and i hate it...
i think the thing that has upset me the most is that i became accustom to not having to work... lol. but seriously, japan was so much fun and i cant wait to go back.
day 1. slept in and missed our first tour. nevertheless the flight getting to japan really drained us so the sleep did us a lot of good.
don't know if you heard over the news but the week we staid in tokyo was the coldest they have ever had in nearly 40 years. it was so cold it even snowed a little... didn't stop us from going out and exploring though... (oh and one thing you need to know about tokyo and its surrounding suburbs is that it is huge! think brisbane city and multiply that by 10)
day 1. slept in and missed our first tour. nevertheless the flight getting to japan really drained us so the sleep did us a lot of good.
don't know if you heard over the news but the week we staid in tokyo was the coldest they have ever had in nearly 40 years. it was so cold it even snowed a little... didn't stop us from going out and exploring though... (oh and one thing you need to know about tokyo and its surrounding suburbs is that it is huge! think brisbane city and multiply that by 10)
imperial palace
hibaya park
a small hidden cafe in the middle of ginza
day 2. disney... again because of the rain we couldn't go on most of the rides. well we could have but our faces would have been frozen or worse still we would have frozen to death. never the less we still had a fun day.
our drawing class room &
the result...
day 3. most of it was spent in transit to kyoto city (2 hrs on the bullet train). we found it extremely efficient and clean. no graffiti in sight. the train itself, once it has stopped in tokyo was cleaned from top to bottom. (my kind of place!)
we then had the night tour where we experience what goes on in a tea house. the actual area we were in is where they filmed 'memoirs of a geisha'. after the tea ceremony we had a traditional dinner at the tea house; of tempura tofu and vegetables. the host even gave us a little parting gift, mine was a swan and a samurai hat origami, while j received a pair of traditional chopsticks.
the dinner was followed by an hour performance at a small theater which showcased all the different traditional arts in japan preformed by geisha's and samurais.
the highlight of the night was being able to capture a maiko (apprentice geisha) on her way to an appointment.
day4 and 5. did a little shopping at the astroboy museum.
while exploring the city we bumped into a parade... what it was for we will probably never know. but it involved this colourful cart and all these little children dressed in traditional outfits. they were so cute i just wanted to take one home.
we then visited some temples and gardens. we had just missed the cherry blossoms in their full glory, but still the gardens were beautiful.
we ended our last day in kyoto with a trip up the kyoto tower and then a quick stop by an irish pub two blocks down from where we were staying. we met a buddhist monk. (yes you heard right) apparently they can go to pubs and drink irish beer...
his name was schu... and we loved him...
day 6. our last day in tokyo... :(
we went to visit the infamous harajuku... pissed that we missed the harajuku girls and the cos players because they only came out on a sunday. but still the shopping was fun and we got to see some interesting things along the way like this condom shop.
xoxoxo
