Today, the last full day in Japan....

After a lazy morning we ended up heading to Harajuku....a very colourful part of Tokyo.

The shopping bug hit and we scored some good tax free bargains - "normal" attire, not the stuff you would expect from this district - typically mini shirts, long socks, doll-like makeup and a lotta Hello Kitty crap. Even the clocks are weird...

Not sure this is the typical ACDC attire either...

And I think this shop would be busy for Mardi Gras!... No we did not do any shopping here...

But this is all pretty normal for Harajuku.

Speaking of normality.... Another genuine Japanese lunch...

After a bit more of a walk we found more plastic food. Yep, most restaurants either have really bad and uninspiring photos of their food, or in many instances the plastic version...

We visited, and may have made a purchase at the Apple Store.  Some of the things they have for sale are awesome... But we will save that for the next trip.

Well, it is time to have some dinner.  This time we are going traditional-shoes off-sit on the floor and eat your dinner at a Teppen place next door.  The photos of their food looked good.  Might see how the saki goes too as we are all packed have a few hours to just trot around the neighbourhood tomorrow before the 2 hour trek to Narita.

We have loved every second of being here.  Tokyo is a place we will come back to again, probably many times.  The locals are polite and respectful and always happy to help.

The Mighty Mount Fuji....And the Rollercoasters.

Thursday was the day we escaped out of Tokyo.  Two trains, 2 hours travelling through the countryside and we made it to the Fujiku Highland.

We felt quite privileged to see Mt Fuji in all of his glory as the majority of time he is shrouded in cloud.  

Useless fact: I did read that Mt Fuji is considered genderless however some mythology depicts the mountain as male.

The main reason for us heading out there was to visit the Fuji Q Amuzement Park.

This park leaves the one's in Oz in its dust!  There are a number of records held for the rides and we can now certainly understand why.... It is quite difficult to get a photo that explains what we mean, but it was a safe bet not to eat before going on the biggest ride - a 4th dimension coaster - where you are sitting backwards and then inverted to be facing forward (3 times over the 1km track)....at a speed of 127kph.  Google: Eejanaika.

A good tip:

Not sure a green dress and red heels are the most suitable for this amusement park...but we did see a whole lot worse.

The more tame ride (in comparison) took us up 79m, no upside down backward bits but enough to frighten the shit out of you while you try to enjoy the view of the mountain. Google: Fujiyama.  (Fun Fact: Tower of Terror pushed this ride into the worlds 2nd fastest ride spot).

Then the other one that was the most surprising was simply nuts. Starting in the dark, dipping and diving and then taking you up 90 degrees vertical and a record breaking 121 degree drop.... That was actually the tame part considering what the lead up to the drop had done to us.

Google: Takabisha (I think that is Japanse for holy shit I just crapped my pants).

Ryan then convinced me that we should go into the the Haunted House.... It turned out to be a blood covered, psycho hospital with mad doctors and zombie shit chasing us around.  OK so we all screamed like little girls as we had to walk (and at times run bloody fast) around this derelict and deadly looking dark hospital with only a torch in hand getting a glimpse of patients who had been hacked to bits and body parts dangling from the ceiling.... Not much different from a typical work day really. The things you do for love.

After a really fun 6 hours we headed next door to the Fujiku Onsen where we took a traditional Japanese bath.  A complete contrast to the previous hours as we relaxed in the buff win the company of Japanese men. There were a number of  hot springs to enjoy - tepid, rosemary scented, carbonated, hot, outdoor and really bloody hot. It was very relaxing to take it easy while enjoying the view of Mt Fuji as the sun set before catching a few zzzzzz on the trains to get back to Tokyo.

We slept well last night.

Anyhow.... Things have been busy and no time for blogging...

It is our last night here in Tokyotown and we are heading out soon for a Japanese dinner down the road, then we might head out for some saki...some.... Yeah right. So to catch up on the past few days...

Anyhow - as I was saying, things have been busy, last reports had us looking through one of the first markets in Toyko, packed with people (as most parts of this town are).

The markets had everyhing from plastic food to waving cat's - yep we now have one to add to our ever growing pile of trinkets from our trips.

We have been using the trusty Lonely Planet Pocket Guide and saw there was a Drum Museum near to where we were.  So after refuelling on traditional Japanese food at Denny's, we headed to the museum.  I think we have found some hidden talents, and a good way to unwind.. YES, we were allowed to play some of them.  The collection is from around the globe and boy did we make the most of it.

From there we headed back to the hotel before having a very traditional Nippon dinner...which turned out to be #@%^ing expensive for what turned out to be fancy-^#%#ing soup....that we cooked ourselves. Well, we ticked the box for getting all Japanese on ourselves.

See how impressed Ryan was when he did the currency conversion...

An early night it was after this as we have a HUGE day planned the next day.

Busy Busy Busy Day 2/3

OK, so day two was a 'day off'....aka a little bit of a post karaoke hangover.

Let's move on to day three.

We made up for day two and haven't had much time to sit down and write about it. First up was to take a trot around the outside of the Imperial Palace. WE couldn't go in as we needed to pre-book and we were not that organised.  It was a lovely walk around what you might consider to be the central business district of Tokyo.... Big buildings, lots of suits and people being busy in the Marunouchi district. 

Much of the palace did not survive the WWII activities and was rebuilt, some parts did indeed make it out OK but we didn't see them all but had a quick glimpse from the outside.

From there we jumped on the subway and headed for the Roppongi area where the Tokyo Tower is located.  It is a bit like the old and the older...the tower is located right next to the Zojo-Ji Buddhist Temple.  The serenity was quite remarkable considering the location. There is a rather large bell out the front, not sure if a 15T bell is really needed to let you know people are at the front door...

From there we jumped on the subway....and headed to Rappongi Hills, a shopping centre with an observation floor....on the 52nd floor.  The floor also houses a gallery which was displaying a Marvel Comics exhibition.  It was interesting to see and not a bad view at all. Note to self - lunchtime trains are busy...

From there we had a quick rest back at the hotel and headed to Shibuya, where the worlds busiest pedestrian crossing is.  Yep it was busy and we saw many other interesting things.... Not sure what this is, but it was worth taking a photo.

We then ordered dinner at a ticket machine on the footpath and then sat down and had dinner delivered to us...  Good tucker it was!

Totally shattered we headed back to the hotel for a good sleep.

Time for bed as we have an early day tomorrow - heading to Fujiku Amusement Park out by that little hill - Mt Fuji.

WIll write about today's temple, drum museum, waving cats, shopping mall and other antics and tomorrow's adventure when we return. In the meantime, have a random photo from today...

Tokyo In Daylight - Shinjuku

It was one thing to get to the hotel in the dark albeit with a blaze of neon (or LED these days) I guess as you might expect for this town, but quite something else to step out of the hotel to start taking in this place in daylight.

Today's adventure was to see the Shinjuku prefecture.  This is regarded as the main section of Tokyo and is bloody huge.

Tokyo fun fact: over 3 million people travel through Shinjuku Station each day.

Today was a surprising 26 degree Spring day. Perfect for admiring the Cherry Blossoms and taking a stroll around the very traditional Shinjuku Gyoen [garden]. You would not have thought you were in the middle of Tokyo, except for the occasional skyscraper appearing from time to time. The serenity was perfect. Mum would have absolutely loved seeing these beautiful gardens, I had the feeling she was coming along for the ride today :-)

After a few hours in the gardens we trotted off to the Meiji Jingu [shrine].  We could not see too much of it as they are getting it prettied up as part of the Beautiful Japan Toward 2020 program in preparation for the next Olympic Games. Still a lovely walk and some interesting sights, like these stacks of saki barrels. YES PLEASE!

From there we took on the challenge of the Tokyo Subway.  OK, so we got a little lost but managed to find our way to where we wanted to go - to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the 45th floor. We managed a very hazy glimpse of the mighty Mt Fuji (too hazy for a good picture).

There was a display celebrating the successful Olympic bid, with the flag on display.

On the way back to the hotel we walked the back streets and stumbled across what looked like JB HiFi on crack!

Not keen to go back these as it could be expensive!

On the way home we grabbed some snacks to heat up in our room before dinner later one.  Yes, umm the cooking instructions... Well lucky for Google Translate [where you take a picture of whatever you need translated and it tries to convert it...tries], we kinda, sorta maybe got the general idea of what we needed to do.  The end result was very good actually. Lucky! Nothing got burned, but Ryan did have a nap, so I guess the exhaustion hit...as outlined in the instructions.

Not sure about the other snack pretzels we brought, Ryan liked them more.

Right-oh, off to the Seven-Eleven now to get some pre-dinner drinks.... 100 proof Smirnoff for $10.

Hello Tokyo

It has been a while since the three of us jetted overseas, yes we can't forget Clyde! After postponing the trip last year to take care of our sick furbaby we finally made it to Tokyo.

The flight was great, that could have been something to do with the free champagne that the crew kept forcing upon us. Oh the pressure. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was an exquisite piece of machinery, lower cabin pressure and bigger windows = arriving more refreshed. Could have been the bubbles and the friendly, chatty crew too.

We had a great view of Guam on the way over and assume they were all a bit busy down there getting ready for whoever mischief that nutter from North Korea was planning. Lots of airbases on a little island...

And Narita greeted us with a stunning sunset...

We could have brought the Dagmeister with us as even the furry loved ones have a place to stay while visiting!

We got to the hotel in Shinjuku about 3 hours after landing as NRT is about the same distance from our neck of the woods as OOL is from BNE. Lucky they held the room for us following the flight cancellation and we were made to feel welcome. So, a really lovely way to start this well needed escape.

After a quick shower we went for a walk to get some traditional Japanese food before retiring after a busy day.  The Double Cheeseburgers, fries and Sprite were a perfect end to a great day.