KonichiWAAAA blog fans!! Throw your peace signs UP!! Coz we
are jamming in JAPAN!!... Japan is a country i’ve wanted to visit for about a
decade now. Ive obsessed over it. Im sexually aroused by it... I watch Japan in
the shower, whilst its soaping itself up... I clamp my nipples with crocodile
clips... And other things id rather not get into... Hmmm. That being said blog
fans, I’ll leave off from where we were last. So keep your shorts tight blog
buddies! Its sooo excitiiinnggg ;D
If you
remember, or care enough to read, you will know we came to Japan from the
Philippines. We got an early cab from our hostel to the airport, and shared it
with a girl who was from Tokyo, getting on the same flight as us. We had a lot
of Filipino peso’s left over, and Cat was handing notes out like it was
Christmas. She was like “don’t worry, we’ll pay for the cab.” “Oh, here Mr Taxi
driver, buy your wife a new dress”. I was telling her to chill out, coz I
wanted some breakfast and water before the flight... So, we get to the airport,
with all our luggage and what not, then the first thing we see... “DEPARTURE
TAX – $30”. Naturally, we were JUST short of this now. So we had to go change
up our US dollars up into pesos, and I wasn’t able to get water with my
breakfast... Tragic... Anyway, we got on
our flight, and landed safely in TOKYO! :D
We saw
Nozomi (the girl from the taxi) again, when collecting our luggage. This was a
God send, coz as soon as we got to the train station to buy a ticket into the
city, we were like... “Johnny, la gente esta muy locaaa! WTF!?”... You can
probably imagine blog fans... I would probably struggle getting the train back
home from Heathrow to be honest. But not only was everything here in Japanese
(obviously), but the system for paying, and working out your fare was all
weird. Nozomi’s English wasn’t great either, and even she was confused... It was
the first of many strange things to discover in Japan. But we got there in the
end...
We got to
our hostel, and it was really nice, quiet and homely. It had typically cute
Japanese things going on. Like free green tea in tea pots, slidey wooden doors,
and they even put slippers in the toilet so you could have cushioned feet when
you’re going for a piss J
It was lovely... We went out for our first meal, and that’s when we had the
next barrier to cross... Ordering food... Again, all in Japanese, with Japanese
speaking waitress obviously... They had all these different sauces and spices on
the table we had no idea about, chop sticks, a hot towl... Felt kind of like
you didn’t really want to touch or do anything coz you were either gonna offend
someone, or just look like a total ponce... We only knew how to say hello and
thank you at this point. Funny thing was though, Cat got them confused... So
every time the waitress came back with a dish, or to fill up our glass or
water, she was like “Hello...” “Hello” “HELLO!” “Oh, Hello!” :D LOOOL!!...... Like
she’s senile!.... Best.......
The next
morning we got stuck into our busy “to do” list. And realised Tokyo wasn’t too
different from London after all. In fact, apart from the food, the writing, the
musical playing toilets... It was probably the closest we felt like being home
since leaving in 2012... The weather was a bit drab, was busy, the crowded
tube, Cat looking in shops for bags, me looking at Anime figurines and retro toys...
Pretty much a normal day in central London for us. We checked out a couple of
shrines and temples in Asakusa, and had dinner out. This time we had to order
it off a vending machine. WHATS THE POINT? You order your food, get a ticket,
and then take it to the waitress... Even with our language barrier, it would of
just been easier to go straight to her... Its a waste of a ticket! Anyway, a
day or two later we met up with our friend Tomoko. We met her in South America
when we did our tour from Peru to Rio. Was good to see her again. She took us
around some local markets. They were cool... TOO cool probably! Instead of
going on a sightseeing tour with Tomoko and her local knowledge, she took us
through some cruel, dark passage of temptation! I’m supposed to be on a budget!
The clothes, trainers, hats, toys, souvenirs were all so sick!! I thought my
material days were over, but this brought back superficial memories! It was
sick sitting a fat boy in a bakery, and smothering your body in chocolate cake
and whipped cream! We also stumbled upon a couple of naughty DVD stores... They
love it! There was a couple that even had ANIME porn DVD’s! Was weird... They
even had private wank rooms for $15 an hour... But Cat wouldn’t let me use them...
(lol)
We got
invited to Tomoko’s, and see cooked for us. Was really nice. Drank sake too,
which was not so nice... We said bye to Tomoko quite late, but managed to make
our way to The Government Building for AWESOME views of the city. Then we
quickly went to the Park Hyatt, where Lost In Translation was filmed. I love
that movie. So when I watch it next, I can say “I’ve been there!”
Shibuya
crossing is another scene that’s featured heavily in the movie, and is pretty
much the heart of Tokyo. Its like their Piccadilly Circus, or Times Square. So
we managed to get there the next morning. Then went to Meiji Shrine and
Harajuku, then BACK to Shibuya to see it at night. Cat really wanted to go to
the Japanese branch of her old Whisky society, so we did that after and had a
few drinks. Its the only time shes really been enthusiastic about having photos
taken of her... I had a beer and logged onto the WiFi. We had a message from
Nozomi, who wanted to stay out for more drinks. So we went BACK to Shibuya for
a 3rd time, and got pretty drunk J
Its always good, to get drunk in each city you visit at least once I think. You
get to see a completely different side of it. Was cool! Had a load of $3 drinks
and jager bombs, and somehow stayed focused enough to run for the last train
home...
It was now
our last day in Tokyo. We were planning on spending our day hungover, and going
to a bunny cafe to stroke some rabbits (Yeah, these places actually exist).
Sounded like the perfect way to spend a hangover right?... But then I looked at
the price list... $10 to LOOK, WITHOUT TOUCHING! Ermm what?? Then you could
either hold it for $20, or get a “private play room” for $50... Which just
sounds dodgy to me blog fans... Needless to say, we spent our money on better
things... Food... We met Nozomi again and ate in one of those traditional
kneeling restaurants. Nice... We then got the bullet train to Kyoto... Timed it
perfectly, and saw Mt Fuji at sunset J
When we got
into our 16 bed dorm in Kyoto, I was greeted by one of those stereotypically,
over-enthusiastic American guys. He was doing press-ups on the dorm floor... In
his boxer shorts... I kinda just walked straight past him. But he then started
talking to Cat about how much he misses the gym whilst travelling, and how he doesn’t
drink alcohol. I thought “Im not hanging out with this guy....” Then Cat goes
and arranges a KARAOKE NIGHT with him!! WTF!?... LUCKILY, he turned out to be
better than I first thought.....
We then went
out to eat this Okonomiyaki that everyone was banging on about... Its like an omelettely,
pancakey, type of thing. With meats and veggies in it... But OH MY GOD BLOG
FANS! :o Its put on a hot plate in front of you, and you add all your sauces
you want on it. Smother it in soy sauce, spices, mayonnaise... Was so good I
could of covered it in my OWN mayonnaise to be honest blog fans LOL! But
seriousssllly........ :o
On our first
proper day we saw temples... Now... Im not gonna bore you blog fans... But, I
was in Kyoto for 5 days, and lets just say, I was A LOT of temples. A lot of
temples, a lot of shrines, a lot of maiko girls, a lot of geishas... Beautiful
gardens, lakes, rivers, and scenery... Ate a lot... A lot of free samples in
touristy spots... My legs were tired of walking, my eyes were tired of looking,
my jaw ached from eating, and my index finger had a six-pack from all the
bending its been doing whilst taking photos... Thats Kyoto in a nut shell
really... I was planning on doing a “Top 10 best” blog when I get home. Comparing
cities, hostels, foods, etc from all over Asia; like i did for South America...
Lets just say *spoiler alert* Kyoto will be up there for A LOT of it.
Everything there was awesome. And we both agree its one of our favourite cities
ever... Strangely, one day when I was sitting in our hostel reception. I saw a
girl I recognized. I thought it was just someone i spoke to randomly earlier.
Then I looked up again, and it was my bloody COUSIN from home! Whaaat!? I did
actually know she was in Japan somewhere, but was DEFINITELY not expecting to
see her there and then in our hostel. But anyway, her and her mate later came
out with us to that karaoke night :p Along with that American guy, and some
other people... It was actually OK. Cat sang most the songs... Think I did “Backstreets
back”. We had free alcohol for 2hrs there... I was about 2 more hours of
drinking away from proper getting into it blog fans ;) Trust me.
Our last day
was pretty much like every other day in Kyoto... AWESOME... But this time we
hired bikes, and rode around the city instead of getting the bus, or WALKING.
We went to Sanjusangendo to see thousands of golden God statues. Rode back up
to the Manga Museum, and saw all the books and history of Manga. Got our
portrait done in Anime style (you might of noticed my facebook profile pic),
and then we went to see a GEISHA SHOW! It was a special cherry blossom performance,
that you can only see in April. So we were lucky to catch it, and it was a
great way to finish our stay. Even after that we got the chance to make our own
chopsticks in the hostel J
We shaped them, then got taught to write our names in Japanese to sign them.
Cool souvenir... And THEN, we headed of to OSAKA....
Now, I know
things in Japan are pretty strange blog fans. But a lot of things DO ACTUALLY
make a lot of sense when you get used to them. We managed to figure out vending
machine restaurants, electrical toilets, and mastered the subway systems in
Tokyo and Kyoto... Then we got to Osaka. It was pretty f***ed... The English signage
in the stations was a lot less frequent, and all the names were either 94
letters long, or all sounded the same! So when we finally figured the route to
a certain station, we were following all these different tunnels, paths, lines
and platforms. Thinking we’re going the right way, then we realised we were
about to get a train 40 miles out to Narra, and not round the corner Namba. So
you had to be careful... My cousin is living proof of this blog fans. We were
going to meet up at a pub in the city, that SHE gave ME directions to... Cat
and I predrank, and headed out there... We sat down, ordered drinks, and
waited... Then we ordered more drinks, and waited longer........ We managed to
connect to WiFi, and wrote her a message to see where she was. Apparently they
were also predrinking, but their drunken direction skills were obviously not as
good as mine, were they blog fans! ;D Anyway, we didn’t get to see my cousin
that night...
Next day we
were a bit hungover, but we went into the city to see Osaka castle. It was
really cool. Randomly, we bumped into Bishop Nehru, who (in my expert opinion)
Is one of the best young hiphop artists to come out in the last 5 years or
so... I walked up to him and said “Bishop!” and threw up a peace sign. He
shouted back “PEACE!”... We cool like dat...
Next day we
went to Nara, which is the town 50mins out of the city, that we nearly mistakenly
got on. (And my cousin probably did) :p Its famous for having a nice big park,
with temples (obviously), and wild deer roaming around. Was really cool, and
something a bit different. You could buy biscuits for the deer, and they nod to
you so you feed them J
Even though Nara was still quite a touristy area, all the toilets there were
squat toilets... Now, I don’t have a problem with the squatting blog fans. But
this is one thing I don’t really understand... They give you instructions to pull
your shorts down, squat, and then poo... BUT, if your boxers and shorts are
around your ankles, between your legs, and you’re pissing and shitting... Where’s
it gonna go?? Surely straight into your boxers init!?? DEFEATS THE POINT! So it
was a bit annoying trying to take your
shorts off without taking off your trainers, and standing in piss puddles, with
a big backpack on, pockets full of maps, and a big camera... But anyway... Rant
over blog fans... It was a good day out J
So yeah!
Thats Japan! Spending my last night in Osaka now. Sipping on some plum wine for
blogging inspiration ;) Hope it doesn’t disappoint... The motto of Japan was “F***
it” and “Yolo”. Thats because you either didn’t know what was happening, or
what you were eating. Or because it was EXPENSIVE! I’m SO glad we were able to
come to Japan. Its been a dream of mine... Now im kinda glad to go to countries
that are a LITTLE cheaper... Stroking a rabbit for $20? Psst!! I’ll buy a HOUSE
for that in Laos! I’m also glad to say Cat loved it just as much as me. Don’t
know if she was as excited as I was previously... But she’s even stayed awake
and watched Memoirs Of A Geisha, and Lost In Translation with me recently...
Anyone who knows Cat would know she’s usually asleep before you even press
close on the DVD tray...
Next stop
HONG KONG!! I’m hoping to land there tomorrow, look around, and get drunk
whilst watching Chelsea WIN THE PREMIERSHIP!!! :o
Start a tour
of China after that... Just when I thought Japan was strange ay.......
I mentioned
last time that I’ve been uploading videos to our YouTube page. Some are boring,
some are funny, some are interesting... But you’ll see some of the things i’ve
spoken about here... Just YouTube search “RobCat Travel”
Also, im on
Instagram: robbiegee6
Proper media
whore now blog fans ;)
Keep your
shorts tight til next time anyway! I’ll see you at the GREAT WALL!
Peace out
rabbits!!!
PEACE!!!
Zoooooooooooooooooooooooooooper!!
x
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