Japan

Homestretch

When you get onto a plane, you always think: "What I really want is to be surrounded by small loud children for my overnight plane." Well, I didn't quite get surrounded

18 Apr 2014
Japan

Narita (成田)

It's actually very hard to tell whether a skyscraper is being built, or whether it's being taken down in Tokyo. The two look very similar as demolution also needs to be done very

17 Apr 2014
Japan

Tōkyō (東京) 2

A note about going to sleep last night, going to bed and turning off the lights was all nice and easy. What was slightly weird was how bright the room was afterwards. And

17 Apr 2014
Japan

Tōkyō (東京)

Waking up in the morning and immediately jumping onto the next Shinkansen to Tokyo! Directly after arriving and getting rid of our luggage, we ran an errand for a friend to buy some

16 Apr 2014
Japan

Nara (奈良市)

For 73 years, minus 5 in the middle, it got to be Japan's first permanent capital. Before that they went through capitals like they went through Emperors. But during these years, Nara managed

14 Apr 2014
Japan

Kyōto (京都市) Steam Engines and Other Trains

Being slightly disappointed about the lack of transportation museum, we decided to take another look at the web page. It's basically a picture, and all the writing is embedded and written in Kanji,

14 Apr 2014
Japan

Fukuoka (福岡市)

Having decided that the current trend of temperatures in the Osaka region were getting ridiculous, we jumped a Shinkansen heading a little closer to the equator. A few hours later, 5 degrees west

13 Apr 2014
Japan

Kobe (神戸市)

Today, a cold chilly slap of reality. Even in Japan, not every train comes at a 5 minute frequency. We had to wait almost 45(!) minutes for our train to Kobe, though we

12 Apr 2014
Kyoto

Kyōto (京都市)

Okay, I admit it. I have to take it back. Osaka station might be able to dock with a spaceship, but Kyoto station is there to dock with the mother ship. With a

10 Apr 2014
Osaka

Ōsaka (大阪) Aquarium

Today was time for the Osaka Aquarium. And a glorious one it was. They did put in quite some effort into a lot of aspects. The feeding times were a beautiful show of

10 Apr 2014
Osaka

Ōsaka (大阪) 2

Today we found the "impregnable" castle from 1583, that is Osaka-Jō. The fact that it's been destroyed about three times since then and is currently reconstructed using concrete is nothing but

09 Apr 2014
Osaka

Ōsaka (大阪)

Having pulled an all nighter the previous day, after which I got about three hours of bad sleep on the plane, falling asleep last night proved to present zero difficulties. Though I can't

08 Apr 2014
Japan

From dawn till dusk. By car, plane, and train.

3 hours of driving, 10 hours of flying, 4 hours of train(ing?), and 5 hours of miscellaneous cuing/waiting/walking later, and Washinoko has finally earnt himself a view from the 22nd

07 Apr 2014
Japan 2014

On Holidays

You know that deep down anticipation you get when you are about to go traveling? Well, being awake for 22 hours, and being sleepy at the beginning of those doesn't exactly help you

06 Apr 2014