Hi Folks,
Well we've recovered from the crazy city that was Tokyo and have fallen in love with Sydney. What an amazing city - no wonder so many ex pats find themselves here. Despite the weather being a bit dodgy so far, we've had a great time with Andrew and Christine being fantastic hosts (and tour guides!).
Today we went on a tour of the Sydney Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, Sydney Tower, the Rocks, and rounded off with a great meal at Meat & Wine restaurant. After a few glasses of wine, i somehow agreed to go for a jog with Andrew at 8am tomorrow. That should hopefully work off some of the cow i devoured!
Planning to go off to Manly tomorrow (weather permitting) with the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley later in the week. If they are anything like what we've seen so far in Sydney, we're in for a cracking time.
Anyway, that's all from me for now. Hope you're all doing well. Ricky.
P.S. I've started to put on some weight after toiling to use chop-sticks these past few days in Tokyo....
Monday, 9 March 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
i hate japanese keyboards
hey guys - quick one before we jump on the plane to sydney. i am typing this at the airport and the keyboard is not getting any easier, i have no idea what i am doing.
i am gutted to be leaving tokyo - we have had a fab time here despite mixed weather, got absolutely soaked yesterday again but it has been lovely and sunny today - we went to shinjinku and shubiya districts yesterday basically to hide in the shops as the weather was so mingin - girls what a place for shopping however mucho pricey - they do shopping malls in style though - 14 floors and underground streets of shops as well - i have never drooled at clothes so much in my life . ohoh keyboard is doing something weird again, hopefully this will come out ok - it maybe underlined though. think its fine - sorry about that, where was i fine - sorry about that, where was i - when it finally did dry up we got to see the most neon i have ever seen in my puff in shubiya-seriously you could see this place from space it was so illuminated - like times square but 20 times bigger and with 20 times squares going off it in each direction and with about 1 million people running around. i have never seen so many people or so many brollies. tokyo obviously gets a lot of rain though as everyshop has an umbrealla stand for you to put your damp brolly in when you go into the shop, how mental. shubiya was very cool though and what i had envisaged tokyo to look like.
today we got a taste of something completely different - the old tokyo by going to seinso -ji a very old shrine quite near to where we were staying - quite awe inspiring to be honest and very humbling when you see everyone running to pray at it. after this we took a boat trip doon the water and got some perspective on how big a place tokyo actually is - fecking massive i think is the official statistic.
we also had our first taste of noodle slurping yesterday, ricky:s scoop and shovel technique may work for rice but it came up kinda short when dealing with slippery soba - did you like my illiteration there - i thought it was very impressive. food was ace but think we ended up wearing most of it, although it was good to be able to slurp away and not feel too embarassed as everyone else was doing it.
really should go - just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone who has written, soz dont have enough time to reply individually today but hopefully in oz will get wifi and can be on for longer - send me all your news. will post some pics soon promise - there are loads of them - you might actually be sick of the sight of tokyo by the time i am finished. sayonara for a final time from japan sob sob speak soon x
i am gutted to be leaving tokyo - we have had a fab time here despite mixed weather, got absolutely soaked yesterday again but it has been lovely and sunny today - we went to shinjinku and shubiya districts yesterday basically to hide in the shops as the weather was so mingin - girls what a place for shopping however mucho pricey - they do shopping malls in style though - 14 floors and underground streets of shops as well - i have never drooled at clothes so much in my life . ohoh keyboard is doing something weird again, hopefully this will come out ok - it maybe underlined though. think its fine - sorry about that, where was i fine - sorry about that, where was i - when it finally did dry up we got to see the most neon i have ever seen in my puff in shubiya-seriously you could see this place from space it was so illuminated - like times square but 20 times bigger and with 20 times squares going off it in each direction and with about 1 million people running around. i have never seen so many people or so many brollies. tokyo obviously gets a lot of rain though as everyshop has an umbrealla stand for you to put your damp brolly in when you go into the shop, how mental. shubiya was very cool though and what i had envisaged tokyo to look like.
today we got a taste of something completely different - the old tokyo by going to seinso -ji a very old shrine quite near to where we were staying - quite awe inspiring to be honest and very humbling when you see everyone running to pray at it. after this we took a boat trip doon the water and got some perspective on how big a place tokyo actually is - fecking massive i think is the official statistic.
we also had our first taste of noodle slurping yesterday, ricky:s scoop and shovel technique may work for rice but it came up kinda short when dealing with slippery soba - did you like my illiteration there - i thought it was very impressive. food was ace but think we ended up wearing most of it, although it was good to be able to slurp away and not feel too embarassed as everyone else was doing it.
really should go - just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone who has written, soz dont have enough time to reply individually today but hopefully in oz will get wifi and can be on for longer - send me all your news. will post some pics soon promise - there are loads of them - you might actually be sick of the sight of tokyo by the time i am finished. sayonara for a final time from japan sob sob speak soon x
Thursday, 5 March 2009
konnichiwa
well hello there and greetings from tokyo - please forgive any spelling mistakes, i am typing this on a japanese keyboard and its rather strange. we cant get wifi here at the hotel so i am using the pc in the hotel lobby.
its been a mad few days, i am still not on actual japanese time yet, its supposed to be 5.10 here but i think its a lot later as i have been awake for hours. we arrived here safely after a really good flight-terminal 5 is ace by the way, far too much temptation to spend the holiday pennies even before you leave the country. we managed to get to the hotel really easy after getting the direct train from Narita Airport to Nippori station which is just a five minute walk away. we then used directions i had got from trip advisor to decipher our way through crowded wee market streets with very heavy bags and arrived at the hotel maybe about 2 hours after landing which i thought was pretty good, considering it was 1hr to get in from the airport. The hotel itself is lovely, so spotless and in a beautiful quiet location. the owner speaks english which has made it a lot easier.
we have done our best so far to look like the local village idiots by not understanding anything but its been great fun and the japanese are so friendly and trying to help us in any way possible-we are still not sure whether they are laughing with us or at us-but hey we are having fun. we ate at the most hilarious bar last night-there were only 4 seats and the other 2 were occupied by locals-we just pointed at things and they sent them our way - we have no idea what we were eating however it tasted delicious. i think they used us as guinea pigs as the owner kept sending more stuff out for us to try but we were so stuffedand couldnt eat any more. they also tried to get us drunk -and succeeded- by plying us with sake. it was such a good night made all the better for being able to interact with some locals who laughed at ricky's attempts to seperate his chopsticks and pulling open the door even though you had to slide it-a minor faux pax i am sure.
tokyo is a land of opposites, there are the most amazing ancient sites sitting next to skyscrapers and super modern technology. yesterday was absolutely pouring so we did what sensible people often do in torrential rain and went for a walk. we got absolutely soaked but we had been sitting down for so long on the flight we needed to stretch our legs. we went to Ueno park which was lovely although i didnt get to the zoo to see the pandas. today we went into central tokyo and to the gardens at the imperial palace which were absolutely stunning and then we went to the electronics district. i have never seen anything so mad in all my life, just block upon block of shops selling various electronics, cabling, phones and games.
the toilets here also deserve special mention-rather confusing at first but they have obviously been set up with the sensitive consumer in mind, they play music, heat up, have different flush sounds, have different water scooshes for your various needs and also light up if its dark-what more could a person want. this is a serious piece of technology which could keep men entertained for hours-books no longer required.
tonight we will take it easy and tomorrow hopefully go and see some ancient temples as well as some karaoke bars-ricky better have his singing voice ready. we fly to sydney on sat night so hopefully will update you again before then-if i can get wifi then i will upload some photies.
loving this place though will be very sad to leave although my feet i am sure will enjoy the rest, blisters ahoy already
sayonara for now chaps xxxx
its been a mad few days, i am still not on actual japanese time yet, its supposed to be 5.10 here but i think its a lot later as i have been awake for hours. we arrived here safely after a really good flight-terminal 5 is ace by the way, far too much temptation to spend the holiday pennies even before you leave the country. we managed to get to the hotel really easy after getting the direct train from Narita Airport to Nippori station which is just a five minute walk away. we then used directions i had got from trip advisor to decipher our way through crowded wee market streets with very heavy bags and arrived at the hotel maybe about 2 hours after landing which i thought was pretty good, considering it was 1hr to get in from the airport. The hotel itself is lovely, so spotless and in a beautiful quiet location. the owner speaks english which has made it a lot easier.
we have done our best so far to look like the local village idiots by not understanding anything but its been great fun and the japanese are so friendly and trying to help us in any way possible-we are still not sure whether they are laughing with us or at us-but hey we are having fun. we ate at the most hilarious bar last night-there were only 4 seats and the other 2 were occupied by locals-we just pointed at things and they sent them our way - we have no idea what we were eating however it tasted delicious. i think they used us as guinea pigs as the owner kept sending more stuff out for us to try but we were so stuffedand couldnt eat any more. they also tried to get us drunk -and succeeded- by plying us with sake. it was such a good night made all the better for being able to interact with some locals who laughed at ricky's attempts to seperate his chopsticks and pulling open the door even though you had to slide it-a minor faux pax i am sure.
tokyo is a land of opposites, there are the most amazing ancient sites sitting next to skyscrapers and super modern technology. yesterday was absolutely pouring so we did what sensible people often do in torrential rain and went for a walk. we got absolutely soaked but we had been sitting down for so long on the flight we needed to stretch our legs. we went to Ueno park which was lovely although i didnt get to the zoo to see the pandas. today we went into central tokyo and to the gardens at the imperial palace which were absolutely stunning and then we went to the electronics district. i have never seen anything so mad in all my life, just block upon block of shops selling various electronics, cabling, phones and games.
the toilets here also deserve special mention-rather confusing at first but they have obviously been set up with the sensitive consumer in mind, they play music, heat up, have different flush sounds, have different water scooshes for your various needs and also light up if its dark-what more could a person want. this is a serious piece of technology which could keep men entertained for hours-books no longer required.
tonight we will take it easy and tomorrow hopefully go and see some ancient temples as well as some karaoke bars-ricky better have his singing voice ready. we fly to sydney on sat night so hopefully will update you again before then-if i can get wifi then i will upload some photies.
loving this place though will be very sad to leave although my feet i am sure will enjoy the rest, blisters ahoy already
sayonara for now chaps xxxx
Monday, 2 March 2009
spaced
well i am feeling pretty out of it at the moment - today has been a blur trying to get everything ready, i still have loads more to do and i am knackered. Aside from trying to actually pack there are so many fiddly things to do such as sort out banking stuff, check flight details, make sure we have everything printed out and of course tidy the flat which at the moment looks as though a bomb has hit it (a mighty big bomb at that)
i have no idea how i managed to fit everything in my case- well thats a lie - i fitted everything in and then i had to take stuff back out as it was too heavy -ooops, so i just transferred stuff into ricky's bag -
"whats that mr murray, you said you packed this bag yourself?" the customs officer booms as he pulls out a set of straighteners.
now it looks as though ricky's case is the heavier of the two but that is due to him having all of my toiletries (as you can imagine there are a few as i dont think you can buy shampoo in australia can you????) and i used to think of myself as a light packer - still at least i think we have everything we need. maybe i should try and sneak in a few more books!!
we said goodbye to little ron yesterday and he was dropped off at his new adopted parents - we had a fairly traumatic morning getting him through to glasgow - he doesnt like the car or getting his toenails clipped - but rikke assures me he is doing great- i have a feeling he wont want to come back home.
so we are off tomorrow - getting picked up by the taxi at 5.45 before our flight to heathrow at 7.30 - must admit am looking forward to seeing terminal 5 and doing a bit of shopping. Our flight to Tokyo is at midday and we land on wed morning at 9am (midnight our time) so we will be knacked but its so mad to think that this time tomorrow we will have only 5 hours until we touch down in japan - i am still finding it hard to believe but i am certainly getting more and more excited - no idea if i will sleep tonight - i hope so as i am shattered.
but anyway just wanted to write a last post before we set off - the next time will be from some far off land, am hoping it wont be too long before i can let you know what we have been up to
be good children, speak soon xx
i have no idea how i managed to fit everything in my case- well thats a lie - i fitted everything in and then i had to take stuff back out as it was too heavy -ooops, so i just transferred stuff into ricky's bag -
"whats that mr murray, you said you packed this bag yourself?" the customs officer booms as he pulls out a set of straighteners.
now it looks as though ricky's case is the heavier of the two but that is due to him having all of my toiletries (as you can imagine there are a few as i dont think you can buy shampoo in australia can you????) and i used to think of myself as a light packer - still at least i think we have everything we need. maybe i should try and sneak in a few more books!!
we said goodbye to little ron yesterday and he was dropped off at his new adopted parents - we had a fairly traumatic morning getting him through to glasgow - he doesnt like the car or getting his toenails clipped - but rikke assures me he is doing great- i have a feeling he wont want to come back home.
so we are off tomorrow - getting picked up by the taxi at 5.45 before our flight to heathrow at 7.30 - must admit am looking forward to seeing terminal 5 and doing a bit of shopping. Our flight to Tokyo is at midday and we land on wed morning at 9am (midnight our time) so we will be knacked but its so mad to think that this time tomorrow we will have only 5 hours until we touch down in japan - i am still finding it hard to believe but i am certainly getting more and more excited - no idea if i will sleep tonight - i hope so as i am shattered.
but anyway just wanted to write a last post before we set off - the next time will be from some far off land, am hoping it wont be too long before i can let you know what we have been up to
be good children, speak soon xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
