pics from japan trip during summer

[r3n]

enjoy:

1. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0576.JPG
centra tokyo looking down the central shopping street

2. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0580.JPG
temples in kobe

3. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0638.JPG
mashu-ko in hokkaido (we got lost this day and ended up walking around 50km to get home - im not exaggerating)

4. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0678.JPG
temple on the hillside of kyoto

5. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0685.JPG
the most famous zen garen in japan, this photo doesnt do it justice, its really beautiful

6. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0698.JPG
the golden palace in kyoto

7. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0723.JPG
the "floating gardens" in osaka, you can see the glass walled elavator going up, reminded me of charlie and the chocolate factory heh

8. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0754.JPG
funny engrish instructions in our youthhostel dorm

9. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0769.JPG
stunning white walled castle of himeji. at view from the top you can see for miles

10. http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/IMG_0801.JPG
some beautiful traditional gardens in hiroshima, the poisonous catapillars and terapins were a bonus (dont ask)

sorry for the delay, and a lot of the photos look naff just because it was mostly cloudy on the days we went to the temples etc. (still very hot)

[Elite Hentai]

Very nice photos. I see you found my summerhouse in the last pic. i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[kAi]

man some nice pictures, i especially like the one with the english intructions..haha

[KitKat]

Very nice pics! But r3n, how come you're not in any of them? i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

And I'd like to hear the whole story of how you ended up getting lost and walking back.

[GLS]

that 9th picture looks like the place where Orochimaru and Tsunade met on Naruto.

heres the best pic I could find with it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v498/gaaralovessand/PDVD_016.jpg

awesome pics, r3n!

[PSJ]

nice ren i've been waiting for those i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif

[r3n]

lol v true gaaralovessand, himeji castle is famous in japan for its white walls and was on the national news when it was damaged in a typhoon. but tbh most castles in japan look pretty similar just like how most british castles look similar

the story about me getting lost around mashu-ko, hmmm pull up a chair itll take while and involve a diagram.

http://jtownend.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mashu.jpg
this is a crappy map i know but its the best one i could find of the lake and surroundings and im roughly guessing the routes of the roads we walked along and where mashu town itself was from my memory of the map i was using at the time (which was completely unhelpful and drawn by some retard).

ok so my friend who im with on this holiday is really keen on hillwalking and skiing and stuff, (hes austrian he loves hills) so he convinces me to go on a walk around this lake which should take most of the day but we should be back at the youth hostel just outside of mashu by dinner time. so we sign ourselves up for dinner and set off in the morning with our lunches packed at around 8:30am (its like the earliest ive ever gotten up of free will). everything goes smoothly at first. we reach site number (1) by foot which is observation post. the lake looks stunning, its really sunny and all is well with the japanese tourists zooming past us at 70mph on the road taking photos of us and the lake as they go. we get there and cant really see the path, but eventually find what seems to be a slightly cut path through the jungle that surrounds this lake. leaving our wellbeing to the hope that there arent any poisonous snakes in this area we set off. its actually really hot this day and is very sunny as its the height of summer in hokkaido. around lunch time we sit down and eat our sandwiches a couple of miles from site number (2) with my friend insulting me in his arnold schwarznegger accent about what a wussy i am because i need food after only 4 hours of walking (he does this a lot). about 45mins later we reach site number (2), which is the highest point in the area, and there are seriously fucking _amazing_ views. you can see for miles to the south coast of hokkaido, aswell as over mashu-ko and off into the mountains to the north. from here however we were undecided what to do because the path forked. we either a. go up the hill next to this which was to the east, and carry on around mashu-ko, or go down the side of the current hill into the forrest/wildlife reserve. me though, i wanted to just turn around go back the way we'd come, back to the YH, sit down and have a bottle of pocari-sweat (no thats not my typo, theres actually a drink called that which is really nice). however i gave in and we decided to carry on walking around the lake. we'd come around 24km so far, taking us around 5 hours, so we were doing almost 5 km an hour which is good going in this terrain.

so up the next hill we go, by now my knee is really hurting from going up and down these shitty paths at stupid angles. we get to the top, enjoy another view then discover there is no path down the other side. its a complete dead end. FUCK, came up that hill for nothing and im now worn out. so we go back down the hill and by this time i really _cannot_ be bothered going up the hill we were first on to get home, so in a fit of stupidity i say we should go down hill further into the forrest and then we should be able to get onto a road that takes us back to mashu town NO PROBLEM! the shitty tourist map i had didnt even cover this area lol. so my friend agrees for some reason and we go down this path, eventually get to what looks like a picnic site and a log hut, nobody there at all. so we carry along a gravel road leading west, not following any signs in particular just being complete morons. we walk, and walk, and walk, in a straight fucking line for HOURS. no signs, no indication of how far weve come, how far we have to go, nothing. btw that green patch on the map above is a LOT smaller than the forrest turned out to be when we checked a decent map after we eventually got back to the YH. so eventually after about 2 or 3 hours of walking through scenery that hasnt changed a single bit (lines and lines of pine trees) we come to a fork in the road. 1 going further into the forrest west (towards mashu town but we didnt want to run the risk of hitting a dead end or being in the forrest come night fall), and the other going off onto a proper tarmac road leading out of the forrest, but to the south. we decide to take the safe option and head south. we walk past some weird government installments or something, with dead birds stuck on spikes around it. we didnt know if we were in the japanese area 51 or anything but we were kinda shit scared. atleast the tarmac was good, i had taken off my shoes and was walking bare foot, it felt so good as my feet were killing me, and the cool air was nice. so we walked further along this road, and eventually completely out of the forest into farmland with the road just making a straight line as far as we could see to the south. FUCK. there was absolutely no cars or anything on this road. so we walk, and walk and walk. and after another hour or so we get to a cross roads at point (2.5) and manage to take right so were now heading in ROUGHLY the right direction towards mashu-town. its now about 5pm and we have no food or water left. our feet are in agony and were just worn out and pissed off, so god, being the lovely guy he is (not that im christian or nething) decides to....make it rain! good on him, so now were in pain, tired, hungry, thirsty, and soaking. so we walk more. and eventually get to the main road at point (3) with a road sign (the first weve seen), with english on it, hurrah i hear you say. well no - i read slowly aloud "oh finally a sign for mashu, oh whats that it says next to it? 15km? YOU ARE FUCKING KIDDING BUDDY." it was starting to get dark now and walking along a main road with traffic going past at 70mph didnt appeal at this time. so against my will we start walking counting down the km markers every 15minutes or so.

so now its completely pitch black. cars scream past us, and the thought of trying to hitchhike springs to mind, so i get out my map turn it over and scrawl on it "MASHU", as i hoped most japanese could read english characters. k so im doing this, walking along the road with cars actually moving onto the other side of the road just to keep away from me, jeez japanese ppl sure dont like hitchers can tell you that. also, there are no lights along this road, if there isnt a car going past its hard to see where you're going, and when i car does come at you, you're blinded by the headlights. its very annoying. so we walk walk walk and at everyturn of the road we hope to see mashu town but it never happens. its now about 8pm. conserving our walking pace from before we have walked almost 50km with 10 hours walking, ONE stop for lunch. rest of the time we were walking. im almost falling asleep as i walk and my feet are in actually pain, and im just trying to desperately keep up with my friend infront who's a fast walker. EVENTUALLY around 8:30pm we see lights and get to mashu, a police car blazes past us and i was thinking "ohwell were the only 2 white guys within 100km of this place and they didnt stop so its not like they sent out a search party or anything." well why would they its not that late at night. mashu is more like a village than a town, a few tractor dealers here and there, some houses, a tiny train station and like 1 convience store. so we make it to that which is CLOSED (its not even late ffs, and i thought japanese were hard workers), but luckily theres a vending machine outside (where isnt the vending machine in japan? i was surprised i couldnt get coke, only pepsi at the top of the hill) so i buy no less than 3 bottles of fanta strawberry (my favourite drink in the world - doesnt exist in the UK, bastards) and guzzle them down as fast as my throat will allow. we walk to the train station hoping to phone the YH and ask to be picked up (the YH is a couple of km out of town) but to our surprise the assistant manager of the YH was in his van at the train station waiting for us. we didnt ask why, we just got in and he gave us a lift back. finally i can go to bed and forget this ever happened. but no, the manager wants a "word" with us. his assistant manager explains to us in terrible engrish that they had called the police and said we were missing because we missed our fucking dinner. jesus. and all the while the manager is insulting us in japanese calling us bastards and foreign morons etc. i presume he didnt realise i understand quite a few japanese insults from all my time watching anime (SEE, it does come in useful!).

so thats the story, and i slept like a baby that night from 9 till 10am the next morning. when i woke up and was extremely hungry lol

[Assertn]

Originally posted by: KitKat
Very nice pics! But r3n, how come you're not in any of them?

And I'd like to hear the whole story of how you ended up getting lost and walking back.

he IS in one of them....just look at the reflection in the engrish sign i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif
wow, thats quite a story there r3n, surprisingly i read through the whole thing i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[r3n]

well spotted assertnfailure.

i took about 170 photos all together and i debut in quite a few mirrors/panes of glass but there arent any photos of me or my friend. i just dont like ppl in photos, i take the photo because i think it looks nice why do i need to be in it.

[jing]

Where's all the hookers?

[SK]

great pictures makes me want to go so bad, i might next year for my graduation trip

[Lefty]

Jing all those pics were during the day. Night life like hookers dont appear till the sun goes down. Take a cold shower or do two hundred Fuchikomi Suburi to calm down the old sex drive eh.

[Jman]

nice. I gotta visit some day

[jing]

Originally posted by: Lefty
Jing all those pics were during the day. Night life like hookers dont appear till the sun goes down. Take a cold shower or do two hundred Fuchikomi Suburi to calm down the old sex drive eh.

fuchikomi? is that the same as haya suburi?

[kAi]

damn man, that was one long read, but funny nonetheless

alot of walking for one day, but at least you got through it.

[Deblas]

what? no chicks. damn. anyway those are really nice. i really want to go there one day

[r3n]

lol apart from in tokyo most of the japanese girls i saw were not so nice. and i didnt take my camera with me in the evenings, but we did see gaisha quite a few times

[KitKat]

Originally posted by: AssertnFailure
he IS in one of them....just look at the reflection in the engrish sign
wow, thats quite a story there r3n, surprisingly i read through the whole thing

Heh, I stand corrected.

R3n, that was an awesome story! I'm glad you took the time to type it out for us. You're a good storyteller. I especially liked the part with the dead birds stuck on spikes. I don't know why, I just find weird random things very amusing. Btw, are you from the UK? The only time I've heard people use the term 'hillwalking' was when I went to visit my relatives there.

[kAi]

Did you visit any clubs there?
what things did you do at night there?

i'll like to hear the nightlife there

[Mae]

Yeah, any clubbing?

WB r3n, your pics really turned out well. I like the Kobe temple one the best.

[NM]

Those pics are really awesome r3n. I especially liked the gardens, those looked great. I just cant wait to go there one day.

[r3n]

hey mae long time no see, nice to see you using my siggy i made, i was actually thinking of changing the name on that and using it myself if you didnt cos i love it lol!

and yeah i am from the UK, what term do you guys use in the US for hillwalking? trekking? hiking?

the night life is kinda crazy, EVERYONE goes out there, the streets are packed at night in the cities, usually ppl eating/playing in the arcades/shopping (shops dont shut till 9 in the commercial areas) and then later ppl go out clubbing. its really expensive to drink out so usually you get tanked up before you go out. the clubs are a lot better than the ones over here in the UK and the dance music scene in japan is massive. also every girl in the clubs looks about 12, but when you talk to them they usually turn out to be around 25ish lol. you have to be over 20 to drink in japan so even my fake ID didnt cover it, but for some reason they didnt ID us at the door, ever, but every1 else gets IDed. probably cos we were taller than the bouncers and had stubble i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif

[Koyuki]

Haha. Nice pictures. My friend is going next month. Isn't there a place were the drinks cost like 100$. I think it's were the business mens takes there customer to get a drink.

Hopefully I'll go to Japan soon.

[Terracosmo]

Fucking awesome pics... they make me all teary-eyed, I so badly want to go there... such a beautiful country...

[r3n]

yeah its great, part from the fact that it costs an arm and a leg to get there terra, i had to work the rest of the summer to afford it all, ended up spending around £1800 in total which is about $3500 inc. flights and lots of anime and gadget goodies. i stayed mostly in youth hostels but theyre so clean and nice in japan it would be insane not to.

[PSJ]

Originally posted by: Terracosmo
Fucking awesome pics... they make me all teary-eyed, I so badly want to go there... such a beautiful country...

i've noticed that you get really emotional around alot of things terra i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif and yea its a nice place i'd like to go there to. it would be cool to visit a japanese historical museum, i bet they got alot of gooed stuff in there..

[r3n]

i went to a katana museum which was cool, showed you how they created them and all the different types. they had quite a few named swords too.

there was always loads of samurai stuff in the castles we visited.

[PSJ]

great thats awesome i think i should book in a japan trip somewhere in life...