Summer tour of Japan (part 1)
Well peoples...its been a while but here I am updating my blog again. These past 3 weeks have been freakin hectic, travelling around Japan with our lil group from Sydney. I won't go into every single detail about our trip...simply because with the amount we've done an experienced, I can probably write my own lil lonely planet guide to Japan...and I have no intention of doing that at this point...maybe later...heh...anyways to the trip...
For me, it all began on the night of Aug 9th. Me and Chris decided it would be a good idea to head to Tokyo via the local train service...from Sapporo. To illustrate just how stupid this idea was...imagine travelling from Darwin to Sydney via a cityrail train and having to change lines every hour or so...now imagine doing that for an entire day or so and I think you'll start to realise how stupid this idea was. It was blazingly cheap though. 10,000 yen (equivalent of abt $130) from Sapporo to Tokyo and I had 5days unlimited use of the train services. So I managed to get to Tokyo 2 days later (made an overnight stopover at Sendai...got real drunk etc...you all know the story) and still had 3 days of unlimited train use within Tokyo...so I saved a shit tonne of money travelling to Tokyo with this train pass...but suffered much pain...
Anyway...Tokyo. Fresh from an entire days travel we arrived at Tokyo and met up with Liz and Nick...then Eubim and Miguel abt an hr or so later. It was great to meet up with these guys again after so long. Anyway, not even properly rested or anythin we all head to dinner then to a club...Harlem - a 4 story hip hop/RnB club. Now this was a real club!! Although not really my style of music, it definitely beats the clubs in Sapporo by miles...although to be fair...I've still yet to check out King Xhmu on a club night in Sapporo...supposedly the biggest club in Sapporo. In terms of size though...Harlem is bigger. That was the only club I had time to go to though. There's still Atom (trance club next door) and Ageha (biggest club in asia...mainly trance...I've been told its like a rave every week!!) that I need to check out...definitely gonna come down to Tokyo again before the yrs up...other things I did in Tokyo...shopped around Shinjuku, Harajuku (whilst checking out the cosplaying freaks...photos shall be posted once I'm back in Sapporo)...nerded out in Akihabara...went to see the imperial palace...did a lot...anyway...after Tokyo comes mt fuji...
Ahh mt fuji...and the disaster that was the attempt to climb the highest mountain in Japan. It all started abt 10am on the 15th of Aug. Me, Eubim and Miguel...fresh from an overnight stay at an internet cafe...oh...did I mention that for the 3 of us (and Chris when he was down here) our accomodation in Tokyo consisted of staying overnight at various internet cafes??...well it did...and that also hurt. Don't reccomend doing that for too long. Anyway back to the fuji experience. The 3 of us took the local trains to fujiyoshida with the intention of meeting up with the rest (Liz, Nick, Lisa and Kitty)...but it turns out that they were staying at a beach out and partying it up the night before and only woke up at around mid-day...about the time when the 3 of us arrived at fujiyoshida. I gotta say, we were quite agitated at this point...we hadn't had a good nights rest in the last 3-4 nights and now we had wasted an entire day because the others said that they'd meet us early in the morning to go to fuji but instead slept in...
In the end, when we all met up (at around 7pm!!) and headed to fuji, we were all psyched and ready to climb the highest mountain in Japan. Any ill-feelings and animosity that we had quickly dissipated at the thought of climbing the mountain with all our friends. So we get to the 5th station of mount fuji (via bus) which is like 1/2 way up the mountain already and we start our trek...only to be turned down at the 6th station 1/2 an hr later. The dudes on the mountain were like (in Japanese)..."no you can't go up there...its dangerous!!...you definitely can NOT go up there!!" Well...considering most of us weren't wearing anything more than jeans, t-shirt, jumper and a poncho...I think the mountain guys had just cause to be worried. So...after having been refused passage up the mountain...and missing the last bus down to the nearest town...we were stuck at the 5th station 4 the night...10 hrs...outside...in the cold...waiting 4 the 1st bus which was at 8.30am...oh that was a fun night indeed...and considering how cold it was at the 5th station...1/2 way up the mountain...I can only imagine what the summit would've been like. Anyway, 5am rolls along and after a nights suffering the sun rises...to see that from the 5th station...it wasn't a complete loss. The 5th station of fuji is still above/in the clouds...so the view at sunrise was still quite amazing...b/w 5am and 8.30am our time was spent alternating b/w watching the sunrise and passing out at the restaurant (which openned at around 6am)...in the end we took the bus back to the nearest town...collected our bags and made our way (via an extremely comfortable highway bus) to Kyoto...
to be continued...
For me, it all began on the night of Aug 9th. Me and Chris decided it would be a good idea to head to Tokyo via the local train service...from Sapporo. To illustrate just how stupid this idea was...imagine travelling from Darwin to Sydney via a cityrail train and having to change lines every hour or so...now imagine doing that for an entire day or so and I think you'll start to realise how stupid this idea was. It was blazingly cheap though. 10,000 yen (equivalent of abt $130) from Sapporo to Tokyo and I had 5days unlimited use of the train services. So I managed to get to Tokyo 2 days later (made an overnight stopover at Sendai...got real drunk etc...you all know the story) and still had 3 days of unlimited train use within Tokyo...so I saved a shit tonne of money travelling to Tokyo with this train pass...but suffered much pain...
Anyway...Tokyo. Fresh from an entire days travel we arrived at Tokyo and met up with Liz and Nick...then Eubim and Miguel abt an hr or so later. It was great to meet up with these guys again after so long. Anyway, not even properly rested or anythin we all head to dinner then to a club...Harlem - a 4 story hip hop/RnB club. Now this was a real club!! Although not really my style of music, it definitely beats the clubs in Sapporo by miles...although to be fair...I've still yet to check out King Xhmu on a club night in Sapporo...supposedly the biggest club in Sapporo. In terms of size though...Harlem is bigger. That was the only club I had time to go to though. There's still Atom (trance club next door) and Ageha (biggest club in asia...mainly trance...I've been told its like a rave every week!!) that I need to check out...definitely gonna come down to Tokyo again before the yrs up...other things I did in Tokyo...shopped around Shinjuku, Harajuku (whilst checking out the cosplaying freaks...photos shall be posted once I'm back in Sapporo)...nerded out in Akihabara...went to see the imperial palace...did a lot...anyway...after Tokyo comes mt fuji...
Ahh mt fuji...and the disaster that was the attempt to climb the highest mountain in Japan. It all started abt 10am on the 15th of Aug. Me, Eubim and Miguel...fresh from an overnight stay at an internet cafe...oh...did I mention that for the 3 of us (and Chris when he was down here) our accomodation in Tokyo consisted of staying overnight at various internet cafes??...well it did...and that also hurt. Don't reccomend doing that for too long. Anyway back to the fuji experience. The 3 of us took the local trains to fujiyoshida with the intention of meeting up with the rest (Liz, Nick, Lisa and Kitty)...but it turns out that they were staying at a beach out and partying it up the night before and only woke up at around mid-day...about the time when the 3 of us arrived at fujiyoshida. I gotta say, we were quite agitated at this point...we hadn't had a good nights rest in the last 3-4 nights and now we had wasted an entire day because the others said that they'd meet us early in the morning to go to fuji but instead slept in...
In the end, when we all met up (at around 7pm!!) and headed to fuji, we were all psyched and ready to climb the highest mountain in Japan. Any ill-feelings and animosity that we had quickly dissipated at the thought of climbing the mountain with all our friends. So we get to the 5th station of mount fuji (via bus) which is like 1/2 way up the mountain already and we start our trek...only to be turned down at the 6th station 1/2 an hr later. The dudes on the mountain were like (in Japanese)..."no you can't go up there...its dangerous!!...you definitely can NOT go up there!!" Well...considering most of us weren't wearing anything more than jeans, t-shirt, jumper and a poncho...I think the mountain guys had just cause to be worried. So...after having been refused passage up the mountain...and missing the last bus down to the nearest town...we were stuck at the 5th station 4 the night...10 hrs...outside...in the cold...waiting 4 the 1st bus which was at 8.30am...oh that was a fun night indeed...and considering how cold it was at the 5th station...1/2 way up the mountain...I can only imagine what the summit would've been like. Anyway, 5am rolls along and after a nights suffering the sun rises...to see that from the 5th station...it wasn't a complete loss. The 5th station of fuji is still above/in the clouds...so the view at sunrise was still quite amazing...b/w 5am and 8.30am our time was spent alternating b/w watching the sunrise and passing out at the restaurant (which openned at around 6am)...in the end we took the bus back to the nearest town...collected our bags and made our way (via an extremely comfortable highway bus) to Kyoto...
to be continued...
posted by Scattered!! at 1:08 AM
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