The Search

We had to get up early the next morning which meant we didnt go to bed till 12.

Got up early to take the first express train to kansai airport. We had the whole carriage to ourselves and seemingly the airport when we arrived. Very efficient checkin with JAL, after which we endured a laborious bureaucratic process to change our remainf yen to korean won. The plane left on time and provided us with a picturesque final views of the land of the rising sun. Hopefully that will be the last 767-200 flight of my life, as unfortunately our plane was changed from a -300 at the last minute. This plane was older than us and had appalling leg room for us giants, (the only non-asians on board). JAL treats this as a domestic flight service wise (only 90mins) so no entertainment but a respectable breakfast was served. About halfway through the flight clouds filled the horizon and we began to experience minor turbulence which readied us for the large difference in weather we were about to experience.

Once we were on the bus (only public transport, due to train not being ready for 'a few more years') we saw the havoc the heavy rain was the local drivers with at least 3 major crashes slowing things down on the airport tollway, including a particularly photogenic one involving a few cars rolled over and upsidedown. We were thrust off the bus into a torrential downpour at the closest metro stop to our hotel. The footpaths became rivers meaning our shoes, jeans and luggage were getting drenched as we were quite underdressed. After running aimlessly we miracuously found our accommodation from a dodgy map only to be informed that our room wasnt ready. We were handed two umbrellas and were on our way to find lunch and orientate ourselves in the new big city. We came back after some filling lunch and found a seemingly korean style accomodation (no shoes allowed, low beds) but with an extensive selection of cable channels (MTV and english movies). But the best thing was the free wireless internet, which is faster than my adsl at home. Spent the rest of the afternoon reconnecting with the world as we could now use the macbook because they use the europrean style plugs here instead of the american style ones as in japan.

Took the shinkansen (bullet train) to osaka. Very fast smooth ride arriving at shin-osaka station very close to our hotel in the early afternoon. The room was amazingly spacious for japan, however it was much older and worn. The doors were also just that much lower that my head became very sore. We then proceeded to the main tourist attraction in osaka, the castle.

It is surrounded by a disgusting green moat and the actual castle itself has been rebuilt many many times in the past with the most recent being after the end of world war 2. We then returned home and went out to the namba district featuring many arcades and the infamous dotomdori. It was the most neon we had ever seen, ever.

The next day we got up and got straight on the train to nara, an old capital city of Japan. We took a lesson in japanese trains picing between the local, rapid and expresses. We finally arrived and headed straight to macdonaroo (maccas) for sustenance. Then we began the long uphill walk through the city and through nara park, which is filled with many free roaming deer (revered as roaylty) and countless temples and monuments. However the most striking was the todai-ji which is the worlds largest wooden structure (despite also being rebuilt) and also an enormous sitting budda statue, similar to the hong kong one. The was a large line of people trying to fit through a very small hole in a pillar, as it is said that those that pass through it will achieve enlightenment due it resembling budda's nose in size. We had no chance. The park was a also a good way to experience the difference between Shinto temples and buddist temples. After many hours walking up hill and down dale we were exhausted. No thanks to the oppressive heat and humidity, however the forest and gardens were still very green. We returned home much faster due to our new understanding of the JR lines. That night we ventured into the umeda district and where we frequented another so called 'Australian bar'.

The following day we visited Kobe, which is the opposite direction to nara. Here we walked to the waterfront and then attempted to find a ropeway. This unsuccessful search did yield a nice vantage point (ironically a cemetery) at which we could view the bay. However it did involve climbing hundreds of stairs and walking up numerous very steep roads uphill, which tuckered out dane. After returning home we went on a fruitless search for a decent watering hole, however it was a monday night.

After a very late departure we managed to arrive only marginally late due to the shorter than anticipated flight time. The service and food was good but the entertainment was even more dismal than expected. The movie was not offered in English and only 3 radio channels functioned. However, this did enable us to get some sleep.

Upon arrival the humidity hit us. The Narita arrival procedure was super smooth with no immigration lines and bags available within minutes. We then tracked down an ATM that took our 'foreign' cards and headed for the Narita Express train. All trains were running about 30 minutes late due to 'heavy rain'. The train was far from express stopping many times with numerous level crossings. An hour later we arrived at Tokyo station found some lockers to dump our bags and then ran for the bus terminal, which we had little idea where to go. We found it too late, missing our tour bus by 5 minutes, but were accommodated on a later bus and met up with our original group.

We went by JR line to the national Sumo arena to experience the national sport in the twice yearly festival. We arrived to see the top two groups of Sumo wrestlers competing in the afternoon, about 30 fights of less than 2 minutes. We were provided with english radio commentary headsets and the informative guide gave us a printed Sumo crash courses and was able to answer our queries.

After the conclusion of the tournament we went to retrieve our bags and head for our hotel. We located it after a while and found it to be nice and modern but as expected, tiny.

On our first full day we began in asakusa at senso-ji temple and its associated shopping arcade, with that mister donut for breakfast of course. Then we took the metro to the massive shibuya crossing where thousands of people cross at an intersection of many roads. After that we trained it to tokyo dome city to ride the mighty thunder dolphin rollercoaster, which was naturally extremelly fun. We then took the JR line back to tokyo and walked around the imperial gardens which were on the other side of the station from our hotel, which were a nice change of pace. That night was cheap night in the roppingi (expat) area so we decided to hit the town, however since we were in the area we went up the tallest building in tokyo first where the view after dark was fantastic. There were many nightspots on offer and dane was accosted frequently to goto skimpy bars by strange black men...Many places were very pushy.

The following day we began going to an onsen (hot spring) on the big island of tokyo bay called odaiba. After that we continued to check out some other things on the island including pallete town and mega web, a toyota love in where you can test drive some prototype cars. Glad to be in shorts we kept our fluids up courtesy of the incredible abundance of vending machines across japan, with a favourite drink being pocari sweat. It was refreshing to goto a place in tokyo we you could walk in any direction without colliding into other people. We were tired and called an early night, chilling at home with sake and sumo on tv.