Where is Fish?

Its pretty hot today,

I feel like eating at Maccas for dinner..

posted by Fish @ 7:39 AM 11 comments

I went to the Tokyo FC game...

It was wikkid!!

Twas a pretty good game, But it was more enjoyable watching the fans... I mean tokyo has a massive fan base, and they were practically chanting the whole time...

And they have stolen Liverpool's "never walk alone" anthem... which we had a tokyo FC fans version before the match... weelll nee-bah waaruk - aahroone!! WEEE RRUUHH ... NEHHH BAHH WAARRUKK, AAHH - RHONEE!! YYYAAAAYY... was a tremendous moment i can tell you that..

.. But in some sense the crowd seemed slightly orchestrated... There was tremendous chanting and applause in some parts... then just silence in other parts.. it wasnt like a tipical aussie crowd with rwoudyness the whole time... It was very... "cheer when you are meant to cheer" .. " be silent when you are meant to be silent" kinda crowd.

Well i got one more day in this country... and im gonna try to find the place where those crazy tokyo people go and dress up in crazy clothes and stand around all day in a park and look at each other... coz theres such a place... i know... there.. is...

Anyway thats it for me .... untill next time...

posted by Fish @ 2:22 PM 4 comments

Theres no internet in Nara..

Thats where i was yesterday..

But only for about 2 hours of sightseeing as i got there at 4 in the arvo...

Thats cause i was on the trains all day...

Thats what ive been doing today....

But now im in Tokyo....

For tonite,..

And tomorrow..

But tonite...

on this small planet...

we're gonna rock civilisation.

Because.....

I might be going to see a J-league Match!!!!
Yay!! Tokyo FC versus Nagoya..
If i can find any info on it...

MUM!!! - Can you email me the phone number and address of Gran + Grandads house? the reason why is cause I might be going to a barmitsvah next weekend in manchester (one of phils friends) with phil (golombick) and they need to have some contact information to put me on the door list... so.. please send to glenno1200@hotmail.com its safer than posting it here.

posted by Fish @ 8:34 AM 0 comments

Fukuoka 2day

Well i caught the slow non-bullet train from nagasaki this morn all the way up to fukuoka, and thats were i am now.

Fukuoka is a kinda trendy, cool, city, with a lot of trendy cool people hanging around trendy cool shopping malls. So what did i do? i did a bit of shopping in the trendy cool shopping mall. Ahh such a releif to just take it easy... and ive "treated" myself to some slightly better accomodation.
This time i get an entire room to myself!!

And considering its only 400 yen more than the capsule hotel i think im getting a pretty good deal!!

These pretzels are making me thirsty

posted by Fish @ 10:11 AM 6 comments

Hiroshima yesterday... and..

Well i visited hiroshima yesterday, the peace park, with monuments, statues, millions of paper cranes, and the A-bomb dome, very moving.

The A-bomb dome is a building which the bomb exploded nearly directly over, such that, some of the upright walls remained after the blast.（unlike surrounding buildings which were compleatly destroyed). They have preserved these ruins and are now world heritage.

And so where did i go today? well.. Nagasaki. and vist their peace park and museum. So im a bit A-bombed out if you know what i mean.

Last nite had dinner in a bar called "New york new york" and had a Hamburger cause i was craving some western style food.. dinner cost me 2200yen.... the place i stayed at last night resembled an old hospital and cost 1700 yen. Together they made the most expensive dinner and cheapest bed yet. (cheapest dinner so far was when i made spaghetti bolognase.. 730 yen for 2 dinners.. or 365 yen each)

So what next? .. well im thinking of going to Fukouka 2 moro... Im really very tired from lugging my bag around and waking up at 6:30 each morn (thats when the sun comes up).

Lots of people say i should go to Kyoto, but then again lots of people say accomodation is all booked out there, so i dunno... maybe ill just head back to tokyo..

Only 4 days left in japan!! eek!!

posted by Fish @ 9:21 AM 5 comments

Did someone say .. Fo - toes?

I mean, photos?

This is on Niseko, looking at Mt. Yotei..

Here i am, After succesfully climbing Niseko.

At the Aussie Bar, Pow Pows, with the only remaining geezas..

Looking out the window of the train as i travel down the countryside...

Going towards a temple in Mashimo-something

Its those damm pink sakura, getting in the way of my shot..

And again...

To celebrate the little pink flowers, the japanese hang paper lanterns in the park, sit on blue tarpolans, and drink lots and lots of beer and sake... This is in the afternoon. At night, the blue tarpolans are full of drunken japanese... (sorry but no photos of this)

posted by Fish @ 11:16 AM 4 comments

Well theres not much here in Osaka to tell the truth..

Well i went out last nite,
The main late nite area is a flashing light crazy super busy people everywhere district of restaurants shops and crazy kids with funny hair.
It is very crazy.
But there were no places to go have a drink.
Like a bar, they were all restaurants.
And it seems everyone was just hanging around and walking around the shops.

Except i found the place where all these breakdancers go and just breakdance.
And i dont mean "ooh look i can do the six-step and a little spin" breakdance.. i mean the BEST BREAKDANCING I HAVE EVER SEEN breakdancing..
I mean forward flips-to-one-hand-stand breakdancing, i mean doing the windmill for half a minute breakdancing, There was one guy, jumping around one one hand, yes, JUMPING in the air, from one hand, and clapping with that same hand, then landing on that same hand. Stiko, you would have been in heaven.. Ive got some of the stuff on video.. Insane.

Well i went for a little sightseeing of Osaka today, (pronounced OOO saka btw) and theres not much here to look at. See osaka is a buisness city, and theres just heaps of buildings and smog.

Oh but i did goto Osaka castle. Its not an english style castle, but it has a HUGE moat around it and big walls. And i would have thought pretty inpenatrable. But not so. It seems some clan/tribe/army burnt the whole thing to the ground years ago, and this is just a re-build.

And i went to this building, which is like two buildings side by side, except the top 2 floors are joined together, making it look like a big archway. and to get to the top you have to ride an escalator between the to buildings, about 40 stories up! Pretty crazy architechture..

Well as much as i like this hostel, ive only a few more days left in japan and still have a few more places to go. Hiroshima, Kyoto and Tokyo for a start. And maybe a couple more in between.

posted by Fish @ 8:41 AM 4 comments

No more Fuji.... welcome.. OSAKA!!

Nah, it seems it is really hard to climb fuji now, and seeing as im not an experienced climber, i decided against the idea... in fact i decided against staying in Fuji town any longer...

I saw the hill, i went up a little cable car, i got pissed of with the crap crap crap youth hostel i was staying in.. it reminded me of a prison.. (not that ive been to a prison).

So first thing this morning i got up and left...
and i caught the 8:42am train out of there...
then i caught another train to Shinjuku...
then another train to tokyo...
then a shinkansen to shin-osaka...
then a train to osaka...
then the wrong train to somewhere...
then another train to somewhere else...
then a train to whereever i am nowsville..
and here i am...
i arrived at this youth hostel at 4:30pm..
Im in osaka by the way.

Oh.. i mean woooo!!

this is BY FAR THE BEST HOSTEL IVE BEEN TO!!

its next to a soccer stadium that was used in the 2002 world cup!! how cool is that!!!
and they have a kitchen and i made spaghetti bolognase instead of eating rice!! or noodles!! yay!!

And from the small amount of people ive met in this town they are very very friendly.
When i got to a train station and was looking a bit lost, looking at the timetable, a nice young lady came up to me and asked if i needed any help. I told here where i was going and she walked me to the right platform.

Then when i got off the train and was walking to where i thought this hostel was, a man riding a bike on the other side of the road stopped, asked me if i needed any directions, and then walked me to the hostel (in the opposite direction to where he was going).

Well they say osaka nitelife is meant to be crazy, so im gonna go out tonite and see what its like.. :)

posted by Fish @ 10:44 AM 3 comments

Fuji-san!!

Well i caught about 7 trains today but ive ended up in Kawaguchi-ko, which is one of the lakes at the bottom of Mount Fuji. (no not really IN the lake but just next to it obviously).
And ive asked the information office about climbing old Fuji-san and theyve handed me a piece of paper saying "WE DO NOT RECOMMEND CLIMBING MT. FUJI OUT OF SEASON!" ....

Out of season?? .. what like it hasnt ripened yet?.. hmm.. those stubborn bastards.

But to tell you the truth it does look pretty hard... the top half is covered in snow, and it gets to about nearly 45 degrees (incline) at the top, and apparently 0 or less degrees (temperature.) But then again, I do have the right gear...

I mite go up to one of the stations part of the way up the hill 2moro on the bus and check it out. And tonite I think ill go to an "American Pub" in town and ask some of the folk in there if its possible/ impossible/crazy to climb it now...

I mean the lonely planet guide book says you can climb it anytime of year, its just that the japanese "like to do things right" meaning not climb it if its not summer...

Ill keep you posted on my climb, and dont worry Mum, i wont go up if its too much of a dangerous thing..
-cya later..

posted by Fish @ 9:01 AM 6 comments

Ahhh too many shrines i think..

Well the rain cleared up yesterday and i took a brief walk around the old shrines and temples of Nikko, very beautiful. They are in a woodland forest on the side of a mountain surrounded by big rock walls and paths and well i cant explain it very well but trust me some of the sites are epic.
And some of the forest paths are so ancient japanese-like I thought for a moment i was in a set of Monkey Magic, ready for a pack of "Deamons!" to jump out at me, some cool music to start playing and me having to fight them to the death.. but this did not happen.

Went for a bit of a walk today, set out at 9am and just getting back now (2:30) so you would be semi pround of my walking efforts Mum, but nothing compared to what i shall be challenging in a few days..

And with all this walking I have finally gotten into the onsens.. these big 40+ degree baths that you sit in and just see how long you can last before having to jump out, have a cold shower and jump back in agiain.. Actually they are really good for relaxing and rejuvinating tired muscles.

So I think the next city on my quest will be fuji. Yes, this is a little town which sits at the bottom of Mount Fuji, better known as "Fuji-san". And yes you guessed correctly I will have to climb it. Not all the way from the bottom, as this can take a long time, but I think Ill do the cheat way and start from half way up the mountain....

Oh and ive found the cheapest way to eat yet. I dont know what they're called but they are like sushi rolls except they are triangles and slightly bigger than your average sushi roll back home. And not only do these things contain your carbs (rice), greens (seaweed) and other(random bit of stuff in the middle), but they are only 105yen each, which is super cheap. (about $1.20).
(They are the things that Alex Kidd eats when he finishes a level.)

posted by Fish @ 6:30 AM 4 comments

Now im in Nikko and its raining again.. :(

Well as i was travelling on the train today it started raining, a common occcurance i think for me now, so the lovelly walking tour of this old japanese city will have to wait for 2moro... or actually, as im writing this the weather has cleared up a little... i might be able to go this avro... hmm..

So yesterday afternoon i decided to do a load of washing, ok? so i went to the "Coin Raundary" (coin laundary) next door to the youth hostel i was at, right? so i put my stuff in the machine and, because i had spilled something on my jumper, i decided to wash that as well. I put money in the machine, put some washing powder in... and kazamm! It started to wash my clothes.

So I sat there for a while whilst the machine went through its buisness, and after a while it stopped..
Hmm.. I thought... maybe its finished. The light on the machine had also gone out, this too, suggesting it had compleated its wash cycle..
As i opened the machine a weird thought flew into my head.. "But it didnt do the spin cycle" (you know the final bit of the wash where it spins your clothes really fast so instead of being soaked they are only moderately damp?).

My thoughts wee confirmed as i picked out my dripping wet clothes from the machine..
oh crapp... i thought...

So what did i do??

I sat there for an hour or more, squeezing the water out of my clothes, and when i had finished, squeezed them some more, and then after one round through the spin dryer, they were nearly all dry. So then i went up to my room and created a make shift clothes line around the little heater in there, cranked the heater up to full, and went out to get some dinner.

posted by Fish @ 5:58 AM 5 comments

Matsushima was nice..

Staying in a really nice youth hostel, really nice except for the fact they jamm 2 complete strangers in a room barely big enough to fit 2 people lying down in.. Very difficult when you need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and the other guy is blocking the door... Hmm. that made me realise, the canadian dude that i shared the room with last night is gone so im gonna get back to the hostel and find another stranger in my room.. oh well, what can ya do? Its the cheapest place around...

Went up the coast on a bit of a sightseeing gig today to a place called Matsushima.
Apparently its one of the 3 best sites of Japan. Hmm.. I dunno about that. Basically the place is a bay with lots and lots (hundreds? i dunno i wasnt paying attention) of little islands made of rocks with trees sticking out of them.. That bit wasnt as interesting as it sounds, but the place itself has a big sorta temple type thing as it was occupied by a guy called Masamune who was a.. a.. I dunno a sorta emperor type leader dude of the particular area, and he had a pretty nice place to live as you can expect. But i couldnt get any photos inside the temple cause theres all these signs saying "no photos indoor" and as the locals are probably descendants of the Samurai I would be getting a swift decapitating if i so much as looked at my camera.

Im off to Nikko tomorrow.. lots of old shrines and nice things to look at.. but accomodation looks a bit more expensive and rarer.. maybee ill phone ahead.. Eh.. either way its about 1hr out of tokyo so i could just find another capsule hotel in the big smoke..

Haha! I just looked to the right of me and theres a big sign with the word "attention" in english in big bold letters, then underneath its all japanese.. go figure..
Check you all later... And post comments cause otherwise i get sad :(

posted by Fish @ 7:15 AM 2 comments

Whoop-de-whoop!

So now im in the lovely city of Sendai, did I say lovely? oh i ment trashy. it seems the americans bombed the crap out of this city in WW2 and they had to start over again so they built nothing but shopping malls and shops. That and I think its school holidays here so the place is packed with people.
But the sakura (cherry blossums) are out. I got some photos. There was just a couple of trees in the park where i was walking today. Not overly spectaculr but at least found them.

Tomorrow im off to find a nice little place just up the road from here where its ment to be a big bay with islands and forest and no shopping malls and no flashing signs and no people. But knowing my luck itll be run over with tourists.

I think im begining to not like the citys of japan so much and prefer the quieter little towns..
Hmm... maybe the people are just starting to irritate me. Well, not the people, the CROWDS of people.

And mum, yeah i think i went through the tunnel, but i was asleep so i didnt realise. And its dissapointing the shinkansen (bullet trains) dont have a speedo in the carriages like i read... oh well.
I think the problem with crowds of people and acommodation is the fact that they get golden week off. And that golden week is different for every place, so at the moment its golden week where i am, but not everywhere else. And stop worrying that i wont be able to find a place to stay mum. Worse comes to worse ill jump on the slowest train and sleep there. Its free..

posted by Fish @ 9:34 AM 4 comments

The rain went away!!

And i found a place to stay... Yay!!

Thanx for doing that anti-rain dance you guys!
Hmm.. its sad to hear that in the short time ive been gone johnny has sold the place to a chinese man and the name has changed to Grinzgotz.. :P

Anyway..
found this little place called "Niceday inn" Im not sure if the pun was intened but it certainly was a nice day in yesterday after the rain.
Trekked around Hakodate today, pretty little fishing town that originally had russian and english settlers. It shows as there's parts of town which look more like europe, or even Liverpool, than Japan. Cobbled roads, big red brick factory buildings on the warf, a funny enlgish style brick bridge, ah, but still, its very cold, and windy.

So im headed to Sendai 2moro to try to catch the cherry blossoms. Sendai is about halfway between tokyo and hokkaido (the top island where i am now).
And in answer to your question Melsy;
Yeah i did see the cherry blossums (sakura), on the first day i was in tokyo (alas I didnt have my digital camera). They were near the end of their short blossuming period (about one week) and so the parks were covered in pink petals. It was certainly something special to walk through the trees just as a gust of wind blew a snow storm of the petals down. I can see why the Japs go crazy during golden week. (golden week is the time period the petals are in flower so it differs from city to city.) The tokyo golden week must have just finished and up here it starts on the 29th or 30th. Therefore somewhere in between they must have cherry blossums.. So thats why im headed to Sendai 2moro.

Ran into a British couple who said theyve just come up from Kyoto whilst the cherry blossums were out.. apparently it was so over run with Japanese tourists they struggled to find any accomodation. Hope thats not the case in Sendai. Anyhow I mite start to ring ahead and book places. :) Then again, that sounds too organised for me :)

Oh, and i found the cheapest place to eat in Japan. Its called "7-eleven" and you can get a big cup of noodles, a sandwich and a drink for around 500 - 600yen ($6-$7). And that drink can even be beer for that price..

Catch you all when I next find a Computa..
-Glenno Fish

posted by Fish @ 7:42 AM 2 comments

Hakodate rain go away..

Jumped on a train this morning heading from sapporo to hakodate.. Hakodate looked like a nice place to check out except about 1/2 hr into the train ride it started snowing..
It was really nice though, heading through the countryside whilst the snow drifted down. But as we got more and more south, the snow slowly turned into rain, and thats exactly what its doing now. Raining.
So i trekked out of the train station in order to find a youth hostel of some sort,. except, to my haste, i had ventured in the wrong direction, and it took me about ten minutes before i realised. So i turned around and started to head back, but saw an internet cafe so i popped in out of the cold.
Thats about all i have to say.
so its off to find this accom.

posted by Fish @ 6:26 AM 4 comments

Sapporo ni

So, as it was our last day on the mountain, (our meaning me and the 2 aussies, im not inventing new people) yesterday we went and had a few (to many) drinks at pow pows. We were playing pool and i was trying to teach a japanese girl (Yuka) the rules. The only problem with this is that she knew as little english as i knew japanese. Ahh it was very funny.

So anyway traveling to sapporo today with a hangover wasnt very fun. Had to take the train cause the buses arent running anymore.

After lugging my backpack around for a while i came across the youth hostel, dumped my stuff there (for 2960yen a nite) then went out for a walk around the town.
And its a very beautiful city, wide roads, a big long park that runs through the centre of town, crazy flashing billboards that have huge televisions (like 10metres across) trying to sell you stuff, people on every corner handing you pamphlets.. Hmm... yeah.

Theres this big eiffel tower like building in the middle of town that i went up, gives you a nice veiw of the city..

And then I was just wandering around (looking for an internet cafe) and i actually got lost.
But I know where i am now so its all cool. hmm...

Photos of the going away party..

posted by Fish @ 10:24 AM 5 comments

Kampai!!

So des ne...

Last day skiing was today, went alright, got some FAT fat FAT air off one of the jumps, but no, i didnt get a picture.

Been hanging with a few aussie guys, Adam from the gold coast, and andrew from melbourne. We are the only tourists in town i think, and all i can say is that the bars are in buisness because of us 3.

Oh well. . . Off to Sapporro 2moro.. see what thats like.

Mels, i slept in a "capsule hotel" the first night in tokyo. Was very wierd. paid via a vending machine.. (you can get so much out of a vending machine) and got my slippers.. (you have to take your shoes off and put slippers on when you enter someones place in japan..) then was very confused..
Theres a big room which is like a hallway, with holes in the walls. And you go into your specified hole. But there's no door...
So you can hear everyone turnover, cough, snore, whatever, ALL NIGHT...
I didnt get much sleep..

Daveman...
Its a sony camera.. DSC-T5. But when i was buying it the guy was showing me the "overseas model" which has different laguages. But thhe overseas model was 8,000 yen more ($90). And when i asked him what was different, all he said was that the menus were in english... so for $80, i can handle jap menus.... and at the end of the day.. %90 of the time you turn it on and press the shoot button... and most of the options are little icons.

Spirits..(vodka, whisky etc) are $12 a bottle... shit.
and $3 for a pack of ciggys...
(mite be worth taking up smoking)
...joking..

Oh well cant think of much more to say.... My english is getting worse cause im not speaking much... im crossing over to a half Jap, half english Laguage...
Arigato Gozaimashita...

JA MA TE NE!!!

posted by Fish @ 11:23 AM 1 comments

Ahh crap the weather is warming up...

Today its 0 degrees and so what does that mean??
Yeah its starting to melt..

and i have really sore legs and blisters and red marks from my boots (going too hard!) so today im not skiing.

but its a lovely day anyway, bright blue skys, the sun is shining. ahh..

Yesterday I trekked to the top of Niseko. the lifts take you 3/4 the way up and then you have to walk the remainder.
Its no easy feat. Carrying your skis up a 45 degree hill for 1\2 kilometre is hard work..
but once you get to the top the view is awesome... you can just see the ocean on both sides.
Dont worry i got some photos.. ill try to put them up when i work out how to get them off the camera.
which brings me to the camera...
I bought a digital camera in tokyo.. not as cheap as i thought it would be but cheaper than aussie for sure..
And i bought a pretty cool little one which can do digital video and heaps of cool things (like shoot lasers and teleport).
eh..
but the camera menu is all in japanese, and the instructions are as well.

Its seriously becoming a ghost town here, shops are closing, bars are closing, hotels are closing, theres no lift lines, lifts are closing, its a bit weird.

oh well.
Im off to find some lunch, but I might have to settle for Seiko mart food. (singing) "sei-ko mar-to, sei-ko mar-to, sei-ko mar-to....." (seiko mart is the conveineince store and all they do is play that annoying song continously)

posted by Fish @ 5:42 AM 4 comments

Yeah i made it to niseko

And its not as cold as you all thought. its about 0c at the bottom and about -5C at the top. so its similar to aussie snow weather.
But its better quality snow..
not super powder though, i missed that, coz of the temperature its all a bit icey in some places. but, what ya gonna do?

But this place is a ghost town, apparenlty i missed the aussie invasion, which ended a few weeks ago, which is probably a good thing, even though, the only 2 other people staying in the place im in are aussie guys, and the ski japan people are all aussie.

I bought a Digital camera, and some time ill have to start putting pictures up here.
That reminds me, i might try to put the going away photos up..

cyaz later

posted by Fish @ 9:36 AM 3 comments

TOKYO

Well ive arrived safe and well.
After a plane trip which can only be described as hidiously boring and sleep deprived, i now have to negotiate tokyo in this state.
Dont worry, i managed to order a coffe using my advanced japanese (hahah), but they put cinamon on my cappuchino instead of chocolate.
The tourist desk will open soon to let me hassle them for a while, and then im leaping onto a train (at peak hour mind you) ...

or maybee ill wait till after 9:00am
cyaz..

posted by Fish @ 11:57 PM 2 comments

At ze airport..

Im on a free internet terminal inside sydney airport..
thats pretty privelliged now hey.
ONE HOUR TO GO

BYE BYE AUSTRALIA!!!

woo!!


EDIT:
that was minutes ago..

now im sitting in quatas first class lounge sipping free beer!! i kid you not

posted by Fish @ 11:46 AM 1 comments

the packing of the bag...

Would you believe that packing a backpack is not as easy as it seems??

Even though i thought i was packing lightly, it is very hard to get all your crap into (what appears to be) a large backpack. When you open it up theres some sorta reverse tardis formula going on which makes the bag full very quickly.

hmm.

it seems im gonna be taking less than what i thought..

posted by Fish @ 5:29 AM 2 comments

leaving tonite!

Well it looks like im leaving tonite (about 10pm ish) and ive still yet to pack.

The going away party was awesome, thanks for all who attended.. thanks to Johnny for all that food, thanks to Ash for waitressing, thanks for getting me really very drunk.

Im trying to get hold of any photos of the party to put up here. email me. (glenno1200@hotmail.com)

sic..
well off to pack now.
hope i have some warm clothes.

posted by Fish @ 2:02 AM 1 comments