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Jan 2, 2006
A Pictorial LIfe in Japan #9
Author: Anna
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Who would of thought that I would be experiencing it for the second time round in Japan (and sorry still dont know how much longer it will be). But because of my poor effort in the first year there is still so much more to do and see around here. And of course, further opportunity for free accomodation and tour guide for those still thinking about paying me a visit!
In the last few months, have been constantly sick, a result of my frequent late nights and not getting used to the cold weather. However, I am proud to say that I do boast a 7.8% chance of calling in sick from work, the highest in my region (shame it wasnt a nice even 8%). Been to a few festivals and my parents recently came to visit me from the Christmas to New Year period. In two weeks I will be going to Nagano with Dominic for a skiing trip so will have to pack my long johns and try to come back with no broken bones. In the meanwhile, here are some photos to wrap up the last few months. Miss you all heaps, Love Anna xx    Jidai Festival: One of the top three festivals in Kyoto, participants dress in historical costumes. The parade runs from the Imperial palace (where I went and waited for two hours in order to get a good spot) to Heian Shrine.  Kurama Fire Festival: If its big or there is a chance someone will get injured I`m there. This festival had a reputation of being one of the most dangerous of all. Naked men dressed only in loin cloths dancing around a fire and lugging torches up a mountain...Whats not to love about that   Hozu Rapids and Autumn in Arashiyama: During autumn I visited Arashiyama twice to see the changing of the leaves. The view of the mountains when going along the Hozu Rapids by boat was truly amazing.  Early Christmas work party: With Bec, a teacher from my branch and some of the japanese staff. It seems that the longer I stay here, the more Japanese I seem to appear, wouldnt you agree? I am Australian goddamit!  Kobe Luminairie Lights: Ended up being a great night in Kobe with Dominic, went to Chinatown, and luckily didnt get a bad stomachache this time round from the food stalls` steamed buns. Then an island off Kobe just so we could go to a Vietnamese restaurant (possibly the only one in Japan) and a chance to brush up on my Vietnamese, which after almost two years, my Japanese is now better. But thats not saying much...  Hano Tour Festival in Arashiyama: Did not stay long as I was freezing my ass off but did experience some Edo Period entertainment. They must have all been deaf back then because they sounded off tune to me.  Farewell Razz: Goodbye Girlfriend! I miss you! Posted at 07:03 pm by lostinjapan
Oct 18, 2005
Pictorial life in Japan #8
Posted at 04:45 am by lostinjapan
Oct 2, 2005
A Pictorial Life in Japan #7
 The Candlelight Festival in Nara  With my good mates Natasha and Raz. It was Natashas going away party. Sniff!
 A tiny fraction of the expo site from the expo cable car  Fishimi Shrine  The sun setting from the top of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto 
Danjiri festival in outer Osaka NOW ON TO TOKYO! -----------------------  Akihabara, the electronic town, apologies for the crookedness 
Ghibli Museum  The Tokyo Game Show! Ok I admit it! I`m a geek 
And maybe also a bit perverted... 
Harajuku park where even the break dancers couldnt resist the cameras  Spot the cross dresser #1  Still at Harajuku park, the elvis impersonators! The put on a great show!  Spot the cross dresser #2  More Harajuku girls  Imperial Palace 
Yokohama - the view from the landmark tower  And the landmark tower itself  Thats one big ferris wheel  Being japanesey at Mt Fuji fifth station  Lake Ashi. And people say I cant take photos. HA!
 Okudanate `pongy` Valley (spelling?)
Posted at 01:52 am by lostinjapan
Sep 27, 2005
Author: Anna
Wahooo! Hi everyone. Time for a major update in Japan. As most of you would have known, Mary visited not so long ago so I took a well deseverd 10 days off of work. So starting with....
Day 1 - Welcome to Kyoto Mary!
Recovering from a major hangover from too many long island iced teas at a good friends going away party, I met Mary at Kyoto Station. I was already running almost an hour late (sorry again Mary) and when I saw her she could of easily been mistaken as Japanese as she was snapping away with her camera, taking photos of the train station at every possible angle.
We spent the day just going shopping around the station area, catching up with the goss and by the end of the day Mary was already sick of shopping which goes to show you...Noone can outshop me! :)
Day 2 - Aichi Expo
We, correction, I, work up at 6:30 while Mary slept in for half an hour. Mary wanted an early start to Himeji and Hiroshima while I wanted an even earlier start to Aichi Expo with Donald. We arrived at Nagoya at 8:30 but didnt get admitted into the Expo site until 11ish since there were so many security checks and queues. Queues to get on the bus, the bus ticket, to buy a drink, the toilet, the entry gate and so on...But the country pavillions were fairly ordinary so we spent most of the time eating at the restaurants. The Australian pavillion was the best, of course I may be a bit biased but only there could we buy a party pie for $4 and a VB for $7. It was the most delicious party pie Ive ever had (hey its been 10 months) so I ate it in 6 bites. We went back to Kyoto with our stomachs content and a desire to never queue up for anything again.
Day 3 - Theres more to Kyoto than just the shopping
Mary headed off early in the morning to go to Nijo castle, and being the good friend I am I showed my support by choosing to sleep in instead and meet her for lunch. After some sushi we went to Fishimi shrine. Its famous for its red toris which spans from the entrance of the shrine to the very top of the mountain. A few hundred metres into it we were already sick of walking so we headed back, but thinking about it I would love to go back there to do the full climb. Ahh who am I kidding I dont think I ever will.
Next Gion, the geisha district, and the start of our walking tour around Eatern Kyoto. Bummer though, it started raining so we took some shortcuts and found our way to Yasaka shrine. We hid there and tried to figure out which was the best exit to get to Kiyomizu temple and Mary in the meanwhile was getting into her artistic rain shots. Because Donald is usually the map reader it was up to us girls to find our way round so we got horribly lost for a while. Heading in one direction before changing our minds. But our `this way feels good` approach pulled off in the end and with some help too from the locals we found ourselves at a quaint shopping strip of traditional souveneir shops and resturants before reaching Kiyomizu temple. The top of the temple had an amazing view of Kyoto city. We were lucky enough to be there in time for the sunset.
On the way home, we stopped by Gion again, but this time we saw a Geisha walking towards us to which I exclaimed to Mary `Look!!! Geisha!!` so she crossed the road. What snobs geishas can be.
DAY 4 - If only Melbourne had festivals like these
A day at Osaka. To kill some time before meeting my friend Raz we stopped over at Kyoto Tower observatory to have a look of the view. Today we planned to do some shopping and go to the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival. Well known since in the past it has been responsible for a number of deaths, something like 3 a year! So if were to see some broken bones we wanted to be witnesses to it. The festival had something like 30 floats each of which were pulled by selected members of the neighbourhood. What made it dangerous though was how the men would stand on top of the float dancing while doing an amazing balancing act when it was pulled through the sharp corners. It would bring disgrace upon your neighbourhood if you were to slow down at those corners. So japan like. We didnt see anyone getting injured but we did meet two very cute NOVA teachers but I was too engrossed in the festival to pay enough attention to them so in the end they left and Raz and I were kicking ourselves.
After the festival headed back to downtown Osaka to go shopping. My favourite department store was closed so we only went shopping briefly. Ended the night in Americamura. We were so tired on the train ride home that we were falling asleep while standing up and dreaming of oppurtunities lost (okay, maybe only me)
Day 5 - Tokyo Bound
After a really stressful morning of scrambling around Tokyo station to find coin lockers for our luggage we were able to just make our connecting train to Ghibli museum and give ourselves a pat on the back that we had successfuly made it to Tokyo. Was really surprised from my first impressions that it was really no different to Osaka, just on a much bigger scale.
We met our first bunch of undesirables at the bus stop, while waiting for our shuttle bus to the museum. They were two Candadian fellows who 5 minutes into the conversation asked if he could film me as he was making a `documentary.` But when we arrived to the museum we ditched them and had a great time. Ghibli museum is the name of Hiyao Miyazaki`s (spelling?) production company. The director responsible for Spirited away and my favourites KiKi`s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky. We went a little overboard in the souveneir shop and ate some very interestingly sized hot dogs. Got a nice photo of Mary posing with the sizable sausages but she wont let me post the photo up so please email me if you want a copy of it :)
After leaving Ghibli without running into the Canandians again we checked into our hotel. The hotel was really nice, it was pretty cheap yet the rooms were decent and the location great. Only dissapointment was the breakfast buffet, no bacon :( And one hotel staff member kept on snickering and laughing at us whenever we spoke to him. Til today, we still dont know why he thought we were so funny. Its not as if we were trying to speak Japanese. Anyway after chilling out for a little while we went down to Akihabara, the electronic district for some window shopping and a quick dinner. And can you believe it, we ran into the Canadians again! We were convinced they were stalking us. So after some fake promises to email them we headed to Agnes going away party in her dormitary. We were only there for an hour as we didnt want to miss our last trains. But in the end we missed it because there was a train accident so our first night in Tokyo, we had to catch the taxi to our hotel.
DAY 6 - Anna doing her thing
Mary decided to give the Tokyo Game Show a miss (I suppose she already had a taste of it from Agnes` party) so she could go to Nara. So I spent the day on my own. I was a little anxious in the morning as, it would be the first time I would have gone sightseeing on my own like EVER in JAPAN. It ended up being a good day, but I was glad to be in Marys company at night because I was really sick of talking to myself. But one thing is for sure, you do meet a lot of wierdos when you are travelling on your own. Example number 1, I was only on my own for 30 minutes before a middle aged foreign man approached me. He introduced himself as the man who played the waitor in Titanic. He gave me his business card and I tried to fake an interest when he offered to be my travelling buddy if I ever needed to have a good time.
I arrived at the Tokyo Game show about 40 minutes from opening but there was already a huge queue forming at the entrance. Do you know when the video people in long queues? I was one of those people!!! TGS ended up being really cool, but since I was there for only a few hours I didnt have any time to line up to play any of the games. I tried my best to take photos of the xbox and playstation exhibits but photos were prohibited so I gave up after being told off for the third time. But I did take plenty of photos of the models!
After TGS I went to Ginza. Known for its expensive departments stores so there was nothing I could really afford there. But as the main streets were closed off to cars, it was a great place to go strolling around and go people watching. Same went for my next stop which was Shinjuku, the biggest city in Tokyo. Had better luck going shopping there, and only met one wierdo. Example No 2: Was taking photos of a sex shop in a pretty seedy area, when a man tried to offer me one of his own condoms.
As it was coming close to sunset I headed down to the Toko Metropolitan building, highly recommended by Mary for the night view. From the 45th floor I enjoyed a beer and chatted away to the bartender until 9ish. Felt very much like a Carrie in Sex in the City but I think I was just trying to convince myself that since I was feeling very much of a loner by the end of the day. Got back around 10ish but Mary didnt get back til an hour later, so after telling her off for getting back so late (I was getting very concerned!), it was another end to a day in Tokyo
DAY 7 - Girls just wanna have fun
We woke up at another ridiculous hour to go to the Imperial Palace. The grounds itself are not open to the public but the gardens were but it was so hot and humid we only made it as far as the bridge. Next, Shibuya for some shopping and cheescake. Looked very similar to all the other cities we had been to but the walk from there to Harajuiku was a lot of fun. One of the stops, Harajuku park, attracted people of all sorts. Musicians would perform live and they drew quite a sizeable crowd too. Mary fell in love with one of the female lead singers in a band, while I was having more fun watching the Elvis impersonators. Further on we saw the Harajuku girls! Very freaky looking but more than happy to pose for the photos. We then headed down to Takashite street, a famous shopping strip for Harajuku girls but since neither of us were really into dog collars or tutus we didnt ended up buying anything there.
That night, we went clubing. Our hotel in akasaka is only a 5 minute cab ride to Roppongi, the best place to be for a memorable night. Even though it was a Sunday night we figured it would of been alright. It is afterall Japan! So we went to Vanilla, I think the third biggest club in Japan. And it was dead. By the time we left at 11ish there was a decent crowd but noone would be dancing. Next stop Gaspanic club, a foreign bar. They were playing trance music so after a feeble attempt of dancing to it we gave up and headed to Wallstreet Bar. We were only drawn in cause they offered us one free drink. It was very crowded and Mary got the unwanted bum rubbing by one of the Japanese guys there. But when they started playing Ricky Martin we knew it was time to leave. While walking around to try to find a decent club we were hounded by a lot of the promotors and owners offering us free drinks. I was too drunk by that stage to notice but Mary thought it was kinda scary. A lot of the guys would have their hand on my back or try to hold my hand to convince me to go into their club. All of them seemed to be offering free drink to chicks so its quite cheap to get drunk in Tokyo! We got talked into one but apart from one couple we were the only ones there. It was kinda creepy so I only finished half of my free beer and used the loo before we left. Mary had stopped drinking a while ago but I had far too much so I tried to sober up by eating at Hard Rock Cafe. Felt really crap so drank about 10 glasses of water, I think the waitor was fed up with me by the time we left but he really should of just left me the pitcher of water! Hmm there was also a lot of laughing coming from Mary too that night.
DAY 7 - Biggest, Tallest and Fastest
Slept through breakfast so was running a little bit late that morning on account of our night out. But started off the day at Ueno by going to Ameyoko Market, ended up just buying some more Ghibli merchandise! From Ueno we went to Yokohama. It boasts the biggest ferris wheel, tallest observatory (landmark tower) and fastest lift in the world. Im a sucker for these kind of things so we went on all of them. Yokahama was a really modern city so we really liked it, and Chinatown was a big plus too. Went there for dinner and got all excited over yum cha and steamed buns. Ate far too much but figured what the hell, we are on holiday! Back at the hotel we played with the funky toilet buttons and managed to get a stream of water on my pants. Mary thought it was all very funny.
DAY 8- FUJI!!!
Checked out at 7 in the morning to start our guided tour of Mount Fuji and Hakone Area. Our tour guide`s english was rather bad but it was amusing hearing him say how everything was `VERY CHEAP! IS GOOD` or `ITS FREE. IS VERY GOOD!` Ended up sleeping about half of the bus trip but Mary slept pretty much the whole way through. That girl can really sleep just about everywhere! The first stop of the tour was Mt Fuji Fifth Station the place to be if you want to start climbing Mt Fuji. It was extremely cloudy so we couldnt see much of the mountain ranges at all, and same went when we caught the cable car from Mt Kamaogate (spelling again) and the cruise on Lake Ashi both which are meant to have a breathtaking view of Mt Fuji but we saw nothing. It was pretty dissapointing to not see anything but we cheered up when we arrived at our hotel. It was gorgeous! It was basically a onsen resort, we went to the public bath during the evening. Floating on the water of the outdoor rock pool looking up at the stars was exactly what we needed to gather our strength back. And wearing our yukata nightgowns around the hotel with nothing underneath hehe i could get used to this. Mary got a facial and I went back to the public bath again. Our rooms were huge too and we had a fantastic view of the mountains. Had no problems sleeping that night.
DAY 9 - Bye Mary
Our last day together we had a free day to enjoy Hakone. We had our buffet breakfast which I was being a total glutten over because they had bacon. We spent the day taking the course recommended by our tour guide yesterday. First was a bus to gora and from there we caught a tram to Sounzan so we could take the ropeway. There were three stops on the ropeway and we got off at the first stop Owakudani (spelling?) Valley to view the sulfurous vapor erruptions from the volano. I wanted to get a closer look but Mary was already gagging so I went on my own. It was really stinky but it did give me a craving for eggs so I bought their speciality souveneir of black eggs cooked by the bubbling pools. There were 6 in the bag, Mary didnt want any so I managed to get through 4 before I had to throw the rest of them out. Back on the ropeway we had another amazing view of lake Ashi and as it was still really cloudy we could only imagine what Mt Fuji would have looked like. The last stop of the ropeway was near the docking area for the pirate ship cruise. We didnt have enough time to go to an onsen (hot spring) so we decided to head back to the main train station to catch the shinkansen home. We ran into Agnes and Alarik! Freaky. But there were no canadians about. Did some quick browsing around the train station before we went off our seperate ways. Sniff! Arrived at Kyoto station at 8:20 and went home for an hour before going out again that night to go clubbing and there you have it folks. My summer holidays, and what do I have to show for it? Lots of clothes and only $70 left in my wallet before pay day on the 15th.
DAY 10
Nah kidding, theres no more. Thanks for reading! Luv Anna
Posted at 09:28 pm by lostinjapan
Aug 6, 2005
A Pictorial Life in Japan #6
Spermies at the baseball game at Osaka Dome. I feel sorry for the guys who have to clean up the mess afterwards
Quiet please on the set!
My farewell party at Hikone, I was transfered to a school at Kyoto Station
Posted at 02:44 am by lostinjapan
Aug 5, 2005
Hi guys!
Well another well overdue update on life Japan. We are well into summer now although this summer has been a lot more eventful. Its been very unlike the previous summer, where we spent majority of time indoors in fear for the gigantic bees and the humidity. But so far we have seen thousands of condom shaped like balloons being released into a baseball stadium, been chased out by a bloodied geisha from a haunted house, been to the biggest fireworks display in the world (so they claim) and have been through some tearful goodbyes.
The condom shaped balloons are just one way Japanese people show their support for the baseball team. So like everything else in Japan no wonder it is so weird. Normally I wouldn’t give two hoots about baseball, I would rather watch a game of golf. But baseball seems to be the only thing they are fanatical about so we went to a Hanshin Tigers (home team) versus the Hiroshima Dragons game. We left it to our Canadian friends to explain the rules which made less sense the more we drank. But the highlight was definitely the traditional Hanshin Tigers release of condom balloons at the end of the ninth inning. There is something not right about people waving around phallic like objects in the air and thrusting it to and from their chest. But I guess it beats what the Hiroshima Dragon fans did, that is hitting two wooden spatulas against each other. Where do they come up with these ingenious ideas?
The following week we went to Eiga Mura. On the other side of the train station where I live, the movie theme park is based on the Edo era. It is aimed for children so we had a great time! Its no Universal studios but it is famous for its sets which are still used to shoot samurai drama shows today. Some attractions were disappointing such as the SFX special show which was merely a dinosaur bobbing his head in and out of a lake. This did raise some questions about the park’s historical accuracy. Since we went with another three couples from work we proved to be more of the tourist attraction there. We had visitors insisting in very broken English to pose in their photos whenever we walked by. This only bothered the guys when they weren’t high school girls though.
And of course it’s not summer in Japan without fireworks displays. So we decided to go to the biggest one of all! Perfect Liberty Fireworks, over 120,000 fireworks in an hour length show. It was a spectacular show from what we saw, as we did miss out half of it by trying to get a better view since we had been facing the wrong direction. Doh! So that’s why we haven’t got any good photos for you as they were all obscured by apartment buildings and trees. But we found the crowds to be more impressive anyway. Already 5 minutes into the show people were starting to head back to the train station to queue up for the trains. Insane!
So that’s all for now guys! Ting is coming over to visit tomorrow for a few days and for Donalds birthday we are going to head to Shirahama beach which is famous for its sand and why not? It is after all imported from Australia! So till after then…
Love Anna and Donald
Posted at 11:42 pm by lostinjapan
Aug 1, 2005
Hello Hello! Its Don (and Anna!) from Wombat Valley Japan!
Just a quick update, and yes... i know that we have been slack in updating! Tonight, we are off to a fireworks festival in Osaka, which is meant to be the worlds biggest annual fireworks display!
Anyway, some of you may know that I (Donald) moved apartments 2 weeks ago. For those that dont know... i moved 2 weeks ago! I've made a website with a comparison between my old and new places. I hope you enjoy... or ignore. Whatever takes your fancy :)
Posted at 04:30 pm by lostinjapan
Apr 28, 2005
A Pictorial Life in Japan #5
 The remains of the A-bomb Dome and items found in the aftermath of the bomb displayed in the Peace Meuseum 
The gate of Miyajima temple and some random Japanese garden we discovered while walking to the cable car to Mt Misen Posted at 06:41 pm by lostinjapan
Hello!
Well, we are back in Japan, back at work, and back to missing Australia! Since coming back we have both been working 6 day weeks pretty much every week to make up for the time we had off during our Aussie holiday. Since coming back to Japan we have managed to fit in a couple of touristy things, including a trip to Arashiyama (a.k.a. Monkey Mountain), and also a weekend away to Hiroshima.
Arashiyama (only a 15 minute bus ride from Anna`s apartment was a fantastic lesson in evolution. At the top of a mountain there is a large population of wild (well, semi-wild) monkeys. We witnessed one monkey trying to start a fire by rubbing two stones together, another monkey was fishing sticks out of a pond (before he leaned over too far and half fell into the water hehe). There were also various instances of mutual lice picking, aggressive behavior towards overly curious Japanese tourists, and of course tree climbing and butt scratching. One monkey even starting mimicking human behaviour when it decided to go down the childrens slide after anna demonstrated how it was done.
Last weekend we went to Hiroshima which was both very interesting and very upsetting. The atomic bomb on August 6th 1945 killed around 160,000 people either instantaneously or from side-effects over the next few months. Some things that are not widly known are that around 10% of the victims were foreign (mainly forcefully conscripted Korean laborers), and also that a large proportion of the victims were children who had been taken out of school to aid with reconstruction after previous bombings. There were several monuments to the foreign and children victims within the gardens surrounding the Peace Museum. One building in the Peace Park contained a large underground dome which created a mosaic of the landscape after the bomb made up of 160,000 tiles (obviously one for each victim), inside the middle of the dome was a fountain which was created as an offering to all the victims who died begging and pleading for water for their severe burns, it was pretty disturbing. Also within the building was digital recordings and transcripts of testimonials by many of the surviving victims. While there were probably several hundred testimonials, after listening to a handful we both pretty much decided a few was enough.
Inside the Peace Museum there was a lot of information about the construction of the Atom Bomb and the reasons for the selection of Hiroshima as a target. There were also more victim testimonials and many disturbing artifacts (like a box of bottles that had melted together into a big glob of glass from the heat, and also a wall that contained a permanent shadow where a man had been standing when the bomb went off , the heat bleached the wall except where his body had been.
While it is true that Japan did initiate the Pacific War and committed many atrocities against other people (as the Chinese seem to be reminding them at the moment) I was really impressed by the efforts that Japan (well, Hiroshima) are making towards peace and especially the destruction of all nuclear weapons. Since 1945, every Mayor of Hiroshima has written a letter to every leader of every country that has performed a nuclear test. All of these letters have been placed up on walls in the peace museum and it was really disturbing to see the number of letters that were up. Given that there would be one letter for every nuclear test since 1945, then the number of tests since then would easily by into the thousands. Pretty scary.
Anyway! That night we went to a Fugu (poisonous puffer fish) restaurant! For those that don`t know Fugu, it was the Sushi that Homer Simpson ate which poisoned him so he only had 24 hours to live. While it was a little expensive we had a 7 course meal (the last course was only Ice Cream so no Fugu in that!), it was actually really delicious, especially the Fugu Fish and Chips!!! Two of the dishes (Fugu Nabe and YakiFugu (Fugu Hot Pot and Grilled Fugu)) were cook it yourself. Hence it was served raw. This was fine, but raw Fugu is very raw i.e. it was still twitching on the plate when it was given to us! We had a lot of fun poking it with chopsticks but it was a little scary when the twitching went crazy after we threw it on the grill!
The next day was a lot more upbeat. We went to Miyajima Island which has a famous shrine built on the ocean floor. There were also some mangy deer, some more monkeys and took a cable car and hiked up the rest of the way up to a big ass mountain with a nice view at the top! Anyway, we hope everyone is well in Australia. My (Donald) weekend will be Tuesday and Wednesday from May and Anna will have the same from June. Till next time love to you all!
Also happy birthday wishes to Diem, Oanh, Joyce and Marie! We didn`t forget!
Posted at 06:01 pm by lostinjapan
Feb 20, 2005
Hi everybody!!!
Just an update to say that Anna and I are back in Australia safe and sleepy and will be here until the 9th of March. We are having a party in our honor which will most likley be held in Burwood at a restaurant. The date and time is Friday the 25th Feb(!) at around 7pm so please keep this free!!!! Please ring either Anna or myself to let us know you are coming - unless we contact you first.
Hope to see u all soon!
Don and Anna
Posted at 12:37 pm by lostinjapan
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