Week One of the Big Trip

It's been only a week since we left our jobs in New Zealand and the place that we called home for 2 years to begin our travels through Asia. We've done so much over the past week that it'll be very difficult for us to get it all in this post, but we'll try and put in some of the details to keep all you faithful fans/readers of our blog updated.


Australia

We departed New Zealand on Sunday morning 29 March. Brian was nice enough to drive us to the airport and have a coffee with us prior to sending us through immigration to the Qantas lounge. We made it to Sydney without any problems and took the train for our first time to the Hilton Hotel. The train was extremely easy and we would suggest that anyone who goes to Sydney take the train from the airport as it's very simple and cheaper than a taxi. We relaxed in Darling Harbour, had lunch, and then went to the gym, sauna, jacuzzi, and steam room in the hotel. We then headed up to the lounge and nibbled on food and had drinks. It was an early night to bed for us.

On Monday, we headed to Royal Botanical Gardens and relaxed overlooking the harbour, Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. It was a very relaxing day, before heading to the airport for our flight to Tokyo that night. As you know, we've spent 5 days in Sydney about a year ago over Easter weekend and saw most of the key things that we wanted to, so this short trip was primarily about relaxing.

Japan

We arrived in Tokyo at Narita airport at 6am on Tuesday morning. Dave and Nikki had given us very detailed directions on how to get from the airport to their place and they were perfect. As a side note for those who don't know Dave and I grew up together and him and his fiance Nikki are living in Tokyo for a couple of years for work. They have been there for a little under a year so far.

We arrived at their place and it was great to see both of them. Dave was able to stay home to greet us before heading into work for the day. We were lucky enough to secure Nikki's time for the day to be our personal tour guide. She did great, showing us around Tokyo. We were able to meet Dave for lunch at a little Korean restaurant for some Bibimbap. (Dave and Nikki just got back from a long weekend in Korea and this was their favorite food, it was very yummy) We headed to the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, and then to Ginza.

At night we met up with Jamie who works for PwC and his girlfriend Reika and the 6 of us went to this great restaurant called Inayaka in Roppongi. This was a cool place where all the food was cooked in front of us and the food was very tasty.

Kyoto

(Before heading to Kyot we went to Tsukiji Fish Market with Dave. This is a massive fish market and we got there around 5am so we could watch the tuna auction. There were so many tuna's there, it was unreal and the auction was pretty neat to watch, although I had no clue what he was saying). Later that morning Erin and I left our hosts and headed down to Kyoto for a couple of days. We took the train down as we had purchased the Japanese Rail Pass for our time here. It's Cherry Blossom season here in Japan and this is one of the biggest times of year. There are so many Cherry trees throughout Japan and Kyoto has quite a few. Kyoto is also known for it's many temples and shrines. We spent time in the Gion District walking through all the cute little streets and found a neat restaurant on Pontocho Street where we were able to have a Japanese pot where we cooked the food ourselves right on our table.

We headed back to our hotel and were able to stay in a Japanese Style room which was really cool. We walked in and the only thing in there was a short table. No bed was in there, but luckily Erin was able to pull the bedding materials out of the closet and make a nice bed for us.

The 2nd day was filled with more and more temples and we also saw the very special Golden Temple. We went back up to the Gion district and were lucky enough to spot a couple of Geisha's. They are amazing looking and it was cool to see how popular they were as all the tourists were crowded around them taking pictures. That night we found a place where we were able to have a Kaiseki meal which is a traditional Japanese meal with 8-10 courses of small amounts of food. I personally think that the highlight of the day was our lunch meal. We went into this restaurant and order our meals and drinks from a vending machine. We then sat down and a lady took our tickets. Before we knew it our food was there and for the price just under 20,000 yen (100 yen is around 1 USD or .65 NZD). The food was great and there was a lot of it. It was a big hit in my book.


On Friday we headed to Himeji where the biggest thing to see is a Castle. This castle was amazing looking and there were Cherry Blossom Trees all around which made it even more beautiful. This was the most crowded any of the sites that we had seen were and there were hundred upon hundreds of people in the castle, so we weren't able to move too fast within it.

We caught the 3:30pm train from Himeji back up to Tokyo to get back with Dave/Nikki. On the train back, we were lucky enough to see Mt. Fuji.

Tokyo

Upon returning, they had a huge schedule mapped out for the weekend with us, it was great. We had a few drinks before leaving and they introduced us to Chu Hi's which is an alcoholic drink which comes in various fruit flavours already mixed in a can. That night we headed to Jackpot for a very good meal of Tapa type plates. We then stopped at Luxus for a quick drink and saw the massive fish tank with the sharks and turtles (We were pretty bummed when leaving because we were only there for 1 drink and no one told us that there was a 1050 yen per person table charge). We then went to Shibuya which is the busiest street crossing in the world and spent the next 2 hours singing Karaoke.

Now I'm sure most of you are thinking that we were in some big bar with 1 microphone singing a couple songs...NOPE. We had a private room which was the same place that was in the movie Lost in Translation. It was just the 4 of us and we belted out some good songs. Erin was good enough to grace us with her great rendition of Oklahoma!

Saturday was a jam packed day and we started with a western brunch at Fujimamas and then headed to a great place to get some souvenirs. The meal was good, but I had a bad experience and wanted to have an orange juice, but didn't realize that it cost over 700 yen...yikes! Dave and I were pretty hungry after that, so we got a Crepe and we were generous enough to share with the ladies. We then headed up to this place called Asakusa and saw the Senso-Ji Temple and then did a River Cruise down the Sumida River which was nice and relaxing.

That night we headed to Roppongi Hills again to have some conveyor belt sushi. Let me tell you, the sushi here in Japan is absolutely amazing. I would have loved to sit there all night and eat it, but I don't think my wallet could have taken anymore. We had dinner with two of their friends Drew and Rio who were so nice and enjoyed hanging out with them and also hung out with them on Sunday. We headed up Mori Tower to the 52 floor which gave us a great view of the city at night. It was then out on the town for some drinks and we headed to A971 and Feria, both very nice up scale bars. We made it back to Dave and Nikki's around 2am, but we were all very hungry, so Nikki-the-cook made us all pizza and then ice-cream sunday's (Nice work Nikki)!

This morning we met up with some of their friends and headed to Kawasakidaishi to see a Falace festival. It was amazing how many people were at this festival and there was a parade as well. A very interesting experience to say the least. We then headed to Yoyogi Park for Hanami. This is a big party that happens when the Cherry Blossom's are out. We brought beer and a ton of food and relaxed in the park. On our way we saw some Dancing Elvis,'s girls dressed liked Baby Dolls, People giving out free hugs (Dave and I both got one), and much more.
We couldn't stay there too long as we had to head to the Tokyo dome for a baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp. The place was very cool and there are these beer girls who walk around selling beer and carry a mini-key on their back...very funny. A foul ball almost found it's way into Dave's hand, but unfortunately it just hit the top of his finger.

Our time in Japan is coming to a close and we are headed to Beijing tomorrow morning. We've had an absolute blast with Dave and Nikki and they have been so wonderful to host us, allow us to sleep in their place, and tour around with us...THANKS!

A few observations about Japan:
-There are so many vending machines
-Things are extremely clean
-All workers are extremely nice and love their jobs no matter what they do
-The toilets are electronic and very advanced (heated seats)
-Very expensive
-Food is great
-The train system is wonderful

We hope to be able to write more from China...(Sorry we weren't able to put up any pictures, but we just weren't able to load any of our pictures onto Dave/Nikki's computer. If they are able to up load some of the ones that they took, we will put a couple up to keep you interested as I realize just reading my text isn't the most entertaining and there are also probably spelling and gramatical errors).