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Konichiwa!
Welcome to the first blog entry for the Denaro/Griffin two weeks in Japan. Apologies that we haven't posted earlier but we have had some WiFi issues. Hopefully all sorted now!
I will start from the beginning..... A very early (4.30am) and COLD start at Kirra, despite all of setting our alarm clocks, we all work up before they went off - Steve first! A quick breakfast then headed to Coolangatta airport to find the Qantas Club not open until after our flight took off!
We flew to Cairns and had about a 3.5 hour stop over their. Cairns international terminal is not the place you want to have to spend a long amount of time with 2 food outlets and a few shops. At least it had WiFi so we could all surf the net! We boarded our flight to Tokyo (very exciting). I flew business class which was a treat and felt (slightly) guilty about the others sitting in row 32. The flight was smooth and quick. Transit through Tokyo immigration was also smooth and quick and we had a nice man waiting for us to drive us to our hotel in Shinagawa - about 1.5 hours from Narita airport. Checked in at 10pm and ditched our bags and off to a local place for dinner - even though tired we were starving!
Steve and Brian, the very experienced travellers who fancied that they could take charge of ordering from the menu had us sorted with a mixed grill of kebabs and some rice.
Of course I had to double check what they ordered and when I read the finer print - we were about to eat skewers of chicken liver, chicken gizzard and chicken heart!. Chelle and I took over ordering and we had fantastic gyoza and deep fried chicken breast washed down with an ice cold japanese beer. We sat in a private room on the ground with our legs dangling under the table. One has to take ones shoes off when you enter the dining room - again Chelle had to stop Brian from marching in with his shoes on!
Back to the hotel for a well earned rest! The next morning we were off to Shinagawa train station - OMG you have never seen so many people! Everything is very orderly - guess it has to be - you need to be on the right side of the path to walk in a particular direction and the left of the elevator if you are standing still and the right if you want to move on the elevator. It was amazing just to people watch. We sat in Dean and Deluca and had our brekky and a coffee then it was off to Shibuya - a great shopping district. It took us a while to work out how to buy the train passes even when we chose english but eventually a lovely Japanese lady came to the rescue. Shibuya has the largest pedestrial crossing in Japan with 5 huge predestrian crossings that are times to all cross together. Again you have to be in the right lane to move with the flow!
Amazing shops and department stores with very interesting stuff you can't get in Australia. We had lunch at a traditional tempura restaurant. I looked after ordering this time! Ollie stuck with tempura Calamari. Chelle braved tempura eel and Brian ate tempura Whale which we were all not happy with! It was a fantastic lunch!
Ollie hit the wall (secretly so did I) so we headed back to the hotel for a rest while the others continued to Harijuku, another shopping (and trendy) district where a few purchases were made.
We then went out for dinner but had a lot of trouble getting into a Japanese retaurant so ended up eating at an Italian place! Steve and Brian in their element but Chelle and I would have preferred Japanese.
Today we are about to catch the bullet train to Kyoto (about 3.5 hours south of Tokyo) where we spend the next 5 days and we are all looking forward to it.
The Shinagawa train station which is about 3 minutes walk from the hotel we stayed at in Tokyo has the most amazing food halls. I will take some photos next time we are here but the way everything is packaged is incredible. Everything individually wrapped, including individual pieces of sushi. Chelle and I can't wait to try the sashimi but we are travelling with 3 boys who are not keen!
Hopefully our Wifi in Kyoto will be more successful then here so the blogs will be more frequent.
Take care
Love
Lisa
& Chelle, Steve, Ollie and Brian
- comments
Maree Have a great time all! It was winter when we went to Japan to ski. Looking forward to pics if able! We will drink to your safe travels at Claire's this afternoon. Luv Maree xxx
Jenny Fabulous food! Don't let Greenpeace in on Brian's indiscretion. Have a lovely trip. Look forward to the updates.
Claire Whata fantastic adventure! Enjoy. The girls will be having a drink for you this afternoon at The Drive. Look forward to next instalment.
Nik Sounds like fun. I love Kyoto and it is so different to Tokyo. Just think when you are tired, what it would be like staying in a Japanese Ryokan sleeping on a tatami mat and a very thin rollout futon type mattress (think a single bed doona).
Matthew Wow, that sounds awesome! Xx
Lynn Hi Lisa, have a great time..love the updates LOL lynn