HI RO SHI MAAAAA...AND MIYAJIMA!!!

Monday was our first day with our JR Rail Passes, so we planned to get straight into it with a long trip to Miyajima - an island about 40 minutes out of Hiroshima. Amazingly, we got to the station on time, however, we did miss out on reserved seats for the next train, and waited an hour instead to make sure we were guaranteed seats on the next one. To pass time we wandered around station, until Carly saw a nice garden out the front. So we went to go for a walk through that, until we got closer and found that it was in fact an overly large car park with very tall trees surrounding it, unseen from the floor above. Feeling a little disappointed, we went back in the station and had a look around at all the shops. JR Shinkansen stations are basically like airports, but with better signage so you actually know where you're going!

Finally, time was up and our Hikari RailStar bullet train pulled up at the stop. Inside was very flashy, it was like sitting in what I imagine First Class to be on a plane. We had reclining chairs that almost lay fully back; foot space to stretch out as much as you like, with you bags resting next to them; while travelling at 300km an hour and mountain ranges soaring around you. It was like flying in style, only smoother and on the ground. Our breakfast was some famous Belgium Waffles; another lovely present from Yoshida-san. Carly was eager to take the chocolate one, while I opted for the sugared choice. My next choice smelt like maple syrup, and upon the first bite I soon realised how horribly wrong I was, and that once again I'd been hit by the Bean Paste Bandit! (Not that I wanted to waste the waffle, so we ate them anyway haha)















Even if it wasn't the most appealing taste. :P














One of the cool views along the way.

After an hour and a half, we made it to Hiroshima station. It was very modern, and had a lot of European people around. We didn't stay long though, and were on the next JR train to Miyajima port. After some more city scenery with the mountainous backdrop, we arrived at the port and then transferred onto the Miyajima JR ferry which transferred us onto Miyajima island in 10 minutes. As the ferry began to reach the other side of the shore we could start making out the famous Itsukushima Shrine on the shore line. It was at this moment, that a girl in a group of English tourists declared “OH MY GOD! There’s not water! Where’s the water? There’s meant to be water?!”

Obviously she hadn’t heard of the term, low tide. Upon arrival at the docks of, we were welcomed by the familiar smell of the ocean and slightly rotting seaweed; exactly like back home! We made our way along the outer path of the island, looking in a few souvenir shops before arriving at the shrine, which was indeed high and dry! Climbing down the steps, we got a few shots up close before heading off in search of the 5 storey pagoda.

Itsukushima Shrine!

We climbed up some old steep stairs, taking a breather for some water and chips while we looked out at the ocean and Hiroshima on the other side. We were lucky with the weather, and although it was quite windy, the weather was pretty hot out in the sun. The pagoda was pretty tall, with an odd arrangement of palm trees in front of it that kind of didn’t go with anything around it. Either way, the pagoda was very interesting, but the temple that went with it on the other hand, was a little bland, and a rip off to pay $1.50 just to walk across it (it wasn’t that big and you could see straight through anyway so there was really no point in going in.

The five storey pagoda.

Walking around some narrow, windy roads, we found the ticket counter for the ropeway up to Mt. Misen. We quickly hopped on the minibus that takes you up to the start of the ropeway just as it was leaving. This ride was definitely an interesting one, we roared up the road; swinging around bends at top speed on one of the narrowest streets I’ve seen, with no railings and an interestingly large drop off the edge. Needless to say I tried to keep my eyes at the front most of the way up with my knuckles turning white on the hand grips. We did make it in one peace, and didn’t have to wait long before we were put in a small cable car and made our way up the mountain, which looks a lot bigger once you’re in a tiny carriage suspended at over 100m off the ground, and standing at 535m – it was a long way back down! We reached the top of the first mountain and transferred onto one of the larger cable cars that takes you across, and to the top of Mt. Misen. These apparently can carry 30 people according to the sign, however, it was pretty full with 12...so I have no idea how that would work.

At the top, we were told to leave all our belongings in lockers as monkeys would apparently steal them. You would also go crazy and angry if you stared them in the eyes (according to the signage). We roamed around the many lookouts and stared at all the surrounding islands, mountain ranges and Hiroshima in the far distance. It was a pretty amazing experience, however there were no monkeys to be seen - to Carly's relief. For lunch we sat in the Cafe all by ourselves and made some vegemite sandwiches while looking out at the scenic view.

After a while, it was time to head back down, so we returned to Itsukushima Shrine, which was now in the water like it was supposed to be and got some more snaps from the temple behind it...which I think besides the good picture angles it had, was a rip off to walk around for 5 minutes and pay $3; but that is just me being stingy.

It was starting to get late, so we quickly went down the inner souvenir shopping street and bought a couple of cheap keepsakes to take home. Then it was back onto the ferry, then the JR line, then another hour wait at Hiroshima station, before finally getting the shinkansen home and passing out at 11pm. It was a great day of scenic adventure, even though we didn't get to see too much of Hiroshima, but we're returning there next week so all is good.

PS The deer on the island loved us.

Until next time,

Saros out!

Where's my Samurai?

AIIII I'm your little butterfly....

Yes, I was listening to that song - who on earth would think that would be a good song? Anyway, on to the vague, rambling and obscure reference filled post! *Heroic pose*

Scandal
Scandal are a band from Japan I've liked ever since the Arrancar arc of Bleach,.So I'm watching Kurosaki go all "BANKAI" and suddenly, on comes Shoujo S, one of Scandal's more famous songs and all of a sudden, it's like, coolies. So then I download Doll and Beauteen and they're coolies too. Point? well actually I've just been rambling, but anyway, we found out by ABSOLUTE CHANCE Scandal were playing at Zepp Osaka, and I turned to Sarah and said "Bro, we gotta hit that, or are ya doggin me?"
Actually no, that's probably one of our good friend Jim "Mixeleven" 's many varied and indecpherable "hood lingo" status updates. But we went on a quest to get tickets, and it was a quest worthy of a novel, or the following sentence:
We couldn't buy tickets online so Sarah found a 711 and got the tickets.
Wondering how big it was going to be, and also how crap (I read a review saying Scandal were lame live), we hit the Tanimachi line and then the Chuo line to Kosumo (Cosmo) square. Cosmo Square brings to mind some sort of wicked entertainment district- I know I certainly expected that rogue bay ferris wheel to be sitting there right next to the station but alas, it was at least a stop back. I was crushed.
So luckily Sarah checked where we were supposed to go, and we set off down the road (C: Are we going the right way? S: Yep. C: Really? S: Yes, really. C: So you actually know where we're going? S: YES!) and what do you know, we got there!












^^ Videoclip to Shojo S ^^

To view the BLEACH opening theme, clickies and enjoy the kind of creepy seductive look of the characters- except the ugly ones who are in the dark or facing away.

There was a big ass line and our tickets being 1196/1197 were therefore not exceptional tickets... a long time of staring at each other and trying to work out where to go later, we eventually pointed to our tickets with a confused look and Japanese people took pity on us and pointed us in the right direction. From there, it was a good hour waiting in the rain, with my sweet ass umbrella ("Shoot to Kill, Shinsou!") snapping out and almost decapitating someone.
Or not, but hey, I bet it could. Also, the jacket, which saved me from rain on my arm. Possibly also egg on my face. No rain or egg on my arm- not a glob.
Unfortunately, not all in the line were as prepared as us, and could only wish they had an umbrella while the points of my umbrella dripped all over their heads.
So to make a long story short, as so far, I've been making a short story incredibly long, we got in and were directed to an awesome section, which we eventually figured out was just for girls, because Japan is fantastically sexist like that. We had an awesome view, good luck to the (shorter) crazy girls behind us. So we figured the opening band would play, only there were no opening bands, which really, was good, though they did play some Bono (Elevation) beforehand.
Then, with an explosion of sound that possibly rendered me legally deaf for the foreseeable duration of my life, it began.


^^"I'm in a glass case of emotion!" - Temptation Box, Scandal's New Album^^


I was worried they'd suck. In fact they were awesome- excellent singing and harmony (a few times the high pitched one was too loud and drowned out the other one, but man, she sounded like a 3 year old on crack). Even though I didn't know the majority of the songs and had NO IDEA what they were singing about, all the tunes were catchy and their costumes were kind "cute school girl". They opened with "Everybody say yeah", then "Beauteen" came up, which was good- they performed it really well, "Doll" made an appearance and Shoujo S, which I felt was probably their poorest performance (difficult vocals, to be fair, and late in the set) though still quite good.
Only thing that totally bewildered Saros and I was three times, they stopped playing and started this monologue (which we obviously didn't understand except at one time they were talking about Takoyaki and Gohan). The crowd itself was wack- during the monologues, which lasted a fair while actually, they stood listening gravely, with the occasional laugh or cheer when required.
During the show, they were electrified, with a "Yeah yeah YEAH" or hand pumping/waving action when required, otherwise, completely silent and docile. Also, did I mention, what the hell were they talking about for so long?! In the middle of the set, they chucked their instruments and sang (and did some weird ass arm dance) to Shoujo M (not the same as Shoujo S). The song was cute, but what the hell were the arm movements going on? Sarah thought they were doing a mid show stretch.



^^ Scandal Promo pic. Click Beauteen to see the song, where they're hardcore promoting Pocari Sweat^^

They left the stage and immediately the crowd started chan"En cor ru, en cor ru!" which I eventually figured was encore. So we waited, and we waited, and they chanted and clapped. Still we waited, as the techies came on stage to fiddle with guitars and shit. The only reason I stayed at this point, was cause the soundies behind us looked like they were waiting for something, and sure enough, Scandal reappeared to the delight of their fans. They played another song, then launched into some sort of speech so we thought it best to hightail it outta there. Anyhow, we beat the crowd back to the station and headed home, to my usual cbf dinner of vegemite sandwich, ironically, also my breakfast and lunch, though I have purchased knock-off Frosties. (I'm not kidding, they actually have Frosties but Sarah told me they were too expensive and I had to get knock off. She has knock off cocopops).

Wickhouse.

Farewell Dinner

On Sunday we met up with Yoshida to go shopping as she wanted to buy us something to remember her and Japan. We were originally going to the horrifically overpriced Kintetsu store, but ended up going to Yodobashi camera, which I'm ashamed to say actually had a whole other store in it that we never knew existed! We met in a cafe after getting quite lost on the way, and had some fantastic chocolate pudding. One thing the Japanese do well is a good pudding- their pudding is fantastic. (Cold pudding, FYI).

^^ Yeah, that's as good as it looks!^^

We then went to UniQlo in Comme Ca, where Saros and I angsted over both wanting the same Jacket (it's a good jacket!) and eventually both got it. We travelled to other stores, buying fragrances, salt and pepper shakers (They were under $1.50!), Mint M&Ms (which were delicious, btw) and other misc stuff. By this time, it was almost time to meet Chizuko and Miho, so we went back to the station and then to Saizeriya for dinner.

^^Comme ca had all these sweets shops! These cakes made me think of Nanna V!^^


Saizeriya is awesome. It was our shout as a thank you to them, and it only came to 5700Y, which is very cheap. The pizza was the best I've had in Japan (it was Adelaide quality. Not quite Pizza Hut, but certainly up there!) The servings were small, so we just got lots! We had Garlic Bread that actually had garlic (stuff you La Pausa!) and Sarah and Miho had Spaghetti Bolognaise, Creamy Spinach and Bacon Spaghetti and Steak between them.



^^Food of the GODS!^^



^^ The steak ^^




^^Having fun!^^

It was all you can drink for like, $2, and I found I actually quite liked the Melon- because it didn't taste like Melon!
We gave out our thank you presents (including for Chieko, Noriko and Masako) and Chizuko was quite overcome by the Opal necklace. So thank you mum and dad- we owe you! Noriko was quite nice; she couldn't come but gave us both a mirror and an M&Ms Mint strap, which looks pretty swift on my camera!


^^ M&Ms Mint (which I'm quite partial to, the strap and my Saizeriya Melon drink!^^

After that we headed home to say a quick goodbye to Nicolas who left the next day for France. Meanwhile, Juerg's moving out to Daikokocho on thursday so he's leaving before us too! Coming up we've got Miyajima, Kobe, Lunch with Yoshida, possibly Hikone, packing and cooking Tacos on Friday and Sat- TOKYO via Shinkansen- the beginning of the end!

^^ The presents were a hit!^^

^^ Happy Group Photo!^^

And the usual- Miss you all very much and kisses!
xx Carlos and Saros


**Edit**
P.S.
You know what's not wickhouse? No one but poor Ben commenting. Also, why am I listening to Shania? Correction, I newly love Shania. But I didn't even realise I had "If you're not in it for love" on my ipod...

Shout out-
Shania Twain, and Ben. That is all.
(She's probably reading this right now and nodding).

P.P.S.
We'll be on the move almost non-stop from now, so thank you so much to everyone who sent us a package of love (especially if it contained food!) but you probably can't send anymore. We'll probably be harder to get in touch with too. Onward- TYO and Euro!

P.P.P.S.
I want that Samurai.

Clubbin', Kyoto and the Dotombori

Friday Night - Sam and Dave's One Club So on Friday night, we rocked up at Sam and Dave's foreign club at 11pm, hoping to have some better luck that our last club. What we got was another empty club with two old men sitting next to us. Miho was unimpressed.


*Note old men in the background. Luckily, it was only $10 to get in, and that was with 2 free drinks! So Carly and Miho got "Fuzzy Navels" and I got our drink of Summer 2010 - Cassis Orange!


They were delicious, and free! The music was rather loud, but eventually they started playing some songs that we could actually dance to. So we were up on the dance floor by ourselves, the only other person being some older man who looked like he was dancing around with some fairies - well at least he was entertaining.



We managed to also get him in the background here. On our next round of drinks, Carly thought she'd order something a little special, she was going to go with the "Blue China" cocktail, when I noticed one called "Kir" and well, there was no way we could NOT order a drink in Kirilly's name, so a Kir it was, while I went with a nice and frothy Pina Colada - considering these cocktails were still free...it was pretty good value for money! What we didn't realise was a Kir is a mix of white wine, red wine and ice. Carly was looking pretty apprehensive as it was poured, but when we took it back to our table, turns out the combo tastes pretty nice!



It was after this that a few random mixes of songs had us looking a little bewildered - for example when Metallica's Enter Sandman started playing...we thought it was a bit weird for a popular club, until a remix of Lady Gaga started playing over the TOP! It was horrible! After a while, the songs luckily went back to normal Top 20 songs. We stayed until around 2:30, before heading back early to Miho's house in a taxi to try and get some sleep for another big day at Kyoto. When we got back, Chizuko had already set up the futons for us and we were asleep in no time.


Saturday - Kiyomizu Temple

On Saturday morning, we were awoken by the smell of perculated coffee and something sizzling on the stove. By the time we were up, we sat down and had hotdogs and garlic toast; which were delicious! It was a great start to the day, then we encountered a Japanese shower. It's basically like a small room that looks like a bathroom, with tiled walls, a bath and a long mirror, and a shower head which is in between the bath and the floor. It was after Carly had already attempted her shower, that Miho cheerfully explained to us that you don't stand in the bath and shower, you stand on the floor...which didn't look like a shower floor at all and had a weird drain that I didn't even realise WAS a drain. Then we also had to be shown how to turn it on and how to adjust the temperature. It was very complicated. Just like their toilets, which had the seat warmers activated on it when we were there...you really don't want to press any of the buttons on the side, because you don't know what you're going to get! We will try and get pictures next time we're there to explain these technological phenomenon!

With another 2 hour journey, we made our way by subway, train and taxi up to Kiyomizu temple with the worlds tallest Pagoda. It is right at the top of a hill, so the taxi dropped us off about half way, as the rest is closed off to cars. We made our way on foot up the narrow, crowded and winding path of souvenir shops that led up to the temple.







Couple of views from the train ride.



The famous Kamo River, Kyoto - popular tourist destination and romantic date spot.



The start of the path to Kiyomizu - it was a long way up!

Halfway along, we found a Kimono place, and took the plunge and got dressed up. To get dressed up, with our hair done was only $40 for me, and about $45 for Carly and Miho, which wasn't too bad considering it was to hire for the whole day.






We don't think we turned out too badly in the end haha there were a few people who wanted their photo with us, and a couple more who stood behind Chizuko, snapping away when we were posing in a few areas.



This was a famous lookout/photo spot, and we actually told some people to move out the way so we could have our photo taken haha I don't think they were too impressed, but oh well! The temple entrance was quite wide, and the steps were very steep; making it almost impossible to walk up them gracefully in a Kimono!



The temple itself was lovely, and had some great views. The only thing that was a little disappointing was because it was so crowded we didn't have the opportunity or time to do a couple of the things that you could do there (such as drink from a famous/lucky waterfall). We did however, manage to find some great scenic views, and take a few nice portraiture shots in our Kimonos.















Once we left the temple, we followed a path around the mountain which eventually led back to the beginning steps of the temple, and the start of the narrow road of shops back down the hill. It was almost 5pm, and we found out that all the shops closed at 5:30, so in a mad rush and with lots of shuffling, we made our way through the shops looking for any last minute bargains to take back with us. Unfortunately, Carly had a lot more luck than I did, and I came out empty handed. By the time we got back, we were exhausted, and headed to bed for an early start the next morning.


Along the Dotombori

Sunday morning, we were up at 7am, and out of JF with Ayumi and Nicolas by 7:30...ish. We had planned to go to Parque Espana, but soon found out once we had already waited an hour for the train, that we had not only missed it, we also would've had to pay another $15 just to book a seat - so it was almost $50 one way... deciding Parque Espana was now a no go, Ayumi and Nicolas decided to go to some waterfalls...somewhere... but Carly and I weren't too keen and instead headed to Shin Osaka and cashed in our JR Rail Passes, then headed to Shinsaibashi to check out the Dotombori River. The river was probably the equivalent in dirtyness to the Torrens and also housed a few local bums. The stench of urine in the air reminded us of home, back in the Port.

Carly had heard there was a cruise, but when we went to the spot where she thought it was, we found a crowd of guys swapping photos of what looked to be famous girls in school uniforms...it was a little creepy. Thinking of giving up, we instead walked around to the other side of the river. This is where we spotted the guy amongst the all the creepy photo collectors, that we were meant to see about the cruise. We made it just in time, with the next cruise leaving in 5 minutes.

We got a few pictures of the scenery along the way, with the only picture of us not doing us much justice.



Us looking not so flash.



The famous running man!



The Don Quiote Ferris Wheel.

The MC on the cruise had quite a high pitched voiced, and her incessant babbling, paired with the dirty water and lovely views of underneath bridges 50% of the cruise - made it a rather interesting experience. Especially, on the way back to the dock, where she pulls out a bazooka and hands it to a tourist in front of us, and explains that he must shoot the overly large octopus on the wall of a building we were about to pass. So as he pretends to fire this gun, the octopus starts releasing smoke, while playing theatrical opera music and disco lights illuminating its eyes. So overall, we were left quite bewildered by the whole experience, and while it wasn't that bad, it wasn't that great either. We will however, leave you with the wonderful experience that was the octopus!





Coming up, we have a concert on Thursday night to go see the band SCANDAL, then on Sunday we have shopping with Yoshida, and our farewell dinner that night with Yoshisa, Chizuko and Miho.