Home...

We are home. At last.

It was a long flight, we left Tokyo at 4 p.m. on Friday and landed in Edmonton at 3 p.m. on Friday. How's that for time travel?

We have both been awake for more than 24 hours at this point, not having gotten any sleep during the flights and now must force ourselves to stay awake for another 4 to 5 hours to minimize the 16 hour jet-lag that will hit us.

Now that we have fast internet we will post all the stuff we missed while in Japan. Maybe it will be Shaun's project to keep him awake.

Day 16

But first...

This is a video we took way back when we were in Takayama.

Today

We went to Tama Zoo a little outside of Tokyo. We spent the better part of the afternoon there and that is all we basically did today.


This zoo was very large and had quite a few animals. The most interesting was the Chimpanzees. These little guys had a cool system for getting fruit which involved them using sticks as tools. I had figured I had seen everything zoos had to offer until I saw the chimps using a vending machine...

We are going to Osaka tomorrow and again may not be able to post pictures or video we will be there for 3 days. Then our last night will be back in Tokyo and after that you will all have to endure us being in Edmonton again.

Talk to you soon.

-Shaun

Pictures, Pictures...

...and more pictures

So I uploaded a bunch of pictures to flickr (link on the left) and I will now go about adding some pictures to the previous posts.

If I really feel crazy I spend ￥400 more and upload a few videos.

Make sure you take a look I went to a lot of trouble for you... ;)

-Shaun

GAH!

You heard me

I`m trying to get some videos and pictures up but it is taking a very long time. I`ve gotten one Video up and I have 2 more on their way. Tonight I`ll come back to the manga kissa (internet cafe thing) and get a whole bunch more pictures up.

We are planning on going to Akihabara so I get to look at all the cool Japanese technology.

Check all of our past posts, I will be adding pictures to them in the next 24 hours or so.

-Shaun

We made it down alive!!!!!!!

We are safely down from Fuji. The climb was a lot harder than we had anticipated. They tell us oh don`t worry, children and the elderly do this all the time, but what they neglected to tell us was that we weren`t taking the trail the children and the elderly take, we were taking the steepest most direct route straight up the mountain face. It was challeging especially with my ankle but we made it up to the 8th station where we had a very unrestful night of sleep on the wooden floor with a bean pillow (I can`t believe I haven`t blogged about bean pillows yet-- they have been the bain (bane?) of my existence for the last 2 weeks.)

The Japanese sleep on these horrible pillows filled with either raw beans or rice husks. Makes for a very hard kriky neck kind of sleep. Bean pillows like the bean bags we used to play with as kids. So bad that Shaun actually bought me a new pillow to carry through the country with me, but we left it at Shin-Fuji and so I am back to sleeping on the bean pillows.

Anyways back to Fuji... We slept on the floor where our blankets were thicker than our mattress pads and so didn`t sleep all that much. We were also feeling the effects of the altitude (3200 meters) and so burning lungs, pounding hearts and queasy stomachs didn`t help the sleep situation. At two a.m. when the group left for the summit against local advice due to weather conditions we decided to stay at the 8th station. It was cloudy and no one saw the sunrise so we didn`t feel too bad.

We have gone through most of Japan now, the tour is done and we are on our own for the next week (fingers crossed!). We are in Tokyo for today and tomorrow and then down to Osaka for 4 days to visit Kobe, Nara, back to Kyoto and Osaka. Today we do laundry and we will find an internet cafe to post all of our pictures!!!

Cheers!

Sirina

Leaving Miyajima

Today we leave Miyajima in preparation for the Mt. Fuji climb. As of yet, we have not seen Fuji-- it has always been too cloudy when we have gone near. The trail is supposedly well marked and the biggest danger in the climb is altitude sickness so we plan to take it slow and climb from the fifth station to the summit over a day and a half or so. Tonight we stay at the base and prepare and tommorrow we will take a bus from the base to the fifth station where we start our climb. We spend the day climbing from the fifth to eighth station where we will stay in a hut (read: shack) overnight and then begin our climb again the next morning (read: 2 a.m) so that we arrive at the summit for sunrise.


Yesterday we had a 4 train, 2 tram, 1 ferry boat day-- it was absolutely exhausting. In addition to all the travel we made a breif stop in Hiroshima to visit the peace park and bomb museum so all in all it was a very heavy day. It was also interesting to read history from the other side. Very rarely do you get to read history from the loser`s perspective. The Japanese take full responsibility for starting the Pacific War through their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, but did you know that the A-bombs were dropped while the Japanese were attempting to negotiate peace? And with no prior warning? And amid protest from 69 of America`s leading scientists? What gets me the most is that they still dropped the bomb even while the Japanese were trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps they needed a way to justify the Manhattan project and the 2 billion dollar expenditure and `ending` the war with the A-bomb was a good way to do it. It all still rings very true today. Okay I`ll stop depressing you. Shaun has run away to share our watermelon flavoured kit kat bars with other group members, so we`ll leave you here.

Cheers!

Sirina

Map of Japan

That is a map. We are currently near the place called Beppu.

Everywhere else we have been is on the map itself.

Recap:
Tokyo
Takayama
Kyoto
Nagasaki

/Dirty Dirty Hotlinker

In Yufuin

I didn`t know it exsisted either

We are in a very small town in Kyushu province called Yufuin. It`s the public bathing capital of the world. There are a tonne of hot springs here and the Japanese come from far and wide to visit them and take baths. We are VERY hot and VERY sweaty (incidently there is a drink here called Pocari Sweat) but I`m personally still having fun. Nagasaki was somewhat of a relaxing town as Sirina and I did very little sightseeing. We went to the A-Bomb museum and that was about all.

Still haven`t found a place since Tokyo to upload pictures or movies but I will keep looking. Sorry about that I was hoping to be able to put more pictures up as we went along.

Talk to you soon.

-Shaun

Day 6

Internet, sweet sweet internet

Sorry for the radio silence folks, we have been in Takayama which had no internet cafe that we could find. We have a tonne of pictures and videos to upload but we have to find a place to do that. Right now we are in Kyoto, in the hotel lobby in fact.

What you`ve missed

Since we last communicated we have been to the fish market in Tokyo, taken our first shinkansen ride (bullet train) ride, seen the Japanese alps, walked around a Banff like town, had another ride on the shinkansen and geisha stalked in Kyoto followed by a sushi conveyour belt meal. (Shaun holds the world record* with 20 plates)

It has been very fun and I will try very hard to post pictures tonight. Okay it` Sirina`s 15 minutes now

It`s 13 minutes actually

He used up 2 of my minutes. We went up to the shrine　with　all the orange tori gates (those of you that have seen Memoirs of a Geisha will know what I`m talking about)when we first arrived in Kyoto. It is 4 km long (surprising!) and incredibly beautiful winding up a large hill and going past a river with giant turtles. I have some beautiful pictures of the gates to post. We are going to Kyoto station for breakfast; it is an amazingly modern and extremely controversial building here in Kyoto- many local residents feel that it is setting a precidence for the promotion of ultra modern buildings in Japan's old imperial capital. Kyoto is home to over 2000 shrines and temples and all the structures are original (many things that we have seen thus far have been reconstructed) as Kyoto was untouched during the WW2 bombings. Kyoto is the second most visited place on the planet after Mecca (betcha didn't know that!)

Okay I only have 2 minutes left and I want to check my email, so I'll leave you here. Hope to upload some stuff tonight!

Cheers!


*may not be a world record

It`s Day 3

Very Early

I don`t care what Sirina says this is going to be very fun. :D

Yesterday we did a lot of walking and a lot of sight seeing, including the Tokyo station, Imperial Palace plaza, Imperial East Gardens, Harajuko, Meji Jingu shrine and Takeashita street.

It was a very good day, today is a travel day to Takayama and therefore we may not be able to get to a computer where we can upload photos. As soon as we do it will be on the flickr page (look left on this page). Also, check out the video I left there the other day. And Sirina says `Comment People`

Talk to you soon have fun!

It`s 4 a.m.

It`s　4am and Shaun is bouncing off the walls excitedly because we are going to the fish market this morning to see the fish auction. It`s the thing he`s most excited to see while in Japan. I`m sunburned. And it`s 4 a.m. Enough said. He`ll get his payback when we get to Kyoto and all I want to do is find a geisha.

Day 2

Its day two of the tour!

Last night we ate at a wonderful vending machine restaurant where you look at the plastic food display in the window and then go to a vending machine to purchase it. The purchase is sent to the kitchen and then 10 minutes later voila! food in front of you.

The Japanese are an efficient society. Puts the service industry back home to shame.

We kind of just wandered around yesterday, found a random park called　yoyogi park and wandered around there for a few hours after we found a random Japanese hippy festival. Who knew there were so many hippies in Japan?! We visited Ginza (Tokyo`s 5th ave) and Akibara (electronics district) in addition to Shibuya.

Ooop, Shaun is telling me I have to hurry up because we are on the hotel`s free internet. More pictures when we get to our next internet cafe.

Cheers!

Sirina & Shaun

We are here!

Finally

After what seemed like a flight that would not stop we are in Tokyo and well rested. We got in around 2PM yesterday and by the time we cleared customs and quarantine, and rode the train to the hotel it was about 5PM. We promptly and excitedly without any thought to our fellow man, fell asleep for 12 hours...

When we woke up we went down for an interesting breakfast (it involved doorbells). Then we figured out the Tokyo subway system and came to an internet cafe in Shibuya. Right now it is 8.12AM here on Saturday which is 5.12PM on Friday for Edmonton. We will keep in touch as now we know where an internet cafe is. This place also lets us upload our photos, which is good news for you、 in my opinion、 cause damnit if we aren`t good looking.

That`s all Shaun has to say Sirina?

We`re here!!

We finally arrived! A few things that I have noticed:

1. Japan is a lot more green than I thought. They seem to have 2 settings-- densely urban or completely rural.

2. There is no shortage of golf courses here (which surprised me)

3. Alarm clocks in hotels never work, I don`t know why I keep trying to use them.

4. Shaun had the best Salmon I have ever tasted for breakfast and I was jealous that I got a ハムサンドイチ (ham sandwich).

5. The G8 summit is in Japan and so there are NO garbage cans anywhere right now. You pretty much have to pack your garbage with you back to the hotel.

6. I love having vending machines everywhere.

7. Generally, everyone is nice and happy to help you. We only got the stink eye from one person so far!

8. We generally have no idea what`s going on and stare at the nearest Japanese person to figure out what they`re doing so we can copy it. It`s how we figured out the doorbell system for breakfast this morning.

9. Transit here rocks.



That is all.

Sirina

And we're off....

It's officially 10 minutes to 3 in the morning and we are anxiously awaiting Devon who has graciously offered to drive us to the airport at this ungodly hour. We will try and post as soon as we get to Japan, but we have both essentially stayed up all night, so its entirely possible that we'll fall asleep in the Narita airport terminal and never make it into Tokyo. On the plus side, our condo is the cleanest its ever been thanks to my unending nagging to "Clean!".

Carol wanted to see Yen

Japanese Yen
Originally uploaded by shaun_mcgregor

So I took pictures of Yen for her. See this is the kind of person I am always willing to please! This is just what we are taking so that we have some yen for trains and dinner when we get off the plane.

Only 15 more hours....

Almost Day 1

WOW!

Only 19 hours until we leave, the excitement is really starting to kick in. We have a furious day of errands including dumping our animals on other people's doorsteps. We managed to cajole Devon into picking us up at an ungodly hour to take us to the airport, so I thought I'd say thanks here before hand. I also thought I would update our Itinerary with the name of our Osaka Hotel.

Talk to you soon... from Japan!

Updated Itinerary

• July 4 - Arrive in Tokyo at 2.10PM Check into the Hotel Sunroute Asakusa


• July 5 - Tour Starts "Arrival Day" meet the tour leader and other tour group members


• July 6 - Morning Orientation tour of Tokyo and rail pass validation with a free afternoon


• July 7 - Tokyo - Takayama first Bullet train ride.


• July 8 - Full day in Takayama to explore with optional bike ride!


• July 9 - Early travel to Kyoto (2 hours or so) and a tour of the city


• July 10 - A full free day in Kyoto


• July 11 - Travel to Castle Himeji and then onto Nagasaki


• July 12 - A full free day in Nagasaki


• July 13 - Travel to the Kyushu hot springs with available Japanese mountain climbing!


• JUly 14 - Still in Kyushu


• July 15 - Travel to Hiroshima and then on to a beautiful Japanese island Miyajima


• July 16 - Travel from Miyajima to Fuji city at the base of Mt. Fuji! Ready for an ascent


• July 17 - Start the climb of Mt. Fuji, we spend the night on the mountain


• July 18 - SUNRISE ON THE TOP OF MT. FUJI! Then back to the Tokyo


• July 19 - Tour ends


• July 20 - Our first free day! TO THE ZOO!


• July 21 - The zoo is closed so if we need a second day it will have to be later - Travel to Osaka (3 hours) stay in Chisun Shinosaka Hotel (Only website I could find)


• July 22 - Free Day involving a trip to Kobe and sights in and around Osaka


• July 23- Another Free Day - Goto Nara (1 hour) see Todaiji Temple walk through Nara Park, go see Horyuji Temple oldest wooden building in the world


• July 24 - A 4th free day! - Travel to Tokyo (3 hours) finish up zoo if need be, check in to The Park Hotel in Tokyo for one night of Luxury.


• July 25 - Leave for Home :(