Sign In
Travel Blog Posts
April 12th 2006
Hi Everybody! I'm a little behind on my blogs as I'm actually back in oz. Nevertheless, I would like to recount my last few adventures. After arriving at Shinagawa station via the superfast shinkansen we were picked up by lovely Shiz and Satoru and taken to their little house. Shiz actually doesn't live in an apartment as I expected, but it is one of the strangest houses I've ever seen. Imagine a house that was just a concrete block 3 stories high, except only wide and long enough to fit an average care in. And this at a squeeze (the side mirrors fold back in so the car can fit in the garage and Satoru jumps out the window when he's finished reversing it in.) So the bottom floor is the garage the next level is ... read more
April 7th 2006
Having had as many temples castles and gardens as we could possibly wish to see, we jumped on a train and headed for Osaka. Andy was on a mission to check out Osaka university of art and catch up with lecturer and prominent Japanese artist Hiroshi Yamano. But first I insisted that we go and visit my sister's (Felicity) old exhange family's restaurant. For those of you who may not know Felicity lived in Japan for 3 months on a school exchange when she was 15. The family she stayed with owns a dikitchi yakitori restaurant which is basically chicken and veges on skewers grilled over coals. Anyway, me and andy found our way there one the Osaka subway (surprisingly easy to use) and went for a meal of yummy yakitori. Miki is Felicity's exchange sister, ... read more
April 3rd 2006
So, on the 3rd of April I turned a quarter of a century! It was a beautiful day in Kyoto that day. For my birthday Andy had booked a night at a japanese ryokan - which is a traditional japanese inn. It was a both a really nice and different experience. There is no permanent bed as such. There is a main room and a small sitting room. The main room has TV and for most of the day just a table and cushions. When it is dinner time they bring you about 4 courses up to your room and when you are finished, they pack up the table and make up your futon on the floor. At first it is pretty strange getting so much service, but quite nice. The rest of the day we ... read more
April 1st 2006
There is way too much to see in Kyoto for me to even attempt writing about. We've been here for 5 days now, and we both feel like we've hardly scratched the surface of this place. Unfortunatly due to being unorganised travellers that we are we have had to change hotels quite a few times now as this place is packed full of both local and international tourists right now. The cherry blossom season has just started and Kyoto is the place to be for "Hanemi" (cherry blossom season). Our first day here we went for a fairly aimless walk in Kyoto's most popular temple district. (The Higashiyama Area) The truth is there are temples, shrines, castles,and gardens just about everywhere in this place. There are a few main areas on the outskirts of the city ... read more
March 30th 2006
The next day after coming back from Noashima, we decided to catch a Ferry across to Kobe as the ferry's from Takamatsu were much cheaper than any of the trains. With some time to kill in the morning, we first decided to check out Takamatsu's garden. I'm really glad we did as it has been my favourite garden so far. It was a lot bigger at more open than any other garden I've been to, and there are beautiful bridges and mountain backdrops. There are also masses of fish in the garden ponds who will swim up to you hoping for food. Not the best survial technique in the wild, but the kids love them. Anyway, for those who know of my legendary sea sickness I actually handled the four hour ferry pretty well. The ferry ... read more
March 28th 2006
At some point during the train ride to Osaka, we decided it would be better if we went as far south as we had intended to go and work our way back. To this extent after arriving at peak hour in crazy Osaka we jumped on the next train to Takamatsu. Takamatsu is located off the mainland on the island of Shikoku. The reason for going their intiatally was it’s close proximaty to the tiny island of Noashima - on which is located the Chichu Art Museum that was designed especially by the famous Japanese architect Tado Ando. Takamatsu proved to be a wonderful city. I highly recommend going there to anyone visiting Japan and want to get away from busy cities for a while. It is quite a metropolitan town, but without the mayhem. On ... read more
March 27th 2006
Sorry ppl the next few blogs will come hard and fast - this is my first time to be able to access internet for a while and a lot has been going on! Take your time to read them! After packing our bags and saying many farewells, me and Andy hitched a ride with some of the Toyama students and one of their lecturers (Rob) to Ezra glass studio”s open day. Ezra is a 2 hour drive heading west of Toyama. Its located in a very small town by the name of Kanazu. And its very country by Japanese standards. (In other words - there are actually small farms, fields, and forest around as opposed to suburbs with rice fields) It seemed to be Australia day at Ezra as there were two workshops coming to a ... read more
March 25th 2006
On Thursday Andy's mum came to visit us in Toyama and we hired a car and took a trip down to Kanazawa. Kanazawa is most famous for the Kenrouku Garden which is a traditional Japanese garden. It is meant to be one of the best in Japan. It took a little over an hour to get there as surprise suprise we got a bit lost on the way. Japanese road maps are mainly written in Kunji so you basically have to know what signs you are looking for. Not Easy. Otherwise you can follow the numbers (sounds easy) but the road signs are a little wayward. You may see a sign with the number you want on it, but usually it leads you to a certain point and then you have to guess from then on. ... read more
March 21st 2006
Muchos muchos has been happening since my last blog... Where do I start? Firstly the word of the day.... tanoshi (fun!) or cho tanoshi (really fun!) I have been trying to tackle the basics of japanese by trying to remember a new word every day. I might have 20 words before I leave the country. Andy's exhibtions were set up last friday. We were learning japanese expectations on the spot. There are really no galleries with curators in japan for any artists other than those already fabulously famous. It is customary in japan for the artists to set up their own exhibtion and also to sit in the gallery for the entire period of the exhibtion in case anyone happens to come in and want to buy something. I think I am now appreciating all gallery ... read more
March 15th 2006
Claud helped me find my way to the airport the next day and I got on the plane to Narita airport in tokyo. I got to watch harry potter the whole way there so it wasn't so bad. Also the girl sitting next to me was a japanese girl who was just coming home from travelling in Australia. She was really lovely. Getting off in Narita and navigating my way to Hanade airport was fairly straight forward too (despite the help from a wonderfully friendly young man who pointed me in the completely wrong direction). On the bus on the way to Hanade airport the loudspeaker informed us all to fasten our seat belts (what seat belts?) and 'switch off you mobile phone as they annoy the neighbours'. I had 3 hours to kill at Hanade ... read more
Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 13; qc: 78; dbt: 0.0529s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.5mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers