Oct 2007

Wow today turned out unique. In the morning we took the Shinkansen to outer Hiroshima somewhere and went bike riding amongst the rice fields! Ok let's see the map. I think it's 'Soja in the Kibiji District'. I haven't riden a bike for years! Maybe since primary school. But I did ok. I even rode in high heels XD And I even stood on the bike at some point. We rode for like 3 hours. Apart from the rice fields, we visited some temples and shrines along the way. The only bad thing was that it was a hot day, and we all got sunburned. The trip remined me of those 'Tour Vietnam by Bike' trips. I had an awesome time.

Afterwards we went to Okayama Korakuen Garden coz it's one of three very famous gardens in Japan. Some shogun 'lord' use to live there some hundreds of years ago. We got an English speaking guide, who made everything more interesting. I didn't think much of the garden though. It looked more like a golf course! It has too much open spaces. We didn't stay there long. We went back to our area of Hiroshima pretty soon.

At 6pm we went to a baseball game! Hiro, Peter, David, Stephen, Damien and I. Wow baseball was a lot different then I imagined!! It was more like a concert in a huge stadium, coz it was mostly young people. The fans were so active and into cheering. They had special chants and cheering dances choreographed! There was drums, trumpets, a conductor, flags, balloons, team shirts, and other memorabilia. It was totally different from American baseball. They didn't even have that baseball tune. I was so busy watching the audience that I didn't even pay attention to the game!

Peter-san was acting all loud and crazy, and it attracted the attention of some Japanese girls lol. We all made friends with the guy and girl sittin infront of us. For some unexplainable reason they loved us! Their names were Takashi and Shizuko. The girl especially loved me and totally wanted to be friends! How cute! And she's 32! o_o But looks 20 something. She insisted that we all go hang out sometime, so I said how about after the game. By the way, they can't speak English, so I had to use my minimal Japanese, plus Mr Translator Hiro.

After the game, Shizuko led me around holding hands! LOL That was so wrong, yet so fun! She led us all to her favourite restoraunt. Mind you, we walked about 10 minutes, holding hands! I wonder what passers by thought! The retoraunt was so damn cute. It was a tiny, traditional looking, dimly lit, trendy one. It was as hell expensive as it looked too. The food wasn't all that, but the company was good. Hiro and Stephen had to translate everything said. Peter and Shizuko were really into each other. Finally we left and split up at 11.30pm, then went back to the hotel.

I spent way over budget today! Bike hire was 1000Y, the garden plus transport was 1000Y, baseball game was 1500Y, dinner was 2000Y! Im guessing thats AU$70.

It's past midnight and Im in my new bed, at Hiroshima. In the morning (still at Takayama) we had some spare time. Mostly I was packing, then watchin tv. There was this drama called Brother Beat on, it's about 3 hot brothers XD I liked the eldest the most. We left Takayama at 11.30am. This town was really fun.

All of today (daytime) was spent travelling. We went on three trains and one tram. I was asleep a lot though. Japan is great coz u can sleep and no one will steal your luggage. Finally we arrived in Hiroshima. Upon arrival, it didn't look so exciting. But now we have many maps and it looks like a great place to explore. Our hotel is not impressive, I have even been given a Western style room with two beds! I intend to move out, and into the next vacant Japanese room, asap.

At 6pm or so we went to dinner. We had Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pizza type thing, made of salad and noodles. It was nice to try but it was expensive and I couldn't finish it all. Afterwards, Pete, Steve, David and I went exploring the nightlife of Hiroshima. We were totally blown away and amazed! It's like a mini Tokyo! Neon lights everywhere you look! And young people and tons of shops! We stayed till the shops closed, about 10pm. David said "We died in Takayama and now we're in heaven!"

Then we hung out by the river. It was nice and it was a warm night. Finally we bummed with our guide in the hotel lobby. Upon our request, he even took us sightseeing outside some love hotels! LOL The hotels didn't allow us in XD

It's my birthday. It turned out ok! ^_^
In the morning, I went to shower at Lorrain and John's room (the sci fi older couple) coz I don't have a shower! I could always take a shower at the communal bath, but mass nudity is not my thing XD .Breakfast was traditional Japanese foods and it was ok I guesse.

Later we headed out to the 'Hida Folk village'. It was all hundreds of years old Japanese country houses, and most were burned. I was bored out of my mind so I left. Alone, I went to see Takayama's many temples and shrines located up towards the bottom of the mountains. Oh first I checked my emails at the Info Centre and yay I had bday messages! Even from lovely Tomo kun. I wrote to mom and to Tomo.

It was rainy in the daytime, but I went for a couple of hours walk exploring Takayama's many temples and shrines anyway. It was awesome! I pretty much had them all to myself. I even heard a monk chanting in one! It was all an amazing, authentic Japanese experience. It was a great birthday, except I wish Tomo was by my side. Or Akanishi Jin XD I took tons of photos.

At 4pm, 'the cool group' met up and went sake sampling. Yay it was my first time tasting sake. Somehow it reminds me of champagne. It's quite nice. My fav drink is still the ume or whats-it-called. Then we looked at the souvenir shops in the 'old section'.

At 5.30pm we all met up at the ryokan and dressed in kimono (actually in yukata). Well it was ladies only. Mine was the best! It was white with blue and purple flower patterns, and a purple obi. A lady dressed me up in it, that felt weird but nice. We all had an awesome time and took countless photos! We went snap happy. I wore my kimono untill midnight, I loved it so much.

6.30pm was dinner time. The food wasn't my idea of fun, but I endured most of it. And Hiro bought me a bday cake! How nice is that! Everyone was happy about getting cake. We all chilled in the dinner hall until we got kicked out lol. Then upon my request, us in the 'cool group' went out for a walk.

Our group outing was perfect. I wore my kimono and indeed I did get good reactions. One person said 'it suits you' in Japanese. We took some pix at the Pachinko parlour with some anime people. Then we tried to find a cheap bar to drink at. Whilst hangin out in the 'number 1 street', beside my fav blue-lights tree, Pete wandered off to talk to the locals. Suddenly this girl comes running over to me, asking to take a photo! Then Pete rocks up and announces that he told her I'm a famous aussie actress! ROFL what a classic. So she's goin snap happy with her mobile and I took a photo with her too. Omg it was so fun!

All the bars and hangout spots were too expensive for us. One wanted a 2000yen ($20) cover charge just to get in! Must have been a hostess club. So we just bought some drinks at the 'Family Mart' and went back to hangout in our ryokan. It was fun there. We just drank and talked, then later watched Japanese tv. We stayed there (David and Steve's room) till midnight.

Here's a funny story. Yesterday at dinner, Pete lifted the entire miso soup by the lid (coz it tends to just stay on) When the serving lady saw this, she kinda jumped and guided it down LOL. Then today she served miso soup again, and Pete goes to her "Look, you ready?" and lifted the lid. But this time it came off in a sec! Pete's theory is that she pre-opened his as a preventative LOL He did show her a photo of the floating miso soup at least XD

Im loving today. Ok I'll tell u from the beginning.
In the morning I went to visit the Little Prince Museum, but since it's expensive and we had to leave soon, I didn't go inside. When we left our Hakone ryokan, one of the ryokan girls said "bye bye Aki san" and waved us off. She loved the Aussie souvenir pencils I left her.

First we left the mountains by bus. Man we drove past some dangerous steep cliffs at unsafe speeds! The driver must think he is Initial D or something. Ofcorse Peter san made the trip funny as usual. Hasheshi-maaaaaaaaaaas. It means 'we are off'. And the driver actually said "the left is clear, the right is clear, the front is clear, ok we are off" LOL Then we went on the trains. Shinkansesns. Two of them! We went past tons of forests and mountains, plus rice field areas.

Finally we arrived at Takayama. Our ryokan is spectacular!! Whoa now this is my style of living!! It's traditional and luxurious. I'm gonna go photo crazy in here. My room is Sugoi, totally awesome. It's 100% traditional plus class. I got the paper walls, tatami mats, little table, sliding doors, futon and a tv XD. I'm impressed.

After arrival, we went out to explore Takayama. It has a symbol representing it: a sarubobo baby monkey. So cute. Even the town is amazing! It has many temples and shrines, souvenir shops every few meters! Even an "old Japan" section with all traditional wood and paper houses and shops! I really could live here. It's so cool! I even saw a man walking around clapping wooden sticks, like the ones we saw at the Roaring Dragon Temple. I saw a rikshaw too o.o And when I wanted to cross the road, two 'useless job' traffic cops stopped traffic for me!! Omg XD .I bought two traditional shoes, the geisha type geta, now I need a kimono.

At 6.30pm we had to return for dinner. It was getting dark by then and the shops were closing anyway. Whoa dinner was the best ever. It was 100% traditional, from the setting to the food. We were in a great tatami hall, with little tables and seats with no legs! I ate all the food presented and tasted flavours that I never knew existed. I even ate sashimi and weird things. Quite shamefully, all us tourists behaved so western, being loud and sitting unsightly lol.

It's midnight now. At about 9pm most of us headed out 'bar hopping'. We went to a traditional restoraunt that was totally empty & we just drank Japanese alcohols. I drank 'u' something plum wine. And we sat on tatami mats =p .Then it was just Hiro, David, Steve, Pete and me left, and we went searching for more bars. We found one with out own little room. It was really fun, coz Pete is so funny^^
Ok time to sleep.

I slept well, but the British boys didn't! Their tv was haunted!! It was doing some scary Ring type sht. I would have been scared out of my mind. The tv kept turning on by itself during the night. As if that's not enough, it was on a 'noise' (ants) buzzing channel. How scary. They had to pull the power out!

Today the whole group went off together. We started by going by bus, then skylift, to a mountain with steam err,, stinky smoke coming out of it o.o It wasn't very exciting. The place is famous for producing black eggs. Then we went on more skylifts yay. We went on a 'pirate ship' boat cruise, which was ok, except that boat cruises are too 'old people activity' for me XD At our destination, we all went our own way, for an hour or two. I found a very cute restoraunt, then looked at souvenir shops. The best find today were googley eyed chopsticks!

We took the boat back the way we came, then more skylifts, then took a steep-train that goes down the mountain. At the bottom was the 'Museum of Open Air Sculptures'. David, Steve, Pete and I decided it's too deadly boring to go in, so we went off exploring Hakone on our own. We took the bus back to our hotel area. Omg the bus driver was so funny! I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for Pete. The driver (and then Pete) kept saying 'hasshashimm-aaaaaaaaaaaaaa-su' at every stop XXDD Also funny, we saw a girl in a tshirt that said 'milk fed'! Oh, I saw lots of dogs today, including huge husky ones.

The most fun part of the day began, when we headed back to our ryokan area. We went to the Samurai Museum! Actually it's quite small but we had mad fun! The owner was quite excited about us being there, he kept talking to us in Japanese. We saw lots and lots of antique samurai armours and outfits. Most were a few hundred years old! Pete was being very entertaining for us, and used the dictionary to ask the owner if they were real or fake. We were trying so hard not to laugh. It really felt like Pete was harassing the owner, with funny questions. David and Steve were hideing whenever Pete yelled downstairs to the owner, who then bounced upstairs to speak more Japanese XD

I was laughing hard, when Pete snuck in photos of the armour. We are not allowed to photo them, so he pinned himself beside the window, directly under the security camera XD ROFL 'Well they won't know now, will they?'. I'll give u another example of Pete being entertaining unintentionaly. At the restoraunt yesterday, he goes "How do I say 'I want' in Japanese?" and we translated it as kudasai (please). So as soon as the restoraunt boy walked past, Pete goes "kudasai chopstick!" then continues on drinking. LOL how random! Kudasai chopstick !!

The fun only began when I decided to get dressed as a samurai. It cost 1000yen and the little old man dressed me. It was real stuff, he claimed, and damn heavy metals too! Wow what a unique experience. When will I ever get to be a samurai again? The boys couldn't stop laughing at me and we all went photo mad! We took tons and tons. I even had a sword and face mask. That mask is thanx to Pete harassing the owner too. LoL

The very best part about being a samurai was everyone's reactions on the street! They couldn't believe their eyes! One bus even went in the carpark across the road to turn around and get a better look! It was classic. OMG he full on swung his bus around LOL We stayed till closing time, around 5.30pm. It was the best fun of the trip.

In the evening, we all met up and went to dinner at a traditional Japanese restoraunt. Actually I had Japanese pizza XD We all sat on the floor. Some of the westerners weren't pleased, but I felt right at home. Back at the ryokan, some of the girls working there came and taught us origami. We made paper cranes, which I already knew how to make. Afterwards I talked with the girls for a bit. Part in Japanese and part in English. I should ask them if there is any cute boys around. But we talked about boring stuff, like me learning Japanese in high school.

Now it's 10.50pm. I just took a shower and tidied my room. It's late, I should sleep soon. I want to wake up early so I can go to the Little Prince museum, a few houses down.

11.15pm. I just checked on everyone downstairs. Omg it was so funny! We asked the girl downstairs why Dave's room is haunted!? She said it's not really a ghost. It's just that this area is very electrical for some reason, so the tvs go on and off o.o Wtf kind of excuse is that. Electrical areas. I signed their guestbook and wrote that it's haunted anyway XXDD