Japan - Kyoto

Kyoto is beautiful. Today we visited the Fushimi Inari shrine, the Kyomizudera temple (after getting lost in a beautiful cemetery), the Higashiyama district, Kodaiji, Kenninji, and the Gion district following  Japan Guide's half day tour.













 We saw some Geisha! And also did 35,000 steps according to my fitbit.



The serenity I felt during the temples and shrines was quickly lost while waiting in line for dinner at a restaurant in The Cube in the Kyoto table. I hate waiting! Apparently that makes me Australian. It was so totally worth the wait though.





Also something funny I forgot to mention yesterday was that when exiting Fuji-Q they give you a stamp for re-entry. When I first did this I was on my own after visiting Evangelion World after the rest had gone back to the hotel. I lined up, the lady gave me a stamp, and I noticed that there was nothing on my hand after she stamped it. I motioned to my hand and the lady just nodded indicating that she was aware that she had just stamped me with nothing, and we should all be OK with this. Amy later explained that the same thing happened to her but the lady had kindly demonstrated that it was in fact a UV stamp that would be revealed under a UV light wand.

The next day we all got stamped for re-entry after our monumental soaking in the morning, and when we re-entered, the guy at the gate waved over our hands with UV light and waved us in. However, Amy never got a stamp, Andrew and I had been to an onsen and had surely boiled off any substance on our hands, and Kyle presented the guy with the opposite hand on which he was stamped. None the less, the guy on the door seemed pleased with the results of UV scanning each of our hands. Conclusion: with some confidence you can get into Fuji-Q without paying by presenting your hand to the guy at the gate (but prepared to be slogged with ride fees and 3h lines once you're in).

Tomorrow, Sumo!

Japan - Fuji-Q to Kyoto

This morning we had another mammoth feed at the Highland before using our priority entrance to go line up at the priority ticket counter… in the rain. It was pouring down, and at 8:15am a lady came out with a billboard saying that all the roller coasters were shut. Bummer!

So, while Amy and Kyle ran off to get in line for the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear (seriously it's the name), Andrew and I bought tickets for the only ride that was selling priority tickets, the Nagashimasuka water ride.



We ran to met Amy and Kyle in the line for the Super Scary Labryinth of Fear, and luckily we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get to the front of the line. When we got in with our group of about 12 we sat down to watch an introduction video which had a loose story line based on a girl entering into a scary dark hospital with blood on the walls and signs of suspicious activity and having flashbacks to the bright past where the hospital started becoming covered in blood. (Spoiler alert for next part).



The flashback involved our hero girl seeing a doctor stab a patient in the neck (gruesome incident #1), and then when the flashback flashforwarded she was being chased by half dead people, and finally got knocked over the head and passed out, which lead to gruesome incident #2 where she was on an operating table, guts all out, and the same doctor was getting ready to cut off her limbs (fade to dark). This attraction was suitable for 7 year olds! We were traumatised.

For the next part we were led into a line where the doors to a dark room opened, and a lady in a lab coat beaconed the first two people to come into the room. The girl half of the young couple in front of us actually refused to go in with such vindication that her boyfriend had to actually pull her in, and we were sure she was a plant. Turns out it was just the room where they take your photo, poor little thing was scared already!

The actual haunted hospital part was awesome. I lost track of how many storeys it was, but we were led down a narrow path filled with intricate details like stacked up wheel chairs, glass jars from experiments, old equipment with gauges and dials, and hospital trolleys with all kinds of atrocities. The attention to detail was really awesome (the girl from the video eventually made an appearance on a hospital trolley), and we only had a flashlight to explore with. Every now and then there would be a zombie? ghost patient? not really sure based on the story but some form of evil scary person who would chase you to the next section. It was so much fun and we screamed the whole way! We quickly realised that they weren't allowed to actually touch the visitors because every time they came close to catching you they would start limping, or find some other credible way of not catching you. So cool!



On our way to the next ride (while being rained on) we realised that our priority tickets weren't needed since there wasn't much of a line. We used our normal tickets to go in with the hope that we could refund the priority tickets, which luckily we could! We bought temporary ponchos and crowded into the ride carriages which were big floaty black tubes with seats. Between the rain, the splashes from the ride, and the ride actually spraying water in your face we were soaked and miserable by the end of it and couldn't wait to go back to the hotel. We were outraged that we actually paid and lined up to get soaked, the rain was already doing that for us! I'm sure it would have been great on a hot summer day.

After peeling off our wet shoes Andrew and I made our way (yet again) to the onsen to relax. On our way back we noticed that the big roller coasters were running so we quickly got ourselves organised and ran to the park. I got in line for the Fujiyama while Andrew went and bought express tickets to the Takabisha (the Dodonpa was still closed).



The Fujiyama was the biggest roller coaster we'd been on (even bigger than Shambhala in Port Aventura) and was absolutely fantastic, now officially the best roller coaster we've been on. After we got off we noticed that the Dodonpa was running so we quickly got express tickets for that too, then headed for the Takabisha (the one with the biggest invert) which was also really fun, but similar to other ones we'd been on. The Dodonpa was similar to the Furious Baco at Port Aventura which is another launch roller coaster, but this one was a lot faster (172km/hr in 1.8sec versus 135km/hr in 3.5sec) and left us literally breathless.



The only big one we missed was the Eejanaika (the one with the spinning seats) but the express tickets for that had sold out until 5pm and the wait was over an hour so we happily skipped it and left satisfied since after this morning's soaking we thought we'd get no roller coasters, and we got 3 of the big ones! Plus a Thomas the Tank Engine ride and a cloud roller coaster for Amy and Kyle.



So glad we got to actually experience Fuji-Q!













We're now on the bullet train to Kyoto to check into our second Air BnB. The Shinkansen go so ridiculously fast it's actually quite shocking when one goes past you in the station without stopping. Only 2 more hours to go till we arrive, thank god the crying baby got off at the last stop.

Japan - Tokyo to Fuji-Q

Today we caught a resort liner from Tokyo to Fuji-Q and checked into the amazing Fuji-Q Highlands hotel (the shower goods are Bvlgari), the view is of the park.

After an absolutely mammoth buffet lunch at the hotel we waddled on to the park, but unfortunately due to the wind a lot of the big roller coasters were closed, and the other ones had fuck-off wait times of  over 3 hours. The longest thing I've ever waited for was 3 hours to get into Versailles, and there was no way I was waiting longer for a roller coaster ride!

After losing Kyle, Amy and Andrew went back to the hotel while I checked out Evangelion World. I wasn't planning on paying the 800 yen to get in, but I'm really glad I did. They had the Seele conference room set up with Gendo's desk, some of the scenes, a life size entry plug, a life size head of Asuka's Eva Unit 02 in bezerker mode, and a life size head of Eva Unit 01 that together with some clever projections played out a scene where Shinji gets in the Eva and fights the Fuji-Q roller coasters which have turned into Angels. So cool! I want to watch Evangelion again now. 

Andrew and I spent this afternoon in the Fujiyama Onsen, which was much bigger, much busier, and had more variety than the Niseko onsen at the Vale. I think the Vale had nicer pre/post onsen facilities, but here the actual onsen was better (more variety, different types of water). So this is the first time I was in an onsen not on my own! I seemed to either attract locals who were interested in the foreigner, or completely repel them (sometime I'd get into a bath and the locals would pretty much evacuate). A couple of girls struck up a conversation with me and were clearly excited about practicing their English (which was fairly good, very cute). I loved it! I really really enjoy onsen. I will never get a tattoo so that I can always go to them.

Tonight we skipped dinner on account of the mammoth lunch and went bowling at the resorts bowling club. Turns out we're not great bowlers (especially the girls), and our aim for our second game was to not get any rounds with double gutter balls (we succeeded!). Bowling is hard! My shoulder actually hurts, but Andrew convinced me not to steal a ball from the baseball throwing game he played after bowling (it was pretty much a perfect physio ball, I managed to get some rolling on it before I reluctantly gave it back). I don't know what's with my leg going up so high when I bowl, but every time I tried to suppress it I failed even more so, so I just let it happen. 

Tomorrow morning we're going to wake up early and get some priority access passes, but it might get rained out so we'll have to adjust our plans based on the weather. Fingers crossed.

Also I forgot to mention in the last post that we saw Godzilla attacking a hotel in Shinjuku.

Japan - Tokyo (Fish Markets, Robot Restaurant)

The fish markets were actually quite confronting. I didn't think it would bother me, but it did a bit and I needed to take a breather after about 5 mins of wandering through. While the boys got fresh sashimi, Am and I found some beautiful bowls.





We did not find Edo castle, and we are all convinced it doesn't exist.



The boys played Street Fighter at Super Potato in Akihabara. I watched a pro play Bubble Bobble.



Robot restaurant was better than I could have ever imagined. Go there.



 

Japan - Tokyo (Shinjuku, Day 2)

Today was our first full day in Tokyo. We're staying in a cute Air BnB apartment in the Korean part of Shinjuku, walking distance from the bustling center of the precinct. 

This morning we did some house keeping and exchanged our JR tickets for JR passes and got tickets for the bus to Fiju-Q at Shinjuku station. The station was an eye opener, it was the biggest and busiest station I've ever seen by far, so overwhelming! 

After passing by a Hooters, and me chickening out after wanting to go in, our next stop was Mohumohu Owl Cafe, which took us a little bit to find because it was on level 5 of a building and wasn't easily visible from the street. Our first impression when we walked in and as we were paying ($1500 + $200 for feeding each) was a bit upsetting because the owls were chained by their feet to their posts. But after speaking with the host, feeding and getting to know the owls it was pretty clear that they were quite happy. 

The host really loved the owls (he taught us the word Kawaii which means cute), and was quite excited to watch us feed them, and giggled every time they did something cute. He was really gentle with them and the owls seemed pretty chilled with him.

Feeding them was really fun but I got a bit grossed out by what they were eating which was mystery bits of chicken. We used tweezers to pick bits appropriately sized to the owl we were currently feeding which meant looking through the bits and breaking them up if they needed to be smaller. I'm actually getting a bit queazy even thinking about it, but it was just so cute watching the owls gently take the meat from the tweezers that it was definitely worth the gross out factor! The grossest bit was something that looked like cherry tomatoes but clearly wasn't (gag).

The host made it a really fun experience, and ramped things up for us as we were there for longer. At first we patted the owls (with one finger, gently, only on the head), then we got to feed them, then we got to hold them on our hands, then our shoulders, and then he demonstrated them flying. 

Lastly we got to pick our favourite owl by placing a sticker from the top of our included drink on their photo. My favourite was the older, chilled, big owl. He was just so cool with everything, and would fall asleep when you patted his head. 

We stopped for some frozen yoghurt (happiest moment of Amy's life) on the way to the beautiful Isetan shopping center. Being the theme of our experience in Tokyo, it was the biggest and most luxurious shopping center I've ever seen. We tried looking up what local brands might be interesting, but got lost in the sea of international designers so we gave up pretty quickly and grabbed lunch at the level 7 food court. 

Andrew and I headed out on our own at night time to the Tokyo metropolitan government building to check out the (free) views from the level 45 observation deck, and on the way back we got some relatively healthy bibimbap  from a Korean place close to our apartment. 

What an amazing city! Tomorrow we have a busy day starting off with the fish markets. 

Japan - Sapporo to Tokyo

We checked out of Excel Tokyu in Sapporo and took a coach, the Skyliner, and a JR train to our Air BnB in the Korean sector of Shinjuku.



Tonight we went for a walk from our area to Shinjuku via Golden Gai, a lane filled with tiny bars that hold only about 5 people where the bartender drinks with the guests. We didn't feel comfortable going into one of these, so we continued on to the main area of Shinjuku which was absolutely bustling.



We passed by Robot Restaurant (we have a booking for Thursday night, can't wait!), got a few more trinkets out of the 200 yen machines (including a bunny in a bunny house, and a girl in a taco, but I'm still holding onto 200 yen for the deep fried excavator if I see it again), then were beaconed into an elevator by a guy holding a good looking menu and made our way to level 10 of a high rise for dinner.





Dinner was fun! Even though we paid 500 yen each for an appetiser (it turns out you have to pay a service tax for your seat in touristy areas), and the waitress thought we wanted 1 glass of water to share when we asked for tap water for the table. The fried chicken and the rolled egg omelette were the best we'd had yet.

There was also a mystery machine that had a bunch of buttons that may or may not have called the waiter, had some sort of timer functionality, and also had slots for 100 yen coins where you could put the coin into a slot above a picture of your star sign then get a little scroll with some lucky numbers and probably your future.





Now I'm in the process of convincing the group that we want to go to a maid cafe.