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Published: June 25th 2004
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Mitsushima Monuments
This picture does not do this place justice, it has to be seen to be belived Well Japan, another very different place. I guess our experience really started at the airport... going through customs, they took one look at Kate and we were both escorted into a room by 4 customs officers and had all our bags searched. In Kate's words "I felt violated"... it was all good. They were friendly and I guess they were just doing their job.
Our next big encounter with Japan came in the form of a train.... the Shinkensen, (or bullet train).. what can I say... this is one VERY fast train.
Here's tip 1 for this blog: If you intend to travel anywhere in Japan, make sure you get a 7 day or 14 day rail pass. Travel without it is grosly overpriced, it'll cost u AUD$80 just to get from the airport to Japan city. And then much more if you want to catch the Shinkensen anywhere else. We found that the rail pass pays itself off almost on the first day.
Being the efficient people that the Japanese are, they gave us our tickets to Fukishima at the airport... with about 10mins inbetween trains to find the next one. We were lucky enough to be helped by a friendly Japanese who showed us through the maze that is Tokyo station to the Shinkensen entry.
There are basically two different types of trains here, the normal local trains, and the Shinkensen. They have their own entries, platforms and their own tickets. Your Japan Rail Pass will get you everywhere on any train, and you can also go to the Shinkensen office and get reserved seat tickets in certain carriages (something Kate insists on doing) if you don't like having to sit where ever u want in other designated carriages of the same train. One thing i'd like to add... the Shinkensen... it's REALLY FAST, i'm not sure, but i'd say it travels at over 200km/h.
A few other strange things about Japan. It's not a very friendly place to visit if your looking for friendly, hospitible locals. Not many people speak english here, and they always round of some japanese that I have no hope of understand. A Japanese phrasebook would come in real handy. True, the Japanese are very kind and will try to help u as much as they can if u ask them. However you always seem to get strange looks from the locals, I guess we are "gaijun".
The system they have set up for cars is also interesting. To buy a car you first have to have to buy/rent a car park. There is no off street parking here. Then you have to register the car and car park with the local council. Then, every two years you have to take the car into get it roadworthied by the authorities, they do a 60 point check, and if they find anything wrong with it, ANYTHING, they fix it for you and bill you, regardless of if you want it fixed or not.
Beer is cheap.... had between 2.4 and 3 litres of it last night... also sampled a few of the local ... ummm..... delicacies. This consited of grilled baby sparrow... and all they do is plug the feathers and then grill it.... it looks totally disgusting.. with a little eyes and head and all. I really don't know how to describe this. It's a real challenge. You put it in your mouth whole... and it took me a good 10 minutes to slowly chew through all the cruchy bones etc. and wash is progessively down with about half a littre of beer. The other great sampled food was Frog. Kind of like a cross between Chicken and fish. And something even more amazing was the fact that we even got Kate to eat a little bit. Then we discovered Karreoke. Man i've never sung so much in my life. We had our own room, with about 6 of us singing the night away.... with unlimited drinks included in the hourly room charge. I'm not even going to describe this, there should be some pictures floating around on someones camera... and i'm sure there's some voice recordings as well...
So in one day we got searched, trashed, karreoked to hell... and i got a bit long on my way home... eventually found my way by asking a taxi driver where the Shinkensen (one of the few Japanese words I know) station was, and then walked home from the station.
Today we decided to go to Matsushima, a 20min Shinkensen ride + 40min local train ride. It's a small town based based around a bay with lots of small islands in it. Lots of good places to see, mainly old Japanese temples that were built in 868 and restored in the 1600s some time. It is the most touristy place we've been to yet. We also found some American tourists (Yes, even one who was fat and in shorts for you Danielle).
More photos and entries to follow soon.
Off to the outskirts of Japan tomorrow.
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Savage
Mark Savage
Jealous
I'm jealous! I hope you enjoy your stay in Japan as much as I did!