Given her enthusiasm for the trip, Natasha did most of the planning. This saw us travelling to Kobe by bus on Saturday 23rd March and catching a Skymark flight to Tokyo's Haneda Airport. On Saturday and Sunday nights we stayed at the APA Hotel Nishiazabu (near Roppongi!) before making our way to Yokohama on Monday morning to check into the Mielparque Hotel (easily the fanciest I've stayed at in Japan so far) for the next two nights. On Wednesday after the conference, we legged it back to Haneda and transitted in Kobe before finally making it home late that night. Having booked our flights quite some time in advance, we were able to get return flights for around 20,000yen (or 200AUD) each. Bus tickets ran to about 50AUD a head. And by sharing a room (rather squishy at APA, but huge at Mielparque) we dropped less than 150AUD p/p on accommodation for the 4 nights. Winning.
Have a look at what we got up to!
Saturday 23 Feb: Travelling to Tokyo and clubbing in Roppongi.
Making sure we left ourselves enough time to get to the airport in Kobe, I arranged to meet Natasha at her place at 8am on Saturday morning. Having not gone to bed until about 4am, this was far too early for me though we made it without incident to her local highway bus stop and arrived at Kobe Airport with enough time to grab a restaurant lunch (club sandwiches, yum) before jetting off for Tokyo.
Our flight landed in Haneda 15minutes after schedule (rather unheard of in Japanese travel actually) and after collecting our stuff we moseyed on through to the monorail to make our way towards Roppongi. Not realising it would be so late when we got into town, we were a bit under the pump time-wise to drop our stuff off, make it to Harajuku for a crepe and to meet James (an ex-Tokushima ALT and Natasha's friend). Less than hour later though we found ourselves doing just that - wolfing down a crepe (this time I tried a blueberry and cream cheese one) and browsing H&M waiting for James to arrive. The guys waited for me to finish my shopping and then we trained into Shinjuku to eat at Lock Up Restaurant - a hilarious theme izakaya (Japanese-style tapas pub restaurant) where bad guys, mental patients and cops run around during the "show" generally just tormenting patrons in a good-natured way. Getting handcuffed and led downstairs to our table by a hot young Japanese waitress in a cop outfit was definitely the highlight of my dinner...
Dinner with Natasha and James @ Lock Up, Shinjuku.
Picture courtesy of Natasha H.
Shinjuku!
Picture courtesy of Natasha H.
After dinner, we'd arranged to meet my friend (by way of Myanmar holiday) Yuki for a taste of clubbing in Roppongi. Yuki took us first to a little pre-game bar downstairs before we all headed over to Vanity Nightclub. Despite being able to get in free and fast for being foreign girls, we decided to wait with Yuki in a move that saw us spend over an hour in the queue! Once inside though, the club did not disappoint. Featuring a DJ from LA, crazy hot and weirdly dressed promo guys and girls, ivy covering the roof, stuffed fluffy exotic animals tangled everywhere and the brightest white surfaces, Vanity ranks as one of the top 5 clubs in the world that I've ever been to. Unfortunately, they seemed to have a STRICT no photographs policy and every time we dared to whip the camera out we were quickly chastised for doing so. Despite agreeing to an early night, Natasha and I didn't make it back to the hotel until around 6am - deciding to accept the fact that Sunday sightseeing wouldn't begin until at least midday now.
Sunday 24 Feb: Odaiba and Yakiniku.
Dragging ourselves out of bed in the late morning, Natasha and I decided to bypass Kamakura (as was the plan) and head to Odaiba instead to check out a few of the more touristy sights. We went to the Future Museum (where my hangover hit me full force) and then walked across to see the Gundam (giant robot) before hunting down Lady Liberty for a slightly bizarre experience. Hangover aside, Odaiba was great and I'd say a must-see for tourists, but the wind was incredible there and truthfully, I wouldn't EVER go back in winter time again.
Gundam-style in Odaiba!
Standing in front of Little Lady Liberty.
Running late getting back to town after Odaiba (and getting lost in the maze that is Shinjuku Station) we met up with my Aussie mate Ricky for some good old fashioned BBQed meat. Unable to find the original place we were looking for we accidentally stumbled into an offal yakiniku place - only realising our mistake once we'd sat down and requested the advertised English menus. A quick decision was made to leave and we gathered our things to head upstairs to the cheapest izakaya-style yakiniku I've ever seen! The bill for the three of us to eat our fill and have a beer each was roughly 4000yen total - that's 40 bucks Australian! So cheap! Falling asleep at dinner though from a long day-night-day on the town, Natasha and I decided to call it an early one and we headed back to the hotel to climb into bed well before midnight.
Monday 25 Feb: After-JET Conference Day 1, Yokohama.
On Monday morning we dressed in our business attire finest, packed our suitcases and made our way via subway/train to Yokohama (Japan's second largest city) to check into the Mielparque Hotel before heading to the first day of the 2013 After-JET Conference. We arrived at the rather swanky hotel a little to early to check into our room, but the hotel receptionists happily took our bags into storage leaving us to travel the 2 subway stops to Motomirai Station and the Pacifico Convention Centre.
The first day of lectures was rather interesting. We listened to experts in the field discuss issues like reverse culture shock, perfecting your CV and nailing key interview techniques. We also found time to duck across to the Cosmoworld fairground and take a quick ride on a rollercoaster that dips through a shallow pool and underground before completing a circuit - GOOD TIMES!
CosmoWorld, Yokohama.
The rollercoaster going through a pond!
Picture courtesy of Natasha H.
That night we decided to check out Yokohama Chinatown (Japan's biggest) and got railed into a 2000yen tabehodai deal (all you can eat for $20). We ate like gluttons - ordering multiple serves of crispy fried chicken wings, Peking duck pancakes, beef stirfry, chicken and cashew nuts, egg fried rice, soy sauce fried rice, gyoza, sweet and sour pork etc. The food was amazing, so much richer than typical Japanese fare and we left the place sooooooooooo full we could hardly walk! Wandering around afterwards for a cheap bar to linger in over a few drinks proved fruitless though and in the cold of the night we happened upon a karaoke joint offering one-hour nomihodai (all you can drink) plus singing for a mere 1000yen each. Being just about the cheapest karaoke place I'd ever seen (and on par with just one drink at every other venue we'd passed that night) we decided on karaoke, paying for one hour at first. Naturally, one turned into two and at around midnight we danced back to the hotel to fall asleep to a bed movie.
Natasha and our tabehodai Chinese dinner!
Tuesday 26 Feb: Monday Rebooted.
A full day of lectures on a mild hangover was less than pleasant and truthfully it was on this day that I realised the conference was essentially a giant job fair offering advice on proposed career paths, rather than the practical moving home advice I'd hoped to be receiving. As someone who (kinda) knows what they are doing after JET, I was a little disappointed especially as I was hoping to find answers to my questions, such as: How does the superannuation refund work? How do we cancel our utility contracts (phone, internet etc)? Who do we talk to about visa or tax issues? How do we go about getting documentation for our time here - income statements, tax paid and the like? What does the typical exiting-Japan timeline look like? etc etc.
Anyway, the hours passed quickly enough and ducking out early to swill a Heineken at Yokohama's Hard Rock Cafe made the day worthwhile. We left the cafe after posing for a few pics, wandered down the beautifully lit carnival street to meet up with some of the Kagawa JETs who'd also made the trip and essentially revisited our itinerary from the night before - Chinese food tabehodai (with a nomihodai thrown into this meal too, for good measure) followed by a 2-hour stint at cheap karaoke. The night ended in a drunken blur of singing through the streets back to the hotel and rewatching The Little Mermaid on the laptop before calling it a day.
Wednesday 27 Feb: Time to be Tourists.
On Wednesday I woke up with the hangover from hell, dragged my sorry ass through the shower and JUST fronted on time to the Pacifico for the third and final day of the conference. Proceedings for the this last day were segregated according to country of origin and so in a series of panel discussions, information sessions and Embassy talks I spent most of my morning listening to the questions and answers pertaining to the Australian experience. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of it particularly useful and was glad when everything wrapped up at midday so that we could head out for some lunch. Simon, Natasha, Peter and I ended up in an American burger joint in Motomirai - where Natasha and I shared orders of tacos and hamburgers. It was pretty amazing and just what my upset stomach needed!
After lunch Natasha and I headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and find something to do for the afternoon, before heading back to Tokushima at 6pm. We decided on a sento visit (public bath-house) and strolled along the waterfront back into Motomirai to check it out. On the way we passed the giant Red Brick Warehouses and the Cup Ramen Museum. Unfortunately, when we got to the sento we found that it was claaaaaaaaassy and expensive and given that we only had roughly an hour to waste, we decided to double back to the ramen museum and try our hand at making our own cup noodles! As much as I was looking forward to a nice, long relaxing bath I have to admit to being pretty excited to fit this in and get my noodle on!
Red Brick Warehouses.
Red Brick Warehouse history lesson.
Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama.
It cost us 500yen to get into the Cup Ramen Museum, plus an additional 300yen to make our own cup noodles. We headed upstairs through the rather futuristic-looking museum and into the cooking hall, where we stuck our 300yen into a vending machine that dispensed us a thick plasticky plain styrofoam noodle cup. At the head of the queue we were treated to some English instructions (write the date so you know when the noodles expire, don't draw above or below the red lines etc) and then shown to a table to start colouring/decorating our cups. Once we were done with the design work we joined the next queue - to get our noodles! Behind the counter there were dozens of staff waiting to help you fill your cup and each person got to choose the soup flavour base and four additional ingredients to go inside. I chose chilli tomato flavour and added 'love' hearts, beef cubes, corn and parsley to mine before it was put into a hot press to be sealed shut. The last steps included running the cup through a plastic wrapping machine and then finally into an airbag for safe couriering. Fun times! A short sojourn through the museum for pictures and a sneaky bowl of Chinese ramen later and we were done!
Noodle cup vending machine.
My decorated cup noodle!
Ingredients time!
Cup noodles in the bag (literally) just left us with travelling back to Haneda Airport, which was easy enough from Yokohama Station. Though we slightly misjudged our timing and ended up checking into our flight quite on the wire! All's well that ends well though and after a short walk, a subway, a train, a flight, a bus and a car-ride later we arrived home at 10pm - safe, sound, thoroughly exhausted and staring down the barrel of an extended workday on Thursday!
No comments:
Post a Comment