Monday 29 July 2013

Technology temple!

Also visited a huge department store of technology, the iPad case section was bigger than most English computer shops! And several stories, including a virtual tripod Forrest! So cool!!

Universal studios Japan pictures

Universal Studios Japan!

First I had to go to pick up my passport, I remembered the way and so went to pick up my passport, which took about 90 seconds, and also posted some postcards to England, then I agreed to meet Mina in the Osaka train station and we planned to go to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka for the day. 
We got the train for 20 minutes to the right stop and picked up the tickets at the empty kiosk at the station, saving a huge line when we got to the actual ticket office in the park, and the price was the same!
 We went in at around 1.30 which seems to be a sweet spot between the morning people and the people who come in on a cheaper ticket (slightly cheaper) at 3pm, so we had an hour and a half of very short queues, it also helps that it was the day BEFORE the summer holidays started in japan! 
We went on spiderman the ride, a 3d car ride which was very immersive, back to the future which is very well done, a rollercoaster there with some random story behind it, which was cool and a space ride which apparantly used to be E.T. but now became a crazy teacup like ride spinning through a rollercoaster in the dark, which was fun too. We also saw an animation show which used a cleverly disguised window to project animated characters on who then 'interacted' with the real live characters behind the glass, it was very well done, and a seseme street movie which wasn't so well done, or possibly lost alot in the translation (and dubbing). 
In japan most things seem to be dubbed into Japanese, unlike in China where it is almost all done using subtitles, the voices in japan however really don't match their origonal voice, most obvious was on back to the future where the professor was voiced by a very young man, not a good fit!

We left universal studios in the evening and saw it in the dark and went for some dinner in a Japanese burger chain, Moss burger, very very tasty! While eating Mina got a call from her friend Hiat, wanting to meet up. We were both tired from a long day but agreed to go and so he met us at a convenient metro station and drove us to a place near his house, a very cool tiny little japanese bar! We had a few beers and some tasty japanese snack food, kebabs and other things on sticks which was great. Hiat also speaks good English, really good, and hes a really interesting guy, hes lived in England, Denmark and around the world and so it was cool to hang out with him as well. He even offered to meet us the next day and drive us to a scenic spot outside the city as without a car in Japan it can be hard, or at last very time consuming, to get out to the sticks by bus and train. Excellent!
We got the last train back around midnight and agreed to meet up the next day, cool!

Osaka day one - town center!

Today I got the metro into osaka town center, I found a great place in a covered market for tempura and had a great lunch. 
Then I walked down towards the main comericial and shopping street, or at least I thought I did, I walked for around an hour until I stopped for coffee and found some wifi that let me get a map and find that I had walked in completely the wrong direction! I did find a nice temple, and then I walked back, and walked the right way! I found the street, which was filled with giant robotoic animals including a giant moiving crab! very cool!

I also found the visa office for China, it has a osaka office, and managed to get their in time to put my passport in, I chose the next day service for an extra 20gbp, I thought it was worth it! The service couldn't be more different from hong kong or in England, they were so polite, helpful, understanding, and even though I was in before the closing time I was too late when I got to the window, but they kept it open until everyone was finished, just not letting any more people in, such a good service! 

I then found an English bar, where I stopped for a beer in celebration, some fish and chips, and then an aspall cider, and upstairs I found a cool jazz bar where I had a beer and a snack and listened to some live jazz.

Coming out of the jazz bar in time for the last train back I was pretty tired, but not too tired to take a couple of pictures along the way of the beautiful lights.

Okinawa to Osaka

Another travelling day today, early start to get to the airport for 8 to catch the 9am flight. The airline was peach airlines, the Japanese Ryan air, everything is an optional extra just like ryan air and they take it a step further by flying from the baggage terminal! You arrive in the domestic departures to be pointed onto a bus which drives past the fedex and other haulage companies loading bays and into a tiny compound around their unit, you check in, (extra to choose seats) drop off the bags and then sit in an empty room with a tiny cafe and expensive shop, waiting for the place. However they did have wifi so it wasn't all bad!
It was, as everywhere seems, friendly and very clean and the plane was ok, if small, at least it was mostly empty! 
The flight was problem free and then landed in osaka around 11, unfortunately missed the bus by seconds, luckily the bus an hour later left time for sushi in the airport, for a reasonable 8gbp for a crazy amount of sushi, and tasty too! We then took the bus to another city within the osaka prefecture, then walked to mina's sister house who had a spare room or two and had offered a place for me to stay, cool!.
The place was very Japanese, a nice little flat with a living room, a shower/wet room, and and two medium sized rooms with the Japanese mats on the floor which at night they put a soft mat on and sleep on the floor, then put the matt away in the day and use it as living space, neat!

Mina's sister has a baby who is very cute, his name is something like sausage, so thats all I called him, near enough, Japanese can't pronounce my name either! especially a problem in the land of the Nissan!

When I arrived I was pretty tired so just rested for the evening in the room, no problem, off exploring tomorrow!

Okinawa again!

An okinawan breakfast and the cars outside temperature readout!

Okinawa

The beach in Okinawa and a picture of me taking a picture of the sunset, haha.


Okinawa day two

Got up and got the car from the super cool car garage before heading out for a bit of a drive to one of the nicest beaches in Okinawa, and as it was a work day, it was pretty near empty! 
We swam in the warm clear sea and rented some goggles so that we could see all the fish swimming around us, so beautiful, it shelved quickly to about 2-3 meters then shelved and had lots of rock formations for fish to hide in and around, it was beautiful. 

After spending a good amount of time diving down and chasing fish around we headed on to another smaller castle formation on a hill in the middle of the island, with nice views over the city. Driving back to the city through an indstrial neighbourhood the road was covered in tyre tracks, all over the road, as people had been racing and doing donuts everywhere, apparantly rarely foreigners most are local japanese showing off their sporty cars after the industrial parks close, real life tokyo drift!

In the evening we were once again treated to a beautiful sunset and in the evening went to Mina's sister's house for a drink and a look around at a japanese persons house, it was lovely but a little small, they were very friendly and welcomed me in, insisting I try on their traditional style pyjamas, very fashionable, and insisting I take them with me when I left, haha, a crazy but definitely memorable gift!

Flying to Osaka tomorrow, the mainland, I can't wait! 

Friday 26 July 2013

okinawa day one


Okinawa day one

The hotel had a pool and so I wanted to get up early to go for a swim. We went down to find the hotel had both an inside and outside pool, cool!
I started to swim in the inside pool, which wasn't deep, but got distracted when old japanese women started coming in with full ankle to wrist body suits and walking round and round the pool, no swimming, just walking, apparantly good exercise!
I then went to the outside pool and it was lovely, cool and very refreshing, the only problem was the sunlight was so bright I couldn't see where I was swimming!

Mina had a car in Okinawa so she offered to be my driver and show me around the island and so we headed out to explore. The Japanese are so so polite, especially coming from China, and the guy who helped me to lift my suitcases into the car, bowing and being so so polite was great, so refreshing!

Our first stop was shuri castle (okinawa castle), we parked in a huge underground carpark and walked up into the heat above. It was a quick walk up through the huge gates and into the rukyu kingdoms capital. Okinawa used to be a seperate country until a relatively short time ago called the rukyu kingdom and their king lived and worked in the castle in a huge wooden temple like building, now open to the public. I took some lovely pictures, including down into the valley and the sea below.

After the castle we went for dinner in a hotel buffet on an island looking out over the bay and the sea, it looked an awesome hotel too, so beautiful, if I get the chance to stay I would definitely take it. The buffet was very nice, sitting on the floor at a low table and drinking local Okinawan 'orion beer', incidentally very nice. The only problem was that everything was labelled in Japanese so I had no idea what I was eating, bar the blindly obvious!
After lunch we drove up the north of Okinawa to Okinawa Aquarium, a world famous and very well reviewed aquarium, we arrived into boiling heat but luckily inside it was air conditioned. They had some amazing fish including a hgue tank with 3 whale sharks in, huge fish swimming around and even more amazing at feeding time. After a few mor exhibits, including a bisected whale shark which was very interesting, we went outside to the dolphin show which was amazing, although incredibly hot in the unsheltered afternoon sun, and then past sea tutles and many more.
On the way out the sunset was beautiful, and we stopped off to take lots and lots of pictures, well I tended to be the one taking pictures I admit, but they were beautiful!

On the way back to the city we stopped off by the road at a cafe for dinner, a really nice burger, and then made it back to the city and a new, cheaper, hotel. The room was small but I dont need much space, the hotel was awesome, it had a car lift / carpark, a garage sized entrance you leave the car in and it gets lifted away stored, I watched through the small window in fascination whilst the Japanese people around smiled in bemusement at what I was looking at, but it was very cool!

Monday 22 July 2013

To okinawa

Flying into Okinawa on a colourful plane.
Aspall cider in America land and tasty teppenyaki steak and chicken!

Leaving China!

I got the lunchtime plane to Okinawa, flying with China eastern, which was unfortunately an hour late, but no problem, I was in no rush.
When I landed in the tiny Okinawa airport it seemed lovely and sunny, and I got to the passport gate first. 
There was my first problem, I spoke only Chinese and English and they, of course, spoke Japanese, damn! It was like when I first came to China all over again.
The problem being I had to fill in a hotel for my stay, but I didn't know as Mina had helped me to find one, but with no public phone and no internet there wasn't a lot I could do about it, not really designed for backpacking travellers looking to drop into a hotel wherever they fancied! 
I had paid for my phone to work in Japan, in China on pay as you go a simple matter of topping up 40gbp and asking for it to be activated for a set amount of time, and then away you go, however reception was spotty and the airport a seeming black hole, damn! eventually I found a place in the doorway to the runway that got one bar and called mina and got the address, then on to customs. In customs in Okinawa there is no X-ray, for some reason, so the guy started asking me to empty my bag, no problem, he started asking what was in all the bags and when most of it seemed to be dirty clothes he looked a bit disappointed, I got chatting however about him and he had spent some time in San Francisco, and after a quick chat all was ok and I could go through, yay! 

I was met at the airport by Mina and she had a car, a big relief, and then whisked away to a lovely spa hotel with a one night special offer, it was beautiful with a balcony overlooking the sea, and so so polite, and clean, really lovely, and so different from China. Not that I dont like China, it just feels very different, despite being so close and having such strong historical links.

We dropped off the things and I grabbed a quick shower (and i was happy see japanese toilets are as crazy as I had hoped!) before heading out for some food, we went to American Village, which was, as the name suggests, full of americans! (okinawa is a huge US army base) and it was strange to see so much English Signage and English speaking people, even more than Shanghai!
After a walk around America Town I went to a Tepenyaki restaurant with steak, chicken and shrimp all cooked in front of the table while you watch, very interesting! 

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Leaving Ningbo!

I made it to the station an hour early, luckily, as there was a huge queue for ticket collection, and without a Chinese id card i cant use the fast collection!

I got to shanghai on the new 2 hour super fast train and got to my hotel ok for an early bed, a really long day. Teaching 8till3, then packing up, deposit check on the house then station, train tk shanghai and then to the hotel, a long long day!

The next day i had in shanghai to relax and buy a few things before flying out the next day to Okinawa!