Japan Update

Since my last post so much has happenening that I have been reluctant to actually post at all. As my last post was imageless I have added 15 photos to make up for it. In my previous post I wrote about my Mum coming over and about our trip to Kyoto and Toyko and I have finally gotten some images from then.

My latest trip was to Nara. Nara was the first Capitol of Japan and has become one of the main cultural tourist attraction because of its amazing temples, shrines and beautiful landscape. I decided on a warm day that I should go and experience more of Kansai so I hopped on the train for roughly 40 mins. On arrival I decided to follow a recomended track in my Lonely Planet guide. The first stop I made was this huge building made mainly out of wood. It is in fact the largest wooden building in the whole world.

This massive building was housing a Huge buddah which took up a large part. This image below doesnt quick capture the sheer size of the buddah. I read some exact measurements and weights and I can tell you they were impressive (however I cannot recite them).

I then ventured on along the trail which took me to an amazing view point looking out across much of Nara. up here was another shrine and a pleasant place to sit and drink tea. This was a releif after all the stair climbing. An old lady saw me looking in my guide book and helped me find this place. Her information was pretty useless but it was nice to have someone looking out for me.

I followed the path all the way along seeing many shrines unfortunately all the places I wanted to see were packed with Chinese tourists and young, noisy school kids which detracted from the whole peacefull experience. On my way back to the train station I saw some deer crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing. All I could thing of was abbey road album cover and then suddenly images of deer in suites popped into my mind.

There are many deer in Nara Koen (park) and people love to feed them. They are very polite and bow prior to recieving food. I saw this one stretching as far as possible to get a little bit of food.

All in all the Nara experience was pleasant and a nice brake from the city life of Osaka. I didnt spend enough time there to experience everything but for the time being it is enough. I really wish I could experience the place when its more quiet but I dont think that ever happens.

Since I have been living at Hiro's Guesthouse I have met alot of Korean/Japanese people. As I live in the Korean corner of Osaka (Korea town in fact) there are many Korean restaurants and Kimchee (spicy pickled vegitable) shops. I have become fortunate enough to meet many people who own Korean restaurants and so lately I have been recieving much food for free. Below is some cold noodles, sushi and kimchee I was given for breakfast one morning. Unfortunately I ate it very quickly and only got a photo halfway through the meal. Anyway, food here is great and im fortunate enough to recieve some most days.

These following photos are from when mum came over. I will use them to brake up more recent stories so the images may not correspond to the story. There isnt much more to tell tho. Since my last post ive just been living large, drinking nice beer. I usually order Nama which is the word for raw and here means tap beer.

This picture is from the Geisha

Living large eating Delicious food. Sushi, Sashimi, Curry, Katsudon (which i have learnt to cook), Kimchee, Korean pancake, Korean Noodle, 2am Ramen (equivilant of souv on the way home from a night out) Takoyaki, Yakiniku.


again from geishaBikes here in Japan are amazing as ive noted before. The other day I decided to go for a longer ride so ended up riding to Kyoto. Its roughly 60ks but seemed like 300 riding on my fixie without brakes and on a busy highway. Next time I will plan my route better.

this is a photo from a bike shop in kyoto.

this is the hotel me and mum stayed at in Kyoto. We felt very fortunate to get such a great deal

This is a traditional Ryukan (Tatami floored accomodation) in Kyoto

Here is the Kinkakuji of Kyoto. Golden temple

Eating Izakaya. All we ate this night was chicken in every form possible. From skin to insides.
I think this demonstrates how strange Japan is. The poor kitten was dressed up as a little lion. Roarrrrr!
Finally this is a katsudon I cooked. I am now getting pretty good at it. no need to venture out for my favourite meal anymore.

I had a little birthday party last saturday and took 20 instant photos (like polaroid). I will scan and upload them asap. Then post again. But for now this is it.

Cheers

Cameraless

So within roughly a week of my last post my new Canon G10 broke with "Lense error" which is apparently not an uncommon thing for the line so please think strongly before purchasing this camera. Then my back up camera screen broke and then was taken home with mum... therefore my post is going to be imageless.... yes im sorry that was the best part!

I have a film getting developed atm so soon i will (hopefully) have some nice images of tokyo which i will post.

But since my last post (ages ago) much has happened. I have been working at a private english school for about a month now. The work wasnt so hard to get but i was lucky to have a reccomendation. I am on a wage of 2000￥ (about 25bucs) per hour and so far i have been getting roughly 6 lessons per week on thursday and saturdays. I am still living off savings so work isnt so important just yet but more work would not be too hard to get.

Furthermore I got offered a job building wheels at Gira Gira (track supermarkets store in Osaka). Perfect job for me i think. I will start that soon.

Recently my mum came over for a ten day trip. We spent 3 days hanging out at my current home -http://www.hirosguesthouse.com/ I certainly would recommend this place to anyone coming here to Osaka. Its tucked away in a neat little corner of Osaka only 5 mins from main station by train. Lots of nice Korean food stores.

After our relaxing time in Osaka where we did minimal Cultural exercises we trained to Kyoto where we spent 3 days. first the first night we stayed in a great traditional Ryukan. Tatamai rooms and futons. Then we moved onto a Hotel that rocked. We had a top floor room and heaps of space (especially for Japan) and for less than our previous night. (we got very lucky) here we went to a little market, Saw many temples and were lucky enough to See Geisha, an experience only few Japanese have seen let alone Geijin like me and mum.

There were some cool bike shops, cool clothes places, nice food, nice culture. I love Kyoto!

On our third day in kyoto we set out for Tokyo on the Shinkansen. just under 2 hours (i think). We arrived in tokyo late and went straight to out hotel. A seedy little place called New City Hotel. On arrival we discovered "New" was a flexible word as this hotel was 20 years old. We stayed there one night but left early the next morning for a new hotel which turned out more expensive but much nicer. Most of our Tokyo trip was your typical Tokyo experience. Big city sights, Shopping in Tall Superdooper department stores (not that we really bought anything). I tried to buy a pair of vans but was told they didnt accept my card so i gave up on that idea.

I found my way to Carnival (a track bike store) but one guy there wasnt very helpful so i left. And a few other great shops but shopping in Tokyo requires one (or all) of three things: Money, Patience, Money... really shopping in Japan isnt as expensive as its made out to be but it is really hard. So much stuff, so many people. That said im not really in a spending mode atm so maybe as a traveller it would be different. None the less Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku are all awesome places to visit. We made it to a little area called Diakanyama which was really hip. I wanted more time in Tokyo because it is just sooo big.

We took a day trip to a small town called Kamakura. Heaps of temples and shrines and Big arse buddhas. We only made it to one of the buddhas but the other is defiantly in store for next time. I really enjoyed this place.

I think this is enough writing without images but so far it has been a great trip. I recomend Japan to anyone. Please if you do have interest in coming here send me a message and ill give you some tips for pre travel and recomend some places to visit. If you give me enough time ill even try find some deals on accomodation or at least get you in touch with the best places to stay. Work here isnt so hard to get either so if you are thinking about coming for an extended stay dont be affraid. Just come over and it will all work out (this is the philosophy i have been living by and luckily enough its worked out) but its stil lworth doing research.

Peace Out

2joes

Osaka #2

Sorry again for the delay...

It was a warm Saturday in Osaka so I decided to go out for a little ride. I cruised down to the castle - an amazing building located in the middle of a business area of Osaka. I wanted to see if the Cherry Blossom was out yet.

As it wasn't I moved onto Umeda, the second of two CBD's in Osaka. Umeda has a few large shopping centers which I avoided. My final stop was Triangle park in an area called Amemura, where all the young people hang out. Here there are a whole lot of awesome vintage shops; its like stepping into the 80's (or what I have always imagined it would be like). I grabbed a bubble cup and sat in the park with my bike drinking my drink when a random Jgirl approached me and invited me to her fundraiser party at a club from 3pm. This turned out to be my first proper night out. I ended up staying the whole time there, meeting heaps of people who took me out to dinner and then onto a bar.

I thought this guy would make documenting my experience here a little bit funner!

My first night out with my new camera took me to NoonTracks, an alley cat style invent held on a regular basis in a bar in Umeda. Its a roller race racing two at a time. Time is the decider. I came away with 6th (of 45) in the individual racing which i thought was pretty good for a first time on the rollers.

There was also a team event held between store employees. I ended up racing in team Gira Gira, the TrackSupermarket store as the boss pulled out late. We came an unlucky 2nd.

Bikes in Osaka are different to Melbourne, not only because many ride trick fixies and they are generally a smaller race with small bikes, but because they are more willing to have an OTT bike with a white saddle, matching rims and tyres, aerospokes, disc wheels, the lot. just like the fashion here bikes are full on. no half arsed efforts.

Now the Cherry Blossom season is in full flight and Hanami parties are on all the time. I went to Kyoto with some friends I met at the fundraiser event. It really is a sight to see. Masses of pink a white flowers and people enjoying a drink.

There are lots more stories to come. I hope all is well in Melbourne and all over the world.

more pics on my fb page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=210967&id=722670920&l=955b860764

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211962&id=722670920&l=07cb4f53b5

Osaka Update #1

After long concideration I decided the format of my luguage would include a bike bag and an extra large riding bag. I packed my bike and as little clothes as a could. In the end i was dead on for maximum weight.

The plane ride went smoothly and I arrived in Osaka at 8:30pm local time. As I was flying with a friend her son and his family picked us up in a car from the Kensai airport. Mari, Angela`s daughter in law and Rick`s wife cooked us curry which was a great way to kick of my Japanese food experience. After dinner Rick walked me back to Hiro`s guest house where is stayed for two nights.

Hiro taught me to make Udon soup which has been very useful as a budget breaky. He also taught me to make miso soup. Last night Hiro cooked me and a new friend EJ some pasta which was also pretty good. After Hiro`s I moved onto another guest house where I am currently staying at called Lemon House

Since I moved into Lemon House I have spent most of my time getting my bearings and have learnt to get around Osaka pretty well. I have eaten out most days around 2 times at least and have been aroudn to a few little bars. Ive eaten Ramen, Udon, Katsudon, Tacoyaki, Tompeyaki, Sushi, Miso and plenty more. I experienced some awesome Karaoke in a snack bar down some strange lane near Korea town which was heaps of fun.

It seems I have run out of Photo space so I`ll stop here for now but you can check out some more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?id=722670920&aid=210967

Ill post more in a few days and will try to be more regular from now on.

さようなら。

さよおなら in 15 days!

finally the month of my departure has arrived and soon it will be time to say goodbye. I will be another Aussie tourist in the mass of Japanese people. If anyone has any friends in Japan who they think would be welcoming, it would be great to have someone to take me around or show me something only locals know about. So if anyone has any friends over there or places they think i should visit please let me know and possibly you could hook me up with their details. Please call me and well try to catch up before I go away. Its going to be a while before ill see you next.
2joes

Booked!

At long last I have booked my flight and I am leaving on the 15th of March at 6am. I applied for my visa the other day too and should receive it soon. Keep following if youre interested in checking out either my trip or just Japan in general. Will be posting some interesting items that i will be happy to purchase for anyone interested while im away.
2joes

2joes heads to Osaka

I, Joseph Henry Gauci-Seddon, have created this blog as an online journal of my journey to Osaka, Japan. My journey began early on in my life as my parents took me to Japanese restaurants instead of macca of kfc. in addition Kimonos and Japanese furniture was scattered around our home. From an early age Japanese culture was bread into my blood. The deal was sealed when I saw Lost in Translation and my final decision defiantly had nothing to do with my love of Japanese women. As year 12 exams grew closer my desire to leave Australia burn stronger and stronger. I had fully disregarded uni as an option straight out of school. With no prior knowledge of the Japanese language I began teaching myself Hiragana imediately after yr 12 exams but found the concept of a completely new alphabet quite dificult. Since begining learning I have planned and planned and sketched up itineries but still have little idea as to how my time will be spent in Osaka. I intend to travel for roughly a month upon arrive begining with a journey riding from Osaka to Tokyo. On arrival back in Osaka I plan to stay in a hostel and gather a small group of private students whom i shall tutor in english. Eventually i hope to find my own apartment and work in a bar and spend around 8 months experiencing the culture Japan has to offer. On this blog I shall post images, videos and reports all to do with my trip in Japan which will begin in early to mid march. I hope you all follow my journey and enjoy my retelling of my experiences.
2joes