Transiting from domestic to international terminals at Brisbane airport
After a sleepless night concerned about my sleepless night, it was time to get up at 4am and get going. Japan yet again, so unoriginal, I should put a Haiku here.
This year I timed my cold to be largely over prior to departure, by largely I mean I can taste and breathe but an annoying cough still lingers.
You might recall last year I almost died on the flight as my health went from bad to 4000 sneezes in the space of the 10 hour flight. Yet the illness detecting maids at Narita airport detected nothing when I went through their sensors. Japan is yet to recover fully, I am the reason for negative interest rates.
Anyway, my trip takes me via Brisbane again, as I prefer the day flight to Tokyo rather than overnight via Sydney, theres a direct Melbourne flight restarting soon but thats also overnight. This ensures I can be fully awake for the 10 hours it takes to get there to keep an eye on everything.
Before even getting on a plane, my journey started with a terrifying taxi ride to Melbourne airport through construction zones and a wind storm, however once I got in the terminal, I was confident I would at least make it onto the plane alive. I am sure the taxi was doing 140kmph in a temporary 40 zone. We swerved around a witches hat blowing across the freeway.
Now onto the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explosion panic. In airports there is signage everywhere, reminders on constant loop, quoting Boeing, the U.S. Dept of Transport, the Australian Aviation Authority, the pope and the joint leaders of the interfaith council.
If you happened to be overseas now when the drama unfolded, you cannot even bring it home for a refund. You now must live wherever you are right now until technology catches up to allow you to return home with such a dangerous weapon.
Because I got to Brisbane airport with a couple of hours to spare, and because I like walking and because I have a daily steps goal to keep because I am a boring person, I decided to walk from the domestic terminal to the international terminal in Brisbane and write a long sentence with many repetitions of the word because.
I am clearly the first person to ever attempt this, the path was perilous, and I was nearly killed by a relentless swooping magpie! Not joking, I was on the phone to my mother at the time, she can confirm the story.
I ended up literally running through a construction site (which was not the way to the terminal I later found out!) with my backpack on my head and a hand in front of my eyes.
This resulted in a bad neck strain, and probably fits of laughter for the guys no doubt watching me on security cameras. I think my neck has now come good, just as well because I would otherwise be complaining about that endlessly here.
The worst part was I had gone the wrong way and had to double back past the terrifying bird of prey again!
This is the view from my balcony in Melbourne, the morning before I left. I stuck a similar photo here last time when I went to Europe in June, so it can be compared.
I didnt take one this morning as it was still pitch black when I left and I was in a hurry.
By doing this I can keep an eye on how many more Chinese owned empty apartment buildings are paying tax dollars in Australia for me.
Note the Samsung Galaxy Explosion Hysteria warning notice on the departure board.
We are at stage 9 global panic now people, no Samsung Galaxy Molten Lava edition is allowed on any plane even if its turned off.
In order to ship them back for a refund you first need to be sent a ceramic lined box with heat resistant gloves to pack your faulty phone with at your own risk.
I am not exaggerating, the return boxes and gloves are real.
Here I am looking very tired. Not really sure why I couldnt sleep last night. Felt hot the entire night. Maybe its guilt, or fear that this time the ruthless Japanese customs agents will deny me entry.
Just the other day a train conductor in Japan got in a lot of trouble for announcing in Japanese 'Attention all passengers, please accept my sincerest apologies for the number of foreigners onboard the train today'.
That really happened, look it up.
When you see on the news some kind of story about another country hacking Australia, remember this advertisement, for offensive hackers to join the department of defence.
Also remember we (we as in Australia) are guilty of hacking the East Timorese Presidents telephone to covertly assist our negotiations to steal their oil.
Australia has now been summoned to appear at the international court of justice or whatever its called in the Hague on this soon. The same court that told China its islands were illegal only to then have the Phillipino lunatic president decide he loves China now.
Confused yet?
This is the construction site I ran through whilst being attacked by a magpie.
Before the attack I stopped to take a picture of the overflowing bin. Really, thats why I am taking this photo.
Also I cannot believe no one came and told me to get the hell out of the construction site. Unfortunately taking a detour through here did not allow me to run out onto the runway, or find a way through to the terminal.
I wasnt aware the lounge was closed. Now how will I get free water and upload this nonsense text I am writing with occasionally related boring images?
Its a plane. Its the plane I will go on. Its an Airbus A330. These are not Dreamliners, they havent yet had a battery catch fire and burn the plane to the ground.
Before Samsung sent out a few million IED's (improvised explosive devices), Boeing decided to install similar batteries in their new dreamliners.
All of the jets was recalled to stick the avionics backup batteries inside a metal flame proof box after one of them exploded and burnt an All Nippon Airlines plane to the ground at the departure gate where it was parked.
Something similar then happened on an Ethiopian airways plane - so there you go Samsung, feel better about yourselves. Unless of course you made those batteries too?
Due to there being no lounge, Qantas gave me this $30 voucher for food and drink, to be spent in a single transaction.
I bought a coffee and a bottle of water, so wasted about $20 of the voucher.
Then it was time to board my flight before I knew it, I guess my magpie and construction site saga took longer than I expected.
The reason there is so much text here is because I updated this on the plane, dont expect a similar barrage of poor spelling and grammar with every update.
Taking the cheaper Kesei mainline from Narita airport
The second flight was great, despite being in economy it was only half full and I had the middle block of 4 seats to myself.
Qantas actually did a very good job of the service as well, lots of drinks offered, the weiss bar ice cream was the highlight, I turned down the second meal which was actually a Gozleme.
Anyway, heres my top tips for flying in economy -
1. Dont be a fat person because I have no trouble fitting and never even recline my seat.
2. Sit in an aisle seat in the middle block, this is your best bet to have no one next to you.
3. Do everything in slow motion, do not multi task, you have time! Spend 20 minutes eating your meal rather than 20 seconds.
4. Drink everything on offer, and use the bathroom at least 10 times during the flight, getting up out of your chair is key!
5. When you go to the bathroom, assuming others are not waiting, waste time in there looking at stuff, standing and stretching.
6. Assuming theres no turbulence, walk around the long way back to your seat, do a figure of 8 around the plane.
The flight actually arrived 45 minutes early, the only movie I watched was dirty harry, because its fantastic.
Because we were early, there was nowhere to park the plane. So the pilot literally cruised around Narita airport looking for a park, and then once we found one the baggage and service cars and people to operate the aerobridge all had to get to us to let us off, so this changed being early to being on time.
Then the great news was there was literally no one in the customs line, the guy did not even look at me and let me through (previously have had many questions), my bag was there waiting, the green inspection guy did not even want to look in my bag. This despite all the new audible warning that Japan is on high alert and everyone will be searched many times before leaving. Please accept our apology, drop your pants and bow.
However, this is not Tokyo, this is Narita, there is a couple of hours to go yet! I had no issues collecting my wifi device or getting money out, and decided on the slightly longer taking Kesei main line limited express for about $12 compared to $40 for the JR NEX train or the limo bus.
This meant changing trains at Nippori to get to Shinjuku, all very boring details about trains, but it did take nearly 2 hours in all to get from the airport to my hotel.
The best news of the day, despite being very tired and looking like death, after checking in I went out and made sure I got to my 25,000 steps goal, got to maintain my graph and 'goal streak', its all I have.
I dont have anything funny to say unfortunately.
Me, in Japan. I dont look as tired as before.
The train did not have many people on it at all. This is a pointless photo of a train platform I am waiting on.
My hotel room is brand new, cheap, small, but in the greatest location ever, right next to the big cinema complex in Kabuchiko.
I am on the 27th floor and have an amazing view, photos of that coming on another day when I remember and need to pad this nonsense out a bit with more boring photos.
The bathroom and its multi function plumbing art installation piece.
The bed is quite comfortable, TV has BBC news as its token English channel.
This is the outside of the hotel, I cant get it all in. Theres a large open area in front of it popular with skateboarders. Despite the noise and commotion downstairs, the room is silent.
My hotel is at the end of this street, also first photo of neon madness, expect more.
The Japanese have kindly renamed this street Godzilla Street for silly foreigners like me to understand and take photos.
New Shinjuku (New New?) This is across the main road out the front of the station. None of that was here last time I was in Japan. New hotel, new buildings, I thought they didnt have money to build anything new due to the halving of the population?
I smell olympic debt.
Exploring undercover Tokyo in the rain
There is no monsoon, however there is plenty of rain, today. The forecast suggests no more rain tomorrow, I dont believe it. It rained from the second I stepped outside to the second I returned to my room. Hence I spent the entire day inside in tunnels, there are a lot of tunnels.
First I went west, to the Shinjuku Metropolitan and Regional Local Government and Coordination Centre for Matters Concerning the Greater Area of the Region Including Shinjuku and the Immediate Prefectural surroundings of Shinjuku. Its a lot of text to fit on a sign.
This building is famous with all tourists because its free to go to level 44 and peer out the window, at the fog and rain. Actually when I got to the top you could see a bit, but about 2 minutes after there was nothing at all to see just white, and many a tourist being ushered around on the 4 hour all inclusive visit to all corners of Japan was very disappointed.
Amusingly, on the way down, the tour guide for a German group was explaining that the lift only takes 55 seconds, and that the bus can park directly at the door, so its only a 13 minute visit on the itinerary. So if you are German and old, your itinerary is down to 13 minute blocks. Enjoy that, go to the peace museum in Hiroshima for 21 minutes exactly then stand and peer at Mount Fuji for 37 seconds.
I then followed the massive tunnel complex back under Shinjuku to Shinjuku Chome to Shinjuku Neo Chome to Shinjuku Chuo Chome Seiso No Seiso finally to Shinjuku not Shinuku. All up about 7000 steps.
Now it was time to get on the subway and play station roulette. The rules are simple. You stay on until the majority of people get off, pay no attention to signage or announcements or you ruin your own surprise.
Turns out I got off at Tokyo main station, which was fine because it also has many miles of tunnels to splash about in puddles as you look at cats advertising everything.
Heres a cat advertising something.
One of many tunnels for the day, there really was one flooded with about an inch of water, although its not really raining hard at all, just constantly, so I suspect something failed to cause the mini flood.
My view from the top of the building with the long name. Top tip - they have a hidden vending machine near the toilets. Buy a $1 bottle of water and enjoy the view of the fog.
They also have a nice shop set up selling the regional foods from everywhere in Japan. Basically so you can lie and suggest you went everywhere in Japan instead of to the top of the free building.
I enjoyed the horse jerky. I like to believe its those stupid horses that pull the carriages up and down the main street of Melbourne turned into a salty treat.
I found an excellent outdoor shop selling more brands of boots than I knew existed. Except they didnt like me taking photos at all. Before I got the tell off bow, thats a real thing, I managed to snap this picture of bear bells.
The Japanese believe if a big brown bear is chasing you, the ding of a bell will frighten it away.
They also believe the emperor can fly and that schoolgirls solely exist to be groped by old men, so the bear bell thing is on the low end of the scale of ridiculousness.
This is just a random display of model cars along a tunnel in between two stations. As far as I could tell its not attached to any physical shop.
More cats.
The main Tokyo station is under heavy reconstruction, to add more debt to Japan for the Olympics. This part however is either done or due to be knocked down next. Who knows.
Photo of rain from a new part of the Tokyo station, near Daimaru.
For lunch I got the sandwich combo. Based solely on the place that had seats available. Under the station theres about 500 places to eat, nearly all had large lines.
The unsweetened iced milk tea was nice, about 90% of it was ice so two sucks through the straw and I was done.
I still dont know what the mystery cream salad was, anchovy perhaps.
Godzilla, from the previously mentioned godzilla street.
I like banana chips. Now the Japanese have improved them with ruffles. Everything is better ruffle cut.
And finally as promised, the view out of my hotel window. I Will probably take another photo at night. Also I was not joking, as soon as I stepped inside it appears to have stopped raining.
Taking a trip to Kawasaki from Tokyo for dinner
I went somewhere I have never been before, apparently the major industrial area of Tokyo, and a city in its own right, Kawasaki. I presume this is where they started making the green motorbikes.
Technically its not part of Tokyo, or even the same prefecture, whatever that means, yet its really not far from Shinagawa which is on the main line tourists take to go past places in a circle, and its less than half way to the even bigger Yokohama that is still considered part of greater Tokyo, whatever that means.
Thats the geography over with.
Kawasaki is certainly a big colorful bright metropolis, filled with department stores, shopping malls, tall buildings, people, vending machines, horse jerky and cat advertisements, just like the real Tokyo.
The map shows that there is a large horse racing track, so I am not making up the source of Japanese horse jerky bit. 8.3 out every 10 horses bred for gambling purposes become jerky within 2 years.
Before going to Kawasaki, I first bought some train tickets. The way to do this is to write down the from and to station, date and time, name of train service, and price. Hand this to the girl and the look of terror on her face quickly turns to relief when she realises she does not have to speak to me at all.
Combine this with ordering your food ticket from a vending machine and you dont have to utter a single word all day.
Now that I have told the story of my evening in reverse chronological order, I will move onto the pictures, which are ordered alphabetically based on incremental number.
This is inside Kawasaki station, it says Kawasaki on the sign, thats why I took this photo.
There are many large malls on both sides of the station. Note the lack of rain. Hopefully theres none tomorrow because I have plans for a day trip.
There are also covered shopping streets like this, but the lesser kind, selling fake shoes and bags, recycled Chairman Mao pants designed to be worn just above the nipple and various pots and pans with handles that have conveniently already fallen off.
I could not really work out what this place was, it suggested it was a cinema land but it was mainly Indian restaurants. The big bright thing is a useless LED supporting structure to nowhere, currently displaying a halloween eye.
Racist.
The back streets look like other back streets which can be found in the back streets of every Japanese city.
I dropped into the puppy factory to check for dog jerky.
Another huge shopping centre, top floor of this one is cinemas and a giant games arcade, where I can walk around and terrify the parents of small children who assume I am there to steal their spoilt child.
There was however a guitar shop, where I was the recipient of another NO PHOTO bow.
Obligatory dinner photo. Google defines obligatory as 'so customary or fashionable as to be expected of everyone or on every occasion'.
Lately I think I make up a lot of words, this time I did not, it is a word and I used it correctly.
If the people that make the dictionary are looking to expand they should hire me to make new words.
Oh, and my dinner is omurice with 50/50 sauce.
There are currently 2 comments - click to add
adriana on 2016-10-17 said:
Kawasaki looks like my kind of town. Just been looking at the tram line in Tokyo thanks to NHKs nostalgic program tonight. We might have to get a day pass for that.
adriana on 2016-10-17 said:
Nice view. You can watch the golf at the driving range.
Hiking Shimoyama from Mitsutoge to Kawaguchiko
Today was long, I got lost, but I got to see Mount Fuji. I have never seen it before. I did not climb it, if I tried I would be arrested and deported as its not climbing season, so all I can do is climb nearby mountains and peer at it.
My day started early, I had a 6:30AM limited fancy express with added expense to Otsuki, where I changed to the local train that goes to the Fuji 5 lakes region.
Most people go to Kawaguchiko, but I got off 4 stops earlier at Mitsutoge and then climbed various mountains including Mitutouge, Kinashiyama, Shimoyama and Tenjo. I feel there were other peaks because I got badly lost at one point which added at least 2 hours onto my journey.
Anyway, it was a great and very tiring hike, some 35,000 steps and about 7 hours from getting off the train to getting back on.
There was a lot of wildlife on the journey to frighten me, see pictures below, I dont know what the creature is that I saw, its part pig, part bear, part deer.
On the way back, the train ran someone / something over! We came to a screeching halt, I was in the front car, and the driver leapt up, apology bowed, literally leapt from the train and sprinted along the track.
The conductor girls then ran up and down the carriages and made announcements in Japanese. But then the driver got back on, furiously bowed about 20 times, and we left again, total delay about 10 minutes.
So I have no idea at all what happened. The whole time I could see an old man outside my window planting things in his garden, he seemed completely uninterested.
The other thing, this was supposed to be a popular hiking route, best way to see Fuji, yet I only saw 2 other humans all day until I came back to the cable car station where there were hundred. The two I saw were serious rock climbers.
Where are Japans hikers? The weather was perfect. Laziness!
On the way down the slope, I slid on my ass in muddy sections twice, which gave me an entire ass region covered in mud. No one sat next to me on the train.
Also I wrote this quickly cause its early evening and I have to head out now and find dinner after I wash a thick layer of sweat, sunscreen, dirt and sports drink off myself. If what I wrote is nonsensical, I shall update it later.
On my way to the station this morning, I took the greatest photo of my life without even trying.
Perfect light, and a huge bird flying over.
Time to change trains at Otsuki. That is not Fuji.
The station at Mitsutoge is even smaller. There isnt even a shop here, I had to stock up on liquids from vending machines. I was prepared for this and had brought all my change with me.
First glimpse of Fuji, I was in luck so far, not completely covered by cloud.
Lots of people travel half way around the world, take the direct train from the airport to here, only to be surprised that a big mountain is sometimes covered by clouds. I have read about people demanding refunds.
No Fuji for me, I was going up there and along that entire ridge line. It was further than I thought and then I got lost!
Wildlife sighting number 1, a rabid monkey. It showed me its teeth as it crossed the road. I think it was smiling.
Wildlife sighting number 2, a huge colorful spider, there are thousands of them!
Some hours later, heres another spotting of Fuji. Its shorter to type Fuji than the mountain or mount Fuji, so I will just keep typing Fuji. I am very efficient.
This is apparently quite famous, a few statues wearing a bit of red cloth. I was underwhelmed. Japan-guide thinks this is better than Fuji.
I still had to get up there, I was struggling to understand how I would manage to actually do that without rock climbing gear...and skills.
I dont think the view is worth dying for. Fix your lookout platform Japan!
A great view of the town below. Starting to get pretty high now. Apparently just on 2000 metres.
What the hell is this. Its huge. I still dont know after carefully examining the pixels. I thought it was a bear at first. I stopped to take photos though.
Still not sure how I am getting to the top. These are the only 2 guys I saw in many many hours of hiking. I wont be following them up.
More view, nice clouds.
Turns out my route to the top was to walk around the back of the peak a bit and then go up a series of dodgy looking ladders lashed together in an area prone to landslides.
Now at the summit, theres a place you can stay but its not very touristy at all, and seems to be abandoned. I thought I heard banjo music playing. There are no people but there are vicious dogs chained up!
This dog did not like me at all.
The view from the top was very impressive.
I couldnt find anywhere to put my camera to do a proper photo, plus the dogs were going mental, so this is all I could manage.
Fuji is still there. It went into and out of cloud a few times during the day.
Most of the way down now after re finding the correct route, here is Lake Kawaguchiko. You can pay $1000 a night in peak season for a capsule room to stay here.
Still there.... thats the last Fuji Photo I promise. Also Fuji Photo is an actual company, presumably started to take photos of Fuji.
Finally reached the top cable car station. But no, they are not getting my money, I will walk down!
But I was happy they had vending machines serving ice creams for $1
The town below has lots of amausement parks and similar things to keep everyone amused. I just need a mountain.
Low down shot of the lake. Theres actually 5 lakes, but I kind of think its 1 big lake with 5 areas to visit and spend more money along the one big lake with 5 names.
Whilst changing trains after apparently running someone over, I had about 15 minutes to spare, so heres a bonus photo Otsuki.
And heres another of the main street, they even had a convenience store, how convenient!
Exploring the trendy streets of Shimokitazawa
This evening despite my tired legs, I went on the hunt for Japanese curry and failed.
A place I have not been to before, Shimokitazawa is very popular with the curated facial hair and lumberjack shirt types.
Just last week they had the biggest curry festival in Japan, with over 200 stores participating. I could find none of these. I found a coco curry but they are everywhere, so I didnt want that.
Not to worry, I remembered the awesome tomato soup ramen thing back near my hotel, so I had that as an excellent late dinner.
Wandering around looking for curry gave me plenty of time to add another layer to my blisters and to check out the used clothing and organic produce scene.
This is what Shimokitazawa is famous for. I sure did see a lot of white girls wandering about buying old stuff that used to belong to yellow girls.
To get to Shimokitazawa I had to go through Shibuya, and change to a line that is not actually attached to the station. This was quite hard, the whole area is under reconstruction for the olympics and the signage is pointing you to dead ends and the wrong exit.
There are currently temporary exits, new exits, new new exits and not an exit but leave through here anyway exits. I was directed in a big circle to nowhere, which was frustrating.
On return to my hotel, I discovered that tomorrow night is the premiere of the new star trek movie thats already old in the rest of the world. They have set up a mini stadium blocking the door to my hotel.
I can go see the replacement Shatner hold a minutes silence for that young Russian guy who is the new Chekov (was! hes dead) who was killed when his own Jeep ran him over in his driveway.
The sign, I took this photo so I did not have to go look on google maps to remember where I was.
One of at least 100 used clothing shops. I should sell them my old clothes, they are all very used. I buy new clothes once a decade. I recently sewed up the pockets in a pair of pants that had been worn through.
More used clothing, redundant.
This is a store out the back of a van. There is not a lot of neon here but there are a huge number of little stores like this.
And of course, there are expensive organic food stores, because if you cant afford new clothes you probably need to be buying spelt and single origin lettuce.
There is still however some neon around.
And also a shop selling neon lights.
Back in Shibuya and I took only one photo.
My fantastic dinner. I had this before years ago, I was very happy its still here.
It has gorgonzola, potatoes, garlic bread and noodles in a tomato soup boiled to be as thick as a stew.
Presumably a full sized USS Enterprise is going to be inflated inside that stadium the pretend police are guarding. The movie was absolutely terrible, so the Japanese will love it!
Yeah, just 43,030 steps for today.
There are currently 2 comments - click to add
Mother on 2016-10-18 said:
Dinner looks interesting. Never had that yet. What is the name of the chain?
adriana on 2016-10-18 said:
Your saw a serow which is a cross between a mountain goat and an antelope according to google. I've never seen one of these. What an adventurous day. All that happens here is rain, rain and more rain.
There are currently 2 comments - click to add
adriana on 2016-10-16 said:
Kabukicho, not kabuchiko. there must be a big Godzilla on top of one of the buildings in Gozilla street - look up.
mother on 2016-10-16 said:
I see you got through the second magpie attack intact.