Photo's from Japan

H

harkins

Adventurer
I'd been meaning to post a few pics from my trip last November for ages but between me and my brother we ended up with about 1500 photo's so it's taken ages to look through them.

Here's a just a few anway... (ps I hope this isn't causing any bother in terms of space)

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Starting with my favourite thing - vending machines - everywhere - loads of em!

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And what fantastic cans they have over there! One is obvious the other is cold black coffee.

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Shibuya crossing by day...

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...and night

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First sight leaving Akihabara station

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and this was the second.

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and then a familiar face.

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Another of Tokyo at night. I like this one, it gives a sense of Tokyo's imense size. Especially as it's looking from the centre(ish) in (obviously) one direction.

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Harajuku staion.

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Me, an Aussie friend and two none too amused Gothic Lolita's on the bridge at Harajuku. I'm not too amused either - I hate being photographed!

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Another Hara girl on a fag break.

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A girl from one of the many bands playing in and around Yoyogi Park on a Sunday morning. Pitty you can't hear the picture - they were damned good.

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Me again stood on the Ghibli museum roof with a Laputa robot. I went there on my own as my brother cares little for anime. It was fun having Japanese so keen to take your picture though. Other people took this same picture on their own camera's. Lord knows why?

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An advert for... I really dread to think.

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A Shinkansen or Bullet Train. These are every bit as good as they say!

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Me (yet again) sat in a Shinkansen heading for Kyoto with a can of Suntory premium malts - maybe the worlds smoothest beer!

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The superb view from our room in the Granvia hotel which is sat on Kyoto station.

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My brother posing with some school kids at the Heian Shrine after what seemed to be us doing their English homework for them.

Nearly done.

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Himeji castle. Perhaps my highlight of Japan

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The A bomb dome in Hiroshima. Can't describe how it feels standing there very early on a beautiful Saturday morning.

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And finally, one for Melonpan. It's a.. well, a melonpan on Osaka station. No sign of Shana though! But by god was it tasty!!
 
I envy you for going! The place looks awesome in the night and the Bullet train also looks great! As for the people...well it really is as crowded as they say it is o_O. The Japanese style buildings look amazing and the size of the anime advertisement poster were surprising. Hmm, now I want to go...
 
You are the kind of people that should be strung-up and given 50 lashes! How dare you post how much fun you had in Japan! :lol:

Nah, only joking. But it seems such an awe to see even these photos. Can't imagine what I'd be like actually there and witnessing it all. :eek:
 
My god it looks fantastic and a it seemed the places you went (Shibuya) were very very anime-centric. I'm so keen to go, I really would love to. A holiday like this would amuse me more-so than say a holiday going to see something focused on the historical elements of the country. Which would probably be pretty cool as well, Just not that interesting to me.

I've read about the vending machines, Apparently they ALWAYS have bins next to so people drink standing in front of them then put their litter in the bins placed. And I can see Dan's face going green with envy when he see's that you've had Melonpan. Haha. It looks damn nice though.

To finish - Bullet Trains look awesome.
 
AHHH! A real melonpan!!!

Absolutely awesome pictures, I must say!

It looks like you had an awesome time!

Maybe in a few years we'll put together an AUKN Japan exploration trip!

Chaz said:
But it seems such an awe to see even these photos. Can't imagine what I'd be like actually there and witnessing it all. :eek:
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Absolutely agree!

I'm in total awe!
 
Words cannot do justice to the amount of envy I'm feeling right now! :D

That looks quite possibly the best holiday trip ever, and I can't wait until I'm there! :p

Excellent photos, and the Japanese cosplayers really don't f*ck around. :lol:
 
Harkins,

Right, you've convinced me, I'm going.

That picture of Tokyo is awesome. Can you PM details of how much it cost and which company you went with etc - need to figure out how much money I need etc. Any tips on organising a trip would be appreciated.

M.G xx
 
Manga Girls said:
Can you PM details of how much it cost and which company you went with etc - need to figure out how much money I need etc. Any tips on organising a trip would be appreciated.
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I'd be interested in finding out all the details as well, actually.
Could you post them in the topic please? :D
 
Glad you're all liking the pictures. I just realised that I left Fuji out but never mind.

Manga Girls and Dan, I've pm'd you both with some details but I will add a refined version on here soon.
 
Ahhh, i'd love to go to Japan!, the only chance i would have though is in the summer or after uni(4 years of waiting, no doubt i will get impatient). Tokyo looks absolutely stunning, just as i would hope, but when i see it for myself, it'll be so much more. I'm tempted to find a way to get there asap now, even more so than i once did. Any details at all would be brilliant.
 
Love the pictures.

I would love to go but I have this Anime addiction that seems to take all my money. One of my firends from uni went out there 5-6 years ago to teach English, he is still there and getting married to an Australian women he met there also there teaching. I wonder if they would mind putting me up to save costs. Hopefully they may have a bigger place than when one of my other friends visted him, those tiny one room appartments are the reality.

Another of my friends is going out there some time this year or next year to teach English also when he finishes his degree, so maybe some where else for me to stay if can just sort myself out.
 
XnickX said:
Question.
How are the locals there i heard some aren't that keen towards foreigners?
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Now there’s a question! The answer to that depends very much on whom you ask and I would think it depends on the situation of the ‘foreigner’ in question. So I can only answer from the perspective of a European tourist talking about the reception of tourists (as opposed to resident English Language Teacher for example).

My brother and I found the Japanese to be extremely friendly and helpful. In fact I didn’t have a single experience where I was left feeling even slightly unwelcome or uncomfortable. One evening for example, we noticed one of the women’s Volleyball World Cup games on a TV in the reception of a Kyoto restaurant (we’d already watched one game on TV in the Ryokan we stayed at). We went in and asked if they new anywhere we could watch it (in a mix of English, Japanese and miming). They first said here and went to fetch chairs for us. I then explained that we would prefer a bar so we could drink. So after some discussion one fella leads us into the street. He then lead us up the street and then another where he finally pointed to where we should go. I thought this was beyond necessary. I mean you don’t see that too much at home. Anyway despite his best efforts we still couldn’t find this Sports Bar, so I went into a 7 –11 convenience store. The guy in here leads us out and takes us to the door of the bar (which typically was up some stairs with no sign). This to me was amazing. I still had problems getting in - I’d still not got used to sliding doors and was desperately pushing and pulling the door.

As further evidence of how you’re made welcome, after a few beers in this sports bar my brother went back to the hotel but I’d got the taste by then. So I went and took a stool at the bar where I spent all evening laughing and joking with the staff and various customers. It was a small western style bar and it was a quiet midweek evening so this was ideal for mixing with the locals. Anyway after three hours of discussing football, anime, Britain, Japan and other stuff, but mainly the Japanese ladies volleyball team (aah Sugiyama san) I decided it was time to leave. They complimented my drinking ability and said farewell with much hand shaking and bowing. This was fairly typical of how we were treated.

Another example of how locals acted towards us was on our first afternoon in Kyoto. We noticed that we seemed to be of particular interest to school kids. You see, they have a final year school trip and the destination for this is often Kyoto, so there are loads of kids in uniform everywhere. Apparently because they come to Kyoto from towns out in the sticks they sometimes haven’t seen westerners before (excluding on TV). So they tend to stare and sometimes say hello and ask how you are. This is actually really cool and funny. If you reply in Japanese this seems to make their day.

Don’t know if that answers your question but I just can’t help but ramble and go off on tangents when talking about Japan.


I'd love to have been able to work there teaching English such is life. But having said that, it's always Engish teachers talking when they say they don't like it. I think for many the novelty wears off and they perhaps experience the less friendly aspects of living there. I spoke to one or two that had mixed feelings. And while I was there Nova was going bump. But I think there's a difference between English teachers in schools and those who work for 'English conversation schools'.
 
harkins said:
XnickX said:
Question.
How are the locals there i heard some aren't that keen towards foreigners?
Click to expand...
Now there’s a question! The answer to that depends very much on whom you ask and I would think it depends on the situation of the ‘foreigner’ in question. So I can only answer from the perspective of a European tourist talking about the reception of tourists (as opposed to resident English Language Teacher for example).

My brother and I found the Japanese to be extremely friendly and helpful. In fact I didn’t have a single experience where I was left feeling even slightly unwelcome or uncomfortable. One evening for example, we noticed one of the women’s Volleyball World Cup games on a TV in the reception of a Kyoto restaurant (we’d already watched one game on TV in the Ryokan we stayed at). We went in and asked if they new anywhere we could watch it (in a mix of English, Japanese and miming). They first said here and went to fetch chairs for us. I then explained that we would prefer a bar so we could drink. So after some discussion one fella leads us into the street. He then lead us up the street and then another where he finally pointed to where we should go. I thought this was beyond necessary. I mean you don’t see that too much at home. Anyway despite his best efforts we still couldn’t find this Sports Bar, so I went into a 7 –11 convenience store. The guy in here leads us out and takes us to the door of the bar (which typically was up some stairs with no sign). This to me was amazing. I still had problems getting in - I’d still not got used to sliding doors and was desperately pushing and pulling the door.

As further evidence of how you’re made welcome, after a few beers in this sports bar my brother went back to the hotel but I’d got the taste by then. So I went and took a stool at the bar where I spent all evening laughing and joking with the staff and various customers. It was a small western style bar and it was a quiet midweek evening so this was ideal for mixing with the locals. Anyway after three hours of discussing football, anime, Britain, Japan and other stuff, but mainly the Japanese ladies volleyball team (aah Sugiyama san) I decided it was time to leave. They complimented my drinking ability and said farewell with much hand shaking and bowing. This was fairly typical of how we were treated.

Another example of how locals acted towards us was on our first afternoon in Kyoto. We noticed that we seemed to be of particular interest to school kids. You see, they have a final year school trip and the destination for this is often Kyoto, so there are loads of kids in uniform everywhere. Apparently because they come to Kyoto from towns out in the sticks they sometimes haven’t seen westerners before (excluding on TV). So they tend to stare and sometimes say hello and ask how you are. This is actually really cool and funny. If you reply in Japanese this seems to make their day.

Don’t know if that answers your question but I just can’t help but ramble and go off on tangents when talking about Japan.


I'd love to have been able to work there teaching English such is life. But having said that, it's always Engish teachers talking when they say they don't like it. I think for many the novelty wears off and they perhaps experience the less friendly aspects of living there. I spoke to one or two that had mixed feelings. And while I was there Nova was going bump. But I think there's a difference between English teachers in schools and those who work for 'English conversation schools'.
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Yup that about answers the question thanks :)
Some people including japanesse seemed to dislike foreigners and a sort of blog/website about how something went wrongvisa expired and no one would help him.
Others said it was great so i've never been able to kinda work it out.
 
XnickX said:
Some people including japanesse seemed to dislike foreigners and a sort of blog/website about how something went wrongvisa expired and no one would help him.
Others said it was great so i've never been able to kinda work it out.
Click to expand...
I guess at the end of the day you come across good and bad people wherever you go. It's mainly pot luck I suppose. But I give the Japanese a big thumbs up.
 
wow! the pictures are great and it sounds awesome! me and 2 of my friends are planning on going next year - can you give us details about where you went eg did you explore by yourself or go with a tour group? The whole damn place looks like it'll rock!!!
 
Nice pictures, love the castle, and for some reason the train looks awsome. But I can't stand the picture labeled "First sight leaving Akihabara station". I haven't watched that anime nor do I want to, but if I was japanese I would feel ashamed to some pedo/loli billboard like that up (correct me if it anit loli/pedo anime, I haven't watched it like I said).

As for the thing up that woman's nose, I want one!
 
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