Japanorama: on the road

Another update coming at you from the Shinkansen. We are currently heading to Matsumoto from Nagoya. Since my last update we've been travelling around a bit with stops in Hiroshima, Kobe and Nagoya. We've been doing heaps of walking each day hitting between 10 and 15 kilometres. Hopefully burning off all the great food & drink we are consuming.

Deer at Miyajimi like maps and cakes (just ask Amanda about the cake)

The first afternoon in Hiroshima we went for a look at the castle and around the A-bomb dome and peace park. The castle is nice but probably a little pointless if you've been to numerous others in Osaka or elsewhere. The following day we went for a day trip to the beautiful island of Miyajima. It is a beautiful place and I'd highly recommend a day or two there if you are ever travelling around in Japan.

Miyajima craft beer & a fish cake wrapped in bacon & cheese!

Rather quickly we were headed back to Kobe, the main reason for stopping in so close to Osaka was to attend the Punkspring music festival. (I'll write more about this in another post). We apart from the festival we had a quiet couple of days but did have some amazing pork rolls and crispy skin duck pancakes in Kobe's Chinatown. One night we stopped at a small but well decorated bar, we ordered two beers which ended up being half foam. Slowly drank them, then decided to leave and head elsewhere. The bill for two beers ended up being nearly $24! The beers were 600 yen each and we also got charged 500 yen each for entering the bar. I believe this might be a typical thing for small bars but I'm far from impressed at paying $12 for a half foam beer. I wish I got the name of the place so I could warn others from going there.

Last night was an overnight stop in Nagoya. We went on the (free) Asahi brewery tour yesterday afternoon which I have mixed reports about. The tour itself was very sterile and you didn't get to see much. I've had better tours in Australia and Ireland. The draw card is however the 3 free decent sized beers you get at the end. Again you have to question if it's worth it as you have to take the train around 15 mins from Nagoya station, then walk another 15-20 to the factory. The beers you taste are their standard ones which you could buy for under $2 each in vending machines or shops located everywhere. Even the Asahi merchandise shop was rather poor.

Weird stuff in Japan can be found everywhere

Last night was another visit to the restaurant chain Yamachan for some Tebasaki (Nagoya specialty deep fried chicken wings). These are awesome, best wings ever. (Sorry Franks Red Hot sauce). They have multiple stores in most major cities so when in Japan check one out.

Today we making use of the last days of our JR rail pass and are headed to Matsumoto in the Nagano region to check out the castle. Tomorrow we'll be headed back to Osaka for the last third of our trip.

The stupidly expensive bar in Kobe

Japanorama: Touchdown Osaka

Shinsekai area. Right near where we stay.

We are here! Holy crap it's great to be back in this city again.

The overnight commute sucked though. We didn't leave our house until about 11pm and sat in the tiny Koror airport until about 1:30am. It's a 2 hour flight to Guam which is one hour ahead, so we arrived towards 5am. Another two hours on the ground before leaving around 7am for a 4 hour flight here. Our eyes were ready to drop out of our skulls. Luckily the flight to Osaka was almost empty so we both had three seats each and managed to get some good napping in.

We've had a productively lazy first day here. We've eaten Udon, Tempura, Takoyaki, Sushi, Kushikatsu and compared the new Asahi Gold vs my old favourite Asahi Black. Like recent afternoons back in Palau we even managed to watch the Sumo.

Sumo + Beer tasting!

Outside of the restaurant

What I have managed to be productive with is using this amazing new tool called the internet to update things like; my phones firmware, 50 odd phone applications, laptop OS to windows 8.1, various PC applications and just generally get a whole bunch of various stuff down. WINNING!

Oh and I even managed to fit in a soak in the onsen!

The melt in your mouth sushi

Tomorrow Amanda wants to do some shopping then we'll hopefully visit what is possibly my favourite restaurant in the world (tough call i know) and then off to Kyoto tomorrow night to check out some lantern festival.

Official Japan Flashback Day!

I hear-by decree that the 21st of May each year will be "Official Japan Flashback Day"! For some time now I've been having regular flashbacks to any of my three trips to Japan. I had another one this morning, flashing back to hanging out in Osaka, drinking boss coffee (or Asahi Dry Black!), eating kombini chicken karaage and just watching the world go by. It was so realistic that I felt if I could just concentrate a little bit harder I'd go through some sort of portal and I'd suddenly be right there back in Hotel Raizan South, Osaka. Maybe with the addition of one of those movie special effects where the air seems to wobble and shimmer as I port between Brisbane and Osaka.

Guess who this is...

The past two years running I've spend almost all of May in Japan with the 21st of May 2011 spent checking out various parts of Tokyo with my mates Al & Shinsuke before drinking some big talking Polish guy under the table at nomihodai (all you can drink). After a brief stop so I could play silly buggers in a kids playground (hey i was drunk!), we proceeded to the laundromat do our overdue washing before we left for Hiroshima the next day. Unfortunately for him, old Polish mate passed out in the laundromat and in my drunken state I decided we needed to adorn his head with a pair of girls underwear. Despite it being late at night and the laundromat being completely empty the universe did indeed provide! The very first washing machine I opened had a full load of clean washing sitting there all lonesome without an owner in sight. On the very top of the pile was a pair of female underwear sitting right there, just waiting to become the new stylish hat of a passed out, drunk Polish man. The rest of the night is rather blurry (well actually all of the night it is rather blurry) but I recall doing my best Henry Rollins impersonation while wearing only a small pair of gym shorts, then I recall being kicked by the manager who wanted to lock up. The best bit of the whole night was that somehow we managed to account for every item of clothing. We leave none behind!

About the best photo I took of a cloudy Fuji-San

...And just because you probably think I'm a bogan Aussie drunkard after that story I'll tell you about the 21st of May 2012 now. It was a polar opposite day to the year before but just as memorable. For my second trip to Japan I tagged out my mate Al and tagged in my (future) wife Amanda. We caught up with Shinsuke again who kindly drove us out to spend an amazing day around Fuji-san (Mt Fuji). Fuji-san is a very beautiful mountain and I can see why it is held in such reverence in Japanese culture. It really is quite incredible to behold up close and has a very serene shrine at the base of the mountain.We spend many hours slowly wandering around the shrine and watching the clouds roll over the top of Fuji-San from an opposite hill. We finished the day having a couple of beers and eating some Tebasaki (Nagoya specialty deep fried chicken wings). There were no repeats of the 'all you can drink' craziness, the panties wearing Polish man nor the drunken Henry Rollins impersonations this time around.

So this brings us to today the 21st of May 2013 - The first annual Official Japan Flashback Day! The best I could do today was to drag my mate Ben down to the local Sushi Train for some overpriced but passable Sushi. While the company was still good, being in Brisbane and not in Japan was a little disappointing. I think a trip back to Japan (Osaka in particular) will be high on the cards if Amanda & I need a break from the laid back, small town, tropical island lifestyle of Palau.