Jakey Jake

Friday 30th April
This morning we decided to go with Petes housemate steve for a hike through one of Japans parks. We were headed to chichibu national park. Along the way Steve managed to get us lost, and i managed to find it hhehehehe. We got to the end of the line at about 12.30 and walked about 9km along the road looking for the cable car to take us to the top of the mountain. We werent sure exactly where we were going but i was pretty sure it was straight ahead. We came to a nice looking bridge over a stream that had some big rocks, what else can you do?? except jump off the rocks for a swim?? after a nice refreshing dip we walked up the path to the cable car, which took us on a nice smooth ride to the top. As we started to descend the mountain we managed to get ourselves confused, the map was supposed to be read upside down.. it was very frustrating and all the signs were in Kanji, and the guide we came across couldnt speak any english. Anyway we managed to work it out and found a nice bunch of temples which unfortunately were being renovated. We hiked, stumbled and rolled the rest of the way down the mountain. I was wearing shoes a size to small for me and my toes were killing. We finally made it to the bottom at 6.30 having walked around 20kms. we were stuffed. the train took about 2.5 hours to get us back. Eventually we got home, but Pete had to meet some mates at shabuya and i wanted to go and get some photos… we eneded up getting there at 11.30 and the trains stopped running at 12.20. We didnt have long so pete went to meet his friends and i went exploring. It was a great place with a great vibe, lots of younger people all out partying. I saw the love hotels, theyre quite funny, they have rooms for you to “rest” in for 4000yen or you can stay for around 9000 depending where you go. The rooms were themed with bodange, jungle, teddy bears etc, anything that got you going Anyway to get home we had to catch the last train. Ive never seen anything so ridiculous in my life. THe train was so utterly packed they literally had train guards kicking people on the train so the doors would shut. Madness….

Thursday 29th April
Woke up very late today after a fair sleep in. it was a brilliant day so we decided to go to the governement metropolitain office lookout in shinjuku. The view was great and we could make out Mt Fuji in the background, only barely. After that it was direct to DisneySea. It took a while though, some of the train stations here are utterly massive. The city has a few main precincts built around a few main train stations which have massive department stores on them as well as just about every service you could think of. Some of the stations like shinjuku and tokyo are so large that they have travellators to take you from one side of the station to the other to catch an underground service. They are about as big as melbourne aiport, both of them. HUGE. Anyway we finally got there at 2pm. We were instantly amazed at the detail that had gone into the setup. It was much more involved than disneyland. Far more asthetically spectacular. However the rides were a bit disappointing, the indiana jones and the crystal skull was good as was the journey to the centre of the earth. The rest were a bit of a let down. Still we had a great day.

Wednesday 28th April
Woke up feeling much better, and very excited about getting to disneyland. I felt like a little kid we took the train which seemed to take forever, but we finally made it. I wont talk about it too much, cause the pictures tell 1000 words, probably more It was quite funny as we walked around and all these Japanese girls wanted to have photos with pete and I, we were like the latest attraction. Anyway it was a lot of fun, but we were told that disneysea, right next door was aimed more at the older kids, so after having a pretty kewl day we decided to upgrade the tickets and go to the disneysea park tomorrow. On the way home i thought i would show pete the amazing tokyo dome city rollercoaster that i had come across. Pete freaked out when he saw it, and it was running too . Somehow i managed to talk Pete into coming on it with me. Both of us were pretty freaked out, this thing was a monster, pete was shaking. We got in and it took us up 15 storeys high, about 6 storeys higher than the top of the department store. as we ticked over the top, looking straightdown at the footpath, it was such an awesome rush, though from the photo at the end pete didnt look like he was enjoying it as much as me hehehehe it looked like he was having a brain hemorrhage. It was sooo awesome, im going to go back and do it again and capture it on video to share. I walked around with a buzz from all the endorphins for hours. I definately have to jump from a plane and bungy jump before i die . When i got home i decided to walk around and see if there were any wireless networks running in the area. There were about 10 in the apartment building alone and i didnt even have to venture across the street. Free fast interenet. Thats what i like

Tuesday 27th April
Today was going to be one of those days. I woke up feeling a bit sick, i think i have some sort of chest infection. i was thinking about spending the day at petes apartment cause i wasnt feeling so great, and i wouldve too except the thought of having disneyland tickets was too much to bear, so pete gave me the key and i headed out. It was such a crappy day. It was pissing down rain and i was all wrapped up in my ski jacket. anyway i stopped off at the korakuen station as i had heard there was an amusement park there. And was there.. The most monstorous rollercoaster i have ever seen was wrapped up in and outside the building next to tokyo dome. It was incredible. I wanted to ride it but the weather was too inclement. Anyway i trekked back to tokyo station and went through the forum building again, it had started to rain like crazy and the wind was ripping branches off trees. I finally found the disney ticket office, of course it was nowhere near the dot on the map. I was absolutely drenched so i ended up going back to the apartment, however when i got there i found that there was a hole in my jeans pocket and i had managed to lose the key. Anyway i only had 10Yen left and that was the bare minimum for a phone call, so i had to wait until Pete had finished work at 9.30 pm and then i would ring and say “lost key, im at your place, i have no money”. Needless to say Pete wasnt happy, and neither was i. bloody hole. As i waited the japanese guys that lived next door had gotten a tad stoned and decided to get some munchies. I was walking around on the floors above seeing if there was any trace of the key when they returned. I had left my bag at the front of our room, and they freaked out when they saw my bag and i was nowhere around. They all just started saying “oh no, oh no” obviously perplexed as to what they were going to do with the bag. So i came down to let them know i was there, they wanted to sit down and have a chat. It was pretty funny trying to talk to these stoned japanese, but they provided food so i was very happy to talk Pete came back about

Monday 26th April
Woke up with a shocking hangover, not recalling that i had gone down to the shops to buy a third six pack of long necks Today i went with Pete to Ikebukuro, near where pete teached and we grabbed some lunch. Tokyo is actually made up of a bunch of little cities which have sprawlled out. There isnt a whole lot to do here, exceot visit the huge escelator in teh tokyo metropolitan art space, which i did and that was about that. There are soooo many shops, if you ever wanted to shop for really nice stuff tokyo would be the place, with Ginza and Shinjuku and pretty much any available space dedicated to all things retail. So i jumped on the train to shinjuku which is the world busiest train station, it was chock a block when i arrived. I found my way through the crowds and past all the arcade shops and made it to the east side. There i was confronted with a sea of department stores, most of which were selling gucci, prada, etc. none of that cheap stuff. Its a very clean city, and the gardens are immaculately kept. I trekked around the department stores and down a little alley til i got to an area known as golden gai, here there are a mass of bars, all very small all stacked right next to each other, there wouldve been a few hundred, each of which would only fit about 5-10 patrons each. past here it was into the red light district where there were an incredible amount of japanese women on offer on upstairs photo displays. From here i walked to the west side where most of tokyos skyscrapers are. This is because there seems to be less of an impact when there are any earth tremmors or quakes in this area. There certainly are some beautiful buildings and gardens in this area, but the best part of it is the tokyo metropolitain government offices, purely because of the spectacular view they offer from the 45th floor. You can see just how vast tokyo is, with every little nook and cranny being developed. Its not full of massive skyscrapers but this is due to the regions seismic activity. After this i caught another train, this time to Tokyo station, and i began to wander around the Giza area. It was getting late and i fumbled across the tokyo forum building, which was utterly spectacular. It was a shame that i didnt have my camera with me, but then agian i would just come back tomorrow and get some photos then. From there i walked around Ginza, which is a beautiful shopping area, with all the major fashion labels have exclusive stores, as opposed to areas of department stores. It was time to get back and meet pete, tonight was going to be an early one as we were both feeling prety crusty all day. We decided that we would go to Tokyo disneyland on wednesday before it was packed out with Kiddies during golden week.

Sundday 25th April
I woke up feeling pretty crap, the air conditioning was basically blowing a tonne of dirty air onto me. The guy wasnt there to pay and give the key back to, so i slipped some money and the key under his door. I caught the train to central, where they had check in desks at the station, which made life a whole lot easier jumped on the train to the airport and waited around until my plane left. Hong kong airport is a great aiport i must add. Boarded another cathay pacific plane and made our way over to tokyo. I got an emergency exit window seat which was fantastic, a view and the ability to stretch my legs.. hopefully thats what ill get everytime As you fly into Japan the first thing you notice is that there is not a square inch of land that is undeveloped. There is a mass of rice paddies and in between those there are some golf courses, and if theres not room for an entier golf course they will stick a hole there anyway. I landed at nirrito airport, which seemed relatively small compared to the gigantic Hong Kong Airport. Customs were quick and easy and it wasnt long before i was confronted by another new country. There arent very many english signs, and Kanji (the local written language) is impossible to decipher. I managed to find out which train station i needed to get off at in order to find pete, Asakadai. If you have never been to Japan the train system, for someone that doesnt know it, is a nightmare. There is the underground system and the above ground system, each of these systems is then owned by numerous companies, so you have to buy numerous tickets for different lines. Still after a while you eventually get the hang of it and its really a breeze to get anywhere you want rather quickly and its fairly cheap. I got into the station at about 7.30. I met pete at about 8 and we went back to his place, where we immeadiately got stuck into the beer. Someoe i managed to spend $140 today just in getting from the airport to his place and getting some food and beer. it goes soo quickly over here.

Saturday 24th April
You know after a heavy night of drinking, you get up and you feel like somone has been using a jackhammer right above your head??? well at 8.00am, someone decided it would be a good idea to jackhammer the roof, directly above my room. Why in gods name did this have to happen today??? to me?? utterly seedy i decided that it was no god trying to fight the sounds and trying to sleep. I went to purchase my new 40GB mp3 player and spare HDD (all in one). Once i bought that i went back to the hostel and set it up. Works brilliantly After that i decided i needed to get a whole lot more photos of Hong Kong so i jumped on the star ferry and went to HK island. I caught the double decker tram just to see a bit more of the island. its an incredible place, with a lot of energy. Although the shop fronts at street level look very clean and inviting, when you look up, a lot of buildings look utterly derelict. I really wanted to get some photos of the worlds longest covered escalator, and some more from the peak. But it will have to wait until next time. the day was very overcast and there was a lot of fog. I had been invited to dinner at an italian restraunt with Murray, Steve and Marloo, so i had to get back and get changed. I got to murrays room on the 55th floor and helped him with his new laptop. We went out for dinner in this lovely italian restraunt. Murray was shouting me a birthday dinner, so i ended up having 1 entree, 3 and a half mains and 2 deserts they were delicious but i freaked the waiters out with the amount that i was eating. Everytime i ordered our waiter kept saying “ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok” it was pretty funny. After dinner we said our goodbyes and i jumped on a train back to the hotel. I had to be at the airport at 8 for my 10 oclock flight.

Friday 23rd April
Today i wandered around town again looking for good prices for an mp3 player. I like the Hong Kong people, they keep to themselves and are clean… what more can you ask for?? The only bad thing about HK is the cost. Everything, apart from the public transport and free internet at some spots, is damn expensive. So after a little wandering i decided to return home. Which was a good idea, for as i got back i seemed to get a case of indian belly. So i spent almost all of the day running to the toilet and doing some programming. Until about 10pm when i got sick of being confined and i started feeling better. I started reading the lonely planet to see where all the people were so i could do some partying. Theres a little lane on Hong Kong island which is littered with bars and is where a lot of ex pats go… so i jumped on the train and headed over. WOW.. when i got there people were packed out all over the streets, it was definately party time, it felt like new years eve Just a little tip if you ever find yourself here. Theres a 7-11 just down the road a bit that sells cold beer for around $10HK depending of course on the type. Compare this with the price of around $50HK (close to $10AUD) for a beer, and noting the fact that the bars let you carry them in with you, youd be silly to give your money to the bar. Anyway i was walking around in circles and finally decided to go into one of the bars. About 10 meters into the bar i look down and theres Murray and Steve sitting down at the table, with Marloo and Rochelle. Can you beleive that??? anyway they sat me down and fed me drinks and we chatted for hours. Next thing i knew i was on the dance floor, looking around, wondering how in the hell id managed to get so trashed. The others left as they had the trade show on in the morning so i walked around the street again, before deciding that i was too trashed to do anything, espeically having a conversation with someone. SO i jumped in a cab. “Kowloon, Chung King Mansions”… the guy didnt speak a word of english, and before i knew it i was half way to the airport. I said “sheraton Kowloon” he figured it out after trying to talk to me in chinese for about 5 minutes. I finally got home and crashed utterly exhausted into my little bunk bed.

Thursday 22nd April
Went to look at prices of electronics stuff cause i decided i wanted an mp3 player, and i wanted to check my email. Its such a small world. I logged in to MSN and adam was on and we were chatting, and he SMSed his dad asking him the name of a bar that was good to go out to. Murray, Adams dad, just happened to be in Hong Kong too, along with his partners, Steve and Tony. So adam gave me his number and we met up. I cannot tell you how good it was to see a familiar face Anyway Murray took me up to the peak which is a point overlooking Hong Kong with pretty spectacular views. Theres a great walk up there and you can see pretty much the entire island. Once we finished the walk we went and had lunch at a nice little restraunt which served the most gigantic portion of ribs i had ever seen (and eaten ) I cant tell you how good it was to eat decent food After the point we walked around town and saw some pretty impressive buildings, then we went back to his hotel were we met Tony and Steve. They were all in town for a big toy exhibition.

Wednesday 21st April
After 4 and a half hours on the plane i touched down in Hong Kong. A bit scary coming in as you get lower and lower and closer to the water with no land in sight then suddenly there is a runway. I was so happy no more paneer pakora, murgh chicken or alloo. No more beggars, homeless peoiple, poverty, open sewers, or squats. At least for a little while. I caught the bus to Kowloon, on the opposite side to hong kong island. I was hoping to get a place at the ymca on the river but you have to book ages in advance. so i went to a place called Chungking Mansions, described by the lonely planet as “a huge run down high rise with approximately 80 guesthouses, the budget accomodation ghetto of Hong Kong. you may be put off by the undercurrent of sleaze and the peculiar odours – a potent mixture of cooking fat, incense and shit – but dont seek sanctuary in the lifts, theyre like steel coffins on cables. the stairwells support a large amount of wildlife including a rare species of aggressive flying cockroach. Be thankful for the stray cats as they keep the rats in check.” and it was even more true in real life than in those words. More simply put it was a dump. But a cheap dump nonetheless. I walked around for an hour or so after checking into the travellers hostel. Hong Kong is nice and clean, with all your modern conveniences but it seems like one gigantic shopping centre. They sell just about everything here and its fairly cheap. I went out for dinner with Dave and his girlfriend ely. They had been together for about 2 years and were travelling around the world for a year together. Made me think about camii and how she was going. I really felt like a third wheel, and in some ways it made me think i had made the right decision not to travel with camii, but at the same time it made me really miss her company. We watched the light show thats put on nightly by the buildings on hong kong island, it was quite spectacular. Then we caught a star ferry to central station and the train to causeway bay for some dinner. Then it was back by train to Tsim Sha Tsui, for some very expensive beer. Their public transport system is so clean and efficient, makes life very easy. But im wondering what im going to do here for 4 days… mmmmm think i might go to one of the beaches and check out the peak, not to mention the worlds longest undercover escelator OH YAY