Japan Japan 0 Homeland 09-DEC-2006 17:22:00 Kuwana, my base city in Japan. A small city near to Nagoya. 0 Visiting the extended family, Shiga-ken. 23-DEC-2006 05:36:00 This is just some of Marcia's family, who live in the nearby prefecture of Shiga. At this stage I was still fresh to Japan, and my Portguese was still very elementary (has it even improved?). Needless to say, it was an new experience. 0 Snow day 29-DEC-2006 14:30:00 My first ever "dump at home". Waking up to around 20cm of fresh powder in town. 0 Kyoto... the old country 29-DEC-2006 23:00:00 Kyoto is the "old-city" of Japan. We managed to cram in a lot of activities within a few days. We took the slow train down to the city while it was still snowing, and checked into a quaint little ryokan that night. The following day, we jumped onto the scooter we'd organised and rode around western Kyoto, checking out the river, and the almost-deserted park. On new years eve, we spent the day riding to Nara, about an hour and a half down the road. Not the best idea in 5 degrees, but we made it. New years was pretty mixed in Kyoto, but we made the most of an unusual evening. Apparently, during the night, almost everyone visits the local temple to wish luck for the new year. We attempted to get near the temple, but the line, even at 1am, was hideous and unmoving. 0 Paintball 06-JAN-2007 02:31:00 Man, these Brazilians sure do enjoy their paintball. I got ganked. It's in the blood or something. 0 Takasu Snow Park 13-JAN-2007 15:00:00 A day at Takasu Snow Park in Gifu Prefecture. 0 Homeland - Kuwana at night 07-FEB-2007 05:34:00 Kuwana night life. 0 Tsuruga - ferry to Hokkaido 08-FEB-2007 20:57:00 Only a brief 19 hours to Hokkaido. 0 Hokkaido 10-FEB-2007 03:00:00 Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, is absolutely stunning. Coming from Honshu, this place is about as remote as Japan gets. As we went in the depths of winter, it was almost constantly snowing. There were two snow festivals - Yuki Matsuri - to see the weekend we went: one in Sapporo, and another in neaerby Asahikawa. 0 Date, Hokkaido 10-FEB-2007 17:00:00 This little pocket down in south western Hokkaido features it's own share of volcanic activity alongside a gorgeous lake. It features Showa Shin-zan volcano, Toya-ko lake, Usu-zan volcano, and Nishiyama Crater Promenade. The last was actually closed for winter, so we saved 300Y by jumping the fence. Bargin. Videos Fucking around 0 Sapporo, Hokkaido 10-FEB-2007 21:00:00 The busiest weekend to visit Sapporo happened to be the very weekend we were traveling. No surprises there, as we were visiting to check out the famous Yuki Matsuri, or snow festival, held on the long weekend in Febuary. As such, we couldn't stay in Sapporo that night, but we still had a blast. 0 Asahikawa, Hokkaido 11-FEB-2007 03:00:00 This city had it's own snow festival, and in many ways, I preferred it. It was more minimalist, and far less kitsch. Videos: Skating 0 Sounkyo Gorge, Hokkaido 11-FEB-2007 18:00:00 This little frozen village is very quaint, though we were expecting something a touch more Gorge-y. 0 Abashiri, Hokkaido 11-FEB-2007 20:00:00 The ice flows from Russia are famed in Hokkaido - and seem to be the main selling point of this island in winter. We didn't quite get the amount of ice as seen in the brochure, but dammit, it was still pretty cool. Videos: Floating Ice 0 Akan National Park, Hokkaido 12-FEB-2007 02:00:00 This national park is situated in far eastern Hokkaido. 0 Io-zan, Akan NP, Hokkaido 12-FEB-2007 15:45:00 This walled up little mountain was spewing out some serious sulphur. 0 The road home 12-FEB-2007 20:00:00 Some sights on the long drive back to the port. 0 Ferry home 13-FEB-2007 19:14:00 0 Last point, Homeland 14-FEB-2007 02:00:00 0 Uga-kei Gorge, Mie-ken, Homeland 16-FEB-2007 19:43:00 A gorge near to Kuwana in Mie-ken (Mie prefecture). 0 Day trip to Sakakibara 23-FEB-2007 20:37:00 We went for a drive using our little map of Mie-ken, and thought it'd be nice to visit the Sakakibara onsen (hot spring). Unfortunately, the onsen seemed to be inside, so we gave it a miss. Though we still enjoyed some of the local scenery. 0 Inuyama and Little World 24-FEB-2007 16:43:00 The local government here in Kuwana boasts free fortnightly classes in Japanese. We had an excursion to Little World and nearby Inuyama in Gifu-ken. The former was pretty kitsch, but the crew from the school were a pretty fun bunch - many Indonesians, Chinese and a Peruvian. 0 Hangzhou - the Chinese tourist destination. 05-MAR-2007 22:00:00 Hangzhou is a little city south west of Shanghai, and it is apparently the home of the original West Lake. The Chinese seem to love their lakes, and this lake is pretty spectacular. You can take a boat to the middle island - once a home to a retired General - and the world inside is incredibly peaceful. This area is incredibly beautiful, but also quite complicated to navigate it's intricacies without a guidebook or a lick of Mandarin. Needless to say, it was a novel experience. 0 Sweet Shanghai 08-MAR-2007 17:25:00 Shanghai is an impressive city. I got conned on my first day outta about 400Ruan - maybe A$60, but hey, better than in Europe right? It's a pretty foreigner familiar city, though it has less impressive sights than Beijing. Nevertheless, the nightlife is good and the city has a fesh vibe (in some places at least). I spent most of my time there walking around, from Old Town to the French Concession, to Pudong and beyond. Did find a cool little jazz club with salsa one night with a group of swedes that I met - most enjoyable. 0 Beijing, China 12-MAR-2007 17:38:00 Wow, Beijing is a big city. The forbidden city alone is huge. Man, you need a bike to get around, and the place is certainly bike friendly. I got around very easily on my last day there on a rented bike for about 1.50. Beijing also has these overpriced night markets near the Forbidden City that are a total rip off. I wanted to try the deep fried scorpion to check off my list, but it was around 10 times the price of everything else. Dammit - the spiders were cheap in Cambodia. 0 The Great Wall of China, Simatai section 13-MAR-2007 18:40:00 Just go. It's incredible. Incidently, we went to the Simatai section, and we weren't disappointed. Only one other group and hardly any tourist stands. 0 Beijing, China 14-MAR-2007 22:00:00 Finally got to the Summer Palace. It was early spring. Maybe a bit cold for a swim. We also managed to sample some tasty Peiking Duck at the "place that sells the best Peiking Duck in Beijing" according to an American friend (on the far left in the dinner photo), Jeff, whose major interest in travelling revolves around "good food, and good conversation". No arguments there. The photo of the tunnel represents the underground view of Tianamen Square, as guarded by federal police, which was closed due to the polical meetings within for around a fortnight (don't want anyone protesting or anything - damn free speech huh?) 0 Osaka, Japan 31-MAR-2007 15:00:00 We picked up Gabi from the airport and spent the weekend at nearby Osaka, seeing the sights. 0 Nagoya, Japan 02-APR-2007 17:00:00 A day trip to nearby Nagoya city. 0 Takayama and Shirakawa-go 03-APR-2007 17:00:00 A day trip to the mountaineous Hida district. Takayama is a small craft-making community in the mountains. Nearby is the World Heritage site at Ogimichi - a small village comprised of tens of traditional style homes in the region. 0 Mount Fuji 05-APR-2007 20:44:00 The iconic Japanese symbol was as shy as a little boy, but he did poke his head out from behind his mother's skirts once in a while. 0 Tokyo, Japan 06-APR-2007 22:29:00 Having lived in Japan for almost four months now, I can say with some officiality, that Tokyo isn't so kooky. If it's your first port of call in Japan, yah, it's out there. But when you live next door to a Pachinko (pinball gambling), know where to get what food, and Kanji is a way of life, then Tokyo aint sooo amazing. What did surprise me were the parks. The one in mid city around the Palace was beautiful and incredibly peaceful. The one at Shinbuya was full of locals on the wekend, playing music, skating, laughing, singing... it was great - not the stereotypical crazy Tokyo you hear so much about. 0 Sakura 12-APR-2007 11:27:00 A couple of photogenic moments in our hometown, round Sakura time. 0 Shikoku, the quiet island 14-APR-2007 09:49:00 Three boys and three girls, concrete camping and a hell-of-a-lot-of driving... needless to say, it was worth it. 0 The Boss 02-MAY-2007 05:20:00 OK, so in Japan, they take this whole "Boss" thing very seriously. Sacho-san - ie. honourable Boss - is what he's called, and he's a dude. He's kind of both cool and conservative. For example, on arriving in China, he strolls right through Immigration. When they stop him, he simply waves his hand, implying one of his underlings will handle the trivialities. 0 Icehockey 05-MAY-2007 12:49:00 So, since January, I've been doing this Ice Hockey course in Nagoya. It's been good. Don't understand much, but good. I don't have any of their equipment and the such, but it's still a good intro into a sport I've always been curious about. Not a big fan of the rental skates tho, I've had to request their sharpest pair every week. When I started, I was using skates so rounded that I couldn't stop to save my life, and thus, I was flailing all over the shop. 0 Sumo 13-MAY-2007 20:00:00 We spent around 14 round hours getting to and from Tokyo by bus to see the first day of the May tournament and we weren't disappointed. Ok, so there's a lot of pomp and ceremony - not to mention countless showdowns - but it is a surreal experience being in a huge stadium dedicated to this very unique religion cum sport. 0 Friends from Korea 28-MAY-2007 03:55:00 Thomas and Heri - visiting from Seoul - enjoying our local Japanese cuisine. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0