Adam & Jodey's working holiday -The adventure begins............

Well our journey began at Adelaide airport at 6am in the morning of the 7th of April big effort to get there so early after everyone came on Sunday night to wish us all the best and giving their last goodbyes for 2 years we are going to miss everyone in Adelaide and especially our new home we have spent the last 6 months at least working flat out day in day out to try to finish it for the tenants to move in.

Well after saying goodbye to our Mum & Dads for a while we boarded the plane which was only taking us to Sydney but was a very exiting time not seeing Adelaide again for so long. After arriving in Sydney Auntie Susie picked us up with out worries from the airport in Sydney and took us back to her house which we stayed at for the day. We actually got to rest a little there as Anthony and Susie were at work and Nic & Tim were at school so it was great for us to settle down a bit. After catching up with everyone in Sydney and saying our goodbyes Anthony dropped us off at the airport for our 10pm flight this was going to be the longest flight we have ever been on so we were very excited.

Well what can i say the flight was very boring and very restless but we arrived in Narita airport just out of Tokyo at 7am, going through customs was pretty busy but we eventually got through and made our way to the train station. There were Japanese people everywhere and nobody could speak english it was hard to belive we had made it to Japan the time had finally come. We had our first experience in buying a coke at the train station to a little old lady that couldnt speak any english but we managed. We found the right platform and caught the train to Shinsaibashi station which was about 1 hr away basically one train station away from central Tokyo.

The train ride was different seeing all the Japanese country side and all the little Japanese style houses along the way unfortunatly the weather was miserable very wet and cold and listening to all the people around us speaking foreign languages and everyone looking at us because we were the only white people on the train. As we got closer and closer to Tokyo it became more clear on how busy this place really is, buildings got bigger and more and more people got onto the train.

Well after arriving at Shinsaibashi train station we had to find the right platform to go to Shin-Osaka station using the Shincansen bullet train this was about 8.30am in the morning and it was very busy we were trying to get through all the crowds with all of our luggage also trying to go up and down stairs but after finding the correct platform we got onto the train. This train has approx 16 carrages on it which all are quiet large. The interior looks simular to a plane with nice comfortable seats. As the train took off ypu could feel how fast it was going the country side was zipping past quiet fast and the ride was so smooth it was unbelievable.

After grabbing our bags and getting off the Shinkansen train at Shin-Osaka station about 1pm we were in a little bit of trouble, this is where we were supposed to meet Marty but unfortunatly the mobile number he gave us was not working we had been trying this number for the past 3 hrs trying to contact him with no luck. After searching the train station for about 2 hrs to find someone who could speak english we finally found an english speaking Japanese girl who explained to us that the mob no. we were using had to have a zero added to it for it to work. We were about to go and get a hotel for the night we were very worried. After phoning Marty, he was starting to get worried to, he met us about 20minutes later and we were all relieved.

Well we arrived back at Marty house in Osaka which is on a busy little street about 10 floors up it has a really nice view of Osaka city which looks really nice at night. Marty and his wife Kayori have two little cute dogs at their apartment that they have a coat for and the dogs even get their teeth brushed. For our first night out we went to a nice little place which served okonomayaki which is like a cabbage meal cooked in front of you with all types of topping on it this was very nice except for the fish flakes which we both really dont like.

The next couple of days we explored places around Osaka because Marty and his wife had a car so we went to a few temples which were really old and it gave us an insight to their tradition and beliefs.

Over all the week we spent in Japan was extremely full on millions of people everywhere and the technology there is awesome. The transport systems are amazing. All the people here are so friendly even though they cant speak english they are more than willing to help you. A few things that really stood out was definatly Tokyo. Tokyo was just a buzz with millions of people and lots of big buildings. We went to a few clubs there and had very little sleep its a place where you can walk around 24 hrs a day so eventually your going to have to have a rest.

Another thing that stands in Tokyo was electric city this is about as big as adelaide central and every shop there is like an electrical appliance superstore this place is huge and things there you can get so cheap. I got a great new camera with video on it for basically 300 dollars australian including 2gb card and a case so it was a bargin. There were also nintendo wes game consoles that were only 150 dollars australian with games on 30 dollars australian everything was really cheap.

We also visited the Tokyo Dome hotel one night, which for us was extremely high and had a glass elevator running all the way up the outside of the hotel. We went up 45 floors in about 30 seconds and enjoyed a few drinks at the view at the top in a 360 digree room the view was awesome.

Unfortunatly the time had come to leave Tokyo and begin our jouney with all our bags to Narita Airport during rush hour time, which we werent looking forward to. We basically had to catch the subway to Tokyo Station then make our way on the Narita express to the airport. We had to drag all our bags up lots of steps it would have been quiet funny to see but we eventually made it and enjoyed the last hour on the train looking at all the scenery going by. We then got to the airport and jumped on our plane which was due to leave at 10am.

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