Day 7 - Kamakura - 31 March 2009

Hello, yes it is me, Sarah, blogging again.  Alan will undoubtedly comment in red. She won't let me write the blog any more because apparently I take too long. So you'll have to put up with her nonsensical ramblings.

 

From the lack of photos you would think we did nothing today, but it was quite the contrary.  We did a hell of a lot of walking, just didn't see much.

 

We had a beautiful sleep last night.  The bed here is glorious and the pillows are so soft.  The blockout curtains are so dark that when I got up to go to the toilet this morning, I thought it was about 5am and it turned out to be after 8.30am.

 

We left the hotel at 10am and was unable to get into the free shuttle to the station.  We therefore hopped in a taxi for a few dollars.  Thankfully it is a flat fee from the hotel to the station so it didn't matter that it took us 10 minutes to get there.

 

We then boarded the train for Kamakura, one of Japan’s most popular sightseeing spots.  Kamakura is a historic seaside city an hour out of Tokyo.  It was a former capital of Japan (from 1192 to 1333), and has many renowned Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.

After getting off the train we went to information although she wasn't very informative. She gave us a map and directions to the 850 tonne bronze Great Buddha. We started walking and after 10 minutes came upon a sign saying that he was another 1.6kms away.  It then occurred to us that we were the ONLY ones walking.  She had failed to give us information that there is a very nice train that takes you right there.  But we continued to walk and finally found the crowds at the Buddha. It was a nice day for a walk although the roads and footpaths were very narrow and we weren't always sure if we were heading in the right direction. We also saw a family of squirrels playing on a roof and we stopped in a shop where Sarah got to pat a cat who was sitting in front of a heater.

As you can see from the photos, Alan was very respectful of him.

We then returned to our starting point in Kamakura via the train.  I had notes about Dankazura, a 100 metre long pedestrian approach, lined with cherry blossom trees, leading to the colourful Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. The notes said "2 minutes from the station" Alan thought he had followed the directions but we ended up walking through the extremely crowded shopping town of Kamakura. I followed the map perfectly well and you know it. There were lots of nice food smells but we could never quite work out where the nice smells were coming from.  After walking another 20 minutes we came across the Shrine.  After walking around there for a while we then saw the pedestrian approach.  It would be beautiful if the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.  We are still hopeful that we will at some stage see them in that state.

We continued the walk which was a hell of a lot more than 2 minutes walk from the station.  We stopped in at KFC for some food, well we think it was food.  The chicken was so greasy and the Fanta was green and very sweet. I asked for Fanta and she gave me diet coke after which she gave me something a sickly green colour instead. But it was Sarahs drink so it didn't really matter. We then boarded the train back towards our hotel.  We were 1 minute late for the shuttle but we waited to see if he was running late, which we never find anyone runs late in Japan.  After 6 minutes we decided to take the 30 minute walk back to the hotel.  We were about 5 minutes in to it when we saw the shuttle.  We were shocked, he was running late.  By this stage though we were well past the pick up stop so we kept walking, and managed to pick up some more of that chocolate milk Alan likes so much. I'm not the only one.

Back in the room we decided it was nap time.  It was interrupted a few times; first by some crows sitting on our balcony and then by a gong coming from the shrine next to the hotel.

Tonight we ventured back towards the station, this time on the shuttle and had dinner in a little Japanese bar.  I had garlic scallops and shrimp and Alan had a pork and shrimp paella.  However, it would appear that you are supposed to always share food in Japan so Alan didn't get his paella until I was completely finished my meal.  As we arrived before 8pm we received a 20% discount for happy hour. Bargain! Happy hour actually lasts for 3 hours. Back on the shuttle to the hotel we are now thinking it's time for a spa. We could get used to this life.

 

Day 6 - Tokyo - 30 March 2009

Sarah is blogging again.  The reason is that I can do it a lot faster than Alan and then I get to do something other than watch the back of his head for 4 hours.  He will comment, as per usual, in red. 4 hours! Geez she exaggerates.

 

We woke today to the first fully sunny day we have had here, and of course it was a travelling day.  We checked out of our smokey hotel around 10.15, caught the tram to the station, stocked up on sandwiches for the trip and got on the bullet train to Shin-Osaka.  We then changed trains after buying some more sandwiches and headed to Tokyo.  In total we were travelling 5 hours but it flew by really quickly.  It makes a difference when you have something to look at out the window unlike on a plane.

 

After Alan had had a nap on the train, I put him on 'Mount Fuji" lookout while I had a nap. I woke some time later to find him again asleep and no photos taken. I wasn't asleep, I was meditating. Just then I turned my head and sure enough, Mount Fuji was visible outside the left side of the train.  We took a few blurred photos, which you will see in today's photos but more will be taken when we head down that day on Saturday for three nights.

 

Again with my perfect prepared instructions, we disembarked the bullet train one stop before Tokyo's main station and changed to a local train.  2 stops later and we were in the vacinity of our hotel.  Well, sort of.  This is one place we won't be walking to and from the station every day but the hotel runs a free shuttle every half hour.  On top, the shuttle arrived at the pick up point and 10 minutes later we pulled up in front of our beautiful expensive hotel. We knew we were in rich people land when they meet you at the shuttle and quickly take the bags from you. I wasn't sure if the small girl would be able to lift our heavy bags but she managed just fine. Check-in was a breeze and the lovely lady with our bags escorted us to our room, in the executive area of the hotel.

 

We are on the 20th floor, looking straight out at Tokyo Tower.  The bed in this room would not have fitted in the room we had in Hiroshima.  We have a lovely balcony, although it is way too cold to stay out there for too long, and a bathroom complete with spa bath.  I can see that bath getting a workout in the next five nights we are here. We have the biggest king size bed ever. We could sleep 4 people in it and still not touch each other.

 

On our way out to look for dinner, we asked if we could cash a travellers cheque.  They looked at us like we were strange.  Of course you can cash a travellers cheque.  They even have a special desk to do it from. Finally, we are cashed up. At our previous hotels they backed away in horror when we asked if they could cash a travellers cheque.

 

We took a while guess at which direction to walk in and found we were heading for a number of restaurants.  On the way we stopped in awe at the people picnicing in the park at 6.30pm, in about 6 degrees.  We thought this was strange but on the way back about 2 hours later, the number of picnicers had grown in size, many of them with rugs on the concrete path. What strange land have we wandered into?!  We also saw a couple climbing his dirt track, and she had rollerblades on. It's surreal. By the time we had finished our dinner and were making our way back to our hotel, it was probably about 3 or 4 degrees and there were more people turning up to picnic in this little park next to our hotel. Young people, businessmen in their suits, anyone and everyone. It must be some sort of tradition here. Maybe they don't feel the cold.

 

We had dinner in a restaurant called Miami Gardens and were somewhat surprised when we went in to find it was an Italian restaurant.  A nice spaghetti bolagnaise and a seafood pizza. 

 

We are now back in our hotel room, looking at the lights of the Tokyo Tower, contemplating our day tomorrow.  I think the first thing on the agenda will be a sleep in.  It looks like Alan has decided that we won't do Disneyland and DisneySea.  He has found another amusement park that looks, well, amusing. Well we've done Disneyland in Anaheim twice and also in Orlando so I would prefer to try a new different park. Bring on Yomiuriland I say.

 

Oh and one final thing for the day, it has taken us 6 days, but we finally found chocolate milk! Woohoo!!! My bones are becoming brittle from lack of milk.

Day 5 - Miyajima Island - 29 March 2009

Another blog prepared by Sarah whilst Alan had his afternoon nap.  His comments, when he wakes up, will be in Red. Well it was Sunday afternoon so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise really.

 

I think we had a first in world history last night, Alan didn’t stay up to watch the English soccer on the internet. Probably just as well as today was an action packed day.  I would have but I woke up 5 hours too late.

 

We woke up in our awful smoke smelling room and prepared to visit Miyajima Island.  There are two ways to get to the island; 50 minutes by tram and then ferry or 26 minutes by train and then ferry. We opted to take the train although probably the tram would have given us more things to look at, but with our rail passes, the train is free.

 

We disembarked the train and turned when we heard an Australian accent.  We had met a single Sydney lady, Margaret, at the airport both in Sydney and she attached herself to us when we arrived in Osaka to get through immigration and customs.  She was then being met as she was joining a tour. It was her tour group we ran into on our way to the ferry.  Small world. Their tour group has 22 people, mostly older and mostly from Melbourne. Thankfully the tour organiser gave us some great information on how to exchange a travellers cheque and hopefully when we get to Tokyo we will be successful.

 

We boarded the ferry almost immediately and after a very cold and breezy 10 minutes, we were on Miyajima Island. The ferry was free for us with our train passes. I knew of and was prepared to meet the tame deer who await the arrival of the ferry, and knew you had to be careful of any paper you’re carrying as they snatch it out of your hands and eat it. The first thing you get when getting on the island is a map and many visitors lose theirs almost immediately. The deer go straight for it.  They sneak up behind you quietly and snatch anything out of your hands. But they’re very cute.

 

After watching the deer for a while, we took a leisurely stroll around to the Ohtorii Gate, the most photographed tourist attraction in Japan.  We were lucky as we arrived right on high tide.  As we discovered later when the tide went out, the Gate isn’t as pretty when there is very little water around it.

 

We walked around the Itsukushimajinja Shine which was originally built in 593 and then rebuilt in 1168 and the Gujunoto (Five-Storied Pagoda) and made our way to the Ropeway, which is a gondola system. My parents will be very pleased to know that I was doing a nature walk up part of the mountain. I think Sarah had about 12 heart attacks on our walk up the mountain to the ropeway. Well parts of it were pretty steep after all. The first part of the ropeway runs for 1.1kms and goes up 945 feet and the second goes across to a mountain up another 203 feet.  The view from the top would have been spectacular had it not been a hazy day.  The view however is better than is shown in the photos though.   There are warning signs everywhere to watch your belongings.  There are monkeys and although they aren’t interested in cameras, they do take a particular liking to backpacks.

 

After admiring the view from this point, Alan gave a millisecond thought to walking up the hour round trip to the main lookout. It looked very steep so I gave it a miss. Instead, we took our return trip back down the ropeway.  By this stage we were getting rather hungry so we stopped at a corner stand and picked up some beef yakitori on a stick.  We sat down to eat so not to make a mess but that lasted no more than a few seconds before a deer decided to come and see what was on offer.  As they were just over A$7 each, we decided not to share.  We then walked slowly back to the ferry before heading back to our hotel.  Before getting here, we decided to stop at Hiroshima station and get our tickets for the train to Tokyo tomorrow. Just as well we did.  It would appear that this is a very busy station and the last thing we need is to be delayed tomorrow getting to Tokyo.  It is a 5 hour trip.

 

We had dinner this evening at an Irish Pub a few blocks from our hotel. The food was great, but as Australians we’re not used to going somewhere for a meal and having people smoking right next to us while we’re eating so we couldn’t wait to get out of there.

 

Trivia for the day…. The taxis around here quite often sit with their rear passenger door open waiting for someone to get in. I would have thought they would want to keep all their doors and windows closed given how cold it is out there.

Day 4 - Hiroshima - 28 March 2009

Blogging today is done by Sarah and Alan’s comments will appear in Red.

 

Today we had a bit of a sleep in as we wanted to milk the last of our very nice hotel in Osaka.

 

We checked out at 11am and tried to cash a travellers cheque.  No go.  I don’t know if we will ever be able to cash one.  The Lonely Planet says you can cash them at Banks and major hotels.  Well the major hotel didn’t work and trying to find a bank around is hard.  We actually found one today but, of course, it was Saturday and was closed.

 

We made out way to the train station to get to the main station in Osaka.  The trains and platforms were packed.  What we had been expecting during the week turned out to be what happens on the weekend.  Everyone rides the train.

 

We made it to Osaka and then made our way to get our reserved ticket on the fast Shinkansen (bullet train).  This was a fun task due to our lack of Japanese and the ticket agent’s lack of English.  Thankfully I had done enough homework to know what train we needed, the time and even the track number from which it left.

 

We had an enjoyable feast of sandwiches before getting on the train.  They make the best sandwiches here and they are so cheap. I really like the fact that sandwiches come with their crusts already cut off over here.

 

It was a lovely smooth ride and we had been placed in the silent car so it was, naturally, very quiet. I find it pretty hard to be quiet for an hour and a half but I managed. Yes, he might have been quiet, but he was his ever annoying ‘I’m bored’ self.

 

We arrived in Hiroshima and were amazed at the amount of ‘white’ people around, including a number of Australians.  Also, English is much more common here.  Must be because of it being such a tourist destination. We got very simple directions on how to get to the hotel and arrived about 8 minutes later. As was the case in Osaka, the public transport here in Hiroshima is first rate. It’s fast, clean, runs on time and there is another service coming along practically as soon as the previous one departs.

 

This hotel is strange.  It is a very narrow building wedged between two other buildings.

 

The guy at the front desk spoke reasonable English, enough for us to understand that although we booked a non smoking room 3 months ago, none were available.  The room is tiny, but not as bad as the bathroom. The smell of smoke was a little bad but we ignored the “do not open this window in case of an emergency” sign as this really was an emergency.

 

As we are on the 10^th floor, which is the 2^nd highest floor in this hotel, we have more of a view of those on other floors, who look into the next building.  We have a view of the next building’s roof.

 

We left the room and started walking to the Atomic Bomb site and then realised it was a little further than Alan thought, so we jumped on the tram.  The site isn’t as spectacular as we would have thought but it was still good to walk around it and to the Peace Park.

 

For those who aren’t good when it comes to history, The Atomic Bomb Dome (officially known previously as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall) was the only building in the immediate vicinity that wasn’t completely destroyed when the bomb fell. Around 140,000 people died and the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park and Eternal Flame now stand as memorials to those who lost their lives. 3 days later Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima and a further 6 days after that Japan surrendered to the allies, thus ending World War 2. The Atomic Bomb Dome is now a world heritage listed site.  Thank you Alan, and Wikipedia, for that history lesson.

 

We were given a great map at the train station, in English, which said there was a great viewing spot for Hiroshima Castle from a shopping centre.  We walked the few blocks, and the map was right.  The view was great, not only of the Castle and its garden, but the baseball stadium next door. The local baseball team are called the Hiroshima Carp. Not sure why you would want to call your team the Carp. They’re good catching fish but not great eating (people familiar with The Castle will recognise that quote).

 

We returned by tram to the hotel, where we were given an education by the tram driver on how to make our own change to pay for the tram.  The Japanese work very much on an honour system.  You get on the tram and then you pay when you get off.  Nothing is stopping you getting off the back of the tram and not paying the fare.  At ¥150 ($2.20) flat fare, it is hardly a lot of money. Thank goodness we’re honest clean-living people.

 

For dinner we ventured across the street to this amazing place I had read about.  It’s an Okonomiyaki Restaurant.  An Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake.  They are common all over Japan but in Hiroshima it is their specialty.  It is a pancake topped with cabbage, bean shoots, other green stuff, yellow stuff and then on one we had pork (which was actually bacon) and the other was shrimp. This is cooked and then turned over.  The pork one then had sobu (crispy noodles) and the shrimp had Odun (soft noodles).  An egg is then cooked and the stack is placed on top where they pour a thick sweet Japanese soy sauce on the top which is then seasoned with salt, pepper, something else that was green and some sesame seeds.  The meal was delicious, very filling and cheap.  The staff were really friendly and most spoke English. I think our waiter was sick of us by the end as he had to come back about 17 times to refill Sarahs water. Well excuse me.  If my glass had been like yours and not filled totally with ice, maybe there would have been more room for the water.

 

Tonight has been back in our tiny room where Alan was able to watch the Japan vs Bahrain soccer World Cup Qualifier while I wrote this blog.

 

Day 3 - Osaka - 27 March 2009

Sarah will start the blog because she is at the hotel while Alan is out looking to spend money on old Nintendo Game & Watches. I'm back now, so my comments will be in red.

 

We got up this morning reasonably early but were unsure of where to spend our day.  The newspaper that we have delivered to our room every morning (we get the English version of The Japan Times, all the news without fear or favor) suggested today's maximum was going to be only 9 degrees and raining.  However the internet suggested it was going to be 11 so we thought we would take on Universal Studios. 

 

It had been cool when we left the hotel but it was sunny and no breeze but by the time we arrived at Universal at about 10.30am, we discovered it was by the water, the breeze was very strong and it was FREEZING. Freezing does not describe what I felt when that wind blew. Icicles formed on my nose and ears, I'm sure. Thankfully I did a good shopping trip before leaving home and my jacket keeps me nice and warm.  Alan had three layers on and still was cold. Maybe if he had some hair on his head, it would stop the heat leaving his body. I have more than enough hair! But a beanie would be handy over here.

 

Despite the cold, we weren't the only ones to decide on Universal today.  The place was packed.  We waited a good 30 minutes in the huge queues to get our tickets and finally we were in the park.  We headed directly for the big rollercoaster, Hollywood Dream - The Ride. It's very similar to the roller coaster at Disney California Adventure in America, for those who have been there. I wasn't going on it and as I'm still moving slowly, I told Alan to run ahead as it had a 120 minute waiting time.  I decided to walk around to see if I could make it for the Waterworld Show but it had started before I got there and couldn't get in.  So I hobbled back to wait for Alan outside the ride.  I had been sitting down about 5 minutes when he appeared.  He had been off the ride for ages.  Being a "single" at Universal means you get to jump the queue!  Good news for us for the rest of the day. I walked around for ages looking for Sarah before I finally found her. We bought what appeared to be a bottle of water from a vending machine, a fair enough assumption given that it was clear liquid named Aquarius. Wrong! It turned out to be a sickly sweet lemon drink which neither of us liked at all. I'm definitely not going to try the bottle of waterlike liquid in our hotel bar fridge which is called Pocari Sweat. I don't know who Pocari is and I have no desire to drink his sweat thankyou very much.

 

We ventured down to Jurassic Park The Ride, one we love and which we have ridden previously at Universal Los Angeles and Universal Orlando.  We used to laugh at the Japanese at both these parks who would don raincoats before getting on a ride.  Today, they could laugh at us, but again, all the Japanese were wearing them. There's no way I wanted to get soaked on the ride and then spend the rest of the day cold and wet. We didn't want to pay the $5 for one so we started looking through the bins and a nice Japanese gentleman came up and gave us his. Off Alan went for his ride returning about 10 minutes later and then I went and had a go.  I love this ride, especially the 80 foot vertical drop.  Of course, for me to like it, it has to be into water.

 

We then walked around to Back to the Future The Ride but they didn't take singles and we weren't going to wait the 2 hours for a ride we've been on before.

 

Spiderman The Ride was next, again allowing singles and Alan was only gone about 10 minutes.  Next was the ET Adventure but although they allowed singles I stood there a way down the queue for 10 minutes and they hadn't taken a single person from our queue.  I decided to give it a miss.  We had been in the park for about 4 hours and as it was so crowded and bitterly cold, we decided to leave.  We stuck our head into the Hard Rock Cafe thinking about some food as so far today we'd only had a couple of donuts, but it was the equivalent to about $40 for a hamburger.  They aren't worth that much.  It's a shame because we've eaten in a lot of Hard Rock Cafes. But at least we went inside.

 

We walked through Universal City on the way back t the station and we came upon a Japanese girl with her performing monkey.  He was very cute and clever but I felt sorry for him.

 

Despite the cold, we wanted to see the Floating Garden Observatory.  It was about a fifteen minute (Sarah hobble pace) from Osaka Station but well worth it. 

This futuristic observatory 167m in the air looks like a space ship floating between the two towers. You take this superfast glass elevator which is darn scary but that wasn't the worst part. I absolutely hate glass outdoor elevators. They freak me out!  When you get to level 35 you then have to take this very steep, long glass enlosed outdoor escalator.  I have a terrible fear of heights but I felt more comfortable on the floating observatory than riding this escalator up and back.  From here, we had an unparalleled view of Osaka but the observatory is outdoors, 40 storeys up in the air and extremely cold.  There was a security guard out there to stop people from climbing over the railing. Who on earth would want that job out there in the freezing temperature and howling wind.

We went back to the station and got on the train, with me getting off at Kyobashi station near our hotel and coming back to the room where I had a lovely bath and soaked my feet.  Alan will continue this on his adventures this afternoon.

Well my adventures this afternoon weren't particularly exciting. I took the train to Tennoji in search of the Osaka electronics district known as Den-Den Town to see if I could pick up any bargains to take back home and sell for profit on ebay. After exiting Tennoji station I walked a kilometre or so to the zoo entrance where I was yesterday and asked the security guard there how to get to Den-Den Town and he said take this road to the end then go right and after that it's about 1 and a half kilometres. Oh well I might as well keep walking now I've come this far.

After walking for what seemed like ages, I finally saw a little sign post which indicated that I had entered Den-Den Town. Thank goodness! I had read somewhere that it's an 800 metre stretch of street lined with all kinds of discount electronics stores. I wandered along lookng for any shops which looked like they might sell old obsolete platform games from the 80s. I did finally find some up a steep skinny staircase in one shop but the games they had were a bit too expensive to risk spending hundreds of dollars on them when I may not be able to recoup my outlay when I sell them. Oh well, it was worth the effort to see the place in any case. Den-Den Town itself s a pretty nasty area. It comes across as a seedy mix of shonky electronics dealers, with quite a lot of porn shops thrown in along the way too. No, I did not venture inside any of those establishments.

Another long, long walk back to the station and I was on the train back to the hotel. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Osaka and get our first taste of the bullet train as we head for Hiroshima.

Trivia for the day.... There are vending machines selling drinks absolutely everywhere here. You can't walk more than 30 seconds without passing one.

 

 

Our first full day here.

It's Alan's turn for blog writing today. And check out the album as today we have photos.  Sarah's comments are in red

 

We made it through the night even though the pillows in this hotel feel like they have rocks in them instead of feathers. Sarah spent most of the night snoring her head off and since we're in two separate beds I couldn't reach over and thump her one. It is nice to have room to stretch out though.  The pillows have some sort of wheat in them so if we get hungry we can have a snack.  As for snoring, I don't feel like I had any sleep last night at all.

 

The plan for today was to do a bit of sightseeing and wandering around Osaka so we set off bright and early for Osaka Castle, which is quite close to our hotel. It was a cold morning but after the walk to the castle Sarah was boiling while I was still freezing. Yes, my jacket works, Alan's doesn't. That's not at all unusual. Unfortunately to get to the castle from the entrance we took meant a steep climb up lots of stairs and concrete ramps. It's very impressive though. It was built in 1580 and was the largest castle in Japan. Not sure if it still is though. Sarah asked 2 Asian ladies to take our photo and was surprised when they answered in broad American accents.

 

After leaving the castle we strolled through Osaka Castle Park and found our way to Morinomiya station to catch the train to Tennoji. We arrived there around lunch time but Sarah had a sore foot or head or bum or something so we decided to head back to the hotel for some lunch before going out for the afternoon. After lunch Sarah decided to stay and have a nap so I ventured out into the unknown by myself. This could be dangerous! I walked for over two hours on my sore foot so I think I did pretty well.  I have a lovely blister on my heel which really makes no sense considering I was wearing my old favourite boots today.  Oh, and also, I got to pee at a toilet which was actually a hole in the floor.

 

I left the hotel at around 2.30 and by this time it had gotten bitterly cold and with the wind chill factor the temperature must have been not much above freezing. But I soldiered on. I'm such a trooper! I caught the train and the first thing I see after exiting Tennoji station was a donut shop. Doh! Sarah had wanted a donut all morning. No, you wanted the donut.  My goal was to walk to the Shitennoji Temple so I began walking aimlessly along the streets, guided only by our map. I had no clue if I was even going in the right direction but after some time I did come across the temple. Well I am a courier so I guess I'm pretty good with directions even in foreign countries.

 

Shitennoji Temple. What is there to say about this place. When I walked into the area there were 2 guys in a booth and I assume they were collecting money for the car park. They didn't seem interested in me so I climbed the stairs to enter the temple grounds. What greeted me was a deserted, somewhat rundown place which was not at all impressive. I thought better of going further into the grounds in case I got myself arrested for trespassing or something. In any case it really didn't look safe for a lone foreigner to go wandering through there.

 

Back out to the street and I saw on my map that there was another joint just up the road, the Isshinji Temple, so I headed that way and came across it before long. Now this place was much more impressive. For a start there were actually people around, the gardens were well kept and the buildings looked beautifully maintained. Not sure if I was supposed to pay to get in. I'll just assume not. It also contained a cemetary and a shrine where people were praying and there was a huge amount of incense burning. The smell was quite over powering. The Isshinji Temple was built in 1185 and rebuilt after being destroyed during World War 2.

 

Next on the agenda was taking a look at Tennoji Zoo which is only a short walk from the temple. I followed a steep winding path of concrete steps down a long way but got to the bottom to find there was no way out. Darn it, now I have to climb back up again! After finding the correct exit from the temple, I sensed I was getting close to the zoo as I could hear the occasional animal or bird and could smell that unmistakeable zoo smell. I crossed a bridge which ran above the zoo and although it was due to close in 85 minutes I decided to go in anyway. I figured it wouldn't be great in any case and I wouldn't spend long there.

 

It's quite a small zoo, but it does have a good selection of animals. There are two sections, the African Savanna and the Asian Tropical Rainforest. Unfortunately, being so late in the afternoon, some of the animals were already being taken to their feeding areas so I didn't get to see absolutely everything. But I got to see most things which was nice. Well either that or the animals were so cold that they were inside hibernating. I took lots of photos of cool animals, but never saw the elephants in their enclosure. It's understandable really since they're such small, quiet, easy to miss animals. I went into the koala section which contained 2 koalas. There was a security guard standing there and he came rushing over gesturing wildly when I tried to take a photo of them. I guess the koalas must be shy. I managed to see the whole zoo before closing time which I was most pleased about. San Diego or Taronga it quite clearly is not, but I have to say that for 500 yen (about $8), I was pleasantly surprised.  Alan did take lots of photos, making sure I didn't miss anything. I could have missed the photos he took of the lions though (see the photos and you'll see what I mean).

 

Found my way back to Tennoji station and after 2 and a half hours of non-stop walking I was still cold. That changed when I got on the train though. The trains here are very well heated and it was nice and toasty inside the carriage.

 

Sarah looked on the net to find us somewhere nice for dinner and we decided on a place not too far away which was supposedly a restaurant where they serve "Californian cuisine, based on Italian food, arranged into Japanese and Western dishes". So we were a little surprised when we sat down at our table only to find the menu was written entirely in Japanese. Added to that, our waiter spoke as little English as we do Japanese. Luckily a few of the dishes had pictures so we picked a pizza along with the only dish that looked like some sort meat. It turned out to be pork and it was very tasty. $7 for a glass of coke was a bit rich but hey, we're on holiday and enjoying ourselves so it's only money.

 

Trivia for the day..... there must be just as many taxis in Osaka as there are private vehicles. You can find a row of them parked on just about every street corner just waiting for someone to get in. I don't know how they make any money because you never see anyone taking a taxi. Most locals here ride pushbikes, or at least around the Osaka Business District where our hotel is, and you have to be very wary while walking on the footpaths because they come up behind you on their bikes and don't slow down or anything.

 

Tomorrow we're supposed to be going to Universal Studios, but we may opt for a day in Kyoto instead as it's forecast to be another extremely cold day. We can do Universal later on when it will hopefully be a degree or 15 warmer.

Arrival

Sarah is the author of our opening blog entry. Ordinarily Alan would ave added his 2 cents worth but we've been travelling all day and we're very tired so it's just a short one for today.

 

Yes we have arrived! It has been a very long day (almost 20 hours and counting) and really there isn't much to tell you. We managed to get ourselves up by 5am after not getting to bed until almost 1am. John arrived on time (yes, we think it is a miracle too) and thank you John for taking us to the airport.

 

Check-in took all of 5 minutes, through to customs and then it was just a matter of waiting. Boarded the plane with a few other people and was amazed at how empty it was.  We took off about 10 minutes late and arrived at the Gold Coast just a little late.  Then, which surprised us, they made us get off the plane.  A 5 minute walk to a construction zone (Gold Coast's EXCITING new airport is coming soon, or so the signage told us) which was no more than a tin shed full of Japanese passengers.  There was an extremely large group of Japanese students in uniform waiting to board the plane along with a heap other Japanese people.  By the time we were back on the plane, it was full.

 

A reasonably uneventful trip.  A little turbulance but it wasn't bad.  We caught up for the late takeoff and arrived in Osaka 25 minutes early.  Being on a flight to Japan with a lot of Japanese meant that there was only a handful of "foreigners" to go through immigration which took no more than 2 minutes each to have our fingerprints and photos taken.

 

Got our bags, was asked a question by customs as to what we palnned to do in Hiroshima, and out the door we went.  We lasted about 25 seconds before we had to stop and put on our jackets.  A very lovely fresh 11 degrees and getting colder by the second.  A visit to the train station office and although the Lonely Planet book said that we would be greeted by an English speaking person to exchange our train tickets, this was not the case.  A bit of pointing and waving and all was processed and before we knew it, we were on our way to Osaka.  I had printed out very good directions so we got off the train at Tennoji station to change trains but then found ourselves only slightly confused before a very nice Japanese male offered to help us and a few minutes later we were on the right train to Kyobashi station. Out of the station (Alan said lets go down the other end) found us at the top of a very long staircase (with the lift being at the end we had just left) and we were on the street corner looking at a map completely in Japanese.  I could see where we needed to go, just not sure how to get there and another Japanese man showed us where to go. A brisk 7 minute walk in the cool air and we were at the hotel.

 

The room is lovely and right now we wouldn't care if it was a box.  We are both so tired.  We even settled on McDonalds for dinner as it was just around the corner and now it is about 2 degrees.  Time for sleep.

Pre Japan

Ah yes, the Munros are at it again. 

 

This time we will be touring Japan for 18 days, with the daily blog starting from 25 March.  Tune in for our adventure,, this time in a country where we don't speak the language, but at least they drive on the correct side of the road.