Tuesday 31 August 2010

Back to Tokyo - Home away from Home

back in Tokyo now, i was gonna upload all my photo's from my phone but i cant seem to access it so maybe tommorow.

Okay i managed to upload some pics. Have a gander if you will....


My favourite sushi i think Toro and Maguro (both tuna)

Melon flavoured Kitkat only found in Hokkaido

Some crab and wierd other stuff but delicous

Tobacco Vending machine
A dragon fly i managed to take a quick snap of



didnt upload everything a bit tired gonna hit the sack

Sunday 29 August 2010

Mikkaburidesune !!!!: Walked a thousand miles

okay maybe not but my feet are killing me. yaada !!!! no more walking - i know they say taxis in Japan are expensive but i think soon these guys will become my best friends.
So its been three days since ive been able to write anything as i have been totally run off my feet.

Air Club -->Koukyo--> Womb --> Hokkaido/Sapporo-->Otaru

So on Thursday night i went to a Club Called 'Air' which unfortunately was an awful night because firstly it was a drum and base night and probably only 10 people inside. To be fair the sound system was great and the bassline was pumping.

On Friday i went to the remnants of what was originally the Japan's imperial palace - basically what was left was just a brick wall and a moat (the actual palace grounds at the time was not open to the public), but the surrounding garden was nice.
That night i ended up in a club called Womb in Shibuya- which was ten times better as it was a house and trance night and coz it was a Friday night it was  great but it was crazy expensive maybe around £35. Straight from the club to the airport and off to Hokkaido 6am.

Now im in Hokkaido enjoying the great sushi and cooler weather - its roasting in Souhern Japan.

Unfortunately my camera battery has run out and i have left my iPhone cable in Tokyo so not many photos to upload.

Ja ne !!!!!
The moat surrounding the Tokyo Imperial palace
Matsu - a tree found in the park around the palace
A bit of the palace wall
A statue of a samurai - i wonder who he is ?
A building in Tokyo
Tokyo Skyline
The original Government building in Sapporo
A horse and cart in Sapporo
Remnants of a railway track Otaru
Otaru
Some old guy painting in a canal in Otaru
Up close and personal with a seagull in Otaru
Welcome to Otaru !!

Friday 27 August 2010

Harajuku & Meiji Jingu Koen

Still in Tokyo. So yesterday i had nothing planned other then fighting the Jetlag. But ended up wondering around Harajuku which didnt really interest me at all not really into fashion and stuff - its way too 'girly' and stuff.
But i ended up going to Meiji Jingu Koen (Snaps Below). After which i went to Shibuya - which was OK again a shopping area so not driving need to visit. But i was looking for Gold's gym which apparently but no one seemed to know where it was, so i decided to  go Roppongi Hills where there was Total Workout gym, which i did find but the cost of a single session is about 3500yen which is like £25. If i cant find anything cheaper i guess i will have to use it.











Note on the picture slideshow on the right has the rest of the pictures

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Akihabara-->Ikebukero-->Ebisu

i pretty much trekked all of Tokyo - well not all but a lot. i guess the highlight was going to Sunshine Cities Observatory on the 60th floor and watching the sun set. I'll upload the picture at a later date but some highlights below. In addition i have come to grips with the mayhem that the Japanese call the Tokyo Metro - with my trustee map in English LOL. Then finished with some dinner in Ebisu.

Unagi --> Eel

Went to a little quaint restaurant and had Eel for lunch it was
fantastic and well cheap. Right now I'm in Akiba what a weird place.

Jet Lag - あついですね

ok i was meant to post this last night but i was super jet lagged and tried to connect my laptop patch cable to the phone socket and after maybe a 1hr sleep this morning between 7am and 8am i am feeling a lot better then yesterday.
So just to prove im here below are some pics of my electronic toilet - which i think even tells me when to take a poo. You want one dont you ?

Anyway today i will head out to Akihabara and check out the 'Dweebs of Tokyo' haha my kind of people !!!
FYI -its superhot here how is it in London ? Muwahahaha !!

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Just landed

Phew !!!!!!! That was way too long. Well I made it in one piece.
As expected went through customs and baggage collection at Japanese superspeed efficiency and collected my SoftBank sim card. But I had to make an emergency stop at Narita's Loo. (Sheepish grin)
Right now I'm waiting for the 1145 Narita express to leave.
Though I have to say I'm not too impressed with the airport, it appears to be something built from the 1970's. But the NEX is spacious comfy and cool.
I am in all effects supershattered. Need a shower and shave before I can look and feel human.

Monday 23 August 2010

Ready to Rock & Roll !!!

What else goes with rock and roll ? I'll leave that to you imagination.
Well I am at heathrow now bags checked in and passed security control
(evil laugh)......
Well my gate is not announced yet, so I'm gonna kill some time and do
a little bit of shopping. Vodka and whiskey first, and boots for some
NightNurse.
See you in Tokyo, be there or be square !!!!

P.S this the second time I'm writing this blog post. The first one got
lost somewhere in transit.

Saturday 21 August 2010

How far is Tokyo ?

how far is it from London to Tokyo ? about 11 hours 25 minutes according to my ticket.
But how far is it when your sat between a sweaty fat dude and a wrinkly old lady, pretty darn long don't you think ?

Well as usual I have my trusted iPod with 10 days worth of music, but then there's always the more effective method of overdosing on NightNurse and sleeping the whole way, which come to think of it might not be  bad idea as I land 9 am Japan time.

I was going to do a couple of things today but as I had a f**cked up  migraine today, which  practically left me comatose for most of the day - what a way to start your holiday. So having just got out of bed I'm gonna clean up and see what London has to offer on a Saturday night, not much probably as im practically broke again, after paying all my credit card bills....

Friday 20 August 2010

TGIF four times in a row !!!!

well its Friday at last and after 5pm my holiday will start. I'm practically bursting at the seams !!! below are my stats..

Excitement 176%
Stress  -150%
Money  Broke
Happiness  :-)
Location 日本 (ok very soon)
Energy 3%
Enthusiasm 200%
Worries LOL

Thursday 19 August 2010

A on and off sordid love affair with lady Japan

A  lot of people ask why Japan ? what's your fascination with Japan? the simple answer is I don't have any more interest then the average Joe.
In terms of passions the order of interests for me are music, strength training, travelling and food so on and so forth. I guess Japan is one of those places if you love dining out and travelling to far flung places then you have to visit it at least once. After travelling to all of Europe for 15 years now its time to give Europe a miss.
My on and off sordid love affair with lady Japan started a while back, unbeknownst to me. hmmm... my first encounter with something Japanese was probably a French cartoon called 'Mysterious Cities D'or' about Spanish conquistadors travelling through the Americas looking for the fables cities of gold. This program in essence was my first encounter with Japanese style animation, as this was jointly developed by the French with a Japanese animation company called Studio Pierrot.
Later on in my teenage years I had brief encounters with Akira Kurosawa here and there with movies like 'Yojimbo', 'Seven Samurais' on late night TV on Channel 4.
More recently I picked up a second hand book called 'I am a Cat' by Natsume Soseki. Which I thought was a brilliant book and thus I decided to explore Japanese literature a bit more and as such ended deciding to learn to the Japanese language and not soon after here I am rambling on about a crazy trip to Japan.
I guess my intention in this blog is to describe my experience in the culinary delights of Japan and explore the music scene and the weird and wonderful mix of Japanese culture which manages to combine the traditional and modern and make it seem to work, where as others countries seem to fail miserably. Anyway I thinks that’s enough for now I need to get back to work…matane

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Japan Rail Pass

A quick dash at lunch time to AWL Travel on Great Portland Street at lunchtime to buy a Japan Rail Pass - this is essential for the Gaijin if you want to save money travelling on the Shinkansen around Japan - basically for £218 it gives you unlimited travel for 7 days on the bullet trains except the Nozomi. Note this is only available for non-residents of Japan.
http://www.awlt.com/
http://www.japanrailpass.net/


Essentially i will use this for the majority of my travel outside of Tokyo. 

iPhone 3GS will work in Japan

Got positive confirmation from Softbank that as long as your iPhone is unlocked then it will work in Japan i.e. that UMTS 2100mhz is the same as WCDMA in Japan. So went ahead and booked  a sim card with Softbank its 105 yen a day. Hopefully i can collect the SIM straight-away after landing and there should be a minimum of fuss. yatta !!!

Interactive Geotagged Map

Ohaiyo minnasan - I've been trying to add a interactive geo tagged map
of my journey but can't find a thing. If anyone knows of a gadget let
me know. Otherwise it looks like a custom google maps thingy mejig
will have to be created...... Ja ne

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Spent 2 hours redesigning my Blog

OK after two hours of painstaking effort i managed to re-organise the page and add a itinerary, and synchronize my pics from picassa to the sideshow on the right -  its still a bit crappy and boring - but the excitement is yet to come..........

Hiring a phone in Japan is a めんどくせ!!!!

spent all day trying to figure out what the in's and out's are of hiring a phone in Japan, finally i have decided sim card only- managed to unlock my iPhone and hopefully i can hire a 3G Sim card from SoftBank

http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/

Yen@132,100.01

just booked my currency at http://www.bestforeignexchange.com
they seem to have the best rate in the UK i found this using moneysaving expert

give it a try

http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/holiday-money/#results

Things i need to do

things to do before i head out
1) Buy Japan Rail Pass - hoping to do this today
2) Buy some Japan yen
3) Have a haircut
4) Think about what to pack - virgin airways are well stingy only 23kg allowance
.........

Monday 16 August 2010

Testing blogging by mail

This is my first try at blogging directly from my phone - this
blogging stuff is becoming mendokse already !!!!

--sent from my iPhone

8 Days to Go

OK so i have 8 days to go before i go to Japan - nearly everything is complete -except for buying my Japan Rail pass which hopefull i can buy tommorow. I will be posting my itinerary soon..

またね

しょうふ