Land of the Rising Sun

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Konnichiwa!

Well we have now been in Japan for almost two weeks and it is a very strange but fascinating country! We arrived in Toyko and just about managed to navigate our way through the city on the metro, which has very limited English signs! We realised just how huge the language barrier was going to be on the first night when trying to find a restaurant. We had a phrase book, but this didn't help much since it contained romanised spelling of Japanese and the menus all had Japanese Kanji script on them!! But with lots of pointing and nodding enthusiastically we managed to order.

Tokyo is an amazing city, with plenty to see and do - from the neon lights of Ginza and Shibuya, to the more tranquill shrines and traditional gardens. On our first day we went to Harajuku - an area where goth kids hang out dressed in crazy costumes. In our time there we also visited the Imperial Palace, Meigu-Jingu (a beautiful temple), strolled around Tokyo Bay (where stangely enough they have a small replica of the statue of liberty), we did lots of shopping and absorbed some culture in the National Museum.

Japanese people seem to have intriguing habits and customs - blowing your nose in public, for example, is seen as a definate no no, but hocking up phelgm in the street is ok! Everyone has book covers for the novels they are reading so that nobody else on the metro can see what they are reading. And the toilets here are very cool - they have heated seats and a button to press to make a fake flushing sound so that no one can hear you doing your business!!

We travelled out of the city to the much more peaceful area of Mount Fuji. We stayed in a hostel surrounded by the mountains and right next to a lake. We hiked part of the way up snow capped Mt Fuji, which was spectacular at 3776m high. It seemed strange to have a snow ball fight on the way, whilst simultaneously getting sunburnt! We spent a few days chilling out with walks and bike rides in and around the mountains and lakes, and just generally enjoyed the scenery and the food - well, apart from one meal Adam had of cold noodles in a fish flavoured broth!!! You usually just point to a picture on a menu so you can never be too sure what you are gonna get!

We travelled to Kyoto on an overnight bus and have been here for the past few nights. It is a great city with loads of shrines and temples to visit, Geisha are fairly easy to spot and it has a really good night life. (Adam Notes: A funny incident occured on our second day in Kyoto: Janice was out in the middle of the day and it was hot so obviously she got thirsty and decided that it would be a good idea to get a drink. When she got back to the hostel we were staying in she told me that she was feeling a little weird and when we asked the staff what was in the drink that she had now almost finished they giggled and told us it was alcohol! Just goes to show how easy it is to make mistakes with the language out here!!!)

We went out last night with a couple of America guys we met and had a great night drinking and doing karaoke until the early hours. Karaoke is huge here and we had our own sound proofed room, to sing our hearts out in, fully equipped with a tambourine and maraccas!! It was so much fun.

We're now going to head to a city not far from here called Nara which is the old capital of Japan and apparently has 8 world heritage listed sites! We'll post again soon with how that goes.

Love to all.

Janice and Adam.x

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Comments

[Nic]

You cannot know...
just how jealous I am!!! Serisouly, I'ma go pull a Nick Leeson on Bearings and meet you out there.

[CB and Annemarie]

great reading
Have enjoyed reading your blogs so far sounds like you are having a great time. Japan looks wonderful hope you enjoy the rest of your trip in the land of the rising sun. look forwrd to reading your further blogs( what a great word).Take care CB and Annemarie

[auntie sue & Uncle Chris]

touching base
Hi guys, just been looking at you site with grandad, he was so impressed, so were we, you are having such a great time , I think you can now understand why we like south Afica so much , its great there. Your pictures are good, so lovely to be able to show grandad. Hopefully we are going to see Mum and Dad tomorrow 30th June. We both went and saw Karl to celerbrate his results, lovely to be able to share in his excellant result, and also about his job. Just keep sending updates and enjoy. Take care, love you both. Auntie Sue and Uncle Chris.