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We have just arrived in Osaka in Japan after an extremely busy week in Japan, hence lack of updates on here! We arrived in Tokyo last Wednedsay and it was boiling hot! We have just about got used to constantly sweating buckets! Not nice!! We stayed in Asakusa in Tokyo which was a really cool location- an old part of the city with market stalls and temples right on our doorstep! Whilst in Tokyo we went to the Imperial Palace, Ueno Park, the heights of Tokyo Tower (which is basically a copy of the Eiffel tower but 12 metres taller-think they were making a point!!!) We went to the central shopping district of Ginza and visited several v expensive department stores (mainly to benefit from the ice cold air con and nice toilets!!) The whole place is crazy busy with people everywhere! the trains have been a really useful way to get around-they play music when you get on and off, its almost like when the musics stopped, you're time's run out!!! the toilets are brilliant-the first one i used had a button that said 'extremely powerful deodorisor' haha, i didnt press it, i was too scared! i did however press some of the other buttons a different time just to see what happened and a massive stream of water shot out everywhere all over the room! they are also heated which is a bit strange and they play fake flushing sounds which is apparently to cover up other noises because people are embarassed!!
We also went to Tsujiki fish market in Tokyo which was a real experience-hundreds of stalls selling every type of fish and seafood you could imagine, in various stages of mutilation - it was pretty disgusting actually. i watched a man cutting the throats of eels and then they still squirmed around with their heads hanging off! i also wore flip flops which was a big no no (everyone else there had wellies on) and so i got splatted with watery fish guts! mmmmmm!
After Tokyo we went to Fuji which was a lot cooler and manageable until......we decided it would be a good idea to climb Mount Fuji- all 3776 metres of it! It was the hardest thing I have ever done but the feeling once we reached the top was brilliant! It was a good job Dave was prepared with all the clothing and stuff we needed to make it to the top! We were also assisted by a very elderly Japanese man who insisted we had some of his tomatoes- they tasted so good!! but it was a bit random as he didnt offer anyone else any- maybe we looked in need!!! After about 15 minutes I started having second thoughts but it was more not wanting to give up that kept us going! It took 5 and a half hours to get to the top, a lot of which was climbing up vertical rocks (I am still aching from it!). Once we reached a certain height, the altitude started to affect us a bit and we felt a bit light headed and short of breath. lots of people had portable oxygen cylinders but we were too too tight to pay the 1500 yen (10pound) charge!! lol! Most of the mountain is small pieces of volcanic rock so walking on it is really difficult, its a bit like walking on sand! Once we reached the top, we thought getting back down would be the easy bit - WRONG!! The slopes down were man-made and were so steep it was like skiing down sand! it started raining....then hailing.....and the clouds made it really difficult to see anything! I then fell over, as did many people, which really hurt! We were not happy bunnies! We will put a video up of it-beware we look awful!! 9 hours in total and we were back on the bus! the weather was so bad that some people decided to abandon their night trips up the mountain!! it was definitely an amazing experience we wont forget!!
From the relative luxury of ourJapanese style room in Fuji (with futon beds and tatami mat flooring), we went to Kyoto -the hostel we stayed in was a little odd to say the least! We were given a private room when we only paid for a dorm so we were v pleased about that, however the room was interesting - the whole thing was covered in pictures of Madonna back in the 80s and 90s, even on the ceiling! it was very bizarre and i kept expecting to see the place in the news or something! It was in a great location though, in Gion, the Geisha district. We saw a fair few wearing their kimonos and traditional attire! There was a lovely little street, no more than 7 feet wide packed with restaurants and bars where we had 2 really good meals of tapas style dishes - its really nice to try lots of little things and watch them being cooked in front of you! we are v proficient at using chopsticks now, well ish!! We went to the Golden Pavillion, Imperial Palace and Nija castle, which was really interesting. They built it with 'Nightingale floors' which make bird like noises when you walk on it to warn of intruders - i can imagine that would have got quite annoying!!
We are now in Osaka and are off to get some food shortly. Only here for the night, then off to Mount Koya (which we we will NOT be climbing!!). We are staying in a temple there which is a bit of a budget blower for the night but should be brilliant!
Hope everyone is well back home and we miss you all lots! Mobile phone is still not sorted but should be soon-hopefully in the next week or so!
Love from Claire and Dave xxxx
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