Japan 2012: Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagasaki & Kumamoto

Day One 
 Arrived in Japan after a bloody long flight. I left Manchester for Paris at 9:30am, arrived in Paris half an hour or so before I had to board the next plane. THE FRENCH are amongst some of the rudest people I have ever met. Plus, not matter how many times I told the air hostess that I DID NOT SPEAK FRENCH she continued to talk to me in French and would not speak English. Okay mate.

So, finally landed at 8:00am in Tokyo. I was straight through immigration and my case was the first out on the conveyor! By 8:40 I was in the subway waiting at Keisei sen. It immediately felt as though I had never left.
I don't even think I realized HOW MUCH I missed Japan. The smell of the subway.. the ridiculous rush hour trains.. delays on the Chuo line.. AHH.
So I finally reached my destination (Jeffrey's house), and proceeded to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up the heavens had opened, it was absolutely lashing it down & there was some thunder too.
Once Jeffrey got home from work we made curry and then I pretty much passed out. 
No true jetlag was suffered, and I slept until 9am the next morning.


Day Two 
We headed to Kawagoe (Saitama) today, as neither of us had been before. We took a map and went around the various temples and seven lucky God shrines.

In the evening we went by Shibuya as I neeeeeeded to visit Book Off! It's not the best Book Off to go to for horror stuff, but I did manage to pick up one book by an author I know. We then wandered around a bit and I took some photos that I didn't manage to get very good last time I was here, since I had a crappy camera back then!

When we got back, I discovered that I got sun burned! Nice one.


Day Three
Today we went to Kamakura, as there were some places I hadn't been to yet.
We started off at Tokeiji Temple, which is also called Kakekomi-dera 駆け込み寺, which can be translated as 'refuge temple' or 'divorce temple.' During the Kamakura period, women could seek refuge there from their husbands, and after three years, they could obtain a divorce. 

We then went to the nearby Jochiji temple.

Next we went to see the statue of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate;

Then we climbed up into the mountains to go to Zeniarai Benten, where people wash money, in the belief that it will be doubled. Some madmen were washing 5 and 10 thousand yen notes, but I stuck to 5 and 10 yen coins- needless to say, they did not double LOL.

We then went on to Ofuna, where we visited the Ofuna Kannon statue. HUGE.

Afterwards, we went back via China Town in Yokohama. AH MEMORIES. We did some Purikura.. 

...and ate NOODLES and shizz.

On the way home, I bought THESE, in preparation for tomorrow, which is possibly going to be the best day of my life... 

Day Four
As expected, the best day of my ENTIRE life.
I woke up at 6am this morning because I knew I was going to see my horsey today and I was SSSSSO excited!

Anyway, we left for Tokyo Riding Club at 12 and arrived just before 1 o'clock. We signed in and then the receptionist told us which horses we'd been assigned. I was put on a horse called Noir ”ノアル” which is a new horse that was not there when I worked there. But Jeffrey was put on.... Northy! :O
Well, what was there to do?! 
Jeffrey asked if we were able to swap horses, since I loved Northy so much. The receptionist said she couldn't do it, but we could ask our instructors.  We went down to the yard then, where I immediately began looking for Northy. It wasn't long before I found him, and I think it's safe to say I scared the whole yard when I squealed BABYYYYYY and hugged him. After this, we went to ask our instructor, Kadonaga-sensei, if we were able to swap horses. She said that she would try and sort it out. Meanwhile I went and made a huge fuss of my baby!

 

 

We also went to look around at some of the other horses I used to work with. I saw quite a few including Malon, Taiki Conan, Esperance, and Clover, and a couple of my favourites...

...Kagayaki "輝"... 

..and Sirius "シリウス"...

Once I'd said hi to them all, and made another fuss of Northy, who, by the way, DEFINITELY remembered me, it was time to ride. And guess what? They swapped the horses!!! I got to ride my Northy!!!! Words cannot describe how happy I was! We had a lesson together, and Northy was great. They said he was lazy and would take a lot of work, but he did everything he was asked first time. 
 Afterwards he got two carrots and a banana, but didn't like the banana treats I'd brought from England very much. HUMPH.

The love of my life ♥

Me on Northy, Jeffrey on Noir

You can see the live action carrot trick here;

Afterwards Kadonaga-sensei was bathing Northy, and let me do it :) He enjoyed it <3 

Not only was I reunited with the love of my life, I also got to ride him, and bath him.

What can I say?

Best day of my entire life, it made the trip complete and worthwhile. 

In the evening, we had dinner with two of the customers from the riding club, Mahiro & Chikako. It was my first experience for Shabushabu. 

Day Five
This morning I took myself off to Nishi-Sugamo, to check out the Oiwa grave at Myougyou-ji. This is from the famous ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan "四谷怪談".

Afterwards I stopped off at Book・Off for some much needed book buying! 


Later on, I went to Harajuku, where I of course spent too much money.
In the evening I went over to Shin-Okubo, to meet Kristin, who was in my class at Keio University. 
Korea Town is based in Shin-Okubo, full of Korean restaurants and Idol shops! I found some Hyun-Bin stuff to buy ;) 
We met up with Jeffrey a little later and went to a Korean BBQ restaurant. 

Day Six
Today I went to Odaiba, for some shopping. I also like the view from there so I wanted to get some nice photos. But the weather had other plans, so I got some grey photos instead. 

In the afternoon I went to Keio to meet up with Taka, who was in the 乗馬サークル with me two years ago.


It was so strange to be back on campus! 

I've packed tonight because I'm off to Fukuoka tomorrow. I'm sad to be leaving Tokyo & Northy again, but looking forward to seeing Fukuoka. 

Day Seven
I flew out from Haneda and arrived in Fukuoka at 11.30am. Fumie met me at the airport and after dumping my ridiculously heavy bag, we went out. After lunch we went to Dazaifu. On the train we had the misfortune to witness one of the world's freaks. A woman with two umbrellas covering her face, rocking back and forth. It was not raining. We named her 傘の女 and I made up a nice little 都市伝説 about her, that began 昔、昔... AND THAT, ladies & gentlemen is all you're getting- you can buy the book when it comes out!

Monkey doing some tricks. Cute, but I'm not sure if I liked it really.

We then TRECKED, no word of a lie, up a huge hill to Kamado Shrine. There were deer!

In the evening, we went to the cinema to see the new リング film, "貞子3D". It was the first time I've been to the cinema in Japan, as it was way too expensive when I was in Tokyo! The film was good- not scary but entertaining enough, and it was a good experience to watch a Japanese horror film and actually BE in Japan.

Day Eight

We went to Nagasaki for the day.
There were tonnes of kids there on school trips, and they were all saying "Hello!" in English, quite different from Tokyo and other big cities.

First we went to the Peace Park for the atomic bomb

We then went to Glover Garden...

...And China Town...

Day Nine

Today I went around Fukuoka.
First, Canal City;

Then on to Fukuoka Tower, which for the record, is slightly cheaper than Tokyo Tower!

Momochi Beach 

Day Ten 

Today Fumie's dad drove us to Kumamoto, where we visited 阿蘇ミミルク物所

We then went to another place called 'Cuddly Dominion' in Aso-shi

This fucker tried to EAT me. Bastard.

Finally, we went up to 大観峰 

I flew home the next day. I did NOT want to leave Japan! I missed it so much. So depressing. I had a great trip, made complete by being reunited with my beautiful horse and seeing all my friends! 

Same time next year? Yup.

Of course, when I did get home, someone was waiting for me!