Sanrio and Salsa

Posted on September 9, 2011 by admin

Tuesday we wanted to take it easy as we were tired from Monday and planned on going to the Ghibli Museum on Wednesday.

So we thought we would go look at some shops, and Sanrio World at Ginza was our destination. Sanrio is the brand that makes Hello Kitty among others, but I wasn’t as impressed with Sanrio World as I hoped to be. It was the Flagship store and They had a lot of Hello Kitty and Twin Stars branded key chains and but a lot of this stuff I didn’t have room to take back home, so it was a bit of a let down.

There was cool things like ceramic dinnerware and electric fans etc. We did buy a few small things though, and I got myself a Hello Kitty in a peach mobile phone decoration.

We had lunch as Mos Cafe, which is like Mos Burger if you have ever had that. I was pretty tasty.

Next we popped into Muji. It is a very cool store. Mingaling says it is a bit like Ikea in that it had a whole range of lifestyle goods, but the style is more simple and/or minimalist.

I liked a room they had which showcased a whole bunch of their stuff and how you could use and store it for disaster preparedness. They had a bunch of vacuum packed food and other efficient style goods.

Mingaling bought some glasses there too. They were only 15,000 yen, and they were ready with her correct lenses included within 30mins! That is super cheap (for glasses) and super efficient!

At Dinner time we met up with Marichan’s friend Ya-chan back at our local train station and she took us to a large Toyshop. Argh the Sylvanian Families! I want to buy them all! But instead I bought…none! *weep*

We met her friend Hollychan there and off we went for dinner at a yummy Okonomiyaki place where we tried traditional and non-traditional Okonomiyaki. We had a great time. They had both stayed in NZ for a year as teenagers in Lower Hutt. They said they really miss Cookie Time biscuits, and when I was in Thailand one of my friends said the same thing! So all you NZers reading this, better enjoy your cookie time biscuits, cos you can’t get them overseas, and if you travel abroad, maybe bring a pack for your hosts!

While chatting away, we found out that Hollychan did Salsa dancing too! So after dinner she took us to a Salsa club and we had some great dances! I wish I had worn better shoes, cos I felt like a Clumpy McClumperson with my walking shoes on. You just can’t do the fast spins in them! Also, it was ladies night, so we didn’t have to pay the usual entry fee (about 1,500 yen) and all the guys seem to have been dancing for about 10 years, and a lot of them spoke very good English, but that doesn’t really matter when you are dancing.

If you are thinking of Salsa dancing in Tokyo then head to Las Risas!

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Tokyo Disneyland

Posted on September 9, 2011 by admin

On Monday we decided it would be a good day to visit Tokyo Disneyland. We did our research online and figured that Monday might be a good quiet day to visit.

We set off earlyish in the day so we could get there just after it opened. It is easy enough to get to by train and well sign posted. As soon as we were through the gates we headed off to get at fastpass to Pooh’s Honey Hunt. We had read online that it was a ride that was exclusive to Tokyo, and that it was very popular.

Getting a Fastpass meant that we would get an allocated hour in which to go back to go on the ride and a much shorter wait time. It is a pretty awesome system, as you can go grab a bite to eat, shop or go on a ride with a shorter queue while you wait for your time on the fast pass.

However, for the most part every time we looked at any queues they were generally 30-40 mins wait anyway. I think this was only because we went during off season on a Monday. We heard later from some Japanese girls that they once waited 3 hrs to go on Pooh’s Honey Hunt!

We went on the following rides, and they were all awesome, but all in Japanese, but you could figure out what was happening most of the time:

– The Haunted mansion, featuring Jack Skellington and the gang from Nightmare before Christmas.
– Splash Mountain
– Pooh’s Honey Hunt (worth the hype, this was our favorite ride. Super cute, smells like honey, carts controlled by GPS with no tracks, disorientating and slightly trippy = awesome!!)
– It’s a Small World
– Tea cups
– Thunder Mountain
– Captain EO (a 3D film from the 80s starring Michael Jackson)
– Buzz Lightyear
– Space Mountain
– Pirates of the Caribbean (larger than the one I saw as a kid and starring animatronic Johnny Depp)
– Monsters Inc
– Pooh’s Honey Hunt (that’s right, we went again, just as the fireworks finished going off – devious planning there, plus we were in a different cart so we got to see more)

We also forked out for the expensive, but Disney themed food. Soo cute, and pretty tasty too. We ended up buying a few trinkets as well. It was hard to resist.

Another great thing about the time we visited was that it was Halloween season already (yeah 2 months ahead of time). So that meant customers were invited to dress up as Disney characters and I got some fun photos of people all dressed up. It was great because we didn’t see all that many of the characters and kinda skipped the parades to go on rides instead.

We ended up getting back to the Hotel about 10pm, so it was a full on day, but very fun.

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Thailand to Tokyo

Posted on September 4, 2011 by admin

I bought a new phone in Thailand before I left with the help of my brother’s girlfriend translating for me. It’s the Nokia c5-03 in white and lime. Not that flash, but I needed a new phone and it can roam in Japan and other countries, so that should be good for any further travels too.

I also tried out those fish that nibble on your feet as a beauty treatment. They were actually pretty good, I had to try really hard not to think about how it was a group of animals feeding off me. It was really really ticklish, and I found it pretty creepy. It was like wearing fish shoes, or like being one of those sea creature pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean. Some of them almost climbed out of the water up my ankles to eat more! But I would go again.

It was really lovely to spend time with my brother and his girlfriend, and I won’t stay with them when I go back, but I will visit. His girlfriend was so helpful ordering my 3am taxi to the airport and giving directions for the taxi driver when he couldn’t find their place.

I met up with Mingaling at Narita airport yesterday and we just headed to our hotel and relaxed, had instant noodles for dinner and caught up on gossip. Ming had a surprisingly tasty lychee and salt drink too.

Today we decided to take it pretty easy, so that meant we went to Akihabara and checked out the ‘electric town’. It was cool. I bought an extra battery for my camera and we had a lot of fun checking out some of the collectable toy shops and the cosplay costumes.

We had a really yummy lunch at a restaurant there, but we had to order the specials because they had photos and we couldn’t read the menus. It was still super yummy.

Then we looked at some more stores and went back to the hotel to chill out for a bit and plan the evening. We decided to head to a Yakitori place that we had read good reviews for online. It was called Ganchan and half way between the Roppongi and Azabu Juban subway stations. We had the special course menu.. It wasn’t cheap, but it was sooooooo worth it! Delicious! We also had some plum liquor, although the label said it was Japanese-apricot liquor made with subsoil (I think that meant ‘mineral’ or ‘underground spring’) water.

On our adventure to find Ganchan we also walked into a 100 yen store and bought some little souvenirs. We quite enjoy just walking around and looking at stuff.

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Relaxing in Bangkok

Posted on August 25, 2011 by admin

So I haven’t updated much as I have just been relaxing for the most part. So here is a lists of my likes and dislikes so far:

Let’s start with dislikes so I can end on a good note:

– Traffic. It’s not very good here.
– Mosquito bites. Sooo itchy.
– Stomach upsets. You just can’t avoid them if you want to eat intesting food here. Luckily I’ve got medication for it from when I went to India.
– The heat! I’m used to it, but doesn’t mean I enjoy it.
– Finding clothes my size. Not that I should buy anything, but it is something to consider.
– Being away from my friends for the good times and the sad times (unfortunately).
– Missing my neice and cats and the rest of my family too!

Likes:

– Visiting old friends and family again.
– Going for a 1 1/2 hr massage with an old friend from NZ.
– Playing with my brother’s girlfriend’s cousins kids. They made me think of me and Giffle when we were the same age.
– Going swimming every second day or so. I’m staying with my brother and his girlfriend out of Bangkok and their compound has a swimming pool. Refreshing!
– Food glorious food! All the favorites that I can’t get in NZ. Do not even get me started on the fruit! I am very contented. Everyday my brother rings me up on his way home from work and asks what I want for dinner, then he buys it for me from the market.
– Prices. From the market most meals cost less than 50 baht, ie about $2. I am very tempted to stay for a while if I am too broke after Japan next month. I looked at accommodation and studio apartments can run about 5,000 baht a month, depending on how flash it is and location. Depends if I can find work though. Plus I still have my visa for UK.. Anyway, back on track…
– 7-11s I don’t know what is it about these convenience stores, but I like the variety in them and that there is everything in travel sizes. Or just shopping in general. I really like shopping in Bangkok. I have deliberately avoided my usual shopping haunts as I am saving up for Japan.
– Going to the movies. If you go in Thailand make sure you stand up for the King’s song! Me and my Bro went to see Larry Crowne, which I enjoyed.

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Hay on Wye and back to London

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

Hay on wye was pretty good. After a bit if confusion over bus times and where our bed and breakfast was we eventually got there, and it was a beautiful place to stay.

We got there in time for a market the next day so we had a good time shopping and looking for books. It was a really good way to end the traveling around and just calmly enjoy being there.

I had some more sore feet troubles and looked for shoes, but they only had them in the wrong sizes, however I did buy a Mac in a sack (rain jacket that fit in a pouch/bag). I probably should have bought this the first time we were here, but I’m sure I will still get a lot of use out of it.

We had some good pub food, and even managed to visit a laundromat! I bought a few things to send home for the family as well. I hope that people like them.

When we got to London it was sad to part ways with my friends. I spent most of my time in London hanging out with Drifter, shopping or hanging out with my wonderful hosts M&L. I saw the Sherlock Holmes mini series, which I really enjoyed. I also watched Captain America with Drifter and friends.

I hadn’t been paying any attention to the news, so only really heard about the riots the night before I left when the supermarkets had closed early to avoid any possible rioters. I left the next morning and it didn’t look like it had affected our area at all.

I had a 7hr stopover in Bahrain, and they have a lounge you can pay to go into which was definitely worth it.

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Edinburgh and The Orange Tree

Posted on August 3, 2011 by admin

Our two nights in Edinburgh were pretty good. It was great to be back among English speakers and to watch TV! But that’s not all we did. Although it was really nice to just spend some time relaxing.

Both nights we went to dinner at Mum’s comfort food restaurant, which I think used to be called Monster Mash, and specializes in Bangers and mash. I was very tasty.

On the second day. We went to see Edinburgh castle and unfortunately there was a long queue. It would have been smarter to have got our tickets online or at the tourism info centre first, but none of us thought about that. We got inside in time to see the 1 o clock gun being fired and then I split up from the other two go have some lunch. We caught up later though. My favorite parts were seeing the royal jewels and the stone of destiny, and the national war memorial has some lovely carving and glass windows too.

We quite liked tourist shopping and Star bought some gloves from a pretty store called Ness. I got my little niece a dress and a mini kilt, not very authentic, but pretty cute. I hope she can fit it!

We enjoyed just walking around town, and we popped into the library so that Star (who is a librarian) could see how they ran things there. We were impressed by the blow-up dalek that they had in there.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time there to stay for any of the festival things that were just starting up, so maybe I will have to go back again sometime.

After Edinburgh we took a train to Oxenholm because Svendlemouse’s brother in law’s mother and her husband lived near there in Kirkby Lonsdale. We stayed one night with them and it is a really lovely town.

We had a good walk around and got to see Devil’s bridge and Ruskin’s view which was famously painted by an artist and declared a ‘beautiful view’ which had a ‘perfect balance’ of river, field, sky etc. It was very beautiful, and funny because there was a stripy building painted all colours, like an allsorts lolly, because the owner had been denied a building consent due to the fact it might ruin the view… So he decided to ruin it anyway by painting this existing building! It looks kinda cool though.

For dinner we went to The Orange Tree Hotel pub. It was a very cool rugby pub with yummy food and you could get a sampling of the beers from their micro brewery arranged on a platter shaped like tree, and the glasses were the oranges.

The next morning we also got to Skype with Svendlemouse’s sister, brother in law and baby niece. It was lovely to see them and his little niece is so cute and cheerful!

Now we are on the way to Hay on Wye for a few days.

As a side note: I am currently reading The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which is very good, and playing Tiny Wings on my iPad a lot.

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Rome

Posted on July 31, 2011 by admin

I am writing this while on the plane to Edinburgh. We had about four days in Rome and it was pretty good. After getting off the train we found our first place to stay (for just one night) and then went for a walk around the city, there seemed to be some kinda of ceremony for someone who had died (possibly military) as the traffic was all cordoned off at Piazza Della Republica and we saw a police car/hearse with a coffin covered with an Italian flag inside it. We visited the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and a few other sites nearby before it really started to pore with rain as we were heading back to our very hot apartment.

The next day we dropped our bags off at the reception for the next apartment and went to see the Colloseum, Palatine hill and the Roman Forum. We decided to join a tour as it meant we got to skip the queue and it would be nice to have some form of structure to the visit. I think it was worth it, it meant we were directed to see things that we might not have noticed, like the map of Jerusalem at the victory entrance, heard interesting facts without having to struggle around other tourists at the few info signs, and the guide was good about making sure we stood in the shade, and showed us where things like the water fountains and bathrooms were. You also got a good bit of time to look around for yourself or rest up too.

The guided tour was so good that we also decided to shell out the cash to do another tour with the same guide at the Vatican the next day. My feet were so sore, so I think it was really worth having the guide so we could see all the highlights, but not wander around for ages. We had to get up really early, but if we hadn’t planned on doing the tour then I suspect we would have slept in and had to queue a really long time. Also the heat really gets to you, so it pays to go before it got too hot. I like that they make tour groups use a microphone for the guide and headsets for the tourists. It’s so that they don’t have all these booming guide’s voices ruining the holy calm.. Not sure if it works. But it also keeps the tourists quiet, because in the Sistine Chapel they had to keep shushing everyone. This was because they want it to be quiet, so they get the tour guides to explain lots of the details at the start of the tour, and then you just get 20mins to have a look at the chapel on your own.

Not only is the artwork interesting to look at, but the stories about them are fascinating as well.

Yesterday was our relaxing day, which, after all the heat and hours of walking on marble, we really needed. We got to sleep in, and then headed to look at this cemetery at the Pyramide. It was the Non-catholic and foreigners cemetery and it really peaceful and very pretty. Also Keats and Shelley are buried there.

I thought the guide was joking when he told us that the Pyramide was the local cat shelter (some joke about Cleopatra and her cats), but it was true, and there were lots of cute cats about! It really made me miss Mayalin and Totoro! Especially as there was one that looked a bit like Maya!

After that we wandered about town a bit more, having gelato and Star bought a new dress. We were really tired and fed up with the heat so decided to walk back to our place via Santa Maria Maggiore, which was pretty inside and had some nice mosaics and paintings. They were also doing some chanting so it was nice and cool and peaceful.

This morning we had to get up early for our flight on Ryan air… Sooo annoying! We lined up for a long time in the wrong queue (ok, kinda our own fault, but it was very confusing), then we lined up for a long time in our queue, then had to line up again as its not allocated seating at the gate. We got there early so we wouldn’t miss out, and then they didn’t board us until after we were supposed to take off! Not that bad, but they could have made some kind of announcement! We even waited for ages just sitting in the plane. Oh well, I’m sure we saved heaps of money.

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Venice

Posted on July 28, 2011 by admin

Ok, so I’m feeling bad because I need to update my pictures, but it’s too much like real work and I don’t want to it yet.

We only really had a short time in Venice as we got in that morning on the sleeper train (not as fun as I had hoped – no sleep!) and we left the next day at midday. We had rented an apartment for the night, and while the guy was friendly, and let us go in about 5 hrs before we said we would, the hot water didn’t work!

We spent most of the day at Murano, where the shopping bug first it us. The glass is so pretty and I only bought a few small things. It was neat seeing the demonstration of how they blow the glass, shape it and add various pigments. It was also a very hot sunny day, which was a nice change to what we had experienced recently.

Next we had pizza for lunch/dinner then headed to the area around Saint Marco’s Basilica and had a good look at the interesting buildings and shops there. We didn’t get there in time to go into the Basilica, but we did see the clock tower chiming which was cool.

The next day we went for a bit more of a walk around and sampling of food before catching our train to Rome.

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Vienna

Posted on July 28, 2011 by admin

Our time in Vienna had some awesome moments, but was also very sad because while we were there Star’s grandmother passed away. During our travels Star had told me various stories about her Grandmother, and I got the impression that she was a wonderful person and a precious part of Star’s childhood and life.

We were lucky that we had free wifi at our hotel, so we were all able to catch up with family and she could stay in contact with her brother and parents. Skype was used a lot.

Our chat to my sister and neice was a good distraction, with Sweets wanting to show off her Teddy bear and Baby doll and get her mum to put a nappy on them for her. I think she was amused with our singing to her, and she liked to show off her jumping and shout “Ta Daa!” She is still a wonderful delight to us all. I hope my poor sister gets over her fluey cough soon!

We were only in Vienna a short time, but managed to eat schnitzel and apple strudel and I tried Sacher Torte because I was told to. We visited the Schloss Schon brunn Garden and the hedge Labyrinths there was cool for the games you can play there, like the dance glockenspiel and this math puzzle which I will attach a picture of and you can try and figure it out.

We also went to the zoo, but it started raining while we were there, so it wasn’t much fun. Though, we saw the pandas (but they mostly hid from us), rhinos, hippos, giraffes and giant tortoise.

On the day we left we went to Stephansdom which has an awesome roof, and some interesting carvings inside. Then we walked to the Sisi Museum, Imperial Chambers and Silverware collection which were all very interesting, and I bought a little zipper pull of one of the stars that Sisi was famous for wearing. After that we walked to the museum quarter and then headed back to the station to jump on our sleeper train to Venice.

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Art: Ancient Greek and Dali

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

I already wrote half this post, then forgot to save! So this update will be much shorter than planned.

First I went to the Alte Museum in the Museums island area near where we were staying. But I was museumed out so only looked at the Greek myths and legends and jewelry section. I decided to skip the Neue Museum due to the queue.

It was pretty miserable and rainy on Friday, ghost kite got injured and has since retired due to getting the plastic ripped at the button which kept the hood on. I have picked up a new tourist style rain poncho, who is nicknamed the Grey Ghost! He was free at an underground station.

I then went to hackescher Markt, where I looked around the hackescher hofe, which was a pretty neat boutiquey place, and had the original traffic light man shop. The traffic light man is cute because he is kinda funny shaped (only has 1 arm on the go light) and wears a hat. But didn’t buy anything.

Then I went to potsdamer platz again. Nearby I saw a symbol on the map for a remaining watch tower so I went and took a photo of it. It was right by the Salvidor Dali Museum so I decided to hide from the rain and go for a look. It was very interesting art work, and I liked the Alice in wonderland series and also the sculptures best.

Then I went to grab lunch and wander around the shops until I went to see Bad Teacher at the movies and have Nachos and Beer in the cinema. Because I could, and it suited the tone of the movie I think.

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