Untitled Document

The site is optimized for a 1280*1024 display
and a size of characters set to "Medium" in Internet Explorer

Sunday 30 October 2005

For our first day in Japan, we haven't done so much , we were too tired. On Friday evening, Pierre came home and stayed for the night. We didn't sleep very much though as the plan was to sleep in the plane. On Saturday morning, we left to the airport and after a 1h30 flight to London, and a few hours stuck in London waiting for the connection, we finally got in the plane to Tokyo. While we waited for that flight in London, we met Scott who was coming back from Paris. For an unknown reason, it was cheaper to do London-Paris-London-Tokyo than just London-Tokyo.

So we left for Tokyo in a plane which wasn't very confortable in my opinion. The flight was soooo long, and too bad for us, we couldn't sleep at all so we arrived exhausted in Narita (Tokyo's airport). We then took Narita Express to Ofuna, a city south east of Tokyo where we met Maya and Hiro who were going to be our hosts for a few days. We then took a last train to their home town, Zushi city.

So there was Maya, the mother, Hiro, the Father, Yo, the son. They were the familly of one of Scott's childhood friend, Momo. They have been super nice to us which made our stay with them really cool. Zushi is a little port about one hour train from Tokyo.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to their house, left our bags there before walking downtown where we had our first japanese food experience in a very small and typical restaurant. We had Tenpura (fried stuff like pumpkin, squid, shrimp,....°, Sashimi (raw fish) and of course our first japanese beer.

After lunch, we had a little walk in Zushi and even went to the beach for a few minutes before heading back to the Miyasaka's house. Shower (Yeah!!!) to feel better and let's go for our second japanese meal which was a "Make your own sushi party", where everyone rolls his own sushi with the ingredients that are on the table. As Zushi is a port, the fish there is extra fresh (like almost everywhere in Japan) and eating raw fish was a real pleasure even though I am usually not a big fan of fish.

After the usual post-diner discussions, we went to bed or should i say to sleep cause the room we stayed in was the grand parents' room and it was a typical tatami room where people sleep on futons. Another very typical thing to start the trip with :)

Links:
Narita Airport: http://www.narita-airport.or.jp/airport_e/
Zushi City : http://www.city.zushi.kanagawa.jp/top/foreignlanguage/english.htm

Monday 31 October 2005

For our first real full day in Japan, we decided to go first to a former capital of Japan named Kamakura which is two train stops from Zushi. It was the capital of Japan because of his strategic situation, surrounded by mountains and the sea. There are so many temples and shrines there.

The first one we visited was Engaku-Ji, just near the train station. This one was very big, and I really enjoyed it because it was a very quiet place. No screw or nails were used to build most of the buildings in the temple. Amazing. When people were talking about temples, I could imagine what it looked like from what I've seen on tv before but I was always thinking of one big building like we have in Europe. Japanese temples are made of several buildings with different use.

After walking around this one, we went to a little restaurant to eat udon soup and left to the next temple, Kenchu-Ji. This one was smaller but nice also and still peacefull.

The last place we saw in Kamakura was Hachiman-Gu, a sanctuary which was a lot more crowded than the other ones. Large steps take you to the main building where many people were praying. It was the first time we saw people praying. Very typical compared to christian people.
We went down the stairs and started walking on the main street of Kamakura for a bit before moving to a little pedestrian alley which was a lot nicer. We headed back to the station and got in the train to the capital of Japan, Tokyo.

When we arrived in Tokyo, we went straight to Akihabara known as the electric town because of the many electronic discount shops that are all around the area. Pierre wanted to buy a camera so we stayed there for a while, and then left to Shinjuku. If Akihabara has been our first time seeing those big lights on big buildings, Shinjuku was even more impressive.
Shinjuku is a very young area but also the red light district of Tokyo. Only on one side of the station though. We went for food on the other side of the station in a little street named "Piss Alley". Looks like it is called like this because there is no toilets in the buildings so people just go on the street...The street was 1.5 m large with only little restaurants selling japanese specialities. We picked one up and had Yakitori, and a few other things. Was cool.

After this, we crossed the railway to go to the red light district and after meeting with a big black guy trying to convince us to go to his "Gentlemen Lounge", we decided to enter the local "Hub", some kind of british pub that doesn't look very british. One beer there and we came back to Zushi. It was a long first day but super nice especially as it was our first time seeing all these things.

Links:
Kamakura : http://www.kamakuratoday.com/e/
Hachiman Gu : http://www.hachimangu.or.jp/
Akihabara : http://www.akiba.or.jp/index_e.html

Tuesday 1st November

Tuesday has been one of the longest days of our trip, especially as we really walked A LOT that day. We woke up at 6 but only left Zushi at 7:30. We were going to the very famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo which is the biggest of the world. When we got there, we got in the market and started walking....

The place was of course full of people selling fish of all types, from the most classic one to the weirdest ones. Most of them I had never seen before. The market was really big. We walked his length and we really thought we would never see its end. Moreover, we had to be careful to to be hit by one of these small rolling things that they se to transport fish.

After the visit, Scott and Pierre wante dto buy some stuff and eat a bit. They stayed a little while trying to negociate the price of great japanese knives but didn't get what they wanted. Scott bought one for its original price but Pierre gave up. We the moved to a sushi restaurant which seemed to be part of a chain. It wasn't looking like a McDonald though !!. It gave Pierre and Scott the chance to eat a bit. I didn't cause fish at 10am is not really my trip. They had some very good food and had some very little baby fishes that looked like soja with eyes....

After the meal, littl walk on the riverside where we got kinda lost, not knowing where to go or what to do. We passed through a little fishermen's neigbourhood, very typical, with a lot of wooden houses before going to a part of the city that I completely forgot the name of.

We stopped to have lund in a japanese curry restaurant. I felt a bit more in India than in Japan but oh well. Then we had coffee in Mister donut. It was very nice and the waitress helped us to find the JR trainstation, we could then go to Tokyo station. There we went to the tourism office where internet access was free and we were able to update the blog.

We then went to the imperial paace, which is by the way impossible to visit but we couldn't even enter the gardens, which are the only part accessible to the public, because it was a bit late already. We decided to go for a drink in a german style tavern in front of the trainstation and left after a beer to end up in Ginza. Ginza is a very expensive area with many luxury shops. It is like Champs Elysées in paris. At night, Ginza looked a bit like Shinjuku to us, most likely because of the lights on the very high buildings. People there are very different though. We passed by Sony show room which wasn't very interresting and had a look at the Kabuki traditionnal theatre before heading back to Shimbashi and return to Zushi. Update of the website, postcards. before this, we stopped in Yokohama to have food in China Town. That night we stayed in Momo's room because the grand parents were back from their travel and had taken back their room. They were very cool, and didn't look their age.
That day was very long....

Links:
Tsukiji fish market: http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm

Wednesday 2nd November

That was another tough day, maybe the hardest of the whole trip and maybe one of the nicest also :p We went to Tokyo right after waking up where we first had a walk in the Imperial palace gardens. We saw only a part of it but it really looked huge and lovely. It is funny to see a big city like Tokyo where a square meter must be so expensive, and then enter that park right in the center where there is nothing but grass with a view on the surrounding buildings.

After the gardens, we walked to that shrine that has been on the news lately because prime minister went. From what Hiro said, it contains the ashes of the people who died for the country since hundreds of years and not only war criminals from WWII. The place is nice at least, women were making floral compositions..

We walked around the surrounding gardens before heading to Akihabara, the electric city, where we wanted to see a cosplay café to have a good laugh. Unfortunately, we couldn't fidn anything else than a maid café which ran out of beer. We couldn't even take picture so we just left.

We got back on the train to Harajuku which is a well known place in Tokyo because of the weird people you can see there, especially on Sunday morning when all the weirdos of Tokyo meet there dressed as Elvis, as manga characters, or other funny things. Nobody was dressed that weird that night but you could tell that it wasn't like central Tokyo. People, who usually don't ever look at you at all, were looking at you. It felt a lot better to Pierre and I especially.
There we foudn a bar and had our traditionnal beer. That was a fantastic placewith free internet access at your table !. When we got in there, they played lost in translation for us lol. We could update the blog from a bar. Great !!.

After that nice break, we headed to Shinjuku to meet with Yuki, the girlfriend of one of Pierre's friends that he knows for a while. We had food in a restaurant where you pay for the food and then pay 3000 yens more for unlimited drinks. And we had a lot.... In my opinion they lost money on us that night. Beer, Saké, Chuo-chou, etc... That was tough and we decided (who know why) to go the Hub again after that and they forced me (yes they did!!) to have tequila.

We went back to the station to realize that we missed the last train to Zushi, so we took one to Ofuna but for an unknown reason, we got off the train before Ofuna and ended up in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. We had to take a cab to go back to Zushi which was pretty expensive but the only solution. That night Scott's hair ended up in Maya's fridge, and none of us can remember why.

Oh.... my.... God....

Links:
HUB (english pub) : http://www.pub-hub.com/index.html?

Thursday 3rd November

That Thursday was a transition day between 2 big steps of our trip. We had to leave to Hiroshima that day. After the very fun evening the night before, and teh difficult coming back to Zushi, getting has been VERY hard. We managed to be go to Zushi station and say by to everyone before getting in the train to Tokyo where we took the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Hiroshima.

The ride has been quiet, even though it was long and our stomachs weren't feeling very good. I think we slept a bit in the train but it was hard, very hard. When we got in Osaka, we had to change train. The reason is simple, we had a Japan rail pass, with unlimited travel on JR lines for 2 weeks didn't allow us the get on Nozomi, the fastest trains, which are the only ones to go from Tokyo to Hiroshima non-stop. So we changed train in Osaka and arrived in Hiroshima where Vishwa was waiting for us at the station. We took a cab and went to their appartment where Eiko and Yuko were waiting for us.

We got installed quickly and went downtown to eat Shabu-Shabu, where you boil very thin slices of meat into very hot water. You then put it into sauce and eat it. Liked it a lot. The restaurant was a bit expensive but meat was unlimited so we had a loooooot :)

That's it for the day, except a quick stop in a nice bar for a beer (we didn't have any that day...) before going back to their place and sleep.

Friday 4th November

Our first real day in Hiroshima !
Adter a coffee, we took a bus downtown. Only Eiko was with us that day cause Vishwa and Yuko had to work. The first stop was near the A-bomb dome. Before teh atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, that building was one of Hiroshima's people favorites buildings. It was the tourism office at that time. It is one of the only building that stayed up after the explosion. People say that it is because it was exaclty under the epicenter of the explosion. Pretty impressive to look at.

On the other side of the river, there is the peace park, which is really nice and peaceful even though many people are walking through it. It is full of monuments to remember of people who died that day. Students, kids, Korean people, american soldiers,... The children memorial was he most impressive to me, especially as there were a lot of kids with their teacher in front of it singing a sad song. I felt very bad.

We then went to buy Bento boxes and ate on the riverside. It was very nice. After Lunch we went to the A-bomb museum. That was very impressive. You can read and listen to people talking about the people they lost that day. Watches broken and stopped at 8:15. Pictures of the city before and after the explosion. You can see that after the explosion, there were only 3 or 4 building still standing. You can easily guess what happened to the people inside. Very sad.

After the museum, we met Yuko who was working close by at the tourism office et went to a bar cause after what we saw, we really needed a drink or two. We went to kembys which really looked like an american bar, and it was happy hour, so I had a couple of pints of 2 euros each. Unbelievable.

After the beer, we went looking for a restaurant. We wanted to try Fugu. We then had to find a restaurant that was looking good. Didn't want to feel sick afterwards.

We found one not too expensive and again with unlimited drinking for 2 hours. Looks like we didn't learn from Tokyo. We ran inside !.
Food was very good although some stuff was weird to me, like crab's brain...
I had beer that night, but other people were drinking Chuo-Chu, a very strong alcohol, a bit like Vodka. After the meal, we decided to go to a salsa club instead of karaoke. So we danced salsa (humm...). The place was very nice, and we started dancing even though none of us knew anything about salsa. I'm glad we didn't take too many pictures there. Scott was fucked up and almost fell asleep there so we went back home.

We caught a taxi and went back home. On the way, Scott was so loud that the taxi driver thought he was american and asked us if he was. We said he was british, but as Scott heard the taxi driver, he said he was french, and started singing La mArseillaise, the french national anthem in the cab. That was fun. Scott was also sure he was going to die because of Fugu, so Vishwa and Eiko did a countdown for him but he didn't die so he had to handle the hangover the next day :)

Links
Kembys : http://www.kembys.com/e/kembys-e.html
Peace Museum: http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/
Peace memorial: http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php

Samedi 5th November

After a soft awakening except for Scott for whom the day was going to be tough, we left Vishwa and Eiko's place, got on a bis to hiroshima trainstation where we met Yuko and took a loca train to Miyajima, a little town with an island in front of it. On the island, there are a lot of temples and a shrine literally 'on' the water. It is also a symbol of Japan because of its torii that is at high tide, in the water.

When we got there, we bought bento boxes with rice and fish, that seemed to be the local speciality before getting on a ferry to the island. The island was full of tourist but it wasn't too bad. Nothing like Tokyo :p After getting on the island, we walked a bit up the hill before having a break to eat our lunch on big stones, next to a little brook, crossed by a cute little bridge. There was also a small temple and a luxurious hotel (huh) typically japanese next to it..

After lunch, we started walking up the hill again. We foudn some bloody red leaves on the trees there. Was cool. The view was also great. On the way up to the temples, there are some cylinders fixed to the ramps on the stairs and you have to roll them on your way up and on your way down. Funny. Anyway it was getting late so we walked down the hill to see the shrine. Unfortunately it was low tide so it wasn't as beautiful as it could have been, but it was nice though. We tried these little fortune telling papers that you fold and tie to a wooden board.

As the night was almost here, we gave a quick look at the pagoda but it was too dark to admire it very much and very long. Seemed nice though. On our way back to the ferry, we stopped to eat local cakes and have some tea. The cakes were shaped as a maple leaf but contained mashed red beans. Interresting :p

After this we went back to the ferry, then in the train, then in the tram to the center of Hiroshima. We had food in a Korean restaurant where we had some very weird stuff. It was raw liver of something. Didn't like that very much. After diner, we had a beer in a bar named opium and went back home for a well-deserved sleep. It changed a lot from Tokyo buildings.

Links:
Bokuden (Korean restaurant): http://www.bokuden.co.jp/hiroshima.html
Miyajima : http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/miyajima/english/top2.htm
Miyajima : http://www.miyajima.or.jp/

Sunday 6th november

Our last day in Hiroshima. We saw less things that day but it has been a very interresting day and a very loooong day also. I think it was the first day the weather wasn't good. We woke up pretty late and after a quick coffee and checking Scott's foot, we went to Hiroshima's university where Vishwa works. Scott's foot wasn't feeling very good since the fugu night. We checked emails, updated the website, and as it took quite a while, we only left the university around 3pm.

We took a bus downtown before entering some kind of big building with loads of tiny restaurants inside where you could eat okonomiyaki, a japanese dish which looks like a salty crepe on which they cook all kinds of stuff like pasta, eggs, salad, etc.... It was super good. According to Eiko, the best ones are made in Hiroshima but I'm sure if we ask Tom he'll say the best ones are from Osaka :p

After eating, we walked a bit around on the streets of Hiroshima where we saw many stores before going to Hiroshima castle. The whole caslt is really big but the tower itself is pretty small. The castle is composed of an island surrounded by canals. From what I heard, if the caslte was attacked, and if the ennemy reached the tower then the battle was lost.

What I really liked in this caslt, apart from the great view from the top of it, was the funky way they would defend it. The tower was surrounded by 2 or 3 canals with land between them, but these parts of land weren't all at the same height. If the ennemy was coming close, they would broke the part of land between the canals the water from the canal would wall on the attackers.
Smart.

It was also explained that the main tax was the rice and that the size of fields was calculated function of the amount of rice people could cultivate on. So you could get a very big field if this one wasn't cultivable.
We also learned that the taxes for the traders was calculated function of the size of the front of their house, that is why many houses in japan are not very long but very wide.
Interresting huh ?

After the visit of the castle, we went back downtown to see some big stores and try some massage chairs in one of them. It seems like Scott and Eiko got out of the store with a lot more pain than they had when they entered it. We met Yuko there and stopped in a bookstore before hunting for a bar to have beers.

We first went to a bar named New York which had humongous beers (cool) and then went for food. We picked some kind of traditionnal restaurant with a lot of different stuff. I really liked this one better than the korean food. After calling Tom one last time, we went to a bar (I forgot the name) which was super cool. I loved the music (Janis Joplin....). We stayed there until around 2 am. In that place you could call the barman with a music instrument. Funny. After that, we went back home and slept there for our last night in Hiroshima.

Monday 7th November

It was the day of our departure from Hiroshima for Osaka where we were going to meet with Tom. We got up late because of the fun e had the night before. Shower and coffee, packing, and then we left to the trainstation after calling Tom one last time. When we got there, we went to a close by restaurant cause we were early and hungry. We had Tonkatsu, fried pork pieces that were super good. Some of them were made of shrimp or other kinds of meat. Real Tonkatsu is with pork though.

We stopped by the tourist office of the station to say bye to Yuko before saying bye to Vishwa also and get in the train with a new traveller with us. Eiko decided to join us until the next day,

Once in Osaka, we met Tom who was waiting for us there. We dropped the bags in a locker in the station and got in an elevator to the 27th floor of a building. It was one of these exterior elevators where you could see all the city as you were going up. Coooool. On the 27th floor, we arrived i front of huge windows so we could see all the city of osaka by night, with all the lights and stuff. Looking like Shinjuku in Tokyo but from the 27th floor.

We walked around teh building to see both sides of the city and stopped in a bar to have a beer still on the 27th floor. The place was really expensive but looked kinda like the hotel in Lost in Translation. Very calm and the best view ever. As we were not hungry yet, we walked around and ended up in a big wheel which was a part of a building. Bottom of the wheel was on the 4th floor of the building. Again that allowed us to see Osaka by night. Blade Runner style :p

We started to get hungry so we went to the Korean area for diner. We got "trapped" into a restaurant by two very noisy guys in front of it. The concept is simple, one table which you sit around on the floor (Asian style), and some kind of barbecue / grill in the middle, incorporated into the table. We can then cook the raw meat that they bring to us. We started with level 0 according to Tom, and some Level 1 stuff. It was beef, pork, etc... Tongue, and other funky parts of them. It became interresting when Tom asked one of us to pick something up. I closed my eyes and picked something on the menu. Tom smiled and ordered the dish. He said it was level 4 at least. It was actually phalloppian tubes..... erf. We laughed a lot and ate them anyway, even though I had to finish most of them cause some people weren't very enthusiastic about it. Even Eiko had some !.

After the diner, we went to Naomi's place, in a little city between Kyoto et osaka where she was waiting for us with bottles in her hands :).
It was nice to see her again. After a "Suntory time", lost in translation style, we updated the website, and went to bed, cause according to Tom, the next day was going to be veeeeery long.
Looks like he organized the whole thing pretty well.

Links :
BALI Lax (Bar with the great view): http://www.balilax.com/jewel/
Gyuichi (Korean restaurant): http://www.gyuichi.com/

Tuesday 8th November

It has been the longest and most tiring day in kyoto and maybe of the whole trip. Tom had very well planned the whole thing. Quick coffee and we got in the packed train to Kyoto after meeting with Vishwa who was going to spend the day with us. 30 minutes later we were there. We jumped in a packed bus to go to the first stop of the day, the RO-KUON JI temple.

The whole temple is not very big but what makes the place special is the golden roof of the temple, on the side of a little lake. It is called the Golden temple. It seems like it is the most famous of all of them.

After walking around a bit, we walked to the next one. Kyoto is a pretty big city and it seems like the quality of the air isn't so good, even compared with Tokyo. But maybe it was just that day. Anyway, the temples compensates this VERY well :)
The next temple was RYOAN JI. It was bigger but didn't have any special building.

The main thing there is the Zen garden which is in fact a rectangle of sand with stones in the middle in front of the main building. It seems a bit "empty" but Tom explained me that the emptyness, allowed monks to meditate more easily. We sat down for a while and meditated.

The next temple was on the other side of the city but as our stomacs started to make some noises, we decided to have lunch in a tofu restaurant. I'm not a big fan of Tofu but as it was a speciality of Kyoto, I had to try. After all, I really liked most of it. Only a couple of little things weren't of my taste.

After lunch, we went to the next temple, up a little hill. Its name was KIYOMIZU. This one was realy crowded compared to the other ones, especially with tourists and kids on school outing.
The view from there was great as the buildings. I really liked it a lot.

Of course that day we had to answer the questions of school kids wearing uniforms. To practice their english, they go to touristic places and ask foreigners a few questions. That happened to us in RO-KUON JI

The last temple was GINKAKU JI, the silver temple. It was very different than the other ones, a lot more sober and A LOT less crowded but it was getting late, so maybe that was the reason why there was a lot people. We saw the sunset and from a little hill next to the temple. Great !.

After walking around a bit, we left to be on time at the restaurant that Tom booked for us.
That was already an amazing day but it wasn't finished. Tom took us to a restaurant where the traditionnal atmosphere was unbelievable. First of all, it was very big, the rooms where we would eat were private rooms with tatami on the floor. The doors were paper doors sliding like in traditionnal houses. In the center of the room, a table. A woman wearing a Kimono was coming regularly to check on us. She was on her knees before entering and would only move on her knees, not to be "higher" than us. She would salute the room everytime she was leaving it. The garden of the restaurant was also great, with its own private river passing in the middle of it. Food was great but the atmosphere even better.

Vishwa and Eiko had to leave before the end of the meal to get on the last Shinkansen to Hiroshima. It has been a very very long and nice day. After the diner, we ended up in a taxi to the station where we could go up "on" it and see the city. There are no high buildings in Kyoto to "save" the view. At the bottom of the stairs leading up there was a huge christmas tree, with many group of people walking around and taking pictures together. It REALLY reminded me of mangas.

My first feeling about Kyoto is that there is A LOT to see and that you have to concentrate on what you want to see or else you can stay there forever.

Kinkaku-Ji : http://www.shokoku-ji.or.jp/english/e_kinkakuji/index.html
Ginkaku-Ji : http://www.shokoku-ji.or.jp/english/e_ginkakuji/index.html
Ryoan-Ji : http://www.ryoanji.jp/
Kiyomizu Dera : http://www.kiyomizudera.or.jp/
Restaurant Gank : http://www.gankofood.co.jp/

Wednesday 9th November

Another long day (yeah I know, I always start with this), even though we got up pretty late and then left Naomi's place pretty late also. For our second day in Kyoto, the plan was to see the remaining very interresting things of the city. Trying to see everything would be impossible.
The first stop of the day was for NISHI-HONGWAN JI which was just a few minutes by feet from the trainstation and right in the middle of the city. Buildings looked big but nothing special because the main building was being repaired. Crazy japanese, they built a hangar over the temple to repair it !!!. We didn't stay very long there.

The second one was TO JI which was pretty cool, and a lot more quiet than the other ones. It was isolated from the center. 2 buildings with statues of the Buddha and a few indian gods (from India). Nobody knows what they are doing there. The main building was some kind of Pagoda at the center of a garden. I really like the whole thing maybe because of the silence there....

Once this visit over, we went we went back to the station to meet with Naomi who just finished working ( a bit earlier maybe :p ). We went to some kind of fast food to have a snack. And guess what ? They gave us forks and knives.... What the hell are you supposed to do with this ? After eating everyday with chopsticks, we didn't know how to use them anymore :p.
It was the only time we had forks/knives in Japan.

After the snack, we got in the metro to Nishi-ki, which is a part of the shopping area in Kyoto, made of little arcade street with loads of souvenirs shops, clothes, foods,etc... I can really imagine these street around christmas time, very romantic.... We made Purikura, which are pictures, most of the time group pictures with different backgrounds, etc.... Funny. We played Pachenko after that and found the quickest way to lose 10 euros in 5 minutes.... Crazy game.

We got back in the metro and then in the train to Minami-Kusatsu, the little town where Naomi lives, and headed to the final destination of the day: KARAOKE !!

They are very different than french ones. You don't sing in front of everybody, but just in front of people you came with in a special room. After a couple of beers, we started singing.... and OH MY GOD it was bad.. While I was trying some soft songs like "Hotel California" or "With or without you", Naomi and Tom were getting nuts on animation themes, like Candy or Goldorak. while Pierre was desperately trying to find songs in french in the big phone book sized repertory of songs. Scott got crazy on Panjabi stuff or Mister Bombastic. We sang a bit and laughed a lot. It ended up with Scott and I singing Endless love and I got you babe.... Crazy I'm teling you.

Thursday 10th November

After the long (and funny) night at the Karaoke, we slowed down a bit but we still did a lot that day. At the end of the morning, we got on the train to Kobe where we just stayed a few hours, to eat Kobe beef, the very famous meat in Japan. Yes meat can be famous in Japan !!
The restaurant was very good. First of all, I like meat and that was not so often that we would get meat in Japan. The table was long and inclded a cooking table where our "private chef" came to cook our stuff. Impressive. We all loved it.

Second stop of the day was in Himeji, where there wasn't so much to see except the very big and famous castle. It is the biggest in japan, and is really big. It is on a hill and is of course built with the japanese style. No colors, just black, grey and white, but style very pretty to look at.

We walked up the stairs to the top floor, stairs are very hard to use. The view was great though. The inside of the castle was pretty empty but the architecture was interresting, with many defense stuff outside and inside the castle.

After the castle, we went back to the station, and went to Osaka where we walked around a bit around the station. It is a very young neighborhood, like Shinjuku in Tokyo with loads of stores and those bigs builgings covered with huge lights.

It was our chance to try the conveyor belt sushi in the first restaurant ever that did this. Food turns around and you pick up what you like. At the end you pay function of how many plates you have. Each plate is a Euro. Cute, Cheap and FUN !!

After diner, we walked around a bit more, stopped in the local hub, a beer, and back to the station. We got our bags from a locker and got in a train to Sakai, little town near Osaka where Tom's mother leaves. She welcomed us by thanking us for taking care of him when he was in france and with many bottles of beer and sake. Obviously she heard of us before :).

Links:
Himeji castle: http://www.himeji-castle.gr.jp/index/English/
Wakkoqu (Kobe restaurant): http://www.wakkoqu.com/e/index.htm

Friday 11th November

After a good night of sleep, not so long but very deep for me, we had a local breakfast (with coffee thank god), little bowl of fruits with yoghourt, tiny triangular sandwiches,.... It was very good but too much. We updated the site and left to Nara, another former capital of Japan.

Nara is a city that seems different. A bit like what I was thinking of Kyoto before going there. It is a very "green" city with loads of trees, parcs, and deers walking around freely in the streets.... :)

We first went to a sanctuary in the middle of a parc but there wasn't so much to see so we looked around a bit and left. On the way back we saw many deers. Apparently, they are used to tourists and the food tourists give them. Tom said some people come and buy food but eat it instead of giving eat to the deers because they don't know what these cookies you can buy there are for. One of us then had to try the cookie and Scott did of course. We then gave some cookies t the deers. It was funny because the deers would bow (japanese style) before getting the cookie. so funny :).

We headed to TODAI JI, one of the most famous places in Nara, because of its giant buddhist temple. When you enter the gardens around the temple, you feel like it's big, but when you get closer to the temple you really realize how big it is. Enormous statues of buddha inside.
Very very nice thing to see.

After one last temple on our way back, and a SOBA soup for our stomachs, we went back to Osaka. Once there, we went to Nipponbashi, a place where you can see a lot of of electronics stores, actually discount stores. Pierre looked at cameras, while Scott and I were looking for crap to buy.

After this walk in Nipponbashi, we went back "home" where Tom's mom was waiting for us with Shabu Shabu ready. It was so good ! But once again she made too much, especially vegetables.
As she had to work the next day, we went to the 1st floor, and had a few drinks while talking before going to sleep.

Links:
Todai-Ji: http://www.todaiji.or.jp/
Kohfuku-ji: http://www.kohfukuji.com/

Saturday 12th November

The trip was almost finished already. For our last day in Osaka, we went back to Nipponbashi before going to the station to eat okonomiyaki, Osakan way, which were, I have to admit, very different than Hiroshima style.
We then took the metro to Shin-Osaka where we met with naomi and then we went for one last beer with Tom and her in a very close by restaurant. We then jumped in the train to Tokyo.

Until Shizuoka, Tom and Naomi were with us. We continued by ourselves. Once there, we took the narita express to narita airport where we took a little shuttle to the hotel, the Skycourt Narita.

It looked like a Formule 1 hotel from the outside was it was good I think. After watching some crazy stuff on tv, and laughed at japanese tv shows, we switched off the lights. The next day we were flying back home.

Links:
Nipponbashi : http://www.denden-town.or.jp/

To finish....

It is hard to talk about this trip. It was an amazing experience, great time. We saw loads of things, had loads of different food. Maybe we were a bit like Japanese tourists in Europe, runing from place to place.... All these things were so different than what we have in Europe and so different between each others. From the lights of Shinjuku to Himeji castle though the peace park in Hiroshima, we loved everything we saw.

We also realized it has been a great trip talking about food also. Takitori, Okonomiyaki, kobe beef, shabu shabu, phallopian tubes.... We also loved everything we had.

This trip has also been a chance for us to see our friends from Japan again and also to make new friends there.

I have to admit I took notes of all these things to be able to remember everything but now that I am typing them, after months, I can really feel how great of a trip it was and how much I am going to miss everyone there..

I apologize for not being super precise on some parts, it really doesn't mean I didn't enjoy these parts of the trip. It is just that, as you can see, this is a bloody long story and it is hard to spend too much time on one place/time.

There are still many things to see and to do (and to eat) in Japan, and I hope we'll have the chance to go again and that hopefully our friends from Japan will visit us soon :)

Before that time comes, we'll just drink the sake we took back with us to remember all of this :)

Seb.