tōkyō : part two.

As usual, when I say “I will blog tomorrow” it invariably turns into the day after. Sorry. In any case, back to Tokyo!

The next day we rose bright and early to meet another school friend, Jess. She has been living just out of Tokyo, and has turned into somewhat of a guru. When we mentioned we were coming to Tokyo, she was kind enough to offer to take us around for the day! We met for brunch in Shibuya, and went to an amazing sushi place. Its Jess’ favourite, in part due to the head chef who is quite a performer. Since Jess has turned into a bit of a regular, we got the best seats in the house to watch our sushi being assembled in front of us. I really should have taken pictures, but… I was eating. Next time!

From the adjacent building there was a good view of Shibuya crossing, sat and people-watched for a while. There weren’t nearly as many people as there had been the previous night, but I felt compelled to take a photo anyway.

Despite good intentions to be obedient tourists, the day fast turned into a food crawl, broken up with wanderings, and occasional stops for shopping.

Jess took us to a great cake shop where I opted for some kind of banana, chocolate, hazelnut cream tart thing. Something about the slightly nautical colouring and the brightness of the space really made me feel as though I was just at a café at home chatting with the girls.

The afternoon was mostly spent shopping, during which I showed great restraint. We stopped for my first real coffee since being in Japan, which was blissful. Having sat chatting over coffee for a couple of hours we decided it was late enough for dinner.

Jess had a report to write, we said big thank yous and sad goodbyes. Thank you again, Jess!

Natalie, Georgie and I lazily made our way back, enjoying Tokyo at night.

Naturally, as it was my last night in Tokyo, we stayed up into the early hours chatting and giggling.  

The next day we headed over to Roppongi for Sunday brunch (although by the time we got there it was really lunch). The cuisine was my choice, and as Tokyo has more foreign food than Gifu, Italian it was!

In the afternoon, it was time for me to head back to Gifu. It was so hard saying goodbye to Natalie and Gina. I think I was somewhat ignorant to the extent to which I have been missing my friends in Australia. By some miracle I managed to tear myself away to get the train. In order to buy myself a little more time in Tokyo, I decided to splurge on the shinkansen on the way home.

My camera couldn’t keep up with the speed of the train.

At dusk, feeling a little sad and lonesome, I made it back to home, sweet Gifu.

I think perhaps on my first trip to Tokyo, I ticked very few of the ‘must-see, must-do’ boxes. That being said, I regret not a moment spent we spent chatting in cafes instead of playing tourist.  I will get to those things another time I am sure, but what I really loved about Tokyo was the different feel of each area. I cannot wait to go back, Tokyo has a new fan. Although, I do have a sneaking suspicion my enjoyment may have also been in part due to the company. Missing you.

tōkyō : part one

After sadly leaving Natalie and Georgie on Sunday, I waited impatiently through the week to be reunited with them. At last on Thursday they sidled into Gifu. Seeing them in Gifu was really one of the strangest things I have experienced in Japan. My life here seems so separate and far away from my life in Australia, it nearly felt as though a meeting of the two should be impossible. However, it would appear it was not, and we had a lazy afternoon at university without my world self-imploding. That evening we went into Nagoya for dinner and a couple of drinks before jumping onto the night bus.

I’m a little sad I didn’t manage to get a picture of the night bus, as there was something hilarious about it, probably largely contributed to by the futuristic, pull-down shades to surround your face (whether for privacy or darkness, I know not). In any case, we slept about as well as one could expect on a night bus, and by the time we hopped off at Shinjuku station at 7:00am we were feeling a little weary, but ready for whatever Tokyo had to throw at us.

The first day we spent mostly wandering around just enjoying being in Tokyo. Unfortunately it was raining the whole day. Natalie was particularly disappointed as, having lost her umbrella she had to borrow an ugly one.

In the evening we met up with a couple of friends from Australia for karaoke. At Bec’s insistence, we tracked down the place in Shibuya where the karaoke scene from Lost in Translation was filmed. We sang some of the most peculiar songs I’ve ever done at karaoke.

After, we went moseyed over to Shinjuku for a drink before saying bye to Bec and Sam and heading home. Its always so nice to see familiar faces in strange places! I will put up the rest of Tokyo tomorrow; I put in my last report for the semester last night, and feel as though I used up all my best words in it, so I will wait until tomorrow to write an appropriately amazing post about the other two days.

ōsaka : part one.

Despite being so horrendously behind, I am going to attempt to keep things chronological, or I will most likely never return to explain anything. Therefore, we will begin with Ōsaka! I had been looking forward to this trip for weeks and weeks – not only was it my first time venturing out of Gifu or Nagoya, but I was also going to meet two of my favourite people. I only arrived on Friday evening, but after much shrieking, hugging and jumping, we managed to get out to see a little of the town.

We started going out by going for a wander, but were so enthralled by the sight of the Umeda Sky Building we couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

As the light left the sky we zipped up in glass elevators and through fluorescent passages, until we reached the top.

The view was stunning. Viewing the city from a height, with all the lights, and the Yodo River running through, it somehow felt very Parisian (probably helped along by the romantic nature of the observatory).

 

As it got darker, the lights from the city became more vibrant, although I was a little too distracted by the party going on with my outfit. 

We were all a little tired from travelling so called a fairly early night. The next day the weather looked intimidating, but we headed out enthusiastically for Ōsaka-jō. We just managed to beat the rain.

In the afternoon, we split for a little, with Georgie wanting to experience an onsen, and Natalie choosing to give it a miss. After, we met again to head into Namba for some shopping, but, with soaking clothes and tired feet, eventually finding refuge in a little coffee shop. I am very sad to say that the coffee I braved was the worst six dollar coffee I have ever purchased, but fortunately the company made up for the coffee’s failings.

I will save the evening’s shenanigans for Ōsaka : part two, the release of which can be expected in the next day or two!