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.

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!

My brief visit to Japan’s South Island over, it was time to hit the train tracks and take the Shinkansen up to Tokyo. This time, I got to travel on 3 different shinkansens.

The journey itself took about 5 hours.

The insides of the train are similar to a coach bus. The cushiony seats are reclinable, there’s plenty of leg room (even for me) and you can put stuff above you.  They have different configurations, 2-2seats and 2-3 seats.

The scenery and views on the journey was an interesting glimpse into Japan.

Within an hour, we were in snowfields, and I was sooo tempted to get off the train just to play around in it.

Japan is pretty mountainous, which makes for amazing scenes and contrasts.

The ’scenery’ highlight on the train ride was definitely seeing this mountain.

Mount Fuji. Pretty slick eh.

Tokyo station was a seething mass of people, however it is under massive construction, due to be finished in 2010 or 2012, so wasn’t really that picture worthy. There are lots of random scultuptures and such around though.

This is the “Peace Clock”. Not sure what about it represents peace, but there you have it. It should also be noted that Tokyo is a candidate city for the 2016 Olympic Games.

After checking into our super-tiny hotel room, we decided to try something fun and go restaurant hopping for dinner.

The aim was for a round of drinks and small dishes at each one. Sake was at the first restaurant.

I guess it’s getting a bit old me showing all these photos of food, so I’ll “select” a few from the second restaurant. Scallops anyone?

Or how about a yoghurt-ish shaka shaka drink?

At a lot of restaurants (ones I saw anyway), after the 25th of December, they raise their prices in anticipation of New Years. So it wasn’t as cheap as it could have been. As a result, we decided to raid 7/11 and take the party back home.

My best friend Haagen-dazs was there as well. I’ve only ever had Haagen-Dazs when I was in China, and afaik, it’s not available in Sydney. Heaven knows why. I mean, we have TWO lindt cafes! Why not Haagen-Dazs.

This post is being cut a little short, in order to meet publishing deadlines, (and because I want to sleep now.) (And if you didn’t realise, that was my birthday dinner above =p)

So I’ll leave you with this little gem I found on the Tokyo subway.

Juicy Tokyo photos and more tomorrow!

Stay Tuned~

The 26th of December dawned a bright and sunny day, albeit cold, and what better way to spend it than by visiting Kumamoto Castle. This is only the second castle I’ve been to in Japan.

While it may look impressive, it is a little disappointing that most of the Castle was rebuilt in 1960, with restorations beginning in 1998. The Castle has the two main towers, 49 turrets, 18 gates with turrets and 29 additional gates, and was this version of the castle was originally built around 1600AD.

This tower/turret, however, is quite a bit older and was quite scary to walk in. The floorboards kept bending as I walked on them, and creaked quite ominously.

All the doorways were also ridiculously low, standing at maybe 1.5m tall.

The castle would look really, really good in Spring, when the Cherry Blossom trees were in bloom. Unfortunately, in winter, all I get to look at is the barebones of trees.

The castle had high walls (you can see a person in the pic for comparison)

It also had a moat.

And lots of windows for shooting arrows and guns out of on unsuspecting passerbys (or enemies) =p.

The castle has a good surrounding view. In this picture you can see (at 10x zoom) Mount Aso in the distance.

The castle, while looking nice, was pretty much designed for tourists when they re-built it. There are concrete stairs throughout the centre of the castle, and all the floors are exhibits. This contrasts to Himeji Castle, which I quite prefer.

The Honmaru Goten Palace, recently rebuilt, is so new and sparkly, you can even SMELL the new wood. It’s almost scary how new it is. It is, however, faithfully reproduced, and even uses traditional techniques for joining the wood and such.

And some, what I believe to be preserved versions, or more proably replicas, of some of the door designs.

Traditional New Years decorations. You’ll see these all over the place in Japan.

After walking through the Castle and a few of its turrets, I went for lunch =) Fried Oysters.

And I finished it pretttyyy quickly.

Kumamoto Castle was nice, but all-in-all, I prefer Himeji Castle. Perhaps it wasn’t the best thing to go and see the top-rated (or one of) Himeji Castle in Japan first, but there you go. Probably not the most fascinating blog I’ve done, but it’s an important cultural part of Japan, and much of the Castle area is World Heritage (13 buildings).

After leaving Kumamoto, I went for a sushi-train dinner with the family, and then went to Tokyo. More on that soon!

Stay tuned~

Prepare to scale heights, plunge into the anime world of Akihabara, view the awesome food I’ve eaten, and more. The picto-blog will take you on a journey to experience a slice of Japan.

The journey began on a clear, yet cold, Christmas Day, catching a Shinkansen to Mount Aso. This was the FIRST time I’ve been on a shinkansen, and it didn’t disappoint.

Smiling me. I went from Hiroshima to Hakata to Kumamoto to Mount Aso.

There are lots of different types of Shinkansens. Hikari, Kodama, Nozumi, Ariake. They use different trains and have different speeds (both train and number of stops wise). Kodama is the slowest, and Nozumi is the fastest. Ariake is specific to Kyushuu (I believe). This is the Ariake. Kind looks like a prison train to me.

The Ariake is a pretty funky train. It’s very compartmentalised, this is the compartment I was in. You can also see that the overhead storage is like that of a plane. Swanky eh.

On Japanese trains and buses, you’re not meant to talk on your mobile. You will see lots and lots of people sms-ing, playing games, reading ebooks etc, but if your phone rings, everyone will glare at you, and sometimes the conductor will even put an announcement asking you to switch your phone to silent and not talk on the train. On Shinkansen’s, you have to go into the corridor sections, or use special compartments like this one below.

I spent something like 5 hours travelling from Hiroshima to Mount Aso, by three Shinkansen’s, two trains and a bus. I won’t bore you with my scenery shots, but this shot was taken at 10x zoom, and I thought was pretty cool. Wind power ftw!

Now we come to the Mount Aso volcano caldera area.

It’s the largest active caldera in the world. The last major blast was in 1993, but there have been explosions over the past 300 000 years. The crater has a 128km circumference.

I actually didn’t go up to the crater (they run a cable car up to it), but stopped 5 minutes away at the Museum/Observatory. When I got there, I saw a neighbouring hill behind the complex, and spied a path at the top of it. I thought it would be a great place to get an awesome view of the crater.

Zoom on a camera ftw. This is a zoomed-in picture taken of the path from the mountain in the picture aove that I saw from the complex.

There were busloads of tourists, chinese, japanese and korean, but avoiding them, I struck out on a path heading in a likely direction. After a few ups and downs and lefts and rights, I came to a crossroad, and naturally, chose the road less travelled (or most weathered).

It wasn’t easy, both the path and the weather.

It was blowing a GALE the higher I got. I was almost knocked down several times, and when it got REALLY bad, I actually had to lie on the ground, to be shielded partially from the wind by the grass. ==” Did I mention it was COLD? There was no snow, but there was ice around.

Even though I was freezing, the view from the top was simply spectacular, and worth every step.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

And this one is prob worth two thousand. The wind was SO strong, not to mention I was looking into the sun.

It was amazing. I called this post “peek climbing”, because I was climbing another mountain to “peek” at the Mount Aso volcano. After getting off the mountain, I made the trek back to Kumamoto, and went to defrost in the hotel bath.

Tomorrow’s blog post will cover my adventures in Kumamoto City, then following blogs will adventure to sushi train, Tokyo and my growing anime collection.

Stay tuned!

Japanese New Years food. Enough to put a smile on your face and food to face the day

This is the sunrise over East Hiroshima on January 1st, 2009. It rose at about 7am, but was unfortunately covered by a cloud bank, which moved on later during the day. To make things even better, it SNOWED for a few minutes today. It was short, but it WAS snow.

I experienced my first New Years in Japan, and it is VERY different. Great emphasis is placed on family time. Also, the first three days of the New Year are more important than New Years Eve. We spent the 31^st, after arriving back from Tokyo,  just having dinner and watching some special programme on TV, which was fun and all, and stayed up till midnight.

Just before midnight, all (or a lot of) shrines start ringing their bells. They ring them 108 times. Apparently it is because we have 108 sins and it atones for them. We saw on TV a lot of people at shrines for midnight, which was quite impressive.

We woke up for sunrise on the 1st, then went to a shrine and rang the bell and prayed for the new year. I also went for a luck reading (not sure what to call it, but you pick it out of a box), and I got “Best Luck”. There are 5 of them, ranging from Super Bad, Bad, Normal, Good Luck and Best Luck. So I was really lucky!

These were just a few of the many different paintings and sculputures and such that were around the temple.

We came back for brunch, and this was seriously amazing. I really don’t want to rub it in how awesome it was…but…like…omg?!?! The pictures don’t really do it that much justice, but just think MASSIVE obentos, with EVERYTHING in them. From teriyaki chicken, to lobster,  prawns, oysters, beef, sashimi, tempura, cooked fish, to so many things I don’t even know the names of, but are super tasty!

I have pictures of the individual boxes, but I won’t torment you with them. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely.

For dinner, we finished up what was left in the boxes, and added a few dishes, like lobster salad, fried oysters among others.

The whole family was here, so it was pretty busy, but lots of fun.

New Years was summed up pretty nicely as: Eating, Sleeping, Drinking and Talking. Family time. For 3 days (or so). We did all of that, and even played some new years games which was heaps of fun.