Archived:ThingsWeDidInJapan

It was suggested that we record what we actually did:

• Sun 18th:
  • Arrive in Tokyo, early am.
  • Wander around Tokyo near the station, glimpsing Imperial Palace. See lots of shops that aren't open yet.
  • Breakfast in a 24hr noodle bar in Tokyo.
  • Collect JR passes and train to Odawara, onward to Hakone.
  • Various modes of transport around Hakone (Train, bus, Pirate Ship, ropeway (cable car), cable car (funicular), bus again).
  • Share an umbrella with an old lady who is amazed at John's stature and finds us the right bus stop.
  • Get to 'Fuji Hakone' ryokan in Moto-Hakone Sengokuhara (having discovered in time that there are two ryokan with the same name).
  • Eat horse mackerel and tempura everything at a restaurant around the corner (we never had lunch).
• Mon 19th:
  • Breakfast at the ryokan with slightly underdone toast.
  • Take a series of trains to Osaka. On arrival, Phil goes to find Mickey and Emma; Ben, Dan, John, and Mike to find Mielparque.
  • Fail spectacularly to meet at noon, on account of (a) not getting to Osaka soon enough, and (b) confusion over which branch of the Plum chain to meet at. Meet eventually.
  • Lunch at a spanish cuisine sports bar.
  • Head to the castle, narrowly missing a Funky Monkey Babys concert. Wander round the castle, eating octopus balls and jaywalking like crazy.
  • Look at the centre of Osaka. Light shopping and a Ferris wheel ride.
  • Phil stays in the hotel and sleeps off jet lag. Everyone else goes around the corner to a sushi restaurant (John's favourite sushi of the trip).
• Tue 20th:
  • Breakfast at Mielparque.
  • Day trip to Kyoto.
  • See awesome railway station.
  • Drink the waters of Kiyomizudera.
  • Temple fatigue.
  • Lunch in a trendy café in Kyoto.
    • More like a restaurant over a shop, and it was on the main temple approach road
• Eat ice-cream and cake in the awesome station again.
  • Most too tired for dinner, but John, Lmm, and Emma go to a ramen noodle café. Emma gets the most vegetarian option -- a pork soup which "only tastes of meat a little".
• Wed 21st:
  • Breakfast at Mielparque again.
  • Take a slightly odd (but JR powered and involving a boat) route to Osaka aquarium, and spend all morning there.
  • Lunch in Osaka station - our first taste of Okonomiyaki.
  • Buy bentos for train.
  • Train towards Fujiyama for most of the afternoon, and then a bus to K's House. Most people don't eat their bentos until after we arrive.
  • Both K's House and the bar around the corner turn out to be full of gaijin.
• Thu 22nd:
  • Train to Fujikyu Highlands almost in time for opening. Some consternation over dropping off bags.
  • Diverse lunches at Fujikyu. The Q in its name turns out to be appropriate & not much gets done in the afternoon.
  • Leave just in time for the train to Tokyo.
  • Restaurant with the buzzers as recommended by the hostel keeper. John discovers the pit beneath the table the hard way.
• Fri 23rd:
  • Get up unsure of what to do. Decide to see kabuki.
  • Route march through the government building district to Tokyo Tower.
  • Breakfast at a trendy café with plastic-wrapped cake.
  • Glimpse tower as we rush past to the National Theatre.
  • See http://www.kabuki21.com/kumagai.php. Lunch during the first interval. Dan had croquette sandwiches. Kabuki continues forever and ever.
  • Wander around Shinjuku in the evening. Take forever to find the worst of most worlds in a fondue place for dinner.
  • Dan hits the gay bars, namely Advocates, and then gets taken on to Dragon, which has gaijin barmen in undies.
  • Lmm goes to the cinema, sees the Eureka Seven film.
  • Everyone else goes back to the hostel and Emma builds an unassailable lead in the Königsrufen averages for the trip.
• Sat 24th:
  • Breakfast takeaway from Mister Donut.
  • Go to the anime fair. It turns out not to actually contain much.
  • Lmm sees the awesome Pretty Cure stage show. Everyone else discovers the maritime museum to be closed.
  • Science museum. Asimo walks a bit. Send messages with a working model of Internet. Varied physicist simulations.
  • Pay museum prices for a buffet lunch, which we are determined to get our money's worth of.
  • Take in a disappointing anime in the museum's planetarium.
  • Evening trip to Akihabara. Much consternation as we keep getting split up.
  • Dinner at a Chinese place, with greater-than-usual linguistic hurdles and multiple erroneous drinks orders.
  • Mickey, Dan, Phil, and Emma go to the local onsen, round the corner from the ryokan.
    • Average age is lower than Dan expects.
    • The "electric bath" feels like having pins and needles where one should not have pins and needles.
    • Mickey rediscovers Galileo's Principle by getting in and out of the electric bath very quickly.
• Sun 25th:
  • John is ill and stays in bed.
  • Laundry in the morning.
  • John breakfasts alone at Mister Donut again and feels a bit better.
  • Wander around the temple in Asakusa. Lmm buys a suitcase.
  • Head out to the suburbs for Mike's café. It turns out to require advance tickets.
  • Eat okonomiyaki at a place that actually uses the hot plate. Phil and John accidentally order chicken gristle.
  • Harajuku. Walk around the park a bit, and the fancy shops. Both turn out to be largely devoid of cosplayers, but there are one or two.
  • Dan sees a costume show in the Evangelion shop.
  • Lmm and Mike head back to Akihabara. Mike insists Lmm direct him where to buy his porn. Lmm runs away as soon as possible, and finds a café.
  • John goes back to bed, braving a vending machine noodle bar with apparent success.
  • Other people try to see Shinjuku Gyoen, but it is already closed, so we instead see everything from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building tower.
  • In the evening we meet a girl from Chicago. She and Lmm arrange to go to the fish market.
• Mon 26th:
  • Lmm gets up ungodly early. The girl does not. Lmm watches some anime and goes back to sleep.
  • Some packing and the like in the morning. Decide we want to go to Osaka today, probably on the 15:30 or 16:30 shinkansen.
  • Turns out the drum museum around the corner is closed, but Emma buys shoes.
  • Wander round the market stalls in the temple district, eating ice-cream and sweet bread.
  • Breakfast in a street that turns out to be full of cafés. Dan thanks the food server effusively.
  • Head back to Akihabara for lunch and a little last shopping. Decide to split up this time and everyone has a better time.
  • Fail to say goodbye properly to Emma.
  • MELON BREAD, and assorted other deliciousness from the bakery in Akihabara station.
  • Catch the train to Osaka as planned.
  • Eat at a café in Osaka station. Everyone but Dan has carbonara. Exciting frozen drinks.
  • Discover we have 18 beds between the six of us at the Smile Hotel.
• Tue 27th:
  • Breakfast at the Smile Hotel.
  • Early plane to Yakushima.
  • Discover no-one can drive.
  • Discover no-one has the ryokan's address.
  • Get bus passes, and bus, and eventually get to ryokan.
  • Go to Senpiro's waterfall. Some photography. Walk down the mountain talking loudly about twenty questions.
  • Onsen.
  • Exceedingly traditional Japanese dinner at the ryokan.
• Wed 28th:
  • Traditional Japanese breakfast at the ryokan.
  • By bus to Shiragani Unsuikyo.
  • 5 hours of hiking, eating snacks along the way which roughly constitute lunch.
  • Climb a mountain for http://hpmor.com/chapter/81.
  • Bus back, booking jetfoil on the way. Also a little souvenir shopping just outside Miyanoura.
  • Dinner at the restaurant opposite the ryokan.
• Thur 29th:
  • Traditional Japanese breakfast
  • Bus to Miyanoura and catch the jetfoil. A little more souvenir shopping at the ferry terminal.
  • Lunch at the Steak & Hamburg in Kagoshima.
  • Train it up to Fukuoka.
  • Check into hotel, then visit Canal City.
  • Watch a dude with some impressive diabolo skillz.
  • Dan nearly buys a watch.
  • Everyone else watches a japanese schoolgirl acquire a few dozen bars of chocolate for at least 6000円.
  • Mickey acquires two figurines for 2500円
  • Dinner at our third okonomiyaki place where the hotplate sees extensive use and melon soda is discovered to be better than reports suggested (not hard).
  • Back to the hotel as the shops shut.
• Fri 30th:
  • Morning shinkansen.
  • Gets us to Hiroshima at some point.
  • Visit the memorial and museum.
  • John buys a suitcase.
  • Late lunch in this underground place, with bartering (between ourselves) and cocktails. John discovers there may in fact be drinks worth paying money for.
  • Lmm runs off to catch the pretty cure all stars movie.
  • Evening karaoke. Ben orders much sake, which is worth it as it arrives in traditional bottles with the little ceramic cups.
  • Dinner is snacks in the karaoke place followed by cakes from the exciting cake shop nearby.
  • Fail to find a mahjong club for 3.
  • A little drinking at a bar. Ben orders much plum wine. John is almost tempted into alcoholism.
• Sat 31st:
  • Himeji on the way, but only for an hour or so.
  • Back to the ryokan.
  • Dinner in that place on the 4th floor near the ryokan, (with the buzzers).
  • Back to Akihabara one last time. John succumbs to temptation and joins the figurine crowd.
  • John and Lmm have a protracted and entirely superfluous negotiation over exchange of mass and volume in suitcases.
  • Dan sees Kappabashi Kitchenware Town Street when it is closed.
  • Dan goes on to a club in Asakusa (in the temple district, near the amusement park).
• Sun 1st:
  • All but Ben and Lmm fly home in the morning.
    • Breakfast in a café in the airport, after a lot of looking for the best option and finding they are all much the same.
• Fertility festival in Kawasaki. It is full of American tourists, and we can't get any lollies.
  • Early lunch at a traditional japanese noodle bar. We watch some baseball.
  • Watch the parade. Haha, penis.
  • Ben heads to book his ferry ticket.
  • Lmm makes a brief ticket to Akihabara, locates (but does not enter, as it is not yet open) the infamous LittleBSD café, then goes to Shinjuku and watches the Strike Witches movie.