Taneka in Japan....The Cities....

Taneka arrived in Tokyo last week visiting Japan on her way to Australia and New Zealand for a year. I managed to find her in Shinjuku station and headed to an Izakaya for her first Japanese experience. Although vegetarian Tweek decided she would allow fish for the Japan leg of her tour and sampled some delicious sashimi (well I thought it was).
Whilst I was working Tweek went to Kamikura for a day trip to see the Giant Buddha and met me after work for dinner and drinks with Taku in Shinjuku. Was a fun night and we had a mini tour of the side streets of Shinjuku on our way home.

Friday we headed to Kyoto for the weekend on the shink. The first day was a little unsuccessful as we tried to master the buses around Kyoto which led to me asking about 5 Obasan's for directions and going round in circles....we ended the day with a relaxing onsen so it was all good in the end. Kyoto is a very romantic city - it felt a bit like Venice, and was a lot more relaxed than Tokyo. We toured the back streets of Gion at night hoping to see some Geisha.

Gion

Saturday we headed to Nara for the day with Richard (who is traveling Japan) and Carrie (former Nova teacher leaving Japan due to the company collapsing). We were welcomed to the town by the wild deer in the park who stand around the biscuit stalls waiting to get fed. I was quite scared of them as they seemed to be able to smell the biscuits in your bag and packs of them chased you around until there was none left. Was quite funny though watching them chase the old ladies around and butting them!!

Nara

On the way back from Nara to Kyoto we visited Fushimi Inari Shrine and walked the 4km path up the mountain through the Tori gates. It was spectacular to see and my favorite part of the trip.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Karaoke and Nomihido...!!!

Karaoke

Everyone got quite carried away and I don't think we managed to listen to each other sing (probably for the best). Tweek's added effects of cartwheels and forward rolls outside the room added a new dimension to the experience.

Nightclub Kyoto

As our hostel had a curfew of 11pm we had no choice but to go to a club (its a hard life) and ended up in a very cheesy local R&B place where everyone thought they were a gangster (hot j-boys but def not gangsters!). We danced the night away there until me and Tweek were dragged out at 4am....and we ended up crashing at a friends of a friends place for a few hours.

Gatecrashing

We spent our last day in Osaka at the biggest aquarium IN the world, with the biggest shark IN an aquarium IN the world (thanks Carrie!) followed by a small walk through the arcades and some retail therapy.

Osaka

I left Taneka in Kyoto to carry on with her tour of Japan - Kyo-san staying with monks, Hiroshima, and some more of Kyoto - before coming back to Tokyo at the weekend.

Saturday was spent strolling Harajuku with Dave who guided us to a gorgeous Organic Veggie restuarant and a few beers in the street to get us going for our night of partying ahead.
We met Kiren, Ai and Akira for pre-drinks in Roppongi/Ebisu before going to Unit in Daikanyama.

The line-up that night was fantastic - SebastiAn, Kavinsky and Busy P, and was a good intro for Taneka into the clubbing world.

Busy P

Sunday was back to Harajuku to see the carzies dressed up and dancing in the park - the rockers are like something straight out of Grease!
All the dancing in the park gave us a second wind so we headed to Ebisu for a Korean dinner of Spicy Tofu Hot Pot and Korean sake, Makori and a mini bar crawl.