Japan Travel Blogs

100Yen Treasures
Sep 8, 2007

... or not a single car on the road, they have the sirens on full blast, with voice announcements. In a place as efficient as Japan, I wouldn't have thought they would see the point of sirens and driving slowly on an empty road at 3am...but they do, and they ...

Sakura...
Apr 2, 2007 (20 photos)

... fully booked more than three months in advance - this problem never arose when I was travelling around New Zealand! It seems that Japan goes `sakura crazy` at this time of year (you can even buy cherry blossom flavoured KitKats), and I`d timed my stay to ...

Chapter 15: More Birthday Joy
May 9, 2006

... the packages, phonecalls, presents, thoughts blah blah blah...it was really cool. I am so happy to be having such an awesome time in Japan. By the way, Last Wednesday I had a speaking test. I got the top grade in my class, which is weird because I didnt ...

Chapter 25:�@Still hot and not a lot happening
Sep 11, 2006

... moves that were cracking up the Japanese women behind me, not to mention Andy and Maribel. I wanted to make sound effects but in Japan you just cant do some things. We went to Maribels the other day for dinner, it was so delicious and now I love Honduran ...

Chapter 21: Atsukuteshinisou
Jul 12, 2006

... before we went to Tokyo, and it was about certain kinds of pottery and cloth and history of lacquering in Tsugaru(this part of Japan) and frankly I wrote a bunch of randomness, but I wrote alot and I think more than anyone else. I was first finished too... ...

Chapter 22: What is happening?
Jul 27, 2006

... upstairs. My fate of going last was determined by a competitive game of JUNKENPOI, also known as rock paper scissors. Everything in Japan is determined by bouts of junkenpoi, from exam order to basketball teams to who gets to use the bathroom first. Well I ...

Chapter 30: Laziness brought about by the weather
Nov 20, 2006

Ok folks, lets go over the finer details of my life. 1. It is freezing. 2. It is wet. 3. I slept until noon today despite having a class at 8:40. 4. The bathroom flooded again this afternoon. 5. I made it to French at great peril of being hit by ...

CHapter 35: Final Words
Feb 9, 2007

... have regrets. I learned from everything I did, and I have all these memories to look back on now. To anyone thinking about going to Japan, its not always easy and its not alsways fun..but it is absolutely worth it, and if you dont go, you will really be ...

Chapter Eight: Shizuoka, Tokyo again, Hirosaki
Apr 3, 2006

... being in Shizuoka, even though the bathroom door was a TAD translucent. Actually here are some things I have noticed about Japan in general: 1. Thou shalt not care about public nudity. 2. Thou shalt install a machine in the toilet that makes running- ...

Heading South - To Nagasaki!
Sep 9, 2007 (15 photos)

Today I headed south of Kobe for the first time since coming to Japan. Very south in fact - off Honshu and into Kyushu to visit the first of the two A-Bomb cities on my itinerary: Nagasaki. At 6 hours, the trip down was a bit longer than I expected,& ...

Chapter Six: I cannot count
Mar 24, 2006

Dude seriously, where was six? I was looking through and realized I went from five to seven without batting an eyelid. What is happening to me...

Full bloom...
Apr 7, 2007 (39 photos)

... a day trip to Himeji on Tuesday to see yet another castle, albeit one that is considered to be the most magnificent in Japan... I`d had a mixed bag of weather since arriving in Kyoto, but thankfully full bloom brought along blue sky, which always makes ...

Chapter Three: It just keeps getting better...
Mar 17, 2006

Fancy meeting you here... So I am in Shibuya on the top floor of the HMV building paying an extortionate amount of money for a short hour of internet usage. Daylight robbery, I tell you. Well, since I last wrote, I have become quite the expert at ...

Ten Years Later...
May 8, 2008 (30 photos)

Ten years later, we return to the place where our life as we know it began.  Fukuoka.  The city where we became engaged, and where our first baby was born.   It was like time travel back to our salad days.

Geisha...
Feb 23, 2008 (45 photos)

We called in at Himeji on our way to Kyoto, as it is home to Japan's most impressive castle. We only just got there in time though as the last admissions were at 4pm - I kept forgetting that we were still in off season. It worked out fine though as we were ...

Shopping...
Feb 27, 2008 (24 photos)

... about a lack of space on the flight home...! Our two weeks together had raced by, and suddenly it was our last night in Japan...on this trip at least. Obviously, we went and had a final session in the karaoke for old time's sake, cheekily taking our ...

The Island
Sep 12, 2007 (21 photos)

... The crossing was short but leaving the island was a bit of a sad moment because it pretty much wraps up my sightseeing in Japan. It was quite a reflective moment actually...I've seen and done so much in the last month and I'm not keen for it to end ...

Chapter Twelve: The daily routine.
Apr 23, 2006

... is improving in leaps and bounds. Yesterday I had a conversation with this lady about teaching her son english, New Zealand, China, Japan and Japanese in general. It lasted for an hour and I understood almost everything she said. I am by no means good at ...

Karaoke King...
Mar 14, 2007 (10 photos)

Since my last update, I`ve had an unexpectedly eventful few days... The fun and games started on Saturday, when there seemed to be a really good atmosphere at the hostel, which was in contrast to during the week when it had been quiet. I got talking to ...

Vertigo...
Nov 30, 2007 (28 photos)

A couple of weeks before my scheduled return to Japan, I had a weird experience at work which threatened to jeopardise my trip before it had even started. As per usual, I was doing my best to fly under the radar of the various supervisors and managers who ...

Yuki Matsuri...
Feb 10, 2008 (48 photos)

... three months prior, and it turned out to be a fantastic place... After flying up to Sapporo from Tokyo on one of Japan's budget airlines, I soon discovered that it was pretty darn cold, with temperatures around minus ten! This didn't bother me at all ...

Temple Action
May 17, 2006 (16 photos)

Kyoto is known for its mass number of Shrines and Temples throughout the city. Each one has a small purpose like protect this city block, or give me wealth, or was erected because of a good or bad event happened in someone's life. They are beautiful, ...

Ali...
Feb 16, 2008 (21 photos)

... is so cheap during the day, around one or two pounds per hour, and it is the thing I miss most when I'm not in Japan. I don't miss their pizzas though, as we ordered one which was disgusting, although that was probably down to our misinterpretation of the ...

Naruto Whirlpools...
May 16, 2007 (21 photos)

... by three old Japanese ladies, gossiping around the kitchen table. For a minute, I thought that I`d misread the map and burst in on Japan`s version of Last of the Summer Wine! For the life of me, I couldn`t get the message across that I wanted to stay for ...

"Danger, danger!"
Apr 20, 2007 (17 photos)

... me slight cause for concern. Only in Japan! Thankfully the view at the top didn`t disappoint, overlooking Onami-no-ike (Japan`s largest crater lake) and in the distance, the other volcanoes that I would be visiting in the proceeding few hours...or so I ...

Japanese Castle
May 16, 2006 (15 photos)

Japanese Castle Lying a short train ride West of Kyoto, Himeji is a small town with the main attraction being the Himeji Castle. The castle was built in the middle of the 16th century on a fort site that was build in 1346. The Castle has changed ...

Chapter Seven: Fuji San and Hammamatsu
Mar 26, 2006 (9 photos)

... following of those cool people who read my blog. If you have just joined us, basically the deal is that I am here in Japan, from New Zealand, on a university exchange, so hopefully I can learn Japanese. Ask me in a year.(Whoa what pressure..) Anyways. In ...

Chapter 23: The heat
Aug 8, 2006

It is so hot. There shouldnt be places this hot. I am aware there are places hotter than this, but I dont see how life can be sustained there. This is crazy. The bike ride to Andys house almost kills me. By the way, I got a new bike. Rusty the falcon ...

Tokyo Disney - Happiest Prace on Earf
Jan 15, 2009 (6 photos)

Ok, so the last Tokyo entry was getting too long, so I'm breaking it up into three parts, The next day we rose with the sun, Karla suffered no Jet lag today, for she was going to Disneyland Tokyo, the "Happiest Prace on Earf". We wrangled up some ...

Chapter 31: Winter Wonderland
Dec 4, 2006

So yeah, apparently I have seen my last snow-less day in Hirosaki. ITS CRAZY. Two days ago there was no snow. Now there is about a foot and its snowing heavily outside while I am writing this. Its been snowing all morning, this morning I lost a glove on ...