July 2010
21 posts
Shizuoka and the Giant Gundam
I woke up suprisingly early today, 6.30am. I was confused to be waking up in a setting I can’t remember sleeping and next to people I forgot I was with, that sounds really bad.. but thankfully it was my friends, Cas and Lee. They were fast asleep but I was feeling refreshed and awake, slight hangover but that’s to be expected after a BBQ night. I decided to go for a little walk...
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Fuji-Q Highland and Kawaguchiko
Today we had to be up, ready and leave at 7am, so when I was woken up by the telephone at 6.54am, I was in a bit of a panic. It was Penny, “Luke, are you ready?” I had literally just woken up. I wasn’t feeling well, nothing serious, just a bit sickly and feeling slow. I battled through that to get showered, dressed and put the last few things in my bag before speeding out the...
Shinjuku
Memory is a little hazy but i’m sure we woke up a bit earlier today. We set out and got breakfast as usual, I decided to mix it up by trying a Sand Burger, assuming it was Chicken Katsu in a bun. Thankfully, it wasn’t sand in a bun but it wasn’t what I expected either. It was more like chicken and pork mixed into one crispy burger thing. I got it microwave and it shrunk...
Shimo-Kitazawa
Woke up today feeling more refreshed after the early night. A quick trip to the mini mart to pick up breakfast and we were off on our way to Shimo-Kitazawa. Shimo-Kitazawa is a small neighboor hood just outside of Shinjuku. It is popular with the young trendy crowd because of the fashion and music stores.On our way to Shinjuku (to get train) we passed a small homemade fruit juice stand. I decided...
Cotton Candy and Kakigori Hi-Chew
This is a double review, as these two sweets ar same from the same set, Carnival Foods and they’re also both types of Hi-Chew, so actually, it’s almost a tripple review!Hi-Chew is a Japanese sweet that is very much like the English ‘Chewit’ but only a bit bigger and a lot softer. What I like about these chews is that they’re very easy to eat, so no chewing for ages...
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Harajuku
As usual, we left around midday, got our pocket sandwiches from the mini mart and then headed to the station. Our destination for today was Harajuku, one of the most popular shopping areas in Japan. We saved this visit for a Sunday, it’s the best time to go as the Gothic Lollitas and Rockabilly guys are usualy hanging around the area. We arrived at the station and became part of a massive...
Mixed Juice KitKat
I was wandering around Mikata and came across a small shop, I went in for a drink but came out with a few of these, Mixed Juice KitKats. These were sold as singles and not in the more common bag of 13. The bars are in mini form, so two at half the length of the original KitKat, most of the exciting flavours are in this form in Japan. The chocolate is a light orange colour with a standard wafer...
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Iidabashi Summer Festival
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Asakusa and Odaiba
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Asakusa and Odaiba
CHECK BACK LATER - I’M UPLOADING PICS IN BATCHES! The alarm on the side of my bed is dead simple to operate, you press the big button with the alarm symbol to turn it on, then the up and down arrow keys next to it to set the time. I am an idiot and forgot to set this, so I woke up 10 minutes before we were all due to go out, thankfully, Cas and Penny were running late so we left to go out...
Studio Ghibli Museum Day
Today we had booked ourselves tickets to go visit the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, these were booked in advance. The museum displays the work of Hayao Miyazaki and his Animation Studio. The tickets had to be booked back in the UK before we left as they only allow in 200 foreign visitors a day, not a big fan of that system and i’m sure many As we were out late last night and the museum...
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Banana KitKat Bar
I had heard there was a Banana KitKat bar avaliable in Japan but I had never tried or seen it before this trip. I was walked around Ameyoko Market in Ueno when I noticed a stall selling the by the box, I quickly purchased one without realising they were not regular KitKats, but the Chunky / Bar variety. I’ll admit, at first, I was annoyed I got the Bar form as I don’t like them, but...
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Shopping in Shibuya
Me and Penny woke up early today to go to Yoshinoya, a popular chain restaurant that serves Gyudon, lightly cooked beef on rice with onions. I spotted on near our hotel so we took the backstreets to find it, and we did. I didn’t get us lost! We sat down and were almost immediately given glasses of water. There isn’t much choice on the menu, just lots of Gyudon. To give you an idea...
Fanta FunMix Cola + Orange
In Japan there are a few different flavours of Fanta, the best ones being Grape and Mystery Flavour. Grape Fanta is quite common but Mystery Fanta is very rare, it is also the best. While on the hunt for the Mystery Fanta today, we found a new variety, Fanta FunMix Cola + Orange. I’m sure we’ve all mixed Coca Cola and Fanta in the past, the guys at Fanta are obviously a little...
Aimless in Ameyoko
I woke up quite early thanks to the handy yet painfully loud bedside alarm. When I was all up, Facebook informed me that Cas was up at 4am due to jetlag, oh dear. We arranged to go out at 10am but Cas needed a bit of extra sleep so I went out in search of these amazing Maple Syrup Sandwiches I had last time. There was a 7 Eleven only a minute from the hotel. A quick look around the shop, no...
Lemonade and Cola KitKats
Japan seems to unfairly have al the best KitKat flavours in the world. They have regional flavours and then loads of limited edition ones. Yesterday I managed to find some limited edition Lemonade and Cola flavour KitKats in Tokyo. I had a quick try of each one, here’s a bit of a mini snack review. This will be the first of many. The box only contains one of full size two finger bar of each...
Exploring Nihonbashi
After we’d had a bit of a rest and freshened up at the hotel, we decided it would be best to spend the day exploring the local area. We’re staying in Nihonbashi which is near Tokyo Station and quite close to Akibahara. Seeing as we’re all a bunch of gaming geeks and was exploring the area, we decided to see how long it would take us to walk from the hotel to Akibahara.
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Arriving in Tokyo!
The 11 hour flight went a lot quicker than expected, mostly just watched films to pass the time, I kept falling asleep and missing the endings. Food on the flight wasn’t bad, for dinner they had Chicken Cutlet and Rice on the menu, I was so excited about that but then they said they ran out! We arrived safely in Tokyo ahead of schedule, landing at around 9am Japan time.
Getting from the...
Leaving for Tokyo!
I woke up pretty early to finish of my packing then hopped in a cab, got the train and was close to the airport when I called Cas to see where he was. He was already at the airport and sounded stressed “dude, there are no seats left” then hung up quite sharpish before I could make sense of what he meant. I arrived at the terminal and met Cas, surrounded by his and Penny’s cases,...
Let's Just Leave Already!
Time for another ‘adventure’ and I just can’t wait to get away, it’s been so stressful with work recently I need to just get away from it all and chill out, where better to do that then one of the busiest and coolest cities in the world, Tokyo!
My bags are all packed and i’m ready to go, decided to ditch the drag along hang luggage case in favor of a new backpack, I...
Getting Ready for Tokyo!
Tonight has been a lot of stress and it’s mostly down to poor planning on my side. I left it till late to pack and everything just seemed to go wrong. First I some how managed to misplace the bag that I put my Camera, Passport and Money in, I was a fool to think having these all in one place would be a good idea.. took me an hour to find that, found it in my room in the draw with game...