Chris + Jennys Japan Adventure

Pictures

2006-08-14T17:18:00.000-01:00

OK, Its been a long time, but since theres so many people who want to see the pictures, and theyre never about when u need them, ive uploaded them all to FlickR - browse at your leisure :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hitch/

Apple store fun

2006-05-22T06:17:00.000-01:00

greetings from jenny and im writing this blog in the coolest apple store ever!!!! chris did try to write but his keyboard wouldnt write in english hehehehe. So as we are getting to the end of the trip things just keep getting grosser. Like rigth now the guy next to me keeps belching (loudly) old men at train stations flemming into bags and just genral hacking up stuff everywhere. Nice. The place we have to stay in tonight is a shithole and the toilet is some hole in the floor which you have to use a tap to flush away your pee....... so chris found out!!!!! Anyway...
Sendai was cool, the hotel was very creepy tho, old lady decor with cats dressed up and frilly tissue box holders that would freak anyone out! We had to sleep with the light on! How old are we?
Right so this will be our last blog and we wanna go cause the guy next to us is really freaking us out!!!!!!!
Take care
XXXXXXXXXX

Back to nowhere

2006-05-20T07:24:00.000-01:00

Hello everyone, Its Chris, im feeling much much better now and i finally have regained my appetite...at the end of the trip! Cake can have my Snoopy poncho, i dont think itll be a catching fashion trend in the streets of Guildford, but in London anything goes. We　travelled from Osaka and the Hotel Kinki down to Himeji, which has an old castle which they filmed part of the last samurai in...though i couldnt quite find which part. We travelled up the 6 storey pagoda fortress to earn our stamps of approval (literally) and by the time we got to bed we had the panpipe man over the road playing Scotland the Brave as when we went to sleep. Next day came with yet more mcDonalds pancakes for breakfast (for those that are wondering, they eat curried rice for breakfast, not a dish we want to indulge in at 8am!) and a trip to Hiroshima, where it chucked it down as we looked around the Peace Park. Theres lots of monuments about where the A-Bomb was dropped on the city 60 years ago and people who died...we werent sure if it was insulting for us to be there or not, since we were on the side of the Allies, but we went around anyway and didnt get too many looks.
Next up was Miyajima. Its true what they say about this place-the whole island is like a mini version of Japan, and it is the most beautiful place in Japan, or the world in my opinion! We really didnt want to leave, but alas we had to after staying the night, otherwise the wild deer might have eaten all our souveniers!
Now were back in the same place we were last Saturday, by Mt Fuji, the weather isnt looking a whole lot better, but at least it isnt raining for once, and we decided to buy an umbrella at last :)
Tomorrow is a 3 hour bullet train ride up to Sendai to see another "top 3 beautiful sights of Japan" place, Matsushima - where they have a temple that contains statues of 5 buddhist deities, which they only show to the public once every 33 years...which is this year, so a must see really!
Ive rambled on for long enough, so ill leave you with the lovely thought that weve taken over 300 pictures that you are ALL going to sit through and listen to us recite this blog again in person ^-^ HAHAHAHAHA!
Well be back on Wednesday and we might be able to write on here once more before then, so keep checkin back and leaving messages :)

Rain rain go away...

2006-05-17T07:06:00.000-01:00

Hey everyone, free internet access woo! So we have now been degraded to snoopy rain ponchos... yes you heard me right! Spent the day at universal studios and it rained the whole time, was almost a waste of the day until i met hello kitty! yay! The new spiderman ride was the best and we even got to kill jaws. Arent we great???? So we need to update everyone on our new interary, so we are spending tonight in Osaka then travel to Himeje tomorow and spend the night. Friday we are traveling and staying in Miyajima then saturday we are going to give Mt Fuji another shot and stay their, Sunday traveling to Sendai spending the night then on Monday we are traveling back to Tokyo and spending a couple of nigths their until we fly back home!

So leave comments guys! I hope its pouring with rain back at home too!
Take care
Hugs and kisses
Jen and Chris

Osaka ka ka kinki

2006-05-16T06:45:00.000-01:00

Hi everyone, were in Osaka　now. Weve changed the itinerary a bit, because we couldnt find the Ninja School we skipped that and went straight to Kyoto - saw a show about Japanese traditions like Geisha and odd music being played on panpipes and bagpipes...and some freaky shadow puppets (couldnt make any sense of it, probably wouldnt have if we spoke the language either!) - I spent the whole of the 2nd day there throwing up and Jenny had to look after me, i think it was a dodgy hot dog (yes were dining with proper japanese cuisine!)
Were spending 2 days in Osaka in the Hotel Kinki (stop laughing) and weve just come back from a massive aquarium thing that was spose to be shaped like a butterfly but looked more like a crushed ice cube. Tomorrow were going to Universal　Studios which should be fun. then thursday it looks like were back on schedule going to Himeji-although we may miss the art museum as nobodys ever heard of it, same as the ninja school! Hiroshima, Miyajima, then all the way back to Tokyo and Sendai which should be a nice 7 hour trip on a bullet train (woot!) Now Jenny wants to type something so ill leave you with a few facts, we havent seen a SINGLE dodgy vending machine, the schoolgirls seem to walk about in uniform 24/7,and if you dont start leaving me some messages im not going to fill this in anymore, grrr. :)
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Yay finally i get the keyboard! Im sooo glad to get out of Kyoto because the inn we stayed at for 2 nights smelled of straw mats. Ergh.　　The hotel we are staying in now is better, we have proper beds which will be better for chris`s back. Yes we do sleep on little thin sort of matress things on the floor when we stay in prpper Japanese inns, if we get western rooms then we get beds. Chris is much better now thankfully, i love him and everything but hearing him throw up all night was not good!!!!!!!! Cant wait for tomorow adn then we are going to see some　proper sights like old castles and things. See ya all soon!!!

MWAH!

Jen and Chris

Welcome to nowhere....

2006-05-13T23:32:00.000-01:00

Hello everyone! Jenny here! finally a english keyboard. Well we a officially in the middle of nowhere. We are staying in a Inn near mt Fuji and the weather is crap believe it or not. The Inn in proper japanese style (with creepy cuboards like out of the Grudge!) and tatami mats on the floor to sleep on, very comfy tho. The Inn also has hot spring baths which are sooooo nice and warm in the rain! We didnt know how to use the hot springs tho, do you go in them naked or not??!! Thankfully you can lock the door to them so they are private so we went rigth for it haha. We are now moving onto Kyoto which is a couple of hours from here so we will post soon. Missing everyone!!!

Hugs and kiss
Jen and Chris

Day 3 of Crazy Japan

2006-05-12T07:09:00.000-01:00

Hello everybody, forgive us but were typing on a japanese keyboard AND ITS CRAZY - AND NOW THE CAPS LOCK HAS BUGGERED UP, FOR GODS SAKE!!!!!
ANYHOO, RIGHT - THE FLIGHT:
12 HOURS ON A PREMIUM ECONOMY SEAT WAS AMAZING, OK CHANGED MIND, CHRIS ENJOYED IT, JENNY HATED IT. SHE ENDED UP THROWING UP 3 TIMES AND NONE OF THE CREW WANTED TO TAKE HER BAG OFF HER (WHO CAN BLAME THEM) - CHRIS DRANK THE PREFLIGHT CHAMPAGNE AND TOOK TRAVEL SICK PILLS, WHICH DIDNT REACT TOO WELL AS HE ENDED UP BEING FUNNY IN THE HEAD OST OF THE FLIGHT...WONT BE DOING THAT AGAIN TOO SOON.

AFTER WE GOT TO THE HOTEL WE PRETTY MUCH PASSED OUT AND DIDNT WAKE UP UNTIL 3AM, AT WHICH POINT WE DECIDED TO CHECK-OUT AND GO FIND SOMEWHERE TO HAVE BREAKFAST. WE FOUND A 24 HOUR DENNYS AND HAD PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST, YUMMY! THEN WE GOT ON THE TRAIN AND ARRIVED AT DISNEYLAND AT 7. THEY TOLD US WE COULDNT CHECK IN UNTIL 3, SO WE STORED THE BAGS AND HEADED FOR DISNEYLAND. IT SPENT MOST OF THE DAY PISSING WITH RAIN BUT JENNY SAID IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF HER LIFE, SHS NEVER LOOKED SO HAPPY! AFTER WE HAD GONE ON ALL THE RIDES WE WENT TO CHECK IN AND ISUPRISED JENNY AS I BOOKED A DELUXE ROOM INSTEAD OF A NORMAL ONE, SOWE WERE TREATED LIKE ROYALTY...OR MAYBE WE WERE TREATED NORMALLY,WERE NOT SURE BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE SO POLITE AND NICE OVER HERE, NOTHING IS TOO GREAT A TASK FOR THEM-AND NOT JUST THE PEOPLE THAT WORK THERE!
AT DINNER WE HAD A CHOICE OF 5 N-HOUSE RETAURANTS, SO WE WENT FOR THE CHEF MICKEYS BUFFET, AND WEOT TO MEET MICKEY AND MINNIE AND THE REST OF THE MEN IN SUITS (HEHE). TODAY WE GOT UP EARLY AND HEADED FOR THE DISNEY SEA PARK, THE WEATHER WAS BOILING AND THERE WAS A DISTINCT LACK OF WATER RIDES FOR A WATER PARK. LACK OF WATER RIDES FOR A WATER PARK. STILL THOUGH, IT WAS A GREAT PLACE BUT ITLL NEVER TOP THE ACTUAL DISNEYLAND.
NOW WEVE CHECKED OUT AND WERE IN THE ELECTRICAL DISTRICT OF TOKYO TRYING TO FIND COOL STUFF, NO OUTRAGEOUS VENDING MACHINES HAVE BEEN FOUND YET-BUT WERE OUTRAGEOUS VENDING MACHINES HAVE BEEN FOUND YET-BUT WERE STILL LOOKING. IN A MINUTE WERE OFF TO YOKOHAMA TO FIND SOMEWHERE TO STAY FOR THE NIGHT, HOPEFULLY WE WONT END UP ON A PARK BENCH! (AND WERE SITTING IN THE DINGIEST LITTLE BOOKSTORE/INTERNET CAFE YOU CAN IMAGINE) :/
WE WOULD POST SOM,E PICTURES BUT SINCE EVERYTHING ON THE SCREEN IS IN JAPANESE, AND IM TYPING ON BOXES FROM MEMORY, I DONT THINK ITLL HAPPEN. WELL CHECK BACK IN WHEN WE CAN :)

Trip Itinerary

2006-05-03T12:05:00.000-01:00

For those of you who want to know where were going, or for those parents that like to keep track of where their kids are, heres a link to our trip itinerary: http://files.ww.com/download.html?id=13986 Towards the end of the trip it might go a bit haywire but were gonna try and stick to it, and if anything changes we'll try and let you know on here.

The first night were staying in the Hotel New Hankyu in Tokyo, looks pretty good, as im sure you'll agree :)

One week to go!

2006-05-03T11:34:00.000-01:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the site where you can keep up to date with our trip round Japan. We'll try and update it whenever we can, after all, out there internet cafe's are more common than homeless guys trying to flog you a big issue! We could call you, but thats very expensive, and with a 9-hour time difference, were not gonna be too happy being woken up by you at 3am!
This way we should also be able to put up a few pictures as well :)