Wednesday 27 November 2019

Impressions of Japan


So I've finally managed to go through the hundred I photos that I took in Japan and process them all! So here's our trip. I've mixed some camera photos with phone photos, so some of the editing is a bit second hand and as I didn't have a tripod, even some of my better quality photos aren't that spectacular. 

Anyhow, tonnes of photo (as usual). 

Novemember 7th Taipei (Taiwan) - Osaka

This day we had the overnight plane trip from 6th in Australia to Airport in Taipei on 7th and then Arrival at Osaka on the evening on the 7th. Where we had a little wander around and buffet dinner at the hotel. 

How cool is this bottle? It's alcohol. 

Wagyu $15

$39 according to one of our tour guides though, these are much better than what we get 

$47 for this tray of apples

???

$31 for bunch of grapes! 

I got a bit adventurous with the buffet... I have no idea what it was, but it was all pretty good. They also serve most of this again for breakfast, but that was a bit too early in the day for me!

Novemember 8th Osaka

View from our hotel 

Me, Jess, Karleen and Em. 

Nijo Castle









Fushimi Inari Shrine  

This place was massive and he said it would have taken a whole day to explore. I think it would have been really nice but there were so many people! Sooooo many people everywhere that every photo you see that doesn't have people in it, was a stroke of good luck or they have been edited out. 





These went on forever. 




Oh and please give me some slack with all the architecture photos! My photo club does a lot of them and while they bore me to death, I thought I would have some attempts while I was in Japan. Some of then are ok I suppose, but I'm still not sold on the genre. 











 Nara Park and Todaiji (Great Budda Hall) 







Scale replica 



Lucky there's a sign! 


Ok so this needs to be said.... the toilets in Japan are amazing! Even in the public parks etc! I've never had so many option in my life!! Em and I decided we are going to import them into Australia and call them "JappaCrappas".... I'm sure it will take off. The toilet seats are even heated!! And let me tell you, when I was half way up Mt Fuji and there was sleet and rain, it was really rather nice to have a heated toilet! 





This park was absolutely packed with deer. They were everywhere and there was no fence. They just seem to hang around. 












These kids were all so cute. They were singing the alphabet in English. 


Em and Jess 
People pollution. I had a play with this one and didn't mind it. 

We ordered some wagyu! Sorry I can't remember what it's called. But you boil sweet soy sauce and then dip your meat in it and the dunk your meat into beaten raw egg and eat it. 

Apple Sherbet alcoholic drink. It was delicious. 

I had a salad that had raw salmon! Was pretty nice really 


So this ah, is a place, where, you can buy "DVDs", for ah, relaxation purposes.... but you actually sit inside the shop to watch them. 




This was a restaurant where you can literally catch and eat your fish. 







Novemember 9th Osaka

We had a free day this day and so we hired a driver to take us around. 





These are at every temple, castle and shrine we go to. They are well wishes and prayers. 


We went to the Bamboo forest but we were a little uninspired and as we had driven over this pretty little bridge a block earlier, we walked back to take some photos.  





And we also did a little bit of shopping which was fun and a lot less intense compared to some of the shopping inside the more urban areas!









We went out for lunch at the sushi train!! It was really very good and these were our desserts! Some of them were a bit "how ya goin'" but mine was a crepe cake and it was delicious! 




I can't remember what this place was called. 
But this golden temple was gorgeous. Unfortunately though, in order to get this photo, you literally had to wait in line for other people to get out of the road! There were people everywhere. 

Makes you feel a little despondent to know that millions of others all have this exact photo. I guess it makes me appreciate home so much more because I'm literally the only person who gets to photograph it. 










These trees were just so gorgeous. 



Something that amazed me over there was the dedication that people have to their work! This was the incense guy. That's all he did was light incense all day, stick them in here and make sure they stayed lit. Another place that I went to, there was a guard, and his job, all day was simply to hand plastic bags to tourist for their shoes to go in, and then receive the bags back from the people, to be neatly flattened and folded. Amazing!



There were people everywhere who would get all dressed up like this and go to the temples and shrines. 



















That night we went out on a foodie tour with this mad Israeli guy and our tour started with a slide down this huge slippery dip. It was so much fun! 




We started with beer! 


I have no idea what any of this stuff was but it was delicious!! 

This was raw horse!! Yes I ate it! (When in Rome... or Japan). Just smothered it with soy and garlic and ginger so I can't really tell you what it tasted like and washed it down with Hot Sake!! 

We looked in a grocery store which sold sea urchin! 
 You could also buy Whale meat which looks exactly like kangaroo! I wonder if it tastes the same?

Grocery shop

This is a sign for a very specific kind of hotel! Where you can book a room for as little as 2 hours! I was very surprised to see that they did "karaoke"..... however I discovered that they are not microphones!  

Hot Sake!!!!!! 


Our guide Levi!! He was a pretty cool dude!

Mooooooore SAAAAKKKEEE!!!!!!! 


 November 10th - Osaka to Nagoya 


I ah, didn't take a great deal of photos on this day. But we went to Inuyama Castle and the Atsuta Shinto Shrine. 


Sorry Jess!!! I knew you'd laugh after!! 





Good Hangover cure!!! Ramen! Going to have to make myself some.


Ice cream, not so great for a hang over but the fish thing was like a waffle full of custard stuff and these were everywhere and sooooo yum! 



Some of the little kids were sooooo damn cute!!! 



November 11 Nagoya - Mt Fuji - Tokyo 

All troops were back on deck today! We got to see Mt Fuji and unfortunately due to the weather. This was the best picture we got! It was a little frustrating because in the bus we were driving along, you could see the whole mountain! I thought we would have stopped for a photo, but we didn't. So this was all I got! 









Loved these leaves! 















Love this pair of crazys 








How gorgeous were these ducks! 







When I took this pic, I looked at my camera and decided that I didn't like it.... but now I'm home, I do! 



Yes that's Mt Fuji in the background! 





This was like a hash brown with cheese in the middle!!!! Very very rich and I couldn't eat it all.... but it has potential. 

I wasn't sure if this was dog.... or dog food but it was for sale at a servo. 



Very quickly jumped out into the sleet to take this one! 


I had never seen snow before... and really it was more like bits of ice on the sides of the road! I wasn't terribly inspired! 


Good thing about the rain, meant that we had this shrine to ourselves with no people! 






We went out for dinner one night and ordered some steamed dumplings (top left).... anyhow we said that we wanted "one each". The translation of that, was that we wanted one lot of 6 dumplings each!! So 24 dumplings later....... we were hysterical.... and fat lol


November 12th - Tokyo 



This day, we had a free day and we were booked in to do the go carts through Tokyo in the afternoon. So in the morning we went shopping and went to a Kitkat cafe! They are a bit mad about KitKats over there. They have loads of different flavours like melon, rum and raisin, berries, matcha (which they have flavour in everything including ice-cream and despite Karleen's favour for it.... I thought it was gross!). 




In the afternoon.... we did Go-Carts! As you may guess, I was not particularly thrilled about the idea of dressing up.... but the go-carts... they were EPIC!!!!!! 










Apparently speed limits are only a suggestion for go-cart riders. We were speeding through Tokyo doing about 90km in a 40zone!! Ha ha ha I was in heaven. Was so beautiful too, I wished I had a go-pro on because coming over the bridge in the late afternoon, there was a massive big moon and it was so gorgeous! 

The funny part was afterwards I was talking to the girls and they said something about the seatbelts and I said "oh I didn't have mine on, our guide said we didn't have to"..... to which they went "wholey crap, lucky you weren't catapulted out"... anyhow, maybe that why my fingers were numb, because I was hanging on for grim death for 3 hours.



November 13th Tokyo - Australia 

Last day!!! We had a little bit of spare time in the morning before our transfer to the airport. So Jess and I left Karleen and Em to go shopping while we went to visit the Impiral Gardens. 


Rent a car


Now Jess and I said that this was going to be one of those things where "what happens on tour, stays on tour".... but sorry Jess... too funny!! We thought we were really cool finding a single tree with "Cherry Blossums"....... these are not!! Shuddup!!! 


I'm pleased to say that we weren't the only people because I saw some others getting a photo with it! 













Don't even say it!












How stunning are these!!! 















While we couldn't access all the gardens because they were guarded. It was still lovely to see and because we got there really early, there were hardly any people. 






Soooo that was Japan! Below is a video of a few other things that I took on the trip. 


I actually wasn't meant to fly home until a day later but I managed to change my flight to an earlier one so I could get home to my babies! I was missing them. I'm glad I did as the team had gone downhill with gastro. So I think they were glad to have mum home.


Was a great trip. I wouldn't do it again! I would have loved to have seen some rural areas of Japan though. I as amazed by how clean it was and there were no bins anywhere because of the bomb they had years ago. The people were very lovely! I think I saw about 3 pregnant ladies out of the Millions that we saw! Amazing! Also we only saw 2 homeless people. Which was also surprising, however I wonder if they are more in the smaller town.

HOME AGAIN

These few are from just before I left for Japan

Feral child 

My first attempt at a parmi for the big fellas birthday. 


Cactus in flower... it didn't rain!!!

Leaky pipes to fix!

Half naked child just panning out. 








Managed to get the big fella out for a date night. 



Below are some videos of us out and about. 


And these next ones are from after I got home from Japan. 

We found another poor lost turtle. We would have been at least 700meters from the salt. Poor dear. 


I scored a dog! Kaka loved it! He was just giving our calves some curry when I found him. 



Afternoons spent chilling by the dam! 



Grubs!!! Video is hilarious! 

Yes it's snake season again! This guy was right beside the kids sand pit.... he's sleeping! We've seen 3 browns in as many weeks. Right near the kids play area! 

Rightio I think this is quite enough for one post! I'll leave you with this one Lookin' for a Buzz by Ashey McBryde.