpacks into the storage room, before we headed out in search of food. During my intrepid googling of Kyoto, I had read about a food market, so after consulting the map, we started on a trek to it, deciding to stop for food on the way. About 15mins after walking from our hotel, we came across Nakau, a bowl of something restuarant (looked like a chain) that was open 24hrs, but was cheap. I ordered a medium bowl of Gyuu don (beef on rice) for the princely sum of 250Y. Mum got some Katsudon, and I can't remember what everyone else got, but with the dearest thing seeming to be Dean's set for 650Y. I didn't find it too bad, but after not eating for close to 7hrs, a low flying duck would have been a great option.
We then continued on our expediton to the food market, passing through the ritzy? downtown area of Kyoto. In about 4 blocks, it houses Takashimaya, Daimaru and Marui city (department stores) as well as a lot of flagship stores. We weaseled our way through the crowds (it was awfully crowded for a Sunday afternoon, but learnt it was because a lot of places were having sales), til we found the food market street. This tine lane stretches for abotu 5 blocks, but there are various alleys coming off it. As the video ref will prove, there was a lot of places selling fish, quite a few selling knick-knacks, fruit and veges and various home grown goods. Between the crowds and all of us stopping to look at various times, it took us ages to get through from one end to the other. Some of the smells were divine (Tofu doughnuts, who knew?) while others were horrid (fish/seafood). There were places to buy freshly shucked oysters with lemon for 680Y, others selling dried fish and more. We walked around the food basement level of Daimaru before deciding that it was too expensive, so we walked back onto the street and stopped at a coffee shop selling cake that we'd spotted earlier. Dean, Conrad and I ordered a cake set, while Mum finally got some tea (she's been bereft of a good ceylon tea since Australia) and Whitney got some chocolate cake and iced cocoa. We hung around eating for a little while, before venturing out onto the street.
I probably failed to mention, but I had after walking from the station, I was sweating in the 10 degree "heat", so I decided to leave my coat at the hotel with my backpack, walking around in a pair of Jeans, t-shirt, gloves and beanie. Except when the wind blew, I was fine, but I attracted a few strange looks from the locals (probably thinking baka gaijin). Dean though attracted more than a strange look. A couple of local university students interviewed him, supposedly about "foreigners sightseeing in Kyoto", but I think it was just an excuse to take a few pictures and talk talk with the only blonde hair, blue eyed person for miles.
We kept on going down the alleys, checking out various shoe and clothing stores. There were quite a few coats, but I'm more scottish than I am cold, so I didn't buy any. By this time, Dean and Conrad were wanting to see somewhere a little more traditional/old, so after directing us out of the rabbit warren of the shopping area, I pointed us over towards Gion, an area famous for it's old buildings and geisha (geisha aren't prostitutes as is often incorrectly insinuated, they are entertainers/hostesses). We found some cool old streets with traditional buildings, but weren't willing to pay the exorbitant prices for food just to see geisha. By this time we were getting a little tired, and being after dark, there was only so much detail you could have in pictures before getting too much noise from high ISO shots, so we headed back to the hotel, as we had sort of read that there was cheap beer and food there. It was quite a walk, and if there is an opportunity, I'll check it in Google Maps, because all up, I think we would have walked for about 8kms.
We made it back to the hotel at about 8.15, and sat down at the back of the bar/cafe. Dean ordered a jug of beer for us to share (Sapporo draft for 1150Y), while Mum got a little wine and Conrad got a mega sniff of shochu for very little. Food was quite simple and not really what we had in mind, but I had cornchips and salsa, Dean, Conrad and Mum got mixed pizzas (nothing really wierd on these ones), while Whitney got Takoyaki and potato wedges. By the time we ate and drank, we were all bushed so we went to bed, ready to explore the next morning.
Farewell SK, I will miss you
Today was to be our last day snowboarding. I woke up at 6.00 so I headed downstairs to read build threads. As the sun started to rise, I looked out the window to show a new layer of snow on the cars outside. It was still snowing, though only lightly, but as the light increased, the snow got heavier. That was fine by me.
The others arrived before breakfast, so we watched some early morning TV. Finally, we got to see Quintet, a show we've seen on all of our previous visits. We then went downstairs for breakfast. I stuck to the sausages, buns, miso soup, chicken nuggets, and lettuce again (I didn't want to be ill on my last day of snowboarding). We headed back upstairs to find a lot of the older guests watching Carnation, a 15min drama series. I think it's about a bunch of young widows running a dress/tailor shop in a traditional village, but without being able to understand it, it makes it sort of hard. We didn't want to hang around today, so we got our gear on and headed downstairs.
With all the fresh snow that had fallen, we were keen to get over the back to Terakoya. A lot of the ski schoolers had left the previous afternoon, however there were still a lot that were signed on with Shiga Kogen Snow School, we thought it best ot avoid the green run for now. Conrad mustn't have heard the plan of catching the lift closest to the hotel, as after strapping on, he went to the far lift. Dean followed me, and after gesturing to Conrad that we'd meet him over the back. Dean and I headed for the top and skated around the back to Terakoya. We waited for a while, before Conrad eventually showed up. He had taken the short lift to the middle of the main Ichinose Family slope, before crossing to the lift that we took. It probably wasn't the quickest way (he could have just taken the other quad and skated around, but I guess he mustn't have felt like doing that). We were bound for Hasuike, as Dean and I had to get money out, so that we had enough for dinner and the bus back to Nagano. This required us to go from Terakoya, down the Higashidate green run, then down Hoppo-Bundaira, then up the Giant twin seater and do a turn off. Unfortunately, after this it requires a bit of walking, as the post office (where the ATM is) is about 300m from any sort of slope area. I think the Shiga Kogen Ropeway might have gone bust, as we haven't seen any ropeway carrages going at all this time. It would have made getting back to where we wanted to be a bit more scenic, but after pulling some money out, we headed back towards the bus station in Hasuike. Fortunately, just as we were getting there, a bus was starting to leave in the direction we wanted to go. We walked briskly to catch it, with me nearly going base over apex on some ice in the carpark. We decided rather than catching the bus all the way back to Ichinose, we'd get off at Hoppo Onsen, the first stop. This allowed us to get straight on the HIgashidate gondola and go for a green run (albeit back to the same gondola).
By now it was getting close to 11am, so we decided to head for an early lunch, So after getting of the gondola, we hooked around back toward Takamagahara Mammoth.We decided it would be pizza and beer again, as we didn't want to run out of energy on our last day. Dean and I shared a salami pizza, while he bought a bottle of Blueberry beer. Chris, you would have loved this, as although it was by Tamamura Honten brewery (the one that does all the Shiga Kogen beers), it was made using their homegrown hops and blueberries. It was very tasty. I'm not usually a dark beer person, and Dean doesn't like beers that have higher alcohol %, but even at 7%, and being a dark ale, it was very good. Not cheap though, it must have been a special reserve, as it was 2000Y for a 750ml bottle.
As we hadn't got any video fo Yakebitai-yama yet, after eating, we caught the single chair half way up Mammoth slope, then traversed through Tanne no Mori to Ichinose. I haven't really explored TnM like I was going to, but as a pass through area, it's hard. You're either toe side or heel side through the whole thing (depending on if you are regular or goofy), and by the time you get to Ichinose, your calves are burning. Straight past the bottom quad lift, and over the bridge towards Ichinose Diamond quad. We had previously gone up and over the back, but as this requires you to keep a lot of speed in order to make the flat sections, we went a different way that was faster. A lift up to the middle of a run, and we were heading down Yakebitai-yama. Really we had only come over here to do the ungroomed section, as for the most part Yakebitai can be a little boring, with little trees to play around in, and the terrain park not being built this year, it wasn't going to hold our attention for long. We got to the bottom, before catching Gondola No.1 to the top. This gondola seems to take ages, so we had an impromptu snowfight, with the snow stuck to our boards. We think they might have told us off, via the radio in the carriage, but without understanding stuff usually, let alone over a muffled radio, we ddidn't worry about it (actually, we had run out of snow to throw).
At the top, I started the camera up again, before we decended down towards the ungroomed section. With all the new snow fall over the last couple of days, when I stopped at the side of the run, Dean and Conrad tried to get me with some rooster tails. We sped down the ungroomed section, but decided we'd rather play around at Terakoya, so that's were we headed.
We made a couple of runs down the different paths at Terakoya, haveing a ball playing in the powder under the lifts, as well as in the trees at the side of the runs. There's some video of this as well, including Dean doing a 4 ft jump from one bank. He actually did it twice, once successfully, which only he caught on camera, and another where he went for a grab, made the landing, but couldn't make it stick. I seemed to be doing my best attempts at becoming a snowman, but when there's lots of fresh powder to play in, it makes it fun, rather than sore.
We decided to do another Terakoya to Higashi run. I know it probably gets stale hearing us do this, but it is a hell of a lot of fun. There were plenty of bails, washouts and such, all caught on camera, but it was getting on to 2.30, so we were starting to get low. We decided to have a drink at the restaurant at the top of the Higashidate-yama gondola station. They have a terrace here, where you can look out over the area, and take photos but with the wind blowing and a lot of cloud and snow, visibility wasn't the best. After grabbing a hot cocoa, we decided to head towards Ichinose. Conrad started off first, but I soon bombed past him. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm actually decent at holding speed (being a little heavy has it's advantages), so I made it all the way through to the top of the Ichinose lifts before I stopped and waited for the other 2. And waited, and waited. The fiends had gone back through Takamagahara and Tanne no Mori, as they didn't want to push. I decided to go down the green run, but took it easy. I love playing around in the trees, but will only do it when someone is with me, so if I have a big stack/hurt myself, I've at least got someone to help me. So I made it down the bottom and waited... And waited, before I get a message from Dean saying to meet him at the top of Ichinose. I ran to the lift (I had unstrapped and took a seat), so I was up the top of the run quickish, and Met Conrad up there. Apparently he had lost Dean as well, but I told him I was going to wait. It was getting rather chilly now, with a snowy wind blowing. Conrad didn't reel like waiting anymore so he headed down. Then Dean eventually made it up, we started off down the green run. There was a lot of playing about on the sides, but it was getting laters, so we tried not crashing. After catching the lift up again, Conrad caught up with us at the top, while we strapping in. We flew down the green run again, before Conrad broke his binding. I have video of him tobogganing down on his board (fortunately he had his leash attached), and it's hilarious, but that ended his afternoon. Dean and I left him and jumped on the next lift. It was now 4.15 with the lifts closing at 4.40pm. By the time we got to the top, both of us were thinking we had only this run left in us. We were tired and starting to make mistakes. On the run with Conrad, I had decent sized bail and whacked my head, and was lacking energy, so we started down the red run. We played a little in the powder and trees, but as we got to the end of the run, Dean headed for the lift again! It was now 4.30, and we were thinking the same thing again. We the amount of snow on the ground, it being our last day, and 10 mins before the lifts closed, it was time for our last, last run of the day (Sort of like Lockyer's farewell games...).
Once at the top we decided it was the green run with a lot of playing around. Around this tree, over that bank.. it didn't matter if we had to walk back up to the hotel, we were going to have as much fun as possible. I caught all this on camera, but as we slowed down near the ticket office, we knew our snowboarding leg had come to an end. It's bittersweet. I love snowboarding, and could just keep on doing it. But I had taken quite a few hits in the last couple of days, which have taken their toll on my body. I'm also looking forward to seeing Kyoto and our adventures in Tokyo.
Dean and I made our way back to the Villa, and just sat around for a while. My snowgear was a little moist from me doing my best Frosty the snow, so we sat around with them on the heater, drinking an Asahi lager that we hadn't tried before. After just mellowing out, we packed up our boards, bindings, boots, and other gear (we borrowed some hair driers to get them dry in a hurry. Given that it was 4.45ish when we finished boarding, and 6pm before we got upstairs, we must have been down there for a while.
We were all tired and had to do packing, so we went down to the Ramen place for dinner again. I grabbed some gyoza and karaage chicken, and while nice, the quality in Tokyo is better, especialy for the karaage. We headed upstairs to continue packing, and as there was only a third of a bottle of Bombay Sapphire left, we finished that off so we didn't have to lug it around with us. I finished doing some washing, so packed as much as I could in the suitcase, as I would only need one change of clothes for the night in Kyoto. We then watched a little television, before turning the lights out at about 9.40.
The others arrived before breakfast, so we watched some early morning TV. Finally, we got to see Quintet, a show we've seen on all of our previous visits. We then went downstairs for breakfast. I stuck to the sausages, buns, miso soup, chicken nuggets, and lettuce again (I didn't want to be ill on my last day of snowboarding). We headed back upstairs to find a lot of the older guests watching Carnation, a 15min drama series. I think it's about a bunch of young widows running a dress/tailor shop in a traditional village, but without being able to understand it, it makes it sort of hard. We didn't want to hang around today, so we got our gear on and headed downstairs.
With all the fresh snow that had fallen, we were keen to get over the back to Terakoya. A lot of the ski schoolers had left the previous afternoon, however there were still a lot that were signed on with Shiga Kogen Snow School, we thought it best ot avoid the green run for now. Conrad mustn't have heard the plan of catching the lift closest to the hotel, as after strapping on, he went to the far lift. Dean followed me, and after gesturing to Conrad that we'd meet him over the back. Dean and I headed for the top and skated around the back to Terakoya. We waited for a while, before Conrad eventually showed up. He had taken the short lift to the middle of the main Ichinose Family slope, before crossing to the lift that we took. It probably wasn't the quickest way (he could have just taken the other quad and skated around, but I guess he mustn't have felt like doing that). We were bound for Hasuike, as Dean and I had to get money out, so that we had enough for dinner and the bus back to Nagano. This required us to go from Terakoya, down the Higashidate green run, then down Hoppo-Bundaira, then up the Giant twin seater and do a turn off. Unfortunately, after this it requires a bit of walking, as the post office (where the ATM is) is about 300m from any sort of slope area. I think the Shiga Kogen Ropeway might have gone bust, as we haven't seen any ropeway carrages going at all this time. It would have made getting back to where we wanted to be a bit more scenic, but after pulling some money out, we headed back towards the bus station in Hasuike. Fortunately, just as we were getting there, a bus was starting to leave in the direction we wanted to go. We walked briskly to catch it, with me nearly going base over apex on some ice in the carpark. We decided rather than catching the bus all the way back to Ichinose, we'd get off at Hoppo Onsen, the first stop. This allowed us to get straight on the HIgashidate gondola and go for a green run (albeit back to the same gondola).
By now it was getting close to 11am, so we decided to head for an early lunch, So after getting of the gondola, we hooked around back toward Takamagahara Mammoth.We decided it would be pizza and beer again, as we didn't want to run out of energy on our last day. Dean and I shared a salami pizza, while he bought a bottle of Blueberry beer. Chris, you would have loved this, as although it was by Tamamura Honten brewery (the one that does all the Shiga Kogen beers), it was made using their homegrown hops and blueberries. It was very tasty. I'm not usually a dark beer person, and Dean doesn't like beers that have higher alcohol %, but even at 7%, and being a dark ale, it was very good. Not cheap though, it must have been a special reserve, as it was 2000Y for a 750ml bottle.
As we hadn't got any video fo Yakebitai-yama yet, after eating, we caught the single chair half way up Mammoth slope, then traversed through Tanne no Mori to Ichinose. I haven't really explored TnM like I was going to, but as a pass through area, it's hard. You're either toe side or heel side through the whole thing (depending on if you are regular or goofy), and by the time you get to Ichinose, your calves are burning. Straight past the bottom quad lift, and over the bridge towards Ichinose Diamond quad. We had previously gone up and over the back, but as this requires you to keep a lot of speed in order to make the flat sections, we went a different way that was faster. A lift up to the middle of a run, and we were heading down Yakebitai-yama. Really we had only come over here to do the ungroomed section, as for the most part Yakebitai can be a little boring, with little trees to play around in, and the terrain park not being built this year, it wasn't going to hold our attention for long. We got to the bottom, before catching Gondola No.1 to the top. This gondola seems to take ages, so we had an impromptu snowfight, with the snow stuck to our boards. We think they might have told us off, via the radio in the carriage, but without understanding stuff usually, let alone over a muffled radio, we ddidn't worry about it (actually, we had run out of snow to throw).
At the top, I started the camera up again, before we decended down towards the ungroomed section. With all the new snow fall over the last couple of days, when I stopped at the side of the run, Dean and Conrad tried to get me with some rooster tails. We sped down the ungroomed section, but decided we'd rather play around at Terakoya, so that's were we headed.
We made a couple of runs down the different paths at Terakoya, haveing a ball playing in the powder under the lifts, as well as in the trees at the side of the runs. There's some video of this as well, including Dean doing a 4 ft jump from one bank. He actually did it twice, once successfully, which only he caught on camera, and another where he went for a grab, made the landing, but couldn't make it stick. I seemed to be doing my best attempts at becoming a snowman, but when there's lots of fresh powder to play in, it makes it fun, rather than sore.
We decided to do another Terakoya to Higashi run. I know it probably gets stale hearing us do this, but it is a hell of a lot of fun. There were plenty of bails, washouts and such, all caught on camera, but it was getting on to 2.30, so we were starting to get low. We decided to have a drink at the restaurant at the top of the Higashidate-yama gondola station. They have a terrace here, where you can look out over the area, and take photos but with the wind blowing and a lot of cloud and snow, visibility wasn't the best. After grabbing a hot cocoa, we decided to head towards Ichinose. Conrad started off first, but I soon bombed past him. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm actually decent at holding speed (being a little heavy has it's advantages), so I made it all the way through to the top of the Ichinose lifts before I stopped and waited for the other 2. And waited, and waited. The fiends had gone back through Takamagahara and Tanne no Mori, as they didn't want to push. I decided to go down the green run, but took it easy. I love playing around in the trees, but will only do it when someone is with me, so if I have a big stack/hurt myself, I've at least got someone to help me. So I made it down the bottom and waited... And waited, before I get a message from Dean saying to meet him at the top of Ichinose. I ran to the lift (I had unstrapped and took a seat), so I was up the top of the run quickish, and Met Conrad up there. Apparently he had lost Dean as well, but I told him I was going to wait. It was getting rather chilly now, with a snowy wind blowing. Conrad didn't reel like waiting anymore so he headed down. Then Dean eventually made it up, we started off down the green run. There was a lot of playing about on the sides, but it was getting laters, so we tried not crashing. After catching the lift up again, Conrad caught up with us at the top, while we strapping in. We flew down the green run again, before Conrad broke his binding. I have video of him tobogganing down on his board (fortunately he had his leash attached), and it's hilarious, but that ended his afternoon. Dean and I left him and jumped on the next lift. It was now 4.15 with the lifts closing at 4.40pm. By the time we got to the top, both of us were thinking we had only this run left in us. We were tired and starting to make mistakes. On the run with Conrad, I had decent sized bail and whacked my head, and was lacking energy, so we started down the red run. We played a little in the powder and trees, but as we got to the end of the run, Dean headed for the lift again! It was now 4.30, and we were thinking the same thing again. We the amount of snow on the ground, it being our last day, and 10 mins before the lifts closed, it was time for our last, last run of the day (Sort of like Lockyer's farewell games...).
Once at the top we decided it was the green run with a lot of playing around. Around this tree, over that bank.. it didn't matter if we had to walk back up to the hotel, we were going to have as much fun as possible. I caught all this on camera, but as we slowed down near the ticket office, we knew our snowboarding leg had come to an end. It's bittersweet. I love snowboarding, and could just keep on doing it. But I had taken quite a few hits in the last couple of days, which have taken their toll on my body. I'm also looking forward to seeing Kyoto and our adventures in Tokyo.
Dean and I made our way back to the Villa, and just sat around for a while. My snowgear was a little moist from me doing my best Frosty the snow, so we sat around with them on the heater, drinking an Asahi lager that we hadn't tried before. After just mellowing out, we packed up our boards, bindings, boots, and other gear (we borrowed some hair driers to get them dry in a hurry. Given that it was 4.45ish when we finished boarding, and 6pm before we got upstairs, we must have been down there for a while.
We were all tired and had to do packing, so we went down to the Ramen place for dinner again. I grabbed some gyoza and karaage chicken, and while nice, the quality in Tokyo is better, especialy for the karaage. We headed upstairs to continue packing, and as there was only a third of a bottle of Bombay Sapphire left, we finished that off so we didn't have to lug it around with us. I finished doing some washing, so packed as much as I could in the suitcase, as I would only need one change of clothes for the night in Kyoto. We then watched a little television, before turning the lights out at about 9.40.
Friday, January 20, 2012
What a way to spend the day.
After going to bed at 8.30, I woke early at 5.30, so after brushing my teeth, I took my laptop downstairs and waited for the others to wake up. As the sun started to rise, Mum joined me downstairs, and the view out the window looked good. There was light snow falling, and I checked out the cars in the carpark and there had been a couple of centimetres over night. This would at least fill in all the groomer tracks and make things more pleasant to ride. The others joined us close to breakfast time, and we headed down to the dining room for some food. Another fairly boring affair. I like being in Tokyo as far as food goes, because it gives you a lot more variety about what to eat, but at least you can help yourself at this place to what you want and don't. I grabbed some sausages and hashbrowns while they were still warm, as well as some potato salad, lettuce, bread rolls, rice and miso soup. After breakfast, we headed back up to the lounge area briefly, but with the snow falling heavier than before, we were rearing to to get out, especially as we taken yesterday off.
Before long we were suited up, downstairs and out the door. As our 3 day ticket ran out, we all had to head to the ticket office before starting. We quickly sorted that out, but as there were loads of ski schoolers taking the quad lift up towards the green and red runs, we decided to take the quad lift closest to Khuls, and have a "hopefully" easy run towardsd Terakoya. After a small spot of walking and skating, we were down the other side, and on the lift. The snow looked awesome. None of the hard packed bits of the last 2 days, and plenty of powder on and to the side of the runs. We took a couple of runs down Terakoya before decending on our favourite Terakoya to Higashi/Hoppo run. We were absolutely strapping it down, and both Dean and I had our cameras on the side of our head. I took a big bail with it on, but it's all good. (At least it will make for interesting watching).
We kept going on Hoppo, all the way to the cafe. It was now nearly 10.15 so I needed some energy. Unfortunately they weren't cooking anything just yet, so I had to survive on strawberry cake and beer. We then headed out to the Giant gondola. It's a little but slow, as far as lifts go, but we got to the top and readied ourselves for a run. I turned my camera on to record it, but for some reason, whenever I have it on, I seem to stack it. We shot down the run until we reached the first of the Nishidate lifts, then traversed and caught the hoody lift up to the top of Nishi. Dean and I wanted to catch the slalom run on camera, but Conrad wanted to take it easy, so we parted at the top and were going to meet back at the hoody lift. Dean and I overshot the turn off, so we continued to the end, before catching the first Nishidate lift up and then waiting at the hoodie lift for Conrad.. We ended up waiting for a while and found that Conrad had actually done the green run down to the hoodie lift, before heading up and doing the red run to the hoodie again.
By now it was approximatedly 11.00, so we headed down Nishi towards Takamagahara. After going over the bridge and jumping on the lift, we decided to do the lower green run to Higashi gondola again. As we got out of the lift, all of the sudden, the wind picked up something fierce, blowing snow straight up the olympic course and showering us in it while we were trying to strap up. I turned my camera on again and recorded the run, but after mucking around in the trees, and coming out at the olympic run cross over, my battery died. Damn, no more video. We stopped briefly at the bottom of the gondola before deciding to head back to Ichinose. A quick run down the green run, (avoiding falling ski schoolers where possible) we stopped at Rockies cafe. I decided to get a pork katsu, which came as a set with miso soup, rice, pickles, lotus root and salad. This filled me up well, but after lunch, I was going to teach Whitney again. After getting her stuff, we headed up the back of the hotel. She's getting better at braking, but as anyone who's snowboarded will tell you, the less braking you do, the less you burn up your muscles and less falling over. We did 2 runs, but with no stamina, it's a hard time. I decided to use Whitney's board as a toboggan and slide down the little path she had been learning on... I went flying into a snow bank, then when I had got back on the path, slid all the way to the carpark. We left the board outside the hotel, and I went back in to grab my board.
I met Dean and Conrad at the bottom of Ichinose, so we headed up again. By this time, a lot of the ski schoolers had gone home, and the weather wasn't as nice, with the wind blowing around. But we had the runs to ourselves, so we played around. We eventually headed back over to Terakoya and did our favourite run again. Dean was absolutely hooking it down Terakoya, so much so that I thought he'd washout... I was following close behind in his wake, but had to back off as the ground got a little sketchy. Still had plenty enough speed to get through the little flat section between the runs, and we headed down the path. To cut a long story short, there was plenty of trees and bails in powder banks, but I didn't care. It was great fun and we were having a ball. By the time we got to the Higashidate gondola, it was getting close to 4, so rather than risk getting stuck somewhere we couldn't get out of, we headed back to Ichinose. It was still fairly bare, but Dean wanted to get some footage of me and Conrad. It seems it's not just my camera... whenever theres a camera on, I seem to wash out/stack, even if I've done it multiple times before. Well we did a few runs, I went through the trees in one section and got stuck. I slowed down to much and got buried in a foot of powder, and used up all my reserves getting out. I probably should have known before hand that I was out of energy, but I definitely knew it afterwards...
Being the foolhardy person that I am, rather than calling it quits, I went out for one more run. It was the red run this time, and I stacked it quite a few times. I spotted a tree run I'd like to try.... I made the first part fine, and should have left it at that and got back to the run, but I pushed it through a section that hadn't been tracked before and I bounded over a few lumps and bumps before my board got air, and caught a tree.. Nothing too bad, but I was hurting my muscles due to my in ability to carry myself. I came down and kept going toward the end of the run, deciding to ride one last powder bank, one I'd done numerous times before and shouldn't have had any problems... Well I did... My board stuck in, I went flying and I hurt myself rolling over to get up. So I headed for the road back to the hotel with Conrad. I unstrapped outside Khuls and my muscles made it quite apparent that they didn't like the way I'd been treating them. I was still getting out of my boots by the time Dean got in (he'd gone for one more run) and limped my way up the steep flight of stairs from the locker/store/ramen level to the the annex building.
I grabbed what clothing I needed and headed for the onsen. I was the first/only one in there so I had free reign, before Dean showed up. It felt super hot, so I didn't stay in there long, despite my muscles needing to unwind a little more. Back out to the lounge to write this blog, before we headed downstairs for some ramen. I really like that this place has a ramen place downstairs, as if you want something cheap, filling and you don't feel like going out anywhere, you just have to walk downstairs. Back upstairs for a beer and blog, and that's pretty much how this night ends.
Before long we were suited up, downstairs and out the door. As our 3 day ticket ran out, we all had to head to the ticket office before starting. We quickly sorted that out, but as there were loads of ski schoolers taking the quad lift up towards the green and red runs, we decided to take the quad lift closest to Khuls, and have a "hopefully" easy run towardsd Terakoya. After a small spot of walking and skating, we were down the other side, and on the lift. The snow looked awesome. None of the hard packed bits of the last 2 days, and plenty of powder on and to the side of the runs. We took a couple of runs down Terakoya before decending on our favourite Terakoya to Higashi/Hoppo run. We were absolutely strapping it down, and both Dean and I had our cameras on the side of our head. I took a big bail with it on, but it's all good. (At least it will make for interesting watching).
We kept going on Hoppo, all the way to the cafe. It was now nearly 10.15 so I needed some energy. Unfortunately they weren't cooking anything just yet, so I had to survive on strawberry cake and beer. We then headed out to the Giant gondola. It's a little but slow, as far as lifts go, but we got to the top and readied ourselves for a run. I turned my camera on to record it, but for some reason, whenever I have it on, I seem to stack it. We shot down the run until we reached the first of the Nishidate lifts, then traversed and caught the hoody lift up to the top of Nishi. Dean and I wanted to catch the slalom run on camera, but Conrad wanted to take it easy, so we parted at the top and were going to meet back at the hoody lift. Dean and I overshot the turn off, so we continued to the end, before catching the first Nishidate lift up and then waiting at the hoodie lift for Conrad.. We ended up waiting for a while and found that Conrad had actually done the green run down to the hoodie lift, before heading up and doing the red run to the hoodie again.
By now it was approximatedly 11.00, so we headed down Nishi towards Takamagahara. After going over the bridge and jumping on the lift, we decided to do the lower green run to Higashi gondola again. As we got out of the lift, all of the sudden, the wind picked up something fierce, blowing snow straight up the olympic course and showering us in it while we were trying to strap up. I turned my camera on again and recorded the run, but after mucking around in the trees, and coming out at the olympic run cross over, my battery died. Damn, no more video. We stopped briefly at the bottom of the gondola before deciding to head back to Ichinose. A quick run down the green run, (avoiding falling ski schoolers where possible) we stopped at Rockies cafe. I decided to get a pork katsu, which came as a set with miso soup, rice, pickles, lotus root and salad. This filled me up well, but after lunch, I was going to teach Whitney again. After getting her stuff, we headed up the back of the hotel. She's getting better at braking, but as anyone who's snowboarded will tell you, the less braking you do, the less you burn up your muscles and less falling over. We did 2 runs, but with no stamina, it's a hard time. I decided to use Whitney's board as a toboggan and slide down the little path she had been learning on... I went flying into a snow bank, then when I had got back on the path, slid all the way to the carpark. We left the board outside the hotel, and I went back in to grab my board.
I met Dean and Conrad at the bottom of Ichinose, so we headed up again. By this time, a lot of the ski schoolers had gone home, and the weather wasn't as nice, with the wind blowing around. But we had the runs to ourselves, so we played around. We eventually headed back over to Terakoya and did our favourite run again. Dean was absolutely hooking it down Terakoya, so much so that I thought he'd washout... I was following close behind in his wake, but had to back off as the ground got a little sketchy. Still had plenty enough speed to get through the little flat section between the runs, and we headed down the path. To cut a long story short, there was plenty of trees and bails in powder banks, but I didn't care. It was great fun and we were having a ball. By the time we got to the Higashidate gondola, it was getting close to 4, so rather than risk getting stuck somewhere we couldn't get out of, we headed back to Ichinose. It was still fairly bare, but Dean wanted to get some footage of me and Conrad. It seems it's not just my camera... whenever theres a camera on, I seem to wash out/stack, even if I've done it multiple times before. Well we did a few runs, I went through the trees in one section and got stuck. I slowed down to much and got buried in a foot of powder, and used up all my reserves getting out. I probably should have known before hand that I was out of energy, but I definitely knew it afterwards...
Being the foolhardy person that I am, rather than calling it quits, I went out for one more run. It was the red run this time, and I stacked it quite a few times. I spotted a tree run I'd like to try.... I made the first part fine, and should have left it at that and got back to the run, but I pushed it through a section that hadn't been tracked before and I bounded over a few lumps and bumps before my board got air, and caught a tree.. Nothing too bad, but I was hurting my muscles due to my in ability to carry myself. I came down and kept going toward the end of the run, deciding to ride one last powder bank, one I'd done numerous times before and shouldn't have had any problems... Well I did... My board stuck in, I went flying and I hurt myself rolling over to get up. So I headed for the road back to the hotel with Conrad. I unstrapped outside Khuls and my muscles made it quite apparent that they didn't like the way I'd been treating them. I was still getting out of my boots by the time Dean got in (he'd gone for one more run) and limped my way up the steep flight of stairs from the locker/store/ramen level to the the annex building.
I grabbed what clothing I needed and headed for the onsen. I was the first/only one in there so I had free reign, before Dean showed up. It felt super hot, so I didn't stay in there long, despite my muscles needing to unwind a little more. Back out to the lounge to write this blog, before we headed downstairs for some ramen. I really like that this place has a ramen place downstairs, as if you want something cheap, filling and you don't feel like going out anywhere, you just have to walk downstairs. Back upstairs for a beer and blog, and that's pretty much how this night ends.
Today I did nothing
It would be funny if it wasn't so true. After getting to bed at some ungodly hour of the morning, I awoke at about 6.00, so I had nowhere near enough sleep. It mustn't have been good sleep either as I awoke with a tension headache at the back of my neck. I sat downstairs for a while, having a coffee and more water. Time went by quickly as before I knew it, it was 7.30 and time for breakfast. After the adventurous eating of the previous morning, I had a vary small breakfast with nothing flash. This didn't give me much energy to work with, so I took it easy. not even rushing to head out. I even tried to go back to sleep for a little while, but it didn't work and I figured that I better go out snowboarding.
Dean had already headed out with Conrad sitting in the lounge using his saniPad. I met Dean at the bottom of the Ichinose area, but he was complaining of lack of circulation even though his boots weren't too tight. We headed out for 2 runs, one black and one green. The green run was full of ski schoolers, so in one sections I broke off the path and went through the trees. This was fun, as it was a line I had spotted a couple of days ago, but I never had the courage to go for. This changed when I was nearly wiped out by an errant instructors, so shot through and down a cat track. I think I did pretty well considering, but I slowed down in a couple of sections where I had to go through thin tree gaps, and fell over. I made it back to the run and went around some trees toward the bottom of the run... I came out of the soft snow at the side of the run but had to wash off a lot of speed quickly, as I was about a metre from wiping out a ski schooler. I headed down and floated a powder bank at the end of the run, then unstrapped while I waited for Dean. I waited for a while, before I get a message saying that he's too sore to continue and is heading back. This was just as well, because on both of the runs, I wasn't feeling entirely sure footed and although I didn't catch an edge, I just wasn't feeling it at all. So I walked back to the hotel.
We sat around for a little while, before deciding to go find somewhere to get a massage. We walked down the road towards Ichinose Diamon, before stopping at the other Conbini in the Shiga Olympic Hotel. I grabbed a BBQ (pork?) bun, which is actually one of the best ones I've ever tasted, as well as a Kirin CC Lemon (1000mg of Vitamin C). We kept on walking down to the Sunroute (where we stayed in 2009) as we heard there was massages there. I found some powdery stuff for headaches, but were told by the leadfoot manager that they only had a massage chair. Conrad and Dean had their cameras out shooting various things that caught their eyes, so we continued walking down towards one of the Prince Hotels at Yakebitai. We checked their shop, before we found they had massage chairs as well. It was 100Y for 10 mins, so we decided to just go with it. It was actually not a bad way to spend 10 mins, and although nothing as good as proper hands on massage, was relaxing nonetheless.
We then started the trek back up the hill towards the hotel. I got some weird looks from people, as I only had a pair of shorts, some sneakers, a t-shirt and a jacket on. With the temperature only sitting at about -3deg or so, I wasn't that cold, and can survive quite easily in shorts and a shirt at this temp, provided I keep moving. We kept on walking, and shooting cameras and got back to the hotel. We had some gyoza and ramern, and this powered us up for our next little expedition. We decided to check out some of the other souvenir stores around the top of Ichinose, and spend an hour just pottering around. This is probably what we all needed, as it was relaxing and didn't require us to do a lot of strenuous activity. We headed back to the hotel where I started some washing and hopped in the onsen. I'm getting better with the whole nudity thing. As long as you don't look, you don't get as uncomfortable.
Dean and Conrad were now already in the lounge area tapping away, so I brought my computer down and joined them. Others were watching Sumo on the TV (there is a big championship at the moment, with an Estonian guy winning currently). As the afternoon progressed, the sky started to get all overcast, so that we thought there might be early snow.
By the time 5.30 rolled around, it was dark, and we were hungry. I wanted steak so we went across to Victoria to see if they had the buffet on tonight, but with the place regularly booked out with school kids, it was a students only affair. We then quickly decided to head to Jalon, a bar two hotels down from the main lift area. We've gone there before, but this is usually dependent on weather, as it is a pain to hike back up the hill when it's extemely cold and windy. Fortunately, there was nearly no wind and only light snow falling.
The Chalet Shiga (where Jalon is) is the place the Austrian Ski team stayed during 1998 winter Olympics, and usually they have a big screen projector playing various ski/snow events, and various jerseys from ski events hanging on the wall. We arrived just on 6.00, so happy hour it was. I ordered a Shiga Kogen Pale Ale (Chris, you would love this, as it's hoppy and very similar to some of yours), Dean got a DPA and we all got food. Their menu wasn't massive, (they only have a small oven/kitchen area behind the bar), but Dean and Mum got a Beef Porter Stew, I got a Chicken Salsa burger, and Conrad and Whitney both ordered a bolognese. We sat there for a while eating and slowly drinking our beers, before heading back to the hotel about 7pm.
On the way we stopped at the other Yamazaki conbini at the Shiga Olympic Hotel. I grabbed a coffee ice cream, Conrad grabbed a Haagen Dasz and Whitney chose a Crunky mint icecream. It seems strange but I like eating icecreams even when it's below zero.
We sat around watching VS Arashi (a variety/game show hosted by boy band Arashi) before turning the telly off and nodding off around 8.30. So now I'm here typing this at 5.30 in the morning, because my body tells me 9 hours is enough sleep....
Pictures for the past couple of days are up at https://picasaweb.google.com/sciclone
Dean had already headed out with Conrad sitting in the lounge using his saniPad. I met Dean at the bottom of the Ichinose area, but he was complaining of lack of circulation even though his boots weren't too tight. We headed out for 2 runs, one black and one green. The green run was full of ski schoolers, so in one sections I broke off the path and went through the trees. This was fun, as it was a line I had spotted a couple of days ago, but I never had the courage to go for. This changed when I was nearly wiped out by an errant instructors, so shot through and down a cat track. I think I did pretty well considering, but I slowed down in a couple of sections where I had to go through thin tree gaps, and fell over. I made it back to the run and went around some trees toward the bottom of the run... I came out of the soft snow at the side of the run but had to wash off a lot of speed quickly, as I was about a metre from wiping out a ski schooler. I headed down and floated a powder bank at the end of the run, then unstrapped while I waited for Dean. I waited for a while, before I get a message saying that he's too sore to continue and is heading back. This was just as well, because on both of the runs, I wasn't feeling entirely sure footed and although I didn't catch an edge, I just wasn't feeling it at all. So I walked back to the hotel.
We sat around for a little while, before deciding to go find somewhere to get a massage. We walked down the road towards Ichinose Diamon, before stopping at the other Conbini in the Shiga Olympic Hotel. I grabbed a BBQ (pork?) bun, which is actually one of the best ones I've ever tasted, as well as a Kirin CC Lemon (1000mg of Vitamin C). We kept on walking down to the Sunroute (where we stayed in 2009) as we heard there was massages there. I found some powdery stuff for headaches, but were told by the leadfoot manager that they only had a massage chair. Conrad and Dean had their cameras out shooting various things that caught their eyes, so we continued walking down towards one of the Prince Hotels at Yakebitai. We checked their shop, before we found they had massage chairs as well. It was 100Y for 10 mins, so we decided to just go with it. It was actually not a bad way to spend 10 mins, and although nothing as good as proper hands on massage, was relaxing nonetheless.
We then started the trek back up the hill towards the hotel. I got some weird looks from people, as I only had a pair of shorts, some sneakers, a t-shirt and a jacket on. With the temperature only sitting at about -3deg or so, I wasn't that cold, and can survive quite easily in shorts and a shirt at this temp, provided I keep moving. We kept on walking, and shooting cameras and got back to the hotel. We had some gyoza and ramern, and this powered us up for our next little expedition. We decided to check out some of the other souvenir stores around the top of Ichinose, and spend an hour just pottering around. This is probably what we all needed, as it was relaxing and didn't require us to do a lot of strenuous activity. We headed back to the hotel where I started some washing and hopped in the onsen. I'm getting better with the whole nudity thing. As long as you don't look, you don't get as uncomfortable.
Dean and Conrad were now already in the lounge area tapping away, so I brought my computer down and joined them. Others were watching Sumo on the TV (there is a big championship at the moment, with an Estonian guy winning currently). As the afternoon progressed, the sky started to get all overcast, so that we thought there might be early snow.
By the time 5.30 rolled around, it was dark, and we were hungry. I wanted steak so we went across to Victoria to see if they had the buffet on tonight, but with the place regularly booked out with school kids, it was a students only affair. We then quickly decided to head to Jalon, a bar two hotels down from the main lift area. We've gone there before, but this is usually dependent on weather, as it is a pain to hike back up the hill when it's extemely cold and windy. Fortunately, there was nearly no wind and only light snow falling.
The Chalet Shiga (where Jalon is) is the place the Austrian Ski team stayed during 1998 winter Olympics, and usually they have a big screen projector playing various ski/snow events, and various jerseys from ski events hanging on the wall. We arrived just on 6.00, so happy hour it was. I ordered a Shiga Kogen Pale Ale (Chris, you would love this, as it's hoppy and very similar to some of yours), Dean got a DPA and we all got food. Their menu wasn't massive, (they only have a small oven/kitchen area behind the bar), but Dean and Mum got a Beef Porter Stew, I got a Chicken Salsa burger, and Conrad and Whitney both ordered a bolognese. We sat there for a while eating and slowly drinking our beers, before heading back to the hotel about 7pm.
On the way we stopped at the other Yamazaki conbini at the Shiga Olympic Hotel. I grabbed a coffee ice cream, Conrad grabbed a Haagen Dasz and Whitney chose a Crunky mint icecream. It seems strange but I like eating icecreams even when it's below zero.
We sat around watching VS Arashi (a variety/game show hosted by boy band Arashi) before turning the telly off and nodding off around 8.30. So now I'm here typing this at 5.30 in the morning, because my body tells me 9 hours is enough sleep....
Pictures for the past couple of days are up at https://picasaweb.google.com/sciclone
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