That DAMN KURBY

Shibuya

We have been told by people that this was the place for us and boy where they right. We decided to wait out and visit Shibuya at night. It was a Saturday so we were expecting madness. We caught a quick train across town and arrived at Shibuya station. As soon as we exited the station we were greeted by this MASSIVE crossing, well known for its madness. Look it up, Shibuya crossing. If you thought the multiway crossing in George st was big, get a load of this. After crossing over we made our way up the alleys of Shibuya and it was amazing. The lights, the music, it was the perfect Saturday night atmosphere. Loads of shoe stores, gaming arcades, clothing stores and general figures and retail stores. One thing that is awesome about Jp is that they have some of the coolest cheap stores. In Shubya there was this one store, about 6 stories high with nothing over about 600 yen ($10). This is where I found my Glowing fighting Vegeta toy. He’s SO COOL!!!! Oh yeah, and my Dragonball socks and cool new glasses. 

Like I have said before, the atmosphere of Shibuya was like no other, this place was obviously the party, clothing, cool kid part of town and it showed. We wandered our way up the streets, had a couple of goes of winning a Kirby toy at an arcade (failed), stopped by some cool cheap shoe stores and of course, CREPES! Had the most delicious strawberry cheesecake crepe imaginable, so tasty.

It was dinner time and Yasemin was in a particular mood for Sashimi and Sushi, so we went off in search for one that suited our price range :P. After a while of searching we found this restaurant which specified in Sashimi and it was go time. This place was amazing, The seats were surrounding the Chef in his work place, who mind you would have been in his late 60’s and he stood there chopping up and gutting the raw fish to serve to his customers. It was a truly unique experience sitting there watching him cut up, gut and clean your dinner right in front your eyes. English here was limited and our Japanese was basic to do with ordering Sashimi and sushi. We ordered what looked to be tasty or in my book which one looked to be colourful. Salmon roe, fatty tuna, scallops and a bunch of other random tasty fishes. The chef then gave us this bowl of miso soup, with part of a fish carcass in it to add flavour, interesting. Dinner was done and we spent another hour or so wandering the streets, window shopping, attempting to win that Kurby AGAIN!! (failed) and more window shopping. Before the night ended we stopped for another quick bite and I wanted to see how the Japanese take western food. A.K.A Burger King. I had a Nacho burger, not as good as my Chickos Nacho burger, but surprisingly tasty. Corn chips, nacho cheese and Jalapenos, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That was pretty much the end of the night for us in Shibuya, we made our way back stopped for a quick Onigiri and then bed.

Today was a little bit of a late start, after arriving and getting lost we were both pretty tired. We decided to hit up Akihabara the capital of Tech stores. We arrived there and were both greeted by this Massive store. Imagine JB HI FI but 9 Stories high. with each department having its own story. It was HUGE!!! It was also a bit of a shock just to see how cheap everything was. Of course I was straight off to the Games dep, and brand new games for around $40 was crazy. Im pretty sure I’ll be grabbing a 3DS soon, considering how cheap they were, and how many exclusive Jap games there were. Was also totally chuffed that I got to fully test out the up coming Playstation Vita. It comes out in Aus mid 2012 I think, but next week here in Jp. Pretty awesome, graphics are that of a Ps3 and easily beat an Xbox. Afterwards we headed around the streets of Akihabara. Just imagine these packed streets full of high rise buildings just for Tech stores, gaming arcades, restaurants, adult stores and more which were just glowing with neon lights. It was buzzing and it was SWEEEEEET. We soon grabbed dinner and It was time for our first Ramen from Japan. It was just what I wanted and expected from a traditional ramen house. Rundown tables, a coupIe of standing zones to eat at, traditional banners and 2 old men cooking behind a counter. I can’t tell you much about the ramen I had, mainly because I had no Idea what it was or what was in it, but it tasted great!! More walking around and window shopping followed, then Crepes. Delicious delicious crepes. One of the best things about this part of town, apart from its thousands of tech stores and gaming arcades was how the streets were so alive. At one corner there was a Final Fantasy presentation going on, promoting the release of the new game and around another corner there was an Optimus Prime and a Bumblebee from transformers and a bunch of presenters. All this on a thursday night. We pretty much called this a night, took a train home and called it a night. Mind you at about 1am. Early I know. I know for certain that I will be back again and this time not leaving empty handed.

So we arrived in Japan a little later than expected and of course I needed something to panic about, for me tonight it was about making it to our hotel in time before the cut off. Surprisingly enough there was a lot of English in the Airport so navigating was easy. Only problem was, whilst Yas and I were searching around for a pay phone everyone disapeared and the Airport was a total ghost town. So lugging around 6 awkward bags weighing about 80kg all up going through Quarantine, then through Customs, writing the same information about Passport information over and over again we both got edgy quick, but that soon changed when we found our first Conbini in the Airport. (Convenience store) A wall of colourful random soft drinks from Grape Fanta to Boss Coffee to Corn drink and some really tasty cheap food got us back in to excited moods. We finally got onto our Hotel and sorted everything out which was a massive burden off our shoulders. Making our way around we finally got to Narita Train station and boy was it organised! Even the inside of the train was enough to make City rail look like the most unorganised and worthless crap ever. Reclining seats, with cup holders, desk trays, personal heaters and tv’s showing your progress during the ride, news and weather. After about an hours ride we made it to Shinjuku where we had our first real conversation with a non English speaking train guard and got information for a connecting ride to Jimbocho. Not going to lie, we have become the very thing I hated back in Aus, those lost standing around confused tourists with massive bags. I feel their pain now. After several flights of stairs and a short train ride we made it to Jimbocho the Bookstore district. It was about 10pm local time (12 Australian) and we were instantly lost as we excited the station. Our phones were not working, maps were SO confusing and we had no idea where our hotel was. The weather was actually really nice. Anyone that really knows me then knows that I love the cold weather. And it was COLD! No wind, just cold. After half an hour of little progress we decided to ask someone for directions. We asked this random person and he spoke absolutely no English, which was what we both expected but secretly hoped he spoke English. With Yasemin’s help he understood “Sakura Hotel.” He then, told us to wait and just sprinted away, across the road and out of site. We sat around for about 10-15 minutes, the idea of a Taxi was sounding good, expensive, but good. Then around a corner the guy (who just finished work mind you) ran back straight at as, handed us a map with directions written up for us thanked him a million times and then he left. We were amazed and both agree that he was the nicest man we ever met. We finally got to our hotel and settled down into our extremely small room with a double bed, tv and a chair. We were soon back out on the streets looking for food and no joke there are vending machines and Conbini’s EVERYWHERE!!!!! Drinks for 100 yen (about $1.10) and meals for 250 yen (about $3) are most likely what we will be living off from now on. They are cheap, easy accessible, surprisingly filling and TASTY! A couple of hours in and we were already eating some random substance in a bun. Don’t know what it was, but it was cheap and tasty. That pretty much summed up our first day, in extreme depth mind you which i’m sure won’t be happening as often. A day of excitement, nerves, stress and relief, oh and Chicken. Until tomorrow. Sleepy time.

Liam 

Hey guys, so I thought I would do what every other traveller does and keep an online journal. This is just my lazy way to tell everyone at once about what sort of adventures Yas and I are getting up to in our 6 month trip around Japan. This is our very first full scale trip overseas and to be honest, I have been really really nervous (and pumped!!) as we are pretty much winging it. Whatever happens, happens. So currently sitting in the lounges at Gold Coast Airport, Im pretty terrified (mainly because of my lack of knowledge on the Japanese language.) but oddly excited at what will meet us on the other side. Anyways I have a plane to catch. Next stop Narita, Tokyo!!!