I've actually been updating Google Plus with everything but I didn't realise that you can't go back and change which circles can see which.
So. Boyfriend and I are on a 6 month tour of Japan with a working holiday visa. You can read some of his updates from before the trip here. He's also been keeping a video diary on his facebook page with some 1 minute videos from places we've been, I'll ask if he can put them on youtube so we can have everything together!
JOURNEY
The flight from Heathrow to Narita was about 10 hours and 30 minutes. Here are updates from the journey!
Somehow we made it into Japan and navigated around the airport to the post office in the other terminal so we could pick up pocket WiFi. As you can tell by this update, it's working!
Here's a picture of a giraffe Heathrow side. Boyfriend kindly got in the picture to fill the weird gap. You can ignore him, focus on the giraffe. It was cool.
Boyfriend and I have a habit of pulling funny faces in the camera. It might just be my habit that I've dragged him into actually. I feel that I look strange when I smile? I don't know.
The flight attendant really liked the earmuff/headphones Mother bought me before we left. She thought I made them myself. I'm not that cool...
I emailed work people to say I got here safely and got a load of replies about potatoes! It's going to be a month or two before I see any of those though... Maybe I'll just ship them one to keep them satisfied?
When we got to Narita we took the Express Train into Tokyo, at the moment you can get a discount if you're foreign and you show your passport. We didn't know that but one of the station attendants told us it was cheaper if we bought it at the desk and they gave us a pamphlet explaining it. It's only going from the airport though, not the other way around!
Food, food, food from Japan.
First is Melon Soda which I think is pretty normal but each time I bring some back from the Japan Centre or flick through pictures people go 'What on earth is that?!' Mostly because it's radioactive green? It tastes good though!
Second are Sweet Potato sweets and cake that were being sold at a stall in the underground. I might have mentioned that went I left the UK more than one person demanded Japanese potatoes as a present, not believing that they were really a thing. It's a little early to buy presents for home but here is the proof that such things exist!
The theme is 'Pretty Things From Today'.
The green pictures are from Kyu Shiba Rikyu Gardens which is a national garden that has been recreated to resemble what it looking like during Edo Tokyo. I don't remember who the garden belonged to but it was a high ranking person in the Tokugawa Shogunate.
I'm proud of those photos because I played with the setting available on my phone camera and I think the result is pretty nice! I didn't even edit these photos because I just like looking at them and thinking: "Hey! I did pretty well with those!"
The last photo is from a brand called 'Gelato Pique' which I like. They mostly do home ware and AMAZING pajamas that I would never wear because they're too fuzzy / soft / easily stain-able. They're pajamas and not loungewear which makes them unsuited to someone who doesn't get dressed on Saturdays.
In the bottom corner of that photo you can see the 'Gelato Pique Cafe' where we had coffee today. It was a really sweet / cute place! Even the staff uniforms were put together and neat (by the way, in the main store the staff wear their own brand to work = pajamas). The cafe and the store were facing each other and I was amazed at how much the two stores were alike in theme and atmosphere yet sold completely different goods.
Boyfriend was excited about visiting the Pokemon Centre today which was a lot of fun but when we were in Shibuya I realised I had a few things on my map to do in the area.
We only managed one in the end; the One Piece store on the 6th floor of the Parco building. They had some REALLY cool stuff but in the end I settled for a photo booth sticker with Matthew. We were TERRIBLE in the photo booth, as it was printing it cycled through the photos of people who had done it before us and it was obvious we didn't know what we were doing....
Here's a picture of Boyfriend with Luffy and Chopper. Why is he in the picture and not me? He's not supposed to be in the picture at all, that's why. He photo bombed and got kinda into the posing so I felt that I had to include him as well....
Yesterday we went to 'Sunshine City' in Ikebukuro. One of the things on my 'to-do' list was visit J-World which is where there are lots of Shonnen Jump related activities.
We went on a weekday so the rides weren't all open but there was still lots to do. There were quite a few people there because there are prizes and special goods that you can only buy here and themed goods in the cafe that are only available for a limited time.
The crowds were 90% female! I think there were 2 unaccompanied Japanese males and some foreign males but the majority of the males were accompanied by a girlfriend!
So now we're doing our first WWOOF on a farm in Ikabaraki on Itabashi Farm. I'm super happy because I can speak lots of Japanese and I finally get to experience living in a Japanese style house. It's pretty cold!
I'll update about that next week. We're going to be here for 3 weeks so I have to save something for later!
We work 0830 to 1130 and then 1330 to 1600 Monday to Saturday. It's pretty easy work and it goes quickly! There are two other WWOOFers here apart from ourselves although one is leaving tomorrow and everyone is very friendly!
Today we are in Inashiki. It took us 2 hours to get here from Tokyo. The work sounds like it will be relaxing and give us lots of free time. We've only been here for half a day but it's going well so far!
***
Sunday was our 'day off' even though we haven't had any 'days on' yet! We went to Narita for no particular reason. There's a famous old shopping street called Omotesando which we spent most of our time walking up and down.
There was also a festival going on although most of the activities started in the evening during the day there was a 'Yuzu-chara' festival which included lots of mascots from different places. I really liked Sanomaru from Sano in Tochigi.
The festival was held on the save day as 3-5-7 Day where all the 3/5/7 year olds get dressed up and blessed at the temple so there were plenty of little people running around. We walked through the temple and through the 'peace gardens' at the back. We did a lot of walking! We were really tired afterwards!
Yesterday we visited a sake brewery. I was trying to follow the Japanese conversation rather than the explanations so I don't remember much of it but the smell was amazing! The sake is made from water and a special variety of rice that is difficult to grow.
The water is drawn from the well in the photo and the rice is grown in the fields behind the brewery. The process takes a long time but I've forgotten how long, I think it's a minimum of 8 months but the fermentation is the longest part. The room the culture is added to the rice and fermentation happens in is kept at 30 degrees.
The other photo is the final stage in brewing. The liquid has to be kept constantly in motion or it would explode over the size of the container the same way bread does when you proof it (or my bread does because I forget about it and leave it for too long). Now there's a machine to do this but I took the photo as a check was taking place, before machinery this had to be done by hand 24 hours a day.
Please excuse the pretty terrible photos; I didn't have much time to adjust my camera settings!
These photos have yet to go on G+ because I've nicked them from Boyfriend today. They're photos of me because my family has complained that I'm not in any of the photos. Two from our day out last Sunday and one from today because Tobi is leaving today to go on other adventures so starting tomorrow it's just myself, Boyfriend and Rin. Possibly more on Rin next week?
I've now realised that there aren't any dates on these posts. Can you live with that? From now on I'll try harder to be better at this blogging thing. I guess I'll just learn a little at a time!
So if you want updates as I post them please follow me on G+ (which I am using specifically because nobody uses it and who wants all this on facebook?) unless you only want to see my pretty photos (which I haven't posted here) which you can find on Tumblr (along with other pretty reblogged things) .
See you next week!
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