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Published: December 23rd 2007
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Tsukiji Fish Market
4 men work a scroll saw through a massive fish carcass. At 6:30 am it was strange to see fish bits spraying into the air! Oop! Watch your step! We apologize for the title - bad joke!
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Our last days of teaching behind us, it was time to say farewell to all of the friends we had made working in Tokyo. We both feel so lucky having met them, we learned so much from these people about Japan, teaching and ourselves. Some teachers were placed alone at a school, or alone in their apartments, or both, so we feel lucky that we were not. What's really nice is that we feel we've made some good friends that we look forward to keep in contact with.
With work finished it was time to prepare for the next leg of our journey: travelling through western Japan and then backpacking for 5 months through Southeast Asia. So we had a hectic few days of packing up our work clothes and all of the items we wouldn't need for backpacking and sending them home. Neither of us has backpacked for almost five years, so we quickly remembered how you always bring too much stuff! Our packs were heavy and once we are finished with Japan (winter climate), we'll send
Tsukiji Fish Market
Yummy...this was our breakfast!!! Just kidding, but it is a few trays of fresh Eel, or Unagi in Japanese. another package home (summer climate thenceforth) which will definitely lighten our load!
We decided we would stick around Tokyo for a few days to squeeze in everything that we hadn't been able to do while we were working. We booked a Toyoko Inn near the Tokyo Dome that is a great location in central Tokyo and seems only a few stops away from everything. Monday we awoke at 5 am and caught the train to the
Tsukiji fish market to watch the early morning buzz. It was fascinating! We ate all kinds of sushi and it was so fresh (a few hours old) that it melted in your mouth. Oyshi!
Later that day we visited the
Studio Ghibli museum. Ghibli is a famous animation studio in Japan, much like Disney is. Some of their more popular movies are Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro, and Spirited Away. The museum was maybe the most amazing museum either of us has ever seen. It was a neat old house with doors all different sizes and several rooms set up like the animation team had just stepped out for lunch. Fun! Inside we weren't allowed to take pictures but we got a few outside.
Tsukiji Fish Market
You had to watch where you were going because the workers didn't have time to patiently wait for tourists to get a good picture! Forklifts and strange cars were whirring this way and that! The next day we decided to go to Tokyo Disneyland and we're really glad we did. It was an amazing day filled with serendipity. Everything seemed to work out timewise for us so well that we were able to go on more than 20 attractions! it seemed like we would walk out of one and run to another to be the last two allowed in! The weather was perfect too - a crisp sunny day, about 10 degrees Celsius. A lot of the rides we went on we only had to wait for ten minutes! We went on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, MicroAdventure!, Star Tours, One Man's Dream - The Magic Lives On, Minnie's House, Goofy's House, Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World (Xmas version), Peter Pan's Flight, Pooh's Hunny Hunt, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Jungle Cruise, Western River Railroad, Swiss Family Treehouse, Shooting Gallery, watched 3 parades and the grand finale! A great day.
Our last full day in Tokyo was packed with the excruciating minutia of tying up loose ends but we also managed to head out to Odaiba to check out the Miraikan science museum which was well worth the trip.
Sushi at 7am!
It's tradition to eat fresh sushi for breakfast when you visit Tsukiji. Our sushi chef gave us a demo on how to eat it because we used our chop sticks - he uses his fingers! Everything we tried was really fresh and delicious. First we arrived in time to catch the
Asimo show which was amazing. The little guy can run! Wow. Then we got to see a lot of interesting exhibits including a demonstration of superconductivity that the next generation bullet train - called the super bullet - uses. The super bullet can reach speeds of 600 Kph! We also checked out a planetarium show. The planetarium show was the most bizarre thing either of us has ever watched, and that includes Travis' dance moves. The show was called Kappoo and featured still images of sock puppets in the forest with haunting music, moving in and out of focus and fading into the starry sky that we were expecting! At one point Michelle said to Travis "shhh! your snoring just woke me up!". We both said "What the heck?". That show was weird.
We bid goodbye to Tokyo, our home of the last few months, and boarded a bus bound for Nagano. We leave Tokyo thinking it is one of the greatest cities either of us has visited and taking fond memories of people and places with us.
We arrived in Nagano and after stepping off the bus quickly realized
Studio Ghibli Museum
Studio Ghibli Museum was a great time. We both want to watch some Ghibli movies when we get back! that the hotel we booked is a 45 minute taxi ride from the station. Woops! Time for a change of plan! We found the local tourist office and while Michelle was trying to get them to help us book a local hotel, Travis went jogging around the neighbourhood to see if he could find any walk-ins. He did, and we ended up staying at one that is a stone's throw from Nagano station. We found an amazing pan-asian restaurant called Cho Bali Bali and loved our meal!
The next morning we woke up to something neither of us were expecting: snow! We layered up and took a bus ride up into the mountains to the
Jigokudani Monkey Park. It was a really neat experience. We met an Australian man travelling alone and so he joined us for the park and then after for a dip in another Onsen. There are more than 200 monkeys that inhabit the area and often you can get close enough to reach out and touch them, although you aren't allowed to! A few times the monkeys were playing and ran right over our shoes! They looked funny when they went for a dip in the Onsen,
Studio Ghibli Museum
One of Ghibli's famous characters - the robot from the movie "Castle in the sky". because their heads were fluffy, but the hair on their bodies was wet and they looked so skinny! Click
here for a live cam view of the monkey onsen! Another night and another meal at Cho Bali Bali - the restaurant was really good!
Travis was a little crestfallen in Nagano. Months ago, when we listed the cities we would like to visit Travis thought of a great little joke for Nagano. Michelle would complain about something Travis was doing and Travis would say "now I know why they call it NAG-ano!" and laugh hysterically. However, Michelle didn't complain once, and so Travis ended up dragging his heels out of the city without ever getting to use the joke...
The next morning we headed to
Zenkoji buddhist temple which was beautiful. We were ready to continue on to the next city on our itinerary: Kyoto! We purchased tickets for a highway bus that would take about 5 hours and we were off!
Thanks for reading!
Travis and Michelle
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Kevin
non-member comment
umm...eew
I cant believe that eel......I would puke if I walked by it I think...and you already know how much I HATE seafood. The guys ripping up the fish...what a lovely sight before breakfast! Thats cool how you guys went to Disneyworld. Did you go on any of the rides, or just kind of wander around? Hope you guys have an AWESOME Christmas and Happy New Year! Love you both~Kev