Day 16 - Happy New Year!

Aaaahhhhh! Finally! My first morning that I actually woke up at a decent time! 6:30! Breakfast was great as usual and we even got extra hot chocolate today. We got up to go to the Catacombs today.

We left at about 8:30 to catch a train towards the catacombs. We got there at 9 o'clock when they opened at 10! Nice planning ahead Dad! Actually, it was! By 9:30 the line stretched all the way to the next street! Ryan and I played DS while waiting. Once it opened, we went inside. (I know... I'm Cpt. OBVIOUS!!!! Tra la laaaaa!) Inside, there were about 128 steps down to the bottom. Clumsy Dad tripped at the bottom! (Who trips at the bottom of a flight of stairs! You've already finished the hard part!) Anyway, inside, there were dark tunnels, blocked off passageways and crumbling stones underfoot. It felt so much like a video game! Then we got too the awesome part. There were bones piled up agains the walls in patterns. Skulls, femurs, shins and arm bones all lined up about 2m high going on for a kilometre! There were even mini citadels carved into the walls! By now i seriously thought we were in the set of 'The Mountain of the Dead' from 'The Lord of the Rings'!

We exited by climbing about 100 steps which got us seriously tired out. We then went to lunch with Papa and Marie-France. We went to a restaurant called the Institute. This was across the road from the 'Institute of the Arab World'. This building was cool because the whole south wall was covered in windows that open and close depending on how much sunlight there is!

Finally we went back home and it's now 2pm. This means it's New Year in Australia! Mum did some washing while 'Da Boiz' got to Chilaks! We are now at Papa and Marie-France's place relaxing for a sort of 'New Years Eve thing'.

Happy New Year everyone!

Day 15 - Monet and Paris

Good morning! Today we got up at about 7:00 for breakfast although Ryan and I were awake waaaaaayy b4 that! (Jetlag) After breakfast we got n a train bound for the Musee du L'Orangerie. This is my mum's favourite museum in the whole world because it has Monet's Water-lillies. She said that she would sit there for hours in that oval-shaped room just looking at them. There were some other paintings in the museum as well such as some Picasso and Renoir paintings.

After the museum we went to the Opera! (suburb) To look for some shoes because mine are too small. We looked around for about an hour but with no great success. (No success at all really). We left in shame and went to Trocadero. This suburb is at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We ended up having lunch there and what a lunch it was! We had a dinner-lunch type of thing! It took so long we were nearly late for our next big event!

If you haven't guessed already, 'our next big event' meant going up the Eiffel Tower! We waited in line for about 10 mins and then at the elevator doors for about 30. Once up to the 2nd level we could see heaps of stuff! Like, all of Paris. It then came the time when we were to go up to the top. At the top we were disappointed. We were in a cloud. WAAAAAAHHHHHH! We could see about 10 metres ahead of us but not any further. It was a cool experience but we didn't see very much. We went back down and were excited. "We just went to the highest place in Paris!"

After the Eiffel Tower we went towards the station but on the way we bought some fairy floss. It cost us 3 Euros but it was soooooooooooo worth it! It was massive! The biggest portion on fairy floss I had ever seen! It was sooooooo yummy.

After this we went to some missionaries who were living in France. Over there we had some afternoon tea and Ryan and I played a game with them called Carem. Apparently, this is a world-chapionship board game! We went back home to the hotel to pick up some things b4 going to Papa's place for dinner.

G'night.

P.S - If you read this plz say 'X' or comment in the comments section just so I know how many people are reading.

Night 14 - Crabhammer!

Last Night was awesome! We went to an awesome restaurant right next door to our hotel that served crab. The twist was... The crab was still in its shell! We got given a hammer to break our crab open but none of us new how to do it. The guy comes over and he says. "This is how you do it!" Then he goes 'Chop! Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap! Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!' "Voila!" And we were like "??!?!?!!!!!!!!!" Anyway, we eventually got around the difficulties and ended up getting out most of our crab meat. It was delicious!

Day 14 - Egypt, Cathedral and Swords!

Today was an early start. We had to get to the Louvre one hour before it opened so we could get there before everyone else! (Brilliant decision. At 11:00 the line was stretched out for miles!) We lined up and Ryan and I played DS until it had opened. Once it did we filed in and showed our pre-bought tickets to the guy.

We decided to go to the Ancient Egyptian display first which was pretty cool. We got to see heaps of old tablets and statues. Even some carvings of baboons which dad said i looked like. (Frankly, I did not see either the humor or the resemblance!) We got to see stuff that was almost 6000 years older than us. (Pretty weird) My favourite thing was the statue of Horus.

After the Egyptian part we went onto the classical greece display. This held statues, statues and more statues. (What did I expect, you ask? Swords, mythology and statues. I was 1 third satisfied) Some of the statues were pretty cool such as Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion. And Athena in Battle-Armour. My favourite was Perseus killing the Medusa.

Next we went into the room that had a big wall in it. This wall had bullet-proof glass on it. This glass had a painting behind it. This painting had eyes that followed you. Yes, it was the Mona Lisa. Mum and Dad told me that I was going to be underwhelmed which was kind of an understatement. It was like "Walk in. Look at it. Realise it's the most famous painting in the world. Wonder why that is. Give up. Leave. Become left pondering on the fact that you just saw the Mona Lisa and feel nothing."

We finally left the Louvre and headed on to find some lunch. I got a nice sandwich with chicken, parmesan and lettuce. While eating, Mum and Dad were in the line to get into the Notre Dame! Once inside we weren't allowed to talk as there was a service going on. Inside there was a statue for almost every saint ever made! There was also some nice windows that I am sure Ryan will tell you about.

After the Notre Dame we went to The Musee D'Armee. (Museum of Arms and Armour, weapons, warfare, the like.) We went inside and (of course) went straight to the medieval period. Swords, Armour, Horse bards. I was in heaven. My favourite thing in there was a mounted knight with a lance in hand and a sword on his belt.

After this Ryan and Dad enjoyed looking at the Modern Warfare area which included tanks, guns and artillery. We finally went to Napoleons tomb which Ryan and Dad also enjoyed. These two places were alright but I'm always at home with swords, bows and arrows.

Finally we went home via the supermarket where Ryan and I bought these massive bottles of Fanta. It looks like we are gonna have crab for dinner tonight so Bye!

Night 13 - Fancy!

Tonight we went to dinner with Papa and Marie-France. We walked to a half French, half Italian restaurant which looked rather special. We walked in to an empty restaurant but the staff were there and there was music playing so they were obviously open. Dinner wasn't going to be served for another half hour so we sat and had a drink and talked.

Once dinner was ready to be ordered the restaurant had gradually filled up. I chose a plate that had 3 pasta rolls which had rabbit in them. There was a nice sauce which was made from the 'Trumpet of Death' Mushrooms on top. I liked my dinner but it was quite a large serving so i didn't end up finishing it.

For dessert I had some nice Gelato Ice-cream (Chocolate, Lemon and Strawberry if you care) and we exited the building. (Awesomeness just exited the building, their lives just got worse!) We went home and I just crashed. I didn't even remember putting my head on my pillow!

Day 13 - Art and Fails

Good Morning!

Well... for me. For you guys in Australia it's about 9pm! I'm pretty sad about the situation in Melbourne at the moment. I can't believe we are doing so BADLY! We didn't even manage 100 runs in our first innings! (If you haven't guessed yet I'm talking about cricket).

This morning we went to Musee D'Orly early so we could get in without waiting. We got there 45 mins before opening time so we could be the first to go in. Inside was amazing! There were striking sculptures, amazing paintings and highly detailed scale-models. My favourite was the gladiator exhibition by Gerome. This had some gladiator sculptures and some amazing large-scale paintings.

After the Museum we went to a cafe for a hot chocolate. (LITERALLY!) It was really melted chocolate in a cup! It was so rich and yummy! Anyway, after this we went to Sainte Chapelle. We waited 1 hour in the line to get in and dad even missed out because we had some items in our bags that we classified as dangerous. :( It was beautiful inside with all the ornate windows and nice statues and vaulted ceilings. We didn't stay in long but it was definitely worth the wait.


Afterwards we had a look into going to the Notre Dame. In the end we didn't go because the lines were monumental! We left and went to the catacombs which we hoped wouldn't be too crowded but they we lined up as well. We ended up going home early and going to Papa's again. We are going to go to dinner with him tonight which should be fun. Cya l8er!

Night 12 - Raw Meat!

Tonight we went to a nice place just down the road almost exactly like the one we went to last night. I had a Ham and Cheese Sandwich, Ryan had a steak, Mum had Chicken and dad had - wait for it... ...Raw Beef! It looked like turtle brains! Insoppourtable! Unbelievable! I didn't like the look of it so I just had my sandwich and didn't look.

Day 12 - France at Last!

During the night I woke up at 4am and stayed that way for 30min until falling back asleep until 7:20. We went downstairs and had a lovely breakfast prepared by the hotel. We then went out and looked at the 'Arc de Triumph' and we even got to climb up! On the top there was a fantastic view but I'm not sure it was worth it. We had to climb 284 steps to get up! I did get to touch snow up there though so it was pretty cool.

After the Triumphal Arch we went to my Papa's place which was close by. We spent a couple of hours there including lunch. We had a great time there and i even received some presents. I got a torch, a watch, a wallet and a steak knife! Not just any steak knife, an ornate steak knife!

After Papa's place we went to the Eifell Tower to go up it. Once there we saw the line and it was monumental! (Get it! It was at a monument... Ahr! Ahr!) We ended up not going up and we went to the Maritime Museum instead. That was pretty cool as we got to see heaps of models of ships and carriers and busts.

We finally we home and now are waiting for dinner.

Day 11 - Bonjour Paris

Today we woke up at 6am to getto the airport. We caught the train again and when we got there we went through customs and bought breakfast. We had croissants and hot chocolates again. We then had a lok around some shops and played DS while we were waiting for the plane. We got onto the plane at 10:35 and took off at 11:05. During the 11.5 hour flight i watched 5 movies including Robin Hood, Ratatouille and Shrek: Forever After. I also played heaps of Tetris. We got into Paris at 3:30pm local time. It felt so weird being on a plane for 13 hours and only having a 4 hour difference.

We left the airport, checked into our hotel, had dinner and crashed!

Day 10 - Merry Christmas

Sayanara! Bonjour! Away form Japan and off to France! Yipee!

Today was awesome! I woke up at 7:00 to type up some stuff and get ready to leave. For breakfast we had lovely chocolate croissants and French Toast! We also had another Premium Hot Chocolate.

After breakfast we went to Ueno Park which had shrines, tombs and memorials to the war fought in 1860. We also called Melbourne and chatted to everyone on the Coates side of the Family.

Next, we went to the Imperial Gardens to have a look-see. I didn't want to go so they left me in a Waiting Room and i played DS. I did getto see the best bits of the garden though. There was a big screen scrolling through videos of the most awesome parts of the garden.

After the gardens we went to a Pokemon Centre to see what it was like. Not much and a bit of a disappointment because it was mainly set up for little kids. The only thing worth while was a copy of Pokemon Black/White. It was only in Japanese so we didn't get it.

After this we went to a small garden and Ryan and I played a Ninja vs Archer game in the hills using them as cover.

We left for Asakusa to go shopping for souvenirs and stuff. We aso had lunch there which was SO good! We bought a tea pot and some sweet dumpling thing.

Finally, we went to Akihabara again. We went to a massive Electronic store and looked for English games but they didn't have any. We then went to an arcade and played heaps of games! I was having so much fun.

We then had dinner which was yummy and we even got free ice blocks! We caught a train home and now I'm here blogging. LATER!

Day 9 - Pirates and Redemption

HELLO PEOPLE OF EARTH! THIS IS MARC SPEAKING FROM THE THE FAR AWAY LAND OF TOKYO!!! HOW IS STUFF OVER THERE?!?!?!

Over here things are pretty hectic! Heaps of Christmas preps, constructions, Emperors birthday was yesterday and Ryan is walking on Dads back! It does feel king of weird not being in Melbourne or Newcastle and still knowing it's Christmas. We keep on forgetting that it's actually Christmas Eve!

This morning was pretty early as we wanted to go and see the Imperial Grounds in Tokyo. We go and had a wonderful breakfast and then went to the Grounds. Unfortunately they were closed because it was the Big Cheese's b'day yesterday. Dad was pretty sad about this but I wasn't super upset. We ended up changing our day plans around for today and tomorrow. Tomorrow we were going to go on a big nature day but we ended up doin it today.

We got on the Shinkasen (Bullet Train) and headed to Odowara - The City of the Soft Serves (As I nicknamed it). From there we went on another train to the base of the cable car run. Once on the cable car we got too see the mountainside which was pretty cool. Sadly it was too cloudy to see Mt Fuji at the time. We got to see a sulfur mine and some hot springs and even a golf course which I thought was random and unnecessary. (Apparently the Japanese are crazy about golf) Once off the cable car we found a restaurant and had lunch. I had this slightly spicy curry with fried pork and rice. MMMMWAH! YUMMY!

After eating lunch Ryan and Dad had to go to the toilet just as we were about to leave... Mum and I had to wait. Finally after about 10 mins We boarded the Pirate Ship! AARRGHHH! There were statues of a pirate and a lookout in the Crows Nest. There was even a dude dressed up as a pirate! (This was really impractical because it was about 1 degreee below freezing and he was walking round outside in little more that a long sleeve T-Shirt and Pants!) We got a nice view of the Lake and Mt Fuji (The clouds had cleared) but I spent most of the time playing PokEmon on my DS.

After getting of the boat Dad spent AGES taking pics of Mt Fuji. After a fair while we set out on our next leg of our journey. It was a half hour walk through Cedar trees! (BOOOOOOORING!!!) Unfortunately, dad found a lookout from where you could see Mt Fuji perfectly! He spent a further 30 mins looking at Fuji and taking photos. We arrived at the bus stop and took it back to the station.

From the station we walked to Odawara Castle and I suddenly had this craving for a soft serve. I was promised one yesterday and never got it... :( Anyway, the castle was cool and we got feed this MASSIVE herd of Coi. (Fish)

After the Castle we walked back to the station with about an hour until our train. We ended up wandering into this arcade and we played 1 round of Time Crisis 4. We got back to the station and waited for our train. Once we go back to Tokyo it was about 6:00pm.

We ended up looking for Yakatori Alley again. (We looked for it for lunch a last time we were in Tokyo.) We ended up finding it! Dad's Epic Fail had been redeemed! It was sooooooo yummy. We finished eating and went back to Ueno. This is where dad spotted a soft serve place...

The soft serve place was FANTASTIC! It had about 13 flavours including Mango, Rockmelon, Custard Pudding, Sweet Potato and even some grapefruit! I ended up having Custard Pudding and it was sooooooo yummmy! More redemption for Daddy!

It's about 10:00pm here and Everybody's telling me to get off so G'night and Merry Christmas!

Day 8 - Gardens and Drunks

Heeeyyy... Im not very happy at the moment... In fact I'm grumpy because we are living in a very small hotel that was meant for 2. We are also living in a suburb alled Ueno that has many drunks in the street.

Anyway... In the morning we went to a temple that had heaps of gardens and stones and stuff that made daddy happy. I just sat down and read my book... I don't really enjoy that sort of stuff y'know...

After the gardens we went to a massive electronics store and had a look around b4 getting on the bullet train to go back to Tokyo!

We ended up here in Ueno and now I'm grumpy so bye!!!

Day 7 - Kyoto and Osaka

Hey everybody! Hows Christmas preps going? You can hardly go two steps without noticing that it's Christmas soon over here!

This morning we had Octopus for breakfast. YUUUUUUUMMMMMMIIIII! After this we checked wheter it was raining because that would change our whole day if it was. Sadly, it wasn't. We started walking to the Shogun's Castle in Kyoto to have a little look-see. It ended up being about 15 mins away which wasn't too far. We approach it and it has this massive moat around it. Im thinking This is going to be sooooooo awesooooome!!!!!!! We walk in and find that it is being refurbished because a fire destroyed it in 1788 ad no-one was bothered to try and fix it till now! Sadly it was being refurbished more for show that for defences so it didn't look as awesome. Even so, i had a good time there as we got to walk inside!

After this we caught a cab to the Imperial Grounds of Kyoto. This was absolutely breathtaking! Mostly because we had to run to catch the next tour. I wasn't too crash hot on taking a tour because it was gonna take soooooo lloooooooong! Anyway, we got to see some cool architecture. I wasn't having such a great time but dad seemed like he was in heaven. (BTW he's in a different type of heaven right now. He's in the bath which is really deep and listening to a podcast... lol!)

After leaving the Imperial Grounds we hopped on a train bound for Osaka. We planned to go to the AQUARIUM!!!!! Once there we walked through a massive tube full of fish and sharks. I thought it was amazing that the sharks didn't eat the other fish! My three favourite tanks were - The Sea otters. They were absolutely massive! They kept rolling about and we got to see them being fed. Next, the Whale Sharks! The were more massive than the sea otters! We got to see them being fed as well and they were like fishy vacuum cleaners! Finally, i liked the sardines! They were controlled by one "hive mind" (at least that's what i thought it was...) We left the aquarium and hopped on a train bound for Osaka Castle!

Once at Osaka Castle we walked through the double moat system and got into the main complex. We didn't pay to go up into the castle itself because it was getting dark but we looked at it from below. It looked so Awesome! It had never had an attempt to refurbish it so it was completely battle ready. We got one awesome souvenir - a coin! This was no ordinary coin... ...it was a Castle coin! We got to put in a punch machine and it printed our name on it!

Finally we went back to Kyoto and had the same dinner as yesterday! Goodnight!

PLZ COMMENT!!!

Day 6 - Vending Machine Meals

I don't know if i said this b4 but while we were in Kobe we had lunch from a vending machine. We had the same thing for dinner last night. The system is - You pay at the vending machine for what you want. A ticket pops out for you to grab and then you sit down and give it to the attendant and wait for your meal. It's cheap, easy and very YYYYYUMMMY!!!

Day 6 - Nara and Kyoto

Today was very good. Not awesome but still - very good.

First thing in the morning we had breakfast delivered to us. Real traditional Japanese breakfast - rice, bread, fish - the lot. I didn't like it very much. Next we went down to the lobby and waited for our guide. She was a bit late so i got a bit of time to read. We hopped on a train bound for Nara and waited for 45mins to get there.

Once in Nara we took a bus to a temple that holds the Big Buddha. We hopped off the bus to be greeted by HEAPS of deer. Nara is famous for its deer and it should be. These deer have evolved to live in the same space as humans and don't even flinch when you touch them. We walked through these herds of deer just roaming on the streets and made our way to the Bug Buddha. Outside the temple we met our friend Kelly from Kobe. The temple was really big and cool as we got to walk around inside it and take photos. Inside there was a pillar that had a hole in it the size of Buddha's nostril. Kids were aloud to squeeze through it so Ryan and I had a go. It was a tight fit but i did make it. We walked outside of the main complex and bought some biscuits to feed the deer. These deer REALLY like their biscuits. We were rammed and shoved and butted and when we'd run out of biscuits they had a go at eating out jackets. It was an invigorating experience.

After leaving the temple we walked through a park to another shrine (boooorrrring) which had heaps of stone lanterns. After seeing and exploring it, we walked back into Nara for lunch. We had Japanese Pizza! SOOOOOOO YUMMMMY! Finally we said goodbye to Kelly and caught a train back to Kyoto.

On the way back to Kyoto we stopped of at another shrine (Another one???!?!?!?) which had a road of gates. These gates went on for 2 hours worth of walking just not touching one another. It looked amazing. We left and went all the way back to Kyoto. After getting back to Kyoto we went up a big hill that was a massive Cemetery. The art on each tomb stone was exuberating. After that we caught a bus home and said goodbye to our guide.

Oh my gosh... I have to go, Dad asked Ryan to sit on his back and Ryan crunched it! Dad went IIYAHHHHHH!!!!! OOOOOOHHHHHH!!!! Sayanara!

P.S All posts now have photos from this post back... YAY! FAST INTERWEBBY!!!

Day 5 - Gion

Last night we went to a very traditional part of Kyoto called Gion. This is a place that hasmany temples, shrines and traditional Japanese houses/buildings. We had a walk around and in particular went to a shrine that had one hundred paper lanterns hanging from it. It was night time so we got to see them lit up.

After this we went back into Gion and had a look around for dinner. We ended up eating at around 6:30 - before the dinner rush - at a Tepan-yaki place in one of the alleyways. This place is cool because they cook the food right on your table and then leave it there to warm it while you are eating. This place was very yummy and we had a great time there. After this we felt that we were still hungry and ended up going across the road for some Yakatori which is basically skewers. They were a nice nibbly snack and they filled us up. I'm tired now so g'night.

Day 5 - Adventures in Kobe and Kyoto!

I woke up at 6am this morning but that was just my bad luck. I am so spent right now it's not funny. It's about 4pm and I could sleep right now.

Anyway, this morning was a slow start. I had a nice bath and a good breakfast which consisted of two lovely croissants and a 'Premium Hot Chocolate'. We then waited for our friend Kelly Nichols who has lived here for 2 years. She had offered to show us around from 10am until lunch.

First, we went to a really expensive supermarket and had a look at how outrageously priced some Australian fruit was. $100 for a rock melon! We then went to a 100 Yen store where absolutely everything cost 100 Yen! This is equivalent to about $1.10. We picked up heaps of things including lollies and drinks. After this we went on a huge walk to this observation building from which you could see all of Kobe. Finally we went and looked for lunch which took as long as day 3 to find. (read day 3 blog).



After saying goodbye to Kelly we hopped on a train back to our hotel. We then picked up our bags and hopped on another train to the express station. We caught a 1 hour train to Kyoto and checked into our hotel. While in our hotel, mum did some washing, dad went put shopping and Ryan and I played and awesome game on all the mattresses and dunas.

Cya tomorrow. I'll tell you about dinner then as well.

Location:Kyoto

Day 4 - Bullets!

Today was an early start... 6am! We woke up so early so we could catch the bullet train to our next destination - Kobe. We arrived at the station and waited almost an hour for the train. This was OK because I got to read my book - The CHERUB series. We hopped on the train ready for a 3 hour ride. During this time I read, played Pokemon with Ryan and looked at Mt Fuji! Mt Fuji was pretty cool but we couldn't see most of it because of cloud cover.
After getting off the train we walked to our hotel to dump our bags and keep our day packs for the rest of the day. We caught a subway train to the local church where our friend is. We stayed there for the whole afternoon and evening talking the local Christian community and eating dinner and listening to a Christmas sermon by and Aussie guy! Overall today was very relaxed and enjoyable. Cya tomolo! We are having adventures in Kobe and a train to Kyoto!

Day 3 - Ninja!

Last night was a blast! Dad took us to a really expensive restaurant called 'NINJA'! The night started with us leaving the hotel at 6:30 and catching a train to Akasaka, Tokyo. We walked to the restaurant expecting a normal fancy dinner. How wrong we were! We entered and were asked whether we had a reservation. We answered yes and surprisingly a Ninja popped out from a side door. We were confused as there seemed to be nowhere to go for eating. The Ninja palmed a bit of the wall and presto! The wall turned out to be a door. We walked through a dark and rocky tunnel with waterfalls and fake drops all over. The ninja even had to call down a drawbridge to get us through. We exited the tunnel and ended up in a Ninja village with firebrands and everything. We were led to our table and were set down with menus. We each chose something costing at least $100 + drinks! We spent about 45,000 Yen! Dad didn't seem to care though so we waited for our first dish (of ten!) The first dish was ninja-star biscuits with charcoal! THEY LOOKED PRETTY COOL! They were served on a barren tree and had a side of pate. The next cool dish was no 3. We had snails that were served on salt and had a black string leading up to it. The waitress/ninjess set the string on fire! The whole dish went up in fire and burnt out asfast as it had started. WHOOOOF! Another cool thing was the salad. It was served with a "Black Box of Age" The box had and egg of solid salad dressing in it and was cool by use of liquid nitrogen! SOOOOOOO AWESOOOOME! We had the rest of dinner and dessert, paid and were led out by a Ninja through a secret door. Overall the night was AWESOME!

Day 3 - Goodbye Tokyo!

Hello to you and goodbye to Tokyo! This is our last day in Tokyo (for a while... we are coming back on the 23rd... the Emperors birthday!).

Morning Day 3
Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeep iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn. That's what i got to do this morning. I got to Sleep In till 8 o'clock!!! We had breakfast at the same French place again this morning but sadly, there was no guide to welcome us... We walked all the way to the station (A whole 200m!) planning to hop on a train to Harajuku station. We were hoping for too much. Dad decided that is was better to stay outside the station for 20mins and argue about which platform to go on! In the end, we were standing right in front of it! After this we went to a temple thing which i did not enjoy.

Midday Day 3
Nintendo, Pokemon, Sega, Street Fighter. ALL THINGS ELECTRONIC IN THE HEART OF TECHNOLOGY!!!!! Akhihabara is the tech centre of tokyo - the tech centre of the world! This was a new high for me - i'd never seen so much tech! We played arcade, went into heaps of shops and even tried out dad's brain GPS instead of his phone's! We spent about 1 hour looking for lunch and ended up with something Ryan didn't even like! After this we left dad to look around Tokyo and Mun, Ryan and I went back to the hotel to veg out ...

Evening Day 2 - Tokyo Alive!

Evening Day 2
Last night was a blast! Tokyotian streets are most alive at night time. There is music, millions of people (I am not exaggerating!) and thousands of shopkeepers yelling out to the world that you should come and buy their product. We walked around for about 30mins absorbing the culture and taking in the surroundings. We ate dinner at about 7:45. It was pretty nice but not the most fantastic place ever. (We had to eat some animals bullocks!) I'm still trying to grasp how to use chopsticks! We finished dinner and then went to 'Cold Stone Creamery' which is just 'Cold Rock Creamery' with a translation error. The ice-cream was pretty good but while they were making it i was put through a disturbing procedure. While the staff were making the ice-cream, they began to sing AT me. They sang 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' in some form of broken English AND they expected me to smile! After a disturbing night - This is Marc - Signing off!

Day 2 - Adventures in Tokyo

Konichiwa!

This is day two of Japan and it was jam-packed.

We woke up at 7:30 and went down for breakfast at a nice French restaurant that served very nice croissants and hot chocolate. After that we went for a walk-about and at 9am we went to the hotel lobby to meet our guide for the day. Her name was Chie and she was very nice and polite. First, we hopped on a train to go and see the fish markets. The retail area was pretty awesome but once you got into the wholesale region there was no going back. The aromas in that place were amazing, the skills on the men preparing fish were immaculate and the quality of the fish was first-class. After the fish markets, we headed to Hama-rikyu Gardens - a sort of traditional Japanese Garden. There were amazing sights to see there as well as some very interesting information to be learnt. Afterwards, we went on a ferry under lots of bridges and wound up in a place Asakusa. We had very nice Soba Noodles there with boiled Omizu. (Omizu means water). We then went to the touristy markets and the Asakusa Temple - Senso-Ji. In the markets there was my home, my destiny. A NINJA STORE! Katanas, shriukins and robes! I was in heaven. We then took another train to a different Japanese Garden - Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. This was a bit more exciting as we got to feed ducks and Koi (Fish). There were also many interesting monuments and trees. Finally, we went to the some viewing deck of a government building from which we could see almost all of Tokyo. We could even see Mt Fuji. After this we said goodbye to our guide Chie and hopped onto a train back to the hotel. We haven't had dinner yet so I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. Sayanara!

Day 1 - Flight and Tokyo

I know i'm writing this on the 17th, but just imagine that it is the 16th. Yesterday was pretty uneventful... We woke up at 5am and then got on a plane at 9:20. We stayed on the plane for 9.5 hours and during this time i managed to watch 3 movies, play heaps of games and got pampered to death by flight attendants. We got out of the plane to be welcomed into Japan by a massive line at customs - We waited there for 30mins! Finally we were out of customs and we bought 20,000 Yen worth of train tickets. The train trip lasted about 1hr. Btw, the train was super sophisticated. It had 3 screens in each carriage, a baggage compartment, bins and the seats were almost identical to the ones on the plane. There is a video an picture later on to show u. We got to our hotel at 8pm and had dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant. We got to bed and just crashed.