http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/TerenceD/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from TerenceD en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:14:33 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:14:33 +0000 Friday we spent in Odaiba the man made island in Tokyo which as we found up you could easily spend a couple days here. After screwing up and taking the completely wrong train we finally made it to the central part of the island. First place we stumbled on was the Fuji TV Station a MASSIVE and amazingly cool building we went up and bought a few knickknacks from the store and some shots of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Odaiba/blog-416300.html Last entry.. Internet aint working too well so most of the videos never uploaded.The first few of these pictures are of the HIlton in Narita... not quite as nice as the one in Shinjuku but still pretty good. Much more western in style too larger rooms. A few pictures of Terminal 1 Narita this was my first time there JAL flies out of the nicer Terminal 2 but wasn't too bad. The flight itse http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Oahu/Honolulu/blog-416304.html I believe I have some catching up to do. Breaking this up to limit the pictures per entry... mind is a bit hazy still from Jet Lag consider yourself warnedWednesday we spent out checking the two Fashionable areas Shibuya and Harajuku. Ended up having a pretty good time checking out the stores and such in the 109 Building bought a TShirt I liked before heading over to Harajuku. Checked o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Shibuya/blog-416280.html We ended up staying at the Hilton in Narita... about 70 a person and free shuttle. Wasn't too bad a lot more western style then the one in Tokyo. Thanks to Aaron's Hilton membership we got to check out at 3pm instead of 11 which is great since today's flight doesn't leave until 920pm. The place here has an amazingly nice lobby and the one lounge had live jazz music here just poked my hea http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-415296.html Well my flight left a few hours ago... and I'm still in Japan. Yup that is exactlly what it sounds like. Issue with the timing of the flight and so now we had to rebook. Cost an extra 250 per person plus 70 per person for the extra night now in Narita Airport. Initially the next available flight from Seattle where we originally were connecting through was on July 12th. We had them dig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-415039.html Havent had much of a chance to get on the net with the Hiltons outrageous internet costs. Got about an your for uploading a few more pics. Met up with Aaron Matt and Ronnie at Shinjuku after a bit of a wait and after checking in wandered about Shinjuku a bit. Went to a rather interesting little spot for food where you choose your order from a vending machine then take your order to the counte http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-413906.html Well turns out although the Hilton DOES offer internet it's at an amazingly expensive price of 48 Yen per MINUTE thats about 50 cents. Suffice to say other then a VERY quick check of email and such I never really got the chance to do any uploading of these last few entries. Other then that the hotel was great I've stayed in better but not many. Helpful English speaking staff large bed and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-413036.html For Rod's final day in Japan we made the day trip to Kamakura it's rated right up there with Nikko for Shrines Temples and other cultural stuffs. Could have started off better the instructions on how to get there was pretty bad. We got the Kamakura JR Pass but everything was in Japanese and no instructions provided. After much wandering we figured out the proper track AND proper train a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-413035.html Note in a rush to enter these before their plane lands so the pics might be outa order... Writing this from the Hikari Super Express 517. Left Tokyo for the night heading into Nagoya before returning to Tokyo to meet up with Aaron and his friends. Rod departed for Edmonton thankfully all of our return flights go through Seattle cuts 3 hours off the flight time roughly.Leaving off from where http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-413032.html Short update for today bit wiped. Day three was back to just me and Rod Pablo and Yoshiko were wanting to hit the fish market around 5am something neither of us were interested in. First stop was Akihabara to check out some of the smaller locale's. Some of the stores are quite interesting very otakuish otaku geek. Lots of Computers Electronics and enough parts to build your own if http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Akihabara/blog-412501.html Second day the four of us decided to hit a few locale's... first up was Shibuya. The crowds here never get old They checked out the massive CDDVDBook shop right at the main intersection and I grabbed a coffee and scone from the Starbucks inside ya I'm weak for Starbucks... From there we hit the 1092 building the mens fashion tower but only about half is men's rest is women's 1091 i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Harajuku/blog-412190.html Our first day in Tokyo started interestingly enough.. ran into a very friendly school teacher at the Ryokan Yoshiko. We also met Pablo a guy from Spain Basque Country might be more accurate seems a slightly contentious issue.... Although he speaks very little English or Japanese Yoshiko decided to help us all out and show us around Tokyo. She is quite a talker stopping to ask for direction http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-411692.html And so it seems I am unable to escape the allure of Japan... not even a year after my previous trip I find myself back in Tokyo back in Kangetsu Ryokan enjoying the sites and sounds. Of course an insanely cheap price of 400 CAD for airfare MIGHT have had something to do with my desire to return.. and this time I'm not alone. For the first week here a good friend of mine Rod has joined up for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-411403.html Spending the last few days here in Tokyo been taking it easy my leg isn't improving much. Checked out Hibiya Park a really nicely done up Western Style park near the Imperial Palace. I really liked it last time peaceful but didn't have much of a chance to look so I made sure to look this time Although it was razed in the war it's about 100 years old I believe shortly after Japan opene http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-334681.html So after checking out the temples shrines the fashionable bits of Tokyo it was time to go for something a bit different... the Tokyo Game Show 2008. It pretty much is exactlly what it sounds like. Essentially it's a trade show where all of the big video game companies like Sony and Microsoft show off their latest and greatest. Unlike others like the American version this one is open to the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-333894.html The first two days back in Tokyo I did a bit of sight seeing. Before heading to the Ryokan I went around the Imperial Palace grounds again very beautiful but not much to do since the good stuff is completely off limits to basically everyone. I wanted to take some pictures of the actual Tokyo station too it's done up in a very nice style but they're currently renovating it and repairing it t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-333519.html Well I can honestly say that Nagoya is probably going to be the highlight of my entire trip. Yorikosan and I traveled to the Inuyama area about 1.5 hours by train. After arriving there we grabbed lunch and checked out the Shinto Shrine there Atsusa Jinja. It's a very important Shinto Shrine dating back to the 3rd century I think. Back in ancient times this would be a destination for people http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Aichi/Nagoya/Sakae/blog-332617.html Ok so... things are rather weird here.. this is my first chance to actually sit down and just relax since arriving here.Yesturday Im on my way to where Im staying a small Ryokan. I generally knew where I was going but all of a sudden this business man walks up and asks where Im going in English. I show him the map Im using and he looks at it and instead of pointing which way to go like usual http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Aichi/Nagoya/Sakae/blog-331821.html Kobe turned out to be a really wonderful little city. Some might recognize the name from the 1995 Earthquake here that killed about 6000 people. Since then it's been rebuilt and it definitely feels nicer then an older Japanese city. Wide room streets and walkways and a very cosmopolitan atmosphere makes this a lot nicer I think then Osaka was. Lot's of parks and a nice memorial to the Earthqua http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Kobe/blog-331008.html Sitting here in Kyoto Station... got about 30 minutes before the Shinkansen leaves for Kobe. Spent the night in a small little business hotel downtown here got to check out some of the night life here in Kyoto. I went down an area of the city I forgot about... the Poncho District an even better area to potentially spot the elusive Geishas. Paid off too I saw a definite real one escorting a c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kyoto/blog-330692.html