Fire Dancers

Well finally putting this up. BTW I'm home now!

Full Moon and beyond

well that was all good fun. Unfortunately I only lasted until 5 am.
saw all the crazy people on the beach. I was most impressed with the
fire dancers . I will load the video when I get home. afterwards I
managed to sleep until 3 in the afternoon so I didn't go to ko tao,
but booked more diving. diving was very cool as per usual. then the
following day was 12 hour bus and ferry journey followed by 12 hours
at the airport, which is where I am now, to be followed by a 12 hour
flight joy of joys. anyway time to go. see you soon.

Ko Phangan

Well I'm on another Island now. Am staying in Hat Rin and the full moon party is tomorrow - so lots of rest today in preparation for that. Might go diving (again) (for the last time in Ko Tao) (again) Before heading back to Bangkok. The beaches are gorgeous, as are the many sights ;-) Temperature is somewhere between hot and damn hot. All in all, it's ok I suppose...

Ko Sumui

Well have been diving some more and loving it, but bad news is that both my SD cards are shagged so if anyone can get me the boot.exe of a 2gb SD card then I'd appreciate it as I can't quickly find one and it means no more pictures :-(

Am currently thinking that I will come home sooner and not go to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos as need to get some pesos coming in as I think that I have spent a little too much!

Plus it means that I will be able to go running more and see my bike :-)

Its hot and Palm tree like here am currently staying in a beach bungalow and is all very ver' nice.

Will find out about moving my air ticket tomorrow and let you know.

Diving off Phuket

Well I'm certainly loving the diving. Went on another day trip today to a 87m wreck and also to Shark point, and another site. Saw 2 sharks today woooooooooooooooooo!!!!! and I got well close to them - about a couple of feet from these big ol' Leopard sharks. I was gonna try and upload a video, but its a .mov file and I have no easy way of converting out here - so that will have to wait till I'm home. Tomorrow is do nothing day and spend no money. :-) Diving is well cheap here, but still expensive darn it. Although we were 9 people on a massive boat today which was good and we got free breakfast and lunch thrown in and I stole enough to have my dinner too.

Phuket

Well Phuket or Patong Beach, which is actually where I am staying is much nicer than Bangkok. I went diving yesterday on a day trip and decided to extend the trip and stayed the night and did more dives today. Was pretty darn cool and I want to do more diving. I saw loads of fish and quite a few octopuses and a turtle - check out the turtle man! And little Nemo. Only saw one shark and he was pretty far away so boo hiss. Want to see some sharks and definitely a manta ray. Will have to keep on looking. I have another few days here and then I am off to Ko somui where I will probably do some.......diving!!!

Thailand

Well not much to report really. Its bloody hot, there are loads anad loads of people around or so it would seem and lots of traffic jams. I hope the rest of Thailand is better as Bangkok seems pretty crappy really. It's just full of people trying to rip you off. Well every single one that I have met is trying to anyway. I'm heading South (14 hour bus trip) urrgghhhhh. Down to the islands and to Phuket to do some diving so I hope that that should be better anyway.

 

I'm not sure how all these people make a living as there just seem to be loads of people hanging about. I guess that they just scrounge and rip of the tourists?

North Island - rain

Well I have heard from Tom in Cape Kidnappers that he is away picking fruit or something so I have skipped that and drove to Lake Taupo. Didn't see much there as the rain and low cloud obscured the lake completely. Went to the Craters of the moon which wasn't terribly exciting, but there were boiling mud pools and steaming, erm....steam holes. Then it started raining again so I dedcided to head on up. I got to lake Rotarura. Saw som Maori village and their tourism - I mean culture. But I did get to see a little bit of haka which was pretty good and probably made up for the rest of the stop. Also saw a Geyser going off which was ok. I sat and watched it for at least 20 minutes as it heated the stones that I was sat on so was pretty to watch and nice and warm. Then guess what - more rain - so I carried on and drove round the Coromandel Peninsular which was nice, between the rainstorms.

I then ended up driving through Auckland as I wanted to get to the Bay of Islands - man what a shit hole that is. took me abso-fuckin-lutely ages to get past there and for a moment, I thought that I was on the M25. And when I say moment, don't let the brevity of the word do the goddamn wait any injustice. So I decided to not go in or bother looking at Auckland on the way back either.

Anyway once I got to the Bay of Islands most of the wrongs of the North Island were righted (apart from Auckland) Glorious weather, sunbathing, smoothies, scuba diving. Man it was all great and I ended up staying there for 3 days. Went for a dive on the Rainbow warrior which was the greenpeace boat sunk by Ze Frogs. Actually swam through a cabin and out of the escape hatch at the top of the cabin. Was really, really good - was at 26m and was breathing too much as well as I was worried about getting my hoses tangled so was only a 30 min dive before I had to head on upwards. Was really cool though, really good visibility, loads of bug eyed fish in the cabins and no skeletons so that was all good. Then we were on a deserted Island for lunch then off to another dive site - just a reef dive this time and only to 15M. The dive guide had the fish eating out of his hand though which was pretty amazing to see them doing that.

Sadly then I had to leave after that to the god forsaken hell hole that is Auckland and I am currently residing in Auckland airport after dropping of my hire car from 6 in the evening until 8 in the morning when myflight to Sydney leaves. Then I have the joys of waiting in that airport until 6 in the evening for my flight to Bangkok. Oh well - could be worse I guess. This computer is free though so wooooooo. But you can't plug anything in it so no more pictures until Thailand I'm afraid.

Anyway, gotta go this waiting won't do it by itself - oh wait yes it will....But I'm bored of standing here so ta ta.

Oh yes and while I remember, just to let you know that the fire brigade have delayed my training until July/August - dull dull. But it does mean that I can spend more time here and will be able to stay until money runs out rather than being recalled - then I'll have some enjoyable temping work to do w00t - bring on Britain, I can hardly wait..............

Up till now

Well I left queenstown after the skydive and headed north a little to Lake Wanaka. Ran round some of the lake and nearly fell of a cliff face that I shouldn't have been trying to climb up. But apart from a few scratches I am all good. Headed to the Toy and Transport Museum which has got the biggest collection of toys and cars you'll ever see, not bad considering it's just some blokes back yard (its's a big back yard though i'll give him that - it has 3 hangers in it)

Then I headed to Fox Glacier and went ice climbing for the day which was pretty cool. Weirdly despite global warming the glacier is advancing 1.3 metres a day which for a huge block of ice is pretty impressive. Whats more impressive though is that I met some Kiwis and they gave me Jamesons to drink so I was pretty chuffed about that.

Then off to the Abel Tasman National park for more running, sunbathing and general lazing around before jumping on the ferry and heading to the North Island. I have been to 2 internet cafes today - remembering my camera, but neither of them let me plug in a USB or CD so that sucked - I'll keep looking and add them when I can. I had a meal - a real meal, not just pasta tonight - splashed out and ate in a restaurant. Anyway that's me done for now. Will do photos as soon as I can.

Skydiving

Well Woooo hooo the weather turned out ok today so I am doing the skydiving thing. It was great fun and getting to jump out of a plane is much recommended. Got some photos, but can't upload them from this computer. Will Try when I get to the next one. There were 9 of us stuffed into a tiny plane and then we all got to jump out followed by our camera man. Was great fun falling for 45secs at 200kph then pulled the chute and another 10mins or so of twisting loads for extra fun. The only person who didn't go was a Yank - scardey cat. What a pussy. Anyway Will carry on when I get more time - gotta go catch a ferry.

House keeping

Well just uploading some photos and things today. I'm currently in Queenstown waiting to see if the weather improves so that I can do my 12,000ft skydive. Shame it's not like yesterday which was absolutely gorgeous. I have been, in the last couple of days, to Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound then to here (Top 2 are Milford, then Doubtful). Both were amazing, but it was sunny on the day I went to Milford so I think that that edged it.

Last night I went to the minus 5 bar which was actually minus 7.8 degrees, which was cool - literally. You get a big coat and gloves and everything is made of ice including the glasses. Thats me at the top at the bar in case you didn't guess. You are only allowed to stay in there for half an hour too as its too cold I suppose.

Sheep shearing

Well as I was in New Zealand I thought I should give the sheep a go.....

New Zealand

Well things are slowing down on the internet front as the prices are going up!!

I got to NZ ok and hired a car and bought a crappy tent and have been showing myself round. I have been jet boating and visiting all the scenery which is pretty spectacular. Today I had a go at sheep shearing which was good fun. Sadly I have left my camera in the car so another time I will upload those.

Christchurch

It would appear that there is no accommodation in Christchurch at all - after ringing from Oz for about half an hour I finally managed to get somewhere at the YMCA oh yeah baby, sadly I saw no Indians, bikers or repairmen and I was most upset. I was only allowed to stay one night though as it was completely full the next day. So I spent the day sorting out a new sim card, booking more accommodation, booking a rental car and buying a tent. It is very busy in NZ and camping seems the way forwards. Plus it is quite a light tent so I can use it when going for trips on the ol' motorbike. I have booked pretty much all of my activities for NZ - expensive!! Then today (Sun) I went Jetboating this morning which was pretty darn cool, although I fancied having a go at driving it they didn't seem as keen. Not sure why?

So just bumming around at the hostel this afternoon, as I have had a nasty cold and so just want to recover ASAP so that I can do everything that I want to. I pickup my hire car tomorrow and will then set off proper like.

See if you can spot the queer comments - think that I got enough in!!

Sydney

Well I'm now in Sydney for a couple of days and just the one night. I spent today walking round saw the Opera house and the Bridge and The Queen Elizabeth II out of Southampton was here. Then I went to the Sydney aquarium, which I loved they had all these underwater tunnels and there were loads of sharks and cool stuff like that. Then I chilled at the harbour, had some lunch in the sun, before heading back to the hostel as I was falling asleep in the sun. When I woke up it was raining - d'oh! Oh well Guess it's time to update my blog then.....

Tomorrow if it's nice I'll head to Bondi Beach then it's off to New Zealand.

Woooooooooooooooo

Sydney Aquarium

Byron Bay

I turned up at Byron in the afternoon - and a time zone change - crazy Ozzies despite being exactly the same longditude. Anyway, bit of a panic finding a hostel, but as I managed to get the last bed in Byron in a nice beach house and they picked me up from the bus stop so that was all good. I then decided to walk along the beach to the lighthouse which was about 8k. When I got to the top I got talking with Veronica (another Irish girl) I'm beginning to wonder if there are any Irish people left in Ireland judging by the amount that I've met here. Anyway we walked back and got some dinner at Cheeky Monkeys and watched the Coyote Ugly girls which was cool then danced a bit. Next morning I did some sunbathing and swimming which was supercool - finally some sun. Then mooched around Byron - its real nice there. Got back on the bus in the evening (night bus that arrives in Sydney at 7am the following morning) :-( Completely by chance Tim and Ti'an were also on it having got on at Noosa so that was cool - chatted, watched shitty disney films on the bus and didn't sleep much.

Australia Zoo

Well, after Fraser Island I was going to head back to Brisbane to continue my trip, but as I headed back to the bar to say 'bye' to all the chaps and chapesses Andy and Fiona offered me a lift to the Australia (Steve Irwin) Zoo which was ace as I had written off going there as it is too time consuming and expensive to get to without a car. So I took them up - it meant staying another day at Dingos at Rainbow beach, but the sun woke me up so I went for a run and then frolicked in the pool then in the evening went to see the Carlo Sandblow which is some sand but looks pretty (was free to get there so went along with it!)

So next day we head out to the Zoo which is cool - watched loads of crocs and finally got to see Koalas and Kangaroos which I hadn't and would've been very disappointed with if not. Then they dropped me off at Brisbane after so I stayed the night there before heading down to Byron Bay.

Well I caught the plane down to Brisbane and then got the bus back up the coast a little to Rainbow Beach. From there we loaded up our 4x4 and headed out to Fraser Island for 3 days and 2 nights. Was pretty damn cool. I did all the driving in my group cos I was the only one that was over 21 and could drive 'stick' damn yanks!!! Oh well I loved it racing along the beach and then heading inland on wicked four wheel drive tracks. Man you'd've all have loved it ;-) even on the night when it rained it was cool. Went to frehwater lakes in the middle of rainforest and also to another in the middle of the desert - well had to walk through 2km of sand dunes to get there for that one. I'll try and post some pics - only prob is it takes fookin ages to upload!

Fraser Island

Well I caught the plane down to Brisbane and then got the bus back up the coast a little to Rainbow Beach. From there we loaded up our 4x4 and headed out to Fraser Island for 3 days and 2 nights. Was pretty damn cool. I did all the driving in my group cos I was the only one that was over 21 and could drive 'stick' damn yanks!!! Oh well I loved it racing along the beach and then heading inland on wicked four wheel drive tracks. Man you'd've all have loved it ;-) even on the night when it rained it was cool. Went to frehwater lakes in the middle of rainforest and also to another in the middle of the desert - well had to walk through 2km of sand dunes to get there for that one. I'll try and post some pics - only prob is it takes fookin ages to upload!

 

Sunny Oz

So here are some pictures of the journey to Cape Tribulation - yes that is the road that's how much rain there was. Then how Australia should be! Then some pictures of me getting ready for diving and then drinking afterwards!

Oh and I nearly forgot - I was viciously attacked by a trigger fish on my last day of diving - I was taking a picture of one when another one came up and almost ripped my arm off as you can see from the photo!

Catching up

Hey there,

 

Well sorry I have not blogged for a while so I will put up some stuff now and hope that I don't forget anything.

 

Well I have done my first 2 days of scuba training - in the pool and in the classroom which was very exciting! not! It's not difficult, but some people are completely useless. Anyway we got through that lot successfully, only to be told that that due to the cyclone they have called the dive boats back and that the trip won't be going ahead on the next day - which is big problemo as I have booked a flight to Brisbane for the day after the trip was supposed to finish - pantalons! So after some juggling and more expense :-( I booked 2 more nights accommodation and managed to move my flight. So I am heading out for the diving on Saturday morning - being picked up at 6.15 erkkk! I thought this was supposed to be a relaxing holiday?!?!

 

So after heading out to the dive shop and collecting our stuff we headed on down to the boat and stowed our stuff there followed by a 3 hour journey to the first dive site. The shitty weather that we had been having has gone - hooray!!!!!!!!!!! Only problem now is to see if I have enough sun tan lotion! 30 degrees of lovely lovely sunnyness. So on the first day we do 2 more training dives which piss me off loads cos some people just shouldn't be allowed cos they are rubbish - and it holds the good people - like me ;-) up. Our instructor is Gonzo and not from the muppets but Gonzalo from Argentina! Also Scott is on our boat too which is cool as I can chat to him as he is doing his dive master training course.

 

So we do these couple of training dives which get some of the skills out of the way - we are not supposed to be looking at fish but we find this Napolean fish which is just HUGE and swims around us checking us out. Oh and when we are on the boat we see some turtles which are sweet as well.

 

Then in the evening the qualified divers head out for a night dive which looks pretty cool apart from for us on the boat who can see all the sharks circling around them! - We have that to look forward to on the next day. That night we just sat out on the top deck of the boat checking out the stars and the milky way and the Southern cross. It is unbelievably clear with almost no light pollution at all - just those irritating navigation lights which the skipper wouldn't turn off the mean ol' git!!

 

On the next day we have an even earlier start and are in the water for 6.30 as I have elected to do my Adventure diving qualification. That means that we do a deep dive and so we head on down to 26.5m and we check out a shark that is basking on the sand, but at that depth we can only stay for 14minutes which isn't much at all so after that we head on slowly back up having to do a decompression stop at 5m before finally surfacing then we have a long surface interval and get some sunbathing in as there is nothing nicer than just lying in the sun in the middle of the ocean - very relaxing indeed.

 

We then do some more dives and stuff and navigation thingys and I pass wooo! so then we get to go off by ourselves which is ace - definitley need to do more scuba diving. That night we do the night dive and as we are jumping in the skipper is throwing bread in and attracting the fish and the sharks - lol was ok though - very peaceful.

Then on Monday we have the 3 hour boatcruise back to Cairns, then time to have a decent shower then we all head out for a jolly old piss up where we do loads of shots and get very drunk! Up and checked out by 10 - dull then time to do the laundry and then here I am waiting to go to the airport for my flight to Brisbane. I will be heading to Fraiser island for 3 days from wednesday or thursday so I'm looking forward to that.

Anyway thats all for now as I'm sure I've bored you silly. I'll see if I can put some photos up too.

 

 

Oz

Hey - well what a surprise OZ is - it's certainly hot, but its also pissing down with rain most of the time - went to see the rainforest in Daintree which was pretty cool. I have met up with these guys in my Dorm room in Cairns - 2 of them are aussies who are travelling round so they have their own ute! which is cool - like a pickup truck. So we drove up their and everywhere is flooded and it was ace - this is not going to make much sense I'm afraid. The road was being washed away so we ploughed on through it - was cool. Also went on a river cruise and saw some crocodiles which was sweet - reminded me of Sri Lanka quite a lot.

 

Will try and put some more photos up. Forgot my digital camera today though which was silly, but I'll grab some of Nathans pictures for today.

 

Also, have booked my PADI course which starts tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that. I've also had to book a flight to Brisburne as the roads and rails aren't running cos of all the flooding - apparantly they have named the cyclone so that might be more bad weather? Should be sunny though when I go to Brisburne as apparantly they are having a drought in the rest of the country.

 

80 Yanks have turned up to the hostel today so its packed now - damn yanks eh?

 

Not gonna be doing much tonight as I have an early start tomorrow and also got bladdered last night was sweet - got in at 4ish and then up at 7 to go to Cape Tribulation (which we never actually got to cos of the roads)

 

Man, I'm getting to need a haircut soon as my hair seems to have grown massively. Anyway its way to hot in here and my brain isn't working so I'm not even gonna proof read this - so hope its all ok!!!

Yorkeys Knob video

I was at Yorkeys Knob fishing of all things and some Aussie mates persuaded me to put some video up so here goes...

Leaving Japan

Well, I`m getting ready to go now. Just finishing packing my bags and the like and getting ready to head to the airport.
I arrive at Cairns at stupidly early in the morning so I will have a long day in Cairns tomorrow checking the place out. I certainly won`t have the same level of internet access, but will blog when I can.
I`m thinking of heading North from Cairns first, so spending the first day in Cairns and then heading to Port Douglas or Cooktown to check that out before heading South.

Have`t really got any further solid plans of what I`ll be doing, but will certainly be resting for a while.

Speak soon

Japan, not doing a lot

Well I have not been up to much for the last couple of days, on Wednesday I explored some more of Tokyo and then went and played tennis with Yasuo. I somehow managed to hurt my back after tennis which is a right pain as it means that today I did not go to Nikko, but sat at home all day. Last night after leaving Yasuo I went to Roppongi hills which is a well posh and expensive part of Tokyo. As my back was hurting I went straight to a bar and drank lots of Whiskey. The first bar I happened upon was run by non-Japanese and they were all stockbrokers and IT people and the like. Some good things happened - they bought me lots of drinks - suckers! and I was offered a job if I wanted to work in IT in Japan! After that I staggered back to the capsule hotel that I was staying in. Which is fairly odd but quite cool. Its as you would imagine - like a large coffin but with a TV in there too. There is a blind at the foot end of your bed and a control panel for the TV and lights etc on the wall with a shared bathroom on each floor. There are capsules on top of each other so on each floor there are an upper row and a lower row. Was all pretty cool and different - ok for 3500Yen - about 15quid.

So thats all I`ve really done - watched Star wars and Independance Day (Not masses to choose from here!) Tomorrow I will mainly be doing more resting and then off to catch my flight in the evening. Fingers crossed that my back recovers by next monday.

Flameboard

This is so sweet - I`ve got my very own flameboard going on - wicked fight, fight etc.........

Man I`d pwn your@ss with my mighty sword of wrath and n00bness


tee hee

Snowboarding and Disneyland

The weekend

Hello all,

Well thanks for whinging at me for not having posted for a few days - Stu!! I have been in Yumanashi for the weekend. We went to visit Kenji (my friends other son) On the saturday morning we set off there and got there about lunchtime and had some other traditional Japanese food which was odd - but nice. was kind of a mix between a  pankcake, some noodles and an omlette which I know sounds pretty odd, but in fact was very tasty. Once we had met up with Kenji he took us for a drive, now, Yumanashi is ringed by mountains - the Japan Alps. After driving up some pretty perilous mountain roads with plenty of hairpin bends covered in ice!! Was pretty sweet! Then when we got fairly high up (not sure how long it took as in tradditional Japanese fashion - I fell asleep) we reached a cable car and went up it to get a view of the Yumanashi basin. So that was pretty nice - fuji in the background again and all round good views for miles and miles. Then we headed back down to our Ryoen (Japanese Inn) to settle in.The room is basically tatami (bamboo mats) mats on the floor with a low table and a serving wench who poured us some tea. From the room you could see an immaculate Japanese garden and all was nice. They then took us to another room similarly layed out for the most amazing Japanese meal which was well yum. Then we headed back to our room to play Winning Eleven X (Kenji brought his PlayStation) Whilst we were out of our room they had layed out futon type mattresses and made our beds for us - ver nice.

Ps Winning Eleven X is Pro Evo and was great fun as is its way. Then as this Ryoen also had an onsen (Spa) we partook of that and at one point was sat outside in a lovely hot tub in very cold surroundings (it does get very cold at night in Japanese winter)

Sorry in the delay of this post - I was too knackered so just went to bed. It carries on here;

Next day we went for another drive and went snowboarding, which was my first ever go and it was ace. Took us quite a while to get there and to be honest I`m not sure where there was, but we hired out the kit and boards (Yasuo and I, Kenji has his own) and got all kitted up which was good fun and built the excitement then we headed onto the snow and had a 5min lesson from Yasuo on how to slow down. So after doing that (and not being able to stand up very well) I got my feet for it and so we headed to the ski lift to go up the beginners slope. Now it turns out that Yasuo is not very good at reading maps as the first slope we went down was NOT the beginners slope. Hmmm oh well......

So after I got to the bottom - which took quite a while due to the amount of time I was on my arse we headed up again and realised that if you turn left there is a beginners slope. Wooo. That was much better and I fell over a lot less, which my bottom appreciated. So this continued and we carried on, I was great, as is my way and we went down all the slopes during the course of the day including, again using Yasuo`s map reading skills the hardest ski only course which was a kind of slalom - but once we got to it we couldn`t go back - so down we went!! Was all good fun with only a few perilous drops down the sides.

I definitely improved and could go down pretty quick by the end of the day without too much of the falling over so I`ve decided to look up snowboarding again when I get to New Zealand - depends how much it vosts though as it was fairly cheap in Japan (was about 40 quid for hire of everything and lift pass) - though I guess it is locals only as I was the only non Japanese person there - again.

Once we finished snowboarding we headed over to another Onsen that is in the hotel at the resort there. This was a good thing and after a shower and a was, a boiling hot bath was just the ticket for my aching limbs. Again they also had one outside so surrounded by snow in the lovely warmth - it was grand. Then inside for a sauna, then more lounging then finally we had to leave. So we headed off back to Yumanashi to pick up Toshiko and Mikio and got on the bus back to Tokyo, eating our bento (sort of packed lunch of sushi that you can buy) on the way - then back home and pretty much straight to bed.

Next morning....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh pain!!!!

Didn`t realise snowboarding was this much effort - weirdly not my legs so much but my back and arms that are most pulled muscles - I`m so glad that we had the onsen though as without it I doubt I would be able to move at all (I`m writing this on Tuesday and I am still aching now - I don`t know how you could do this for a week and have to go back day after day whilst in pain - guess you just grin and bear it)
Luckily, I don`t have to grin and bear it hence me doing nothing today ;-)

Yesterday, Monday, We went to Disneyland - did not realise that there was one in Tokyo, but there is and as I have never been before I decided to go. I went with Saki and Kotomi (Yasuo`s friends) and Yasuo and it was good fun - I didn`t realise how kids orientated it is, but there were still some good rides there, so we enjoyed those and the girls enjoyed the whole thing - Japanese girls like the whole princess thing so we had to endure 2 parades of utter shite, but they had to endure the rollercoasters so I guess it was fair enough in the end. But they couldn`t get enough of the cheesy Princess thing. It was pretty cold there too as it is next to the sea and for the first time was overcast - boo hiss. It`s strange in Japan how hot the sun is - in England if the sun comes out it does not necessarily mean that it gets warm, but in Japan it does - it makes sense maybe its just England that is fubar`ed?

Anyway back home after that and pretty much straight to bed, at 11.30 as was knackered still - which brings us to now as I have slept for about 12 hours and thought I should come and finish this before I get whinged at some more for not writing it.

So today I plan to read and watch some telly and generally lounge around. So there you go. until next time readers, same bat time, same bat channel - well sort of anyway..................

(I`ll pop a couple more photos up in a bit too - will have to move off of the sofa though to get my camera to upload them, oh whoa is me, tis a hard life, but as it`s for you guys I guess I will make the special effort)


;-)

More pictures of Japan

Pictures of Tokyo

Tokyo by myself

Hey there all.

Well that was comedy.

oh yeah I remebered what I was going to say last time - better do that
know before I forget again.
Was going to say what long hours the Japanese work - mentally so.
Mikio has quite short hours and only works a 11 and a half hour day!
Yasuo on the other hand works from 9 in the morning till 1am and no
thats not a good 4 hour day but 16 hours!!! Kenji (their other son)
does a similar thing. Madness I tells you. followed by about 4-5 hours
sleep before repeating it all again. What really made me aware of this
was sitting on the tube watching all the people in a permanent state
of exhaustion. They have this amazing knack of sleeping on the tube,
not just when sat down, but sleeping on their feet trying to catnap so
that they can function (or so I would imagine) Sitting on the tube is
like sitting amongst a load of zombies - well not the flesh eating
type, more the lolling listless type. That was what I wanted to say -
it`s just slightly unnerving that`s all plus they work far too hard -
I guess is my point.

Anyway back to today.
Got to my first stop ok, following a change of trains - once you get
used to it its actually ok, but I`m glad that I had maps in my pocket
of both under and over ground routes.
So I went to Akihabara to check out some electrical stores - turned
out that I only checked out one though. I`m not sure that you would
comprehend how big this store was though. I can`t really think of how
to get it across. Suffice to say that it was 8 floors, each floor
bigger than a big thing - certainly bigger than oxford HMV anyway. The
space devoted to ipods and accessories was bigger than most shops you
can think of. I like electronic stuff, but I spent 2 hours working
from bottom to top, finishing at lunchtime so I ate lunch on their
restaurant floor (not the actual floor of one restaurant as it sounds,
but in one of the approx 20 restaurants on that floor) If that helps
give you an impression of size.
Some things are pretty good value, whilst some is just the same as
here. A PS3 will set you back about 220 pounds so pretty cheap
considering they are selling on ebay for 370 or the one that I saw
was. Whilst what I wanted, a nikon digital SLR is about the same price
- dammit! So no new camera for me :-(
If anyone wants anything then ask me and I can find out for you - I
remember that PSPs were 80 quid or so.

Anyway after lunch I took more tubes to Ginza which is the well posh
end of town, and looked at all the big expensive stores that I don`t
want anything from - ie all the designer stores. Was big and
impressive though.

Then went to the Sony Store which was cool. Loads of good stuff there,
Blue ray is pretty cool and very sharp, they were demonstrating it vs
DVD quallity. Rob (and any other geeks who may be reading) They were
also showcasing FFXIII on a PS3 on a 52" HDTV. It looks ace BTW.

So then I went to Shinjunku and checked out a couple of the big
department stores - mainly dull selling clothes and perfume etc but
again impressive in their bigness. Then as darkness fell I went back
to the Metropolitan Building again and had expensive beer and expresso
looking out at Tokyo in the dark. Man its the biggest place with the
most skyscrapers that I`ve ever seen. I tried to take some pictures
but I doubt that they will do it justice - I`ll get them off my camera
and post them if they came out after this. Just take my word for it
you think that there are some small houses and the like until you
realise that the small ones are also massive buildings, only 6 or 7
stories high rather than the 40 plus of the rest of them.

Anyway, bored now and tired its midnight and time to hit the hay I reckon.

Night Jon boy.
Night
etc.......

PS that`s Mount Fuji in the background

Some more pictures

Tokyo

Well, the picture post appeared to work, so I may as well continue with the whole blogging issue thingy.

Today I have mainly been exploring Tokyo with my guide, Toshiko.

While I remember, must say about - hmm dammit forgotten again. Will come back to that.

So anyway have been pootling round Tokyo, and been to many more shrines and the like, also today I have been to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building which is pretty darn high and you get an excellent view of the whole city - and my ears popped twice on the way up in the lift - which took not long at all to get up there at all. I`ve also been to Edo Museum (which, history buffs - is what Tokyo was called before being called Tokyo) It was mainly full of old Japanese stuff which was a bit dull, mainly cos I couldn`t understand anything. Oh well, you gotta go to these places I suppose - it could`ve been worse I could`ve been at work. I also went to some other shrine and they were filming something which was pretty cool as have never been on a film set before. I`d love to tell you all about what they were filming, but suffice to say it a) was in Japanese (are you seeing a recurring problem here with understanding anything?) and b) wasn`t dodgy Japanese Porn so I quickly lost interest (again) I know I`m so uncultured aren`t I?

Tomorrow I have planned a trip into Tokyo by myself which will be a laugh as about 95 percent of the signs are in Japanese script (on the subway that is - though I have been trying to pay attention today to what has been going on. The subway is one mad place and coupled with my complete lack of Japanese reading ability will be a hilarious disaster I warrent. Oh well gotta be done - my aim is to go to the electronics district and to one of the giant shopping malls. I do mean giant as well by the way far bigger than anything that I have seen in London for example.

Anyway I hope this isn`t the last post that I make - if it is for a while then you will know that I am lost on the underground - also there is the above ground stations and the subway ones which aren`t interchangeable though they often have the same station names!! genius whoever thought that one up!

Anyway will try and post some more pictures for you guys though that is proving one of the more difficult things to do, well time consuming at any rate.

Test picture

Well testing to see if this works first.

This is me and my Maiko! which is like a Geisha, only younger!

Kyoto, Nara and Mt Fuji

Well well Japan is strange, I have noticed a couple of things about it. 1) Everyone seems to be in a rush despite the fact that if they do miss the train/bus/whatever there will be another one along in about 3minutes, thats 3 minutes exactly not 20mins later, (to be honest not even 3 and a half minutes later) b) They are even quieter than in say London and you could talk as their trains are quiet and smooth and quick which is a bit of a novelty. iii) Although everyone here (I mean everyone, including the grannies) has a mobile it is considered rude to have it on, and there are signs everywhere reminding you of the fact so no annoying ringtones it`s bliss!!

Well I have been around the place and stayed in Kyoto and also visited Nara and seen my fair share of Buddhist temples many of which are impressive (in size, and in the fact that most of the buildings are made of wood and have all burned down at least twice - you think that they`d learn really) It`s just that they are getting a little samey now if you know what I mean. It`s funny how many people go to them though as they are all packed even on week days, and mostly 90% up are Japanese.

Then on the shinkansen back to Tokyo I was discussing going to Mt Fuji the following week with Toshiko and Mikio and so Toshiko rang her sister and we got off the train early and her sister met us at Fuji. Turns out she`s marreid to some buddhist monk type dude and they have a massive house with en-suite temple which was a lot more impressive than the ones that we went to see with the guide books and all.
They have a proper massive house too with all the sliding doors and paper walls that you could want with low tables and daughters to wait on us hand and foot. Was proper Bo and felt very special - I even got to ring their big bell outside. Another thing that I have noticed in the buildings I have been in is that it is very cold - colder inside than outside - odd. Anyway sorry for random thought. Good job that they give you slippers to wear really, even if they are too small!
They then took me to a very pretty waterfall, shiraito, I think it was called. Then drove up Mt. Fuji, well as far as we could go as they only clear the roads so far up it. It is so cool - snow, proper snow all over the place - I love the snow it`s ace. Wish we could have gone up further - it dropped from 9 degrees to 2 in the bit that we drove up. Oh yeah and that reminds me - how much do buddhist priest monks get paid??? I should think about that - big house/temple 3 cars thats right 3, one of which was a Subaru Forrester and another was a Nissen Skyline!! Was ver` ver` nice ;-)

Anyway, back now in Tokyo, thinking that the next few days will be spend exploring Tokyo and we`ll see what happens after that.

Japan

Hi everbody,
Well I hope that this post works as I am doing it from a Japanese laptop and everything is in japanese, but I think that this is the right link!

Well after a rather hairy, and exciting take off in high winds I set off for Japan. It took 11 hours, The departed, The Illusionist, Love actually, 2 Magazines, half of abook and lots of water, but I arrived in Japan at 9 o`clock local time hence missing out entirely on a nights sleep as it was 9 in the morning local time when I arrived.

So 36 hours later is about now and I`m pretty knackered if I`m honest.

I was met by Toshiko, Mikio and Yasuo at Narita airport who are absolutely lovely and have shown me my first Japanese budhist temple.
I have had Japanese noodles for lunch (according to my body clock was 4.30 in the morning!)
Have also ridden on the train in rush hour to have a first look at a Tokyo market and then the train ride home (in rush hour) which was cozy ;-)

I feel rather out of place as I have seen thousands of Japanese and not a single Westerner since leaving the airport. Which is no bad thing as in general they suck. Present comany excepted.

Right well better go as tea is being prepared and it is 10.50 am UK time.

Ahhh - Panic in the disco!

Got a letter from the fire brigade saying I need to do another beep test on the 1st February! Obviously I can't do that so I was stressing over that. Just spoken to them and I can do it when I come back - tough it now looks like I'll be coming back earlier than later as I have just been told that I need to be back 1 month before I start to be measured for my uniform which I didn't know about.

Well we'll see - they are going to email me, but I'll just ring them constantly or something from abroad.

End of work

Well I've got 4 working days left - hooray. Just ordered my Japan Rail pass so things are moving on.
I've managed to get hold of a rucksack and sleeping bag so not too much stuff to buy now - I hope ;-)

Have moved my leaving date so my last day at work is friday the 12th and I leave for Japan on the 18th.