Here’s a short pictorial overview of some of the great stuff we’ve been upto here in Japan from when I got here in mid-December up until New Years Day 2010.

Please feel free to comment at the end by clicking on “Comments”.

When I first got to Japan, after the drama of my flight being cancelled by Jetstar (and ruining a bunch of plans), we had a combined welcome party for both myself, and the latest JET program teacher and his family who were visiting.

His girlfriend came a few day later and we had another party, with Japanese curry for dinner.

As Christmas was coming and my mum had given the family a gingerbread house as a present, we, together with a friend, built our very first gingerbread house!!

And a triumphant group after finishing!

We had Christmas dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Lots of fun!

Fun for everyone!

After christmas we gave the doghouse a makeover and painted it pink!

It suits her!

My birthday was up next. We went to a nearby hotel where we went for a hike in the beautiful mountains and used their onsens, which faced the mountains and the bay.

We also had a special blowfish dinner (yes the poisonous kind the chef needs a license for). Yum! And we’re still alive

And the birthday cake! When it is cut, it makes little heart shapes! Cute and smart (and tasty!)

We then went to Matsue in Shimane and stayed at a hot spring hotel, Cho rakuen (長楽園). This place has the largest natural outdoor onsen, and it is mixed bathing, which is fairly unique for Japan.

It also has great food. Here’s us having a special set dinner.

We’re in our own special dining room.

Great food and drink.

And here’s the food. This was the first course. There were several other courses as well consisting of lobster and fish.

And the Sashimi platter. Did I mention Sashimi? YUM!

And after all the eating. This is the entire family, including grandmother and great-aunt.

We had a cold change come through and it started snowing!

One other great thing about the hotel is that we were staying in the suites. Which had their own private onsen per room.

I loveeeee hot springs. At our overnight stay I went 7 times into the hotsprings. Which is quite a lot, but it’s soooo good!

Driving back was a little scary with all the roads snowed over. Several feet of snow in places!

And a family photo as we were leaving.

We came back on New Years Eve, in time to have some soba and sushi for dinner, as well as watch the special NHK New Years Eve TV show.

New Years Day is big in Japan. We went to the temple and then came back for brunch.

And everyone welcomes in 2010.

Including shin-shin.

2010 has just begun. A new chapter with lots of new and exciting adventures awaiting.

Wishing everyone a safe, prosperous and happy new year for 2010.

]]> http://www.leginag.com/2010/01/japan2009/feed/ 1 http://www.leginag.com/2009/12/mastercard-or-visa-in-japan/ http://www.leginag.com/2009/12/mastercard-or-visa-in-japan/#comments Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:49:59 +0000 Leginag http://www.leginag.com/?p=368 When you’re travelling overseas sometimes you have to resort to withdrawing money from your home country credit/debit card and deal with the poor exchange rate and the fees and charges they like to slap on. We recently ran out of money so we had to do an emergency withdrawal and ran into a world of pain.

Here’s a little advice on which cards to bring if you want to use them in Japan.

Mastercard is useless.

And Maestro (your normal ATM card) is just as bad.

Visa is the way to go. Accepted in more places overseas. Their ads are actually true. In China it was also easier to use Visa than Mastercard (but that was before the Olympics, not sure what the situation is since).

Many hotels and large department stores will accept both Mastercard and Visa, however, if you want to withdraw money from an ATM (which is a better idea as the bank charges you a fee each time you use your card overseas, as well as a % of the amount as a fee for currency exchange) it is virtually impossible to withdraw using Mastercard or Maestro.

If you want to withdraw money from the local 7-11 (which are everywhere), they only accept Visa. If you go to the ATM inside a shopping centre, they only accept Visa (if they accept foreign cards at all). The Mastercard ATM locator said that there were bank ATMs (located in/near banks) that did Mastercard but they were out of the way and inconvienent to get to. Whereas 7-11’s are everywhere.

So that’s my rant.

And if someone from the Commonwealth Bank reads this, please consider offering debit Visa cards instead of just debit Mastercard. I’ll have to keep my St George account with its debit Visa card open until Commbank changes its mind.

My trip here is unfortunately wrapping up, so I’m trying to make the most of the time I have here by getting out and about, and at the moment I’m spending all my computer time working on a report, leaving close to zero time for fun time on the net and blogging.

If you guys have any specific requests for presents from Japan, tell me now by e-mailing me or using the contact form above =)

Take it easy

Have a great Year of the Ox!

This is my favourite photo. I think it’s pretty clear why.

This is Kasumi’s favourite photo. The two of us are framed against a background of cherry blossoms.

We took over 50 posed-photos on the day, but only bought three. It was heaps of fun and I think Kasumi looks absolutely gorgeous.

Don’t forget to leave a comment! We love to hear what you think about our travels and photos!

This was a large-scale blowup of the main house in Totoro.

And there was a whole section designed for kids (and adults!) to make their own Totoro origami’s.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the main exhibition rooms, which sucks majorly as there was some seriously amazing art! There was even a stage set or something of Totoro’s cave (pictured below) which was about 6 metres by 15 metres, so well sized.

The exhibition was packed, at times we were moving at a snails pace literally. But it was well worth it. I really want to go to to Ghibili museum in Tokyo.

Catching up on some Ghibli movies at the moment, and I’m learning the Ponyo main theme (more on that later).

Shikoku, meaning literally four countries/regions, comprises of four prefectures, and during feudal times, four provinces, is often most well known for its 88 sacred temples, and the pilgrimages that were frequently undertaken.

Until the late 1980’s, access was limited to ferries and it was apparently rather precarious to visit the island, which is buffeted by strong winds and storms. That changed with the building of several bridge systems, meaning we could drive there within a few hours. And even in the safety of the car, we could still see and feel the massively strong winds that scourge the island.

I like Castles. So we had to stop by and visit Matsuyama Castle. We took the chair-lift to the top. If only it was snowing =(

The scenery from the top was simply amazing, you could see the ocean gleaming in the distance in one direction, and mountains on the otherside, as the city sprawled underneath.

The castle was relatively impressive. Himeji still takes the cake.

We had perfect weather. It was actually snowing lightly randomly throughout the weekend, which was cool, but I want snow drifts!!! Snowmen etc!

And here’s us!

Funky tree

And a random camera view from the second or maybe third floor of the castle.

And we all know that we all love samurais. And ninjas. This guy was the fourth lord of the castle. And probably some rings too.

And this is where I became a samurai. I think I need some better fitting armour, and perhaps a few decades of training first though. We also drank some amasake, which is an AWESOME drink specially made from brown rice. YUM!

We then went to the hotel.Did I mention it was 5-star? All the female staff inside wore kimono’s, there was valet service, the onsen was actually a private onsen, so that it was never too crowded, and we didn’t have randoms coming off the street.

I went into the onsen/hot springs four times during our one night stay, which was apparently impressive, with most people doing only 3 times. The onsen is just amazing. The water temperature is around 42 degrees. You wash yourself first, then go into the hot spring. I could only last around 15-20 minutes each time, but that was because I like to submerge myself totally into the water.

There are no photos of the onsen, mainly because we’re all naked inside, and a guy taking a camera inside…well, I’m not quite sure people would understand.

The hotel is also apparently known for origami, which is dotted around the hotel and rooms.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant inside the hotel. You have to book ahead, and they only have 7 rooms/groups per night. The food they have is arguably, so I’m told, some of the best food in Japan. Everything they gave us was fresh, was carefully arranged and it was soooo tasty.

Have I mentioned I like sashimi? Everyone knows it, so I managed so score some extra abalone and fish.

This is us enjoying our food! We were actually in the hotel to celebrate grandma’s birthday.

Fresh squid. I hate to admit it, but before I got to Japan, I didn’t actually know there was a difference between squid and octopus. I thought they were two words for the same thing.

We wore yukata’s that they gave us. It’s handy, and only Japanese Japanese hotels allow you to walk around in them.

And the flower picture.

Japanese Beef. mmm. yum. It’s a lot more expensive than imported Australian/other beef, and it’s darn tasty. This was wagyu beef.

Fish! Fresh and yummy!

Then fried fish!

And a traditional Japanese Breakfast in the morning.

I forgot to take a picture when the room was all neat and tidy, but here’s a sneak shot of the room. They also came and made tea for us when we arrived and in the morning.

Dougo is the oldest onsen in Japan, and this is one of the famous public onsens. We walked past at 6am, when they opened, and about 30 people were already queued up to get in!

And a clock. It tells the time.

Some funky art at one of the shops in the shopping street.

There’s a bit more about Ghibli, but I’m going to leave that for its own post!

I really want to go to onsens more! They are awesome!! Wish there were some onsens in Sydney.

I have a lot of catching up to do. Yes, I know you’re all waiting for some pictures of the anime stuff I’ve bought, but you’ll have to be patient just a little longer. I haven’t had a chance to take the photos yet (and I want to try something that might turn out cool).

The Tokyo subway system is pretty awesome, but SO complicated. You really have to plan out your journey and figure out where to change before you start your journey.

We went to Shibuya and this is the super-famous crossing that you always see on TV etc. It wasn’t as busy as it could have been.

This is the famous dog called Hachiko that is often mentioned in animes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the story is that he would meet his owner at the train station everyday after work , and that after the owner died, he kept going to the station to wait.

Random pic of Shibuya.

And here’s some cosplay from Harajuku. Eye cancer included.

There wasn’t as much cosplay as I expected, but then the whole trip Tokyo wasn’t as packed as expected/normal.

The best cosplay, to be honest, were the girls who were just walking around Harajuku in maid costumes, pretty dresses and such. Made it a bit hard to take photos.

Live music was included though. And it wasn’t even that bad.

This poor neko was being mauled by a..well, not sure what to call him. He had a massive camera and after every shot he would adjust the girl’s arm/pose, to get the perfect shot.

Half the cosplay wasn’t even really cosplay imho. Just funkily dressed ppl.

I want to go back to Tokyo when it’s a bit busier and take a lot more photos.

But failing that, can always just buy the costumes and get my gf to dress up

Lots of funky art around. This place had an Tokyo Okonomiyaki restaurant inside which is really popular. We had to wait an hour for seats.

Which brings us onto the topic of food.

This:

Becomes:

Which then becaome this as we decided to make one massive one rather than two small ones:

Which becomes this:

It’s actually really yummy. I prefer it over Osaka Okonomiyaki, but nothing beats Hiroshima Okonomiyaki. This is a heart. Because I love my gf.

Oh, and I can’t forget dessert can I. Someone tell me if you can get Haagen Dazs in Australia, because I’ve never seen it around.

Blogging catch up begins NOW!

They have an awesome ￥100  and ￥120 menu, which is around a dollar or two, exchange rate dependant.

The pictures suck, will get some better ones later.

Sorting rubbish is BIG in Japan. Even in Maccas. At the top there is a hole to put in unfinished drinks.

This is a sorta filler post, I admit it, using sub-par photos. I’ll go take some better ones soon.