Blogs from Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, Asia

Everyone take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. We took the train the 30-40 odd minutes to Sanrio Puroland yesterday (Hello Kitty Land to the likes of you and me). I know a lot of you (caveat: mostly not Aisha's friends) were quite excited about it. But the thing is, guys - IT WAS CLOSED. I KNOW! But see what we said up the top? It's going to be okay. So our 'last' full day in Tokyo turned out to be probably our most hectic so far; and also, in hindsight, a total misnomer. After discovering that the Kawaiiest Place on Earth (open every day) was freaking closed that day and the next for a repaint job, we were Sad Pandas (in fairness, Tess was actually the sad panda while Aisha was kind of ... read more

On my second day in Japan, I decided to do a major shopping trip and explore as much as I could of Tokyo for my last full day here. My first stop was Akihabara the technology district of geekdom where one can buy all the types of gadgets, computers, and cameras straight from the innovators of Japan. Akihabara is also the place where many otaku (anime geeks) go to get their fix on. Every street was filled with electronic stores hawking their wares, shops with cute anime figures and games everywhere, and also maid cafes. Stores are tiny, cramped six to seven story tall buildings bursting to the limit with merchandise. I never realized I was claustrophobic until I encountered Akihabara. My main goal in Akihabara was to just look around but I found myself ... read more

Tokyo with the Shinkansen On monday it was time for me to visit the capital of Japan, Tokyo. I had prior to my arrival in Japan purchased a Japan rail pass so I was able to catch the Shinkansen bullet train from Osaka. The day started of early as I had a train to catch from the huge new Osaka train station. Before boarding the train I bought the obligatory bento lunch box and a cold green tea drink to indulge during the trip. The train departed from the station on the exact minute. The approx 510 km between Osaka and Tokyo takes a little under 3 hours including 6 stop along the way. The train reaches the speed of around 300 km/h. The funny thing was that you couldn’t feel a thing while on board. ... read more

Today,s adventure was to what I like to call, "Techno Town", the technology district Akihabara. There were shops and stalls after stall selling all sorts of technology, games consoles new and classic, computers, watches, all sorts of cool MAN THINGS'! I decided to buy a Acer Netbook, which was cheap as chips, although it is Japanese(not always easiest to use). Went for lunch in this strange little shack, place your order through a vending machine, which takes your money and gives you a ticket. Take the ticket to the bar and dinner follows shortly. Was crazy, all the staff shout things when you arrive and leave, no idea what saying! Head back to Asakusa for beers, had a few beers in a traditional Japanese restaurant where we had to remove our shoes, next we went to ... read more

And now I'm in Sydney! On a computer in apple store right now.. how lame, it costs to use internet in my hostel here :(. So lets talk about yesterday.. Saying bye to Tokyo was pretty damn lame to be honest, but I am more happy of the fact I wasn't going home but going to Sydney! Ate our final rice balls from family mart, tear! We were planning on going to Shibuya to find our sexy avocado restaurant again, but we got into 'can't be arsed' mode and decided to go mooch on the computers in the hostel instead, as there wasn't really enough time to do anything anyway. I am very satisfied with my mooching as I caught up on my missed episodes of The Hills :). Also it was kinda funny, Greg came ... read more