Travel Blog Posts
January 12th 2007
We're sitting at an un-namable cafe in kansai airport waiting til we can check in. How do you frap a cino? The guy at the next table can't connect. lol. he keeps glancing back at me... hehehe. If he hadn't put his comp away i would help him out. It's the least i can do considering the supreme helpfulness of the native Osakans over the last couple of days. In fact, whenever we opened our Lonely Planet Japan (an indispensable resource, btw), we had to try very hard NOT to attract a helpful Osakan. The trick is to look super casual and avoid looking like you're looking at a map and/or around at signs. Being pasty and wearing a gigantic pack doesn't help either. Especially if your mouth is open. Yeah, Osaka wins. And Kyoto is ... read more
December 31st 2006
Yeah sick. Yesterday i was starting to see the appeal of ski porn (which is basically videos of Xtreeeem skiiers/snowboarders doing Xtreeeeem things - if ur into it, watch "Tangerine Dream"). Tonight its making me a bit sleepy. Of course its super motivating and sometimes even jaw-dropping SUGOI, but it's new years eve and there's drinking to be done. It turns out japan is into "hip hop" quite a bit. In fact some of the guests are cranking some in the dining room. Its a tough choice; rappo, or ski porn. I choose beer. Which, incedentally, happens to be predominantly Asahi Super Dry (my favourite in the whole wide world at the moment) in the Hakuba region. A one litre can is about 500 yen, maybe $6.00 NZ. Once again, Sugoi. Of course we haven't quite ... read more
December 28th 2006
On our first morning here, we woke to fat flakes of white stuff settling on the ground. And it was snowing. Apparently the season has yet to really kick off here, but there's been enough snow higher up for the hardened bunnies we're staying with to get their kicks. I won't regail you with tales of our trek from tokyo. Suffice to say "nihongo wa dekimasen". There's an international task force of bilingual gaijin here, half of them seem to be running the lodge. Sort of. Our ensuite hot water doesn't work and we've yet to get around to telling them. (Every time i remember, its after i've been thinking for some time. And where do you do most of your thinking? We caught the slow train to Matsumoto today. Matsumoto-jo is Japan's fourth wicked-est castle ... read more
Trout are fresh water fish and have underwater weapon.
Published: December 26th 2006Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Jimbocho
December 26th 2006
It's Boxing Day and the decorations are coming down. Santa's miruku is still warm, and teams of men in pocket-sized vans are harvesting the length of Ginza's main street for Christmas tree fruit. There's a short man on a short ladder viciously rending baubles from the first of six thousand short trees. He's got a long way to go, and he doesn't look happy about it. When it rains in Tokyo... We get wet. Like Andrew WK. It started raining last night and hasn't stopped once. It's now 9pm and there's a cold war going on in the basement for the single coin operated dryer. We've easily got the biggest arsenal, but the eastern bloc keep showing up before we deploy the next load. According to the Geneva convention, we have to let them have a ... read more
December 25th 2006
OK stands for "oh shit this is so huge my brain can't register it, like an ant on a basketball trying to contemplate the length of the court. M'kay?" We almost got lost trying to find jimbocho on the subway. The express to Tokyo station was a breeze, but after that we had to get to the hotel, which involves two subway stops on separate lines. Nothing like a challenge after a 10hr, 20min flight. As we emerged from Jimbocho station into the cool, 8 degree air (welcome by this stage), we paused. I knew where I was, we were just about there, but wait! In front of us, in plain english: "You are Here". "A Map!" we cried, and proceeded to verify the directions i had painstakingly recorded in my beige notebook. Sugoi. We set ... read more
December 22nd 2006
Look! It's Saturday the 23rd in 13 minutes. In twenty-four hours Karina and I will be in Tokyo... I'm trying really hard not to put exclamation marks after everything. My head hurts. Alright, to be half useful, I'll see if I can post the names of the places we are staying, as they were all chosen after a fair amount of deliberation and wallet-conscious research. Tokyo: Sakura Hotel. Has a pink website with a foreboding banner filled with pasty europeans (just like us). Apparently it's cheap and clean. And pink. Hakuba: Hakuba Powder Lodge. Run by a guy called Nick. Check out www.snowjapan.com for more, um... japanese snow related things. Forums are intimidating for n00blets. Nagoya: Petite Ichifuji Ryokan (or PIR for short). Not so cheap but looks super. Their site features the resident calligrapher, who ... read more
A Corporate Whore Goes Forth.
Published: December 22nd 2006Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » Newton
December 19th 2006
Pre-Flight Check - Japan in 4 days! The hardest thing about planning this trip has been the constant distraction of employment. I'm stuck with a handful of deadlines with four days of work left. At least one of these days will be allocated to heavy drinking in and around the office, where the boss touches the young male staff... When I get to Tokyo, I'm going to enquire with JR about setting up a male only carriage in the studio. There will be a big blue sign on the floor where the males cue... actually, this is starting to sound like we'll be keeping the pink sign. And with a homophobic flourish, I end the first post of my first blog. Zelda still hasn't arrived. ... read more
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