TAF 300 Brick

Today we went to the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) at Tokyo Big Sight, which is like unlike anything I have ever seen. To say the venue is massive is an understatement. The area that contained the Fair would be at least the size of a football (Rugby) field, and that was just one side of one wing of the centre!

The only other anime fair I have attended was the first SupaNova in Brisbane back in 2003. No comparison can be made between the two. TAF was an assault on the senses, I had never seen so much anime in one place before, and everything was trying to get your attention. To get an idea of the size, check out the list of exhibitors and a floor map.

We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight (TBS) around 8:50am as we were meeting up with an internet friend at 9am. The entire open area in front of TBS was empty except for maybe 15 people off to one side and a bunch of event organisers yelling out something I couldn't understand. Just after 9am a line started forming, so we were near the front of the line. By the time they started leading people into the event centre, the line had completely filled the TBS foyer area and had overflowed back down the overpass. I will post a small movie later that I took of the crowd.

I took a lot of photos that can be seen in the gallery, half of which are probably booth girls (and a pair of booth boys, PChii was happy). At the end of the day we had a acquired a tonne of loot (handouts etc..) heres a look at what we got.



After a long draining day at TAF we met up with Beardedgeek at a nice little place called "300 Bar" where everything costs 300yen ($3.30AUD). You purchase tickets which you then exchange for each item you want. You get a bonus half price ticket when you buy 10. The bar was warm, which was far more welcoming than the bitter cold wet street, and small with only a handful of people. We used up all our tickets and headed off to find another place to try out. We were just moments away from giving up when we were welcomed into a bar called "Brick". Again we ended up downstairs in a small cozy bar that just oozed character. We were in for a treat when Beardedgeek ordered a drink that the new bar maid didn't know how to make, soon after she went running out the door upstairs she returned with the man that had welcomed us into the bar. The 3 of us watched intently as he created the drink without the use of any measuring aides and with stylistic precision. I highly recommend that if you're ever in Ginza to check these two places out.

A Drifting Feeling

Another traditional Japanese feast for breakfast saw us on our way back to Tokyo after a relaxing time up in the mountains. However I come away with only one small disappointment, not with the hotel, but with what I had hoped to see. For those of you that know what Initial D is, then you may know that Mt. Akina (Takumi's home mountain) is based on Mt. Haruna. All the places in the anime actually exist, and I had hoped to see some of them. However the onsen was only half way up the mountain, and a few kilometres away from the base of the winding roads used for drifting. I took some photos of the top half of the mountain when we went for a walk, so that will have to suffice.

We decided to head into Shinjuku to see the nightlife and do some shopping. Upon exiting the train station we went into a multi-level department store where we spent the next 2 hours being amazed at the range of items on offer. We found some food on the basement level and ate it while PChii tried not to have a sleeping/drunk Japanese man fall off his stool onto her.

When you tend to see night street scapes of Japan with all the bright lights, signs and people bustling, I often wondered where those pictures are taken. I now know, because I've taken some of my own.

We walked down a heavily crowded main street to a checkout OIOI (Marui), a department store well known for its loli & goth clientèle. The Japanese certainly have style but holy cow, talk about expensive! PChii said I just had to try a crepe from one of these street vendors, aparently I have Megan to blame for PChii's addiction to them. It was quite tasty, and I even took a movie of him making ours which I will post later on.

Oh, and on the way back to the train station we saw something more unusual than normal.. someone wearing a white horse head. Hey this is Japan after all.

Don't ask about the bus

Ohayou gozaimasu! After a good night's sleep, I headed back down to the open air bath before having breakfast. Breakfast was a huge Japanese buffet feast with the usual rice, miso, grilled fish as well as yoghurt, fruit, fried eggs and bread. There was also a chef cracking hundreds of eggs into cups of some white creamy stuff and pouring some brownish liquid over the top. I wasn't feeling brave enough and the rice had filled me up plenty already. Maybe tomorrow...maybe. I went to get some directions at reception, the lady I asked didn't speak English so she got one of the lads to come and "speak English". So he came and spoke Japanese X ) Oh well, I can understand directions and he drew on my map, so we're off to catch the next bus to take us there...as soon as DS comes back from the baths...

We eventually made it the Kokeshi Doll factory (http://www.usaburo.com/). The craftsmanship is exquisite. We got to see some of them at work on the dolls and there was a workshop to paint a doll but I missed it.

We bought some manju omiage on the way back and had another dip before dinner at the hotel. We had a nice relaxing massage after dinner and then a midnight dip in the onsen. It's going to be sad to leave tomorrow.

Ja ne!

Onsen and a Merry Fish

Or so DS thought. I knew there was going to be more...after all, I planned more :) When we walked into the room, all we could smell was the tatami mats *ahh* such a nice smell. We got changed into our yukata and headed down to the baths. If you've checked the hotel website, you'll see some images of the baths, and when I walked in, I was in gokuraku, heaven. I have been dying to come back to the hot springs ever since I left Japan last time. Needless to say, I was in there for a half hour (and DS slightly less) and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, alternating between the 5 baths, the sauna and a cold shower.

After the soothing onsen and DS' short blog, we took some photos of the room and headed down to dinner...which I was dubious about, having seen those photos of deluxe Japanese meals...those who know, will know. I was pleasantly surprised when we sat down to a table with fish steaming merrily away on the table, an entree of green tofu (made specially with local ingredients), a glass of a fruity Rose (which was very nice) and a platter with a couple of prawns, some strange seafood wedges, a lemon with some jelly stuff in it, some green stalky vegetable mixed with the special tofu (only a creamier version and not green this time) and something that looked like sliced tentacle ><; The attending waiter asked if we understood Japanese, the obvious answer being very little, and he sent over a nice waitress who spoke better English than we spoke Japanese. She apologised straight away in case she said anything rude and then proceeded to speak to us in a mixture of Japanese and English which we could understand just fine. She brought some water and I ordered a small vial of sake, which was smooth and very pleasant and made with the water from the waterfall in the area. DS declined to join me...I can't think why ;) That is just where it started. Next we were brought a small serve of some of the softest and meltiest sashimi I have ever had, again served with a side of the special tofu and wasabi! I have now learned the trick of wasabi...it's taken many years of eating sushi but I finally discovered it on my own...breath out though your mouth...I know you already know...I just thought you'd like to know... So next our lovely waitress served out the steamed fish. Did I mention it was a whole fish? She took all the fins and the tail off and proceeded to tell us that eating the eye and it's surrounds was good for ...I missed it, I was looking at the eye! We declined and she laughed and said people take it back for their grandpas...yikes! So we ate our fish and the mushrooms and leek it was cooked with. Again very tasty and tender. Then we had two small baby potatoes (which she called tomatoes and then corrected herself) which were stuffed with a potato/crab mix. You couldn't taste the crab so it was good :) Then we had a bowl of rice with seasonal spring vegetables (carrot, shallot and bamboo) and a side of pickled radish and a bowl of miso soup. Then she served us sticky mochi won tons filled with pork, made specially by their Chinese cook. They were a bit strange...an acquired taste. Our attentive waitress came yet again and I asked if there was more food to come, she said no and I thanked the lord! I was at my limit and she had just served us green tea to finish. So we had a lot of food and at this particular moment I am still waiting for my stomach to subside so I can go back in the onsen...maybe after another drink...

Well, I didn't get my drink but I did get back to the onsen while DS played God of War in bed. I had made the mistake of telling him to get under the covers to check the temperature to see if he needed warmer clothes to sleep in...he didn't want to get back up. So I left him there and went down to the big open air bath on the first floor basement. I thought the bath upstairs was lovely but this was a whole lot better. There were four indoor baths (one of which was ice cold for after your sauna) and one outdoor bath. As soon as you walk out, the icy air steals the breath from your lungs. Once you recover and step down into the hot water, it feels kimochii, wonderful, and you don't even notice the cold. I stayed as long as my body would let me, said goodnight to the ladies and headed back up to bed. DS was fast asleep by the time I got back, so I slipped under the giant fluffy covers on my futon and fell asleep...eventually :)

Oyasumi nasai!

P.S. I had my first melon-pan (melon flavoured bread roll thingy) today on the train up here and it was very nice. The bread was a bit like a heavier croissant and the melon flavouring was a sticky green paste and had the red azuki beans in it as well. I'm not sure I could live off it though...those anime girls are crazy!

Haruna Air

Onsen (hot springs) are sugoi, ne! It's a very nice feeling sitting in a steaming hot bath out in the cold mountain air (<10C). It's also very nice to get away from the big city and see the Japanese countryside. We're staying in a tradition Japanese style room, with tatami mats, sliding doors, windows with thick paper and a 24" LCD TV. Not much else to report, we're relaxing out to the max.

First day in Tokyo

I'm writing this on the train to Tokyo after a rather confusing train hiccup. The morning started off quite nicely with a buffet breakfast of both Japanese and Western style foods. We then caught the free shuttle bus back to the airport where we met a couple from Melbourne doing a similar trip to ourselves. Our next challenge was to get our rail passes validated, a simple enough task once you find the right counter. Thankfully PChii had taken care of everything and we got our rail passes and some tickets to catch the next train to Tokyo.. or at least we might have made it to Tokyo if we had caught the right train. We ended up at the other International Airport Terminal. Luckily we were the only baka gaijin (stupid foreigners) that caught the wrong train. We had our first experience with being talked at by Japanese cleaners on the train, telling us that this was the last stop and we had to get off. We found another ticket place and caught the train that we had planned on catching originally.

The undulating landscape is filled with tightly packed bamboo, small houses and fields that I can only assume are used for farming. As we get closer to Tokyo there are many huge high density housing buildings in the old outer suburbs.

Upon arriving at Tokyo station we changed trains and caught a train to Tamachi station, which is about a 5min walk from our apartment. The directions we were given were easy to follow and we meet up with a representative from Enplus (the business we're renting the apartment from). A quick tour of the apartment and a bunch of forms later we were in our new home for the next 3 weeks. The apartment is very modern and equipped with all the essentials like free internet, cable TV and an IP phone. The bathroom is bigger than I imagined but I'm still too tall for it (will post a pic later). The bed is comfy with a down blanket and pillows. The view from our window looks north to Tokyo where we can see the Tokyo Tower, which is only about 1km away.

We decided to go for a walk around the block, and got lost but found a great little place to have some katsudon for 550yen ($6AUD) each for a huge bowl. We found a map and made our way back to the apartment for a nap. We decided to take a trip into Akihabara for the evening to see the bright lights of Tokyo at night. I got my first taste of feeling like a sardine in a can on the train ride with so many people packed into each train car. It wasn't so bad, you just have to push your way through when you want to get off and apologise a lot.

Once at Akihabara we hadn't walked more than 20m outside the station when we saw a busker. Busker may not be the best term to describe her, but she was singing while playing the keyboard with a mini PA system and a bunch of CDs to sell. I'm regretting not taking a movie of her, but we did get a hand bill with her details on it so we can look her up when we get back. Turning our attention back to the main street, the first thing I could see was SEGA City, a 5 floor gaming maze filled with smoke and young people. I took a couple of photos till an attendant told me I wasn't allowed to. There was an arcade system that caught my eye that uses a card system you place on a table in front of you and move around to control your character or units. I saw a medieval army game using it, as well as a soccer game. But neither could quite compare to the horse racing game. 10 arcade consoles all setup in front of a huge screen that screens a race with the horse of the people at the arcades in front of it. If your horse isn't in the race, its in a field and you level it up by making it run around and eat grass.. what a great game! We also saw lots of Tekken 6 machines but no Street Fighter 4 machines :(

Softmap is a huge electronics store here in Japan. There were at least 3 in sight from the main intersection from the train station. I know a lot of things in Japan are meant to be expensive, but so far a lot of things haven't been, and the range is amazing. I found a tiny tripod for our cameras for 1100yen ($12AUD). The Softmap we went into had 7 floors, we didn't have enough time to check them all out but I intend on coming back. Next door to Softmap was the one and only McDonalds. I just had to try a McTeriyaki (sorry Stick-Arm-Neck), and it was a tasty bargain at 260yen ($2.85)! They also have a bunch of new side snack things for 100yen, I also had a chocolate pie, which was just a chocolate pastry triangle filled with chocolate - oishii! We caught the train home and I bought a warm Boss Coffee from a vending machine and had to make pop into the super market to buy some milk and cereal for breakfast. 1L of milk cost me 200yen ($2.10AUD) and a 410g box of All Bran was about 580yen! So it seems that western things in Japan are expensive.. imagine that.

Tomorrow we're heading up Mt. Haruna to the Hotel Tenbo (www.tenbo.com).

Tsukimashita

So we've arrived here in Narita and everything has gone smoothly! The 7 odd hours on the plane was quite tolerable, but the movies were terrible! We had August Rush and something with George Clooney. The return flight will have better movies apparently.

The line up for foreigners to get their fingerprints and photo taken was rather long, but still only took us 20mins, which just oozes Japanese efficiency. We went to collect our luggage and made our way to the carousel to find it completely empty! Not thinking the worst we checked the next carousel but they weren't there either. I went for a scout around and found our luggage sitting out in the middle of nowhere with a note on it up the other end of the baggage collection area.

Our next challenge was customs.. we walked up, showed our passports and walked right on through! Quite a nice way to be welcomed, I thought.

As we stepped outside the terminal we saw our first weird Japaneses thing - a smoking booth. Now why aren't these things in Australia?


We had to take a shuttle bus to get to the hotel. Now when I checked the website, it said 10 minutes to get to the hotel...well it took 20 minutes but the most disconcerting thing was the mystery tour through the dark back streets of Narita. We did arrive safely though and the men at reception spoke enough English that it wasn't a problem. The bathroom is tiny but the water is warm...and the beds are hard... but who cares, we're in JAPAN!

Anxious wait

I hope everyone had a great Easter, and everyone feels refreshed after an extra long weekend!

The bags are packed, and we're just waiting to go. We're both tired and need sleep but the anticipation of the trip is buzzing inside us both, making any hope of sleep a wishful thought.

We're getting up at 4:30am, if we can actually go to sleep, to give everything the final once over, then we'll heard around to MDS' place for our ride to the airport at 5:30am to catch our flight to Cairns at 6:30am. Once we get to Cairns, we have a few hours to kill till our Qantas flight to Tokyo boards at 12:05pm.

We've packed a bunch of electronic goodies like PSP, Laptop and music players to keep us entertained if the in-flight movies are rubbish. I hope they aren't because I don't think the batteries in my PSP will last 7 hours. Props to my little brother, Torpedo Dog for letting me borrow his 4GB memory stick for the trip.

On the home front, I spent this afternoon mowing and whipper snipping the front yard to get it looking respectable, so when I get back it'll need to be done again. Good thing I've got some more time off when we get back.

Well I had better turn off my computer, this will be its first reboot/shutdown in 62 days. Who said Windows XP wasn't stable? Watch out for our next post from JAPAN!

T-7 Days

This time next week we will be on the plane to Japan. It is a rather exciting thought bundled together with a dash of nervousness and a twist of the unknown (for me at least), PChii is an old hand at this, having been to Japan once before (10 years ago).

I've been keeping an eye on the weather in Tokyo and its going to rather cool with the average top temperature around 11°C. It will be even colder in Sapporo, on the northern most island of Japan called Hokkaido. There is even a chance I might get to see snow for the first time!

I have been receiving a few requests from work mates and friends to do various things for them while I am in the land of the rising sun. I will try and accomplish them with photographic evidence, so you will know I was thinking of you while we are having a blast on our holiday ;)

The nights leading up to our departure are going to be rather busy. Mainly because I haven't started packing yet. But I'm sure it won't take all that long...

Rough outline

So we're going to Japan on 25th March and staying for 3 weeks. We're going for the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Festival primarily but we're also doing a few 2 days trips around the place to check things out.

We've rented an apartment in Tokyo for 3 weeks, on the top floor of a modest concrete looking building that faces the Kuwait Embassy and backs onto an elementary school. The apartment looks roomy enough, but I'm sure it'll be like a shoe-box when we actually get there.

The basic outline of the trip is in the first week we're heading inland and up Mt Haruna and staying at an onsen (hot springs) for 2 nights. The second week we're heading south to Kyoto/Nara/Osaka for 2 days to see the Sakura blooming (hopefully) and do all the touristy things and eat okonomiyaki! In the last week we're heading to Sapporo on the north island Hokkaido, where we will visit the famous ramen street and the various breweries.

In between our planned trips we hope to experience as much of what Tokyo has to offer, with special trips to Akihabara (most likely more than once), karaoke bars, yakiniku restaurants and much more!

T-20 Days

So we leave for Japan in 20 days. Its a very exciting and also worrying time, making for one heck of an emotional roller-coaster.

I've decided to try out Blogger and keep our Japan trip blog separate from my day to day blog on dshrike.org and hopefully Blogger will handle photos better than Wordpress does (which won't be hard).