Quick Okinawa update

We travelled for most of the day yesterday from Sapporo to Nagoya to Okinawa. Now if anyone ever looks at my status updates on facebook you'll know we're not really impressed with the area we're in. Well the bus ride from the airport took two hours for one thing, and then we realised when we arrived in the area of our hotel (appartment room actually) that the place we're in is full of American army bases. We had no idea :( It took us 5 minutes to understand what the taxi driver was saying (NO BASE! NO BASE! AMERICAJIN? NO BASE!) and then a bit longer for him to understand we were English tourists.
So here we are in the most awfully decorated room complete with plastic flowers and yellow net curtains. Also the bathroom seems to be in a conservatory (at first we thought it was on the balcony) and there is no shower curtain and no hot water. I had to crouch in the bath to have my cold shower this morning. We are right next to the sea, but there isn't any sand, just these big jumping jack type concrete blocks.

So, we've booked a hotel near the airport! It will definately not be as loud as it is here since here they keep training in the planes overhead and the planes they're using are REALLY loud!! They do this it seems from around 11am to 9pm. The only stretch of good beach is cordoned off with metal fencing as it is just in front of where the army planes land.
The new hotel is very close to the main city, so we're hoping things will look up.

botanical gardens and tv tower

This is going to be a short post as I am exhausted and want to sleep. It's also our last day tomorrow so want to get up early!

Today we went to some botanical gardens which were gorgeous. Our first experience of proper Japanese autumn. While Jamie was eating there was a very friendly and hungry crow staring at him the whole time, Japanese crows are very pretty and big.
We also went to the top of a tower in Odori park (central Sapporo) at sunset which was breathtaking. We then ended up in the local bar where we introduced peep show to the australian chef (which he downloaded straight away and watched while he cooked our food!), he absolutely loved it!! Then he started introducing it to a couple people as 'this new English comedy'. He makes great English food including a very good venison and blueberry pie. We were lucky as it was just made them from scratch (which I saw his assistant chef make as most of the kitchens are open to the venues so you can see everything they're doing) and the ingredients were sourced locally. YUM! Tomorrow is ladies day which is a day that foreigners Japanese wives go and have discount drinks and 'bitch about their husbands', I think I'll go and join them!

Ok, I'll just put up some pictures and let that be all. See my facebook profile for an edited video with a few clips from the day since this site is not letting me!
Goodnight from Sapporo!!

the friendly crow

the tower we went up, looks a lot like the eiffel tower

very strange christmas bauble with an old lady in it!!

Our first ballgame

Hello dear readers. I am currently exhausted from the night and day that I have had. Suffice to say people now recognise me when I walk down the street or into the local gaijin bar, which I think it pretty good for our 4th day here :S

Well last night couldn't sleep so thought I would join Jamie in the foreigner bar down the road. Now I don't know if I have mentioned this before but the Japanese like to get completely pissed on a regular basis. And when they do, they REALLY do, like slurring of speech, loss of the use of their limbs, etc.
So in the bar we met a completely rat arsed Japanese guy who could hardly talk. Here are a few pictures of us, and one with Jamie and this liver medicine that the guy gave us. He was insisting there was no LSD in it for some reason, but apparantly it is essential for drinking and he seemed to have no hangover today! So much so that he drank three more beers.





The chef was also incredibly drunk!! You can see the kitchen from the bar and it was hilarious watching him try and put a plate of food together when he could hardly see straight!!! (he kept the bar open till 5 which was nice!)

Well the Japanese guy told us he was going to a baseball game the next day and that we should go (even though it was sold out). And naturally we agreed! So that is what we spent the whole of today doing, watching a baseball game. And oh boy, it was crazy indeed.

Now baseball in Japan is very popular and they have a huge stadium in Sapporo for it, their team is called Nippon Ham Fighters (why ham?!)


Oh, and this is the kind of food they have at a baseball game in Japan, (as well as some funky looking hot dogs) called a bento box (which I'm sure most of you are familiar with). There were loads of different varieties to chose from!



So, to the game. The crazy thing was that everyone was constantly shouting chants and cheering and smacking their sticks together in unison. Every player has a different chant such as...

Go, go

Let's go

Kaneko,

which they shout over and over again. I don't know how they remember all of them!! To illustrate this better, refer to the videos on my facebook wall. So I will leave you with a few pictures.

SHOPPING!!! And lots of Engrish!

Now be prepared for mostly images in this post because oh yes, as expected, there are many weird, wonderful and just plain mad things for you to see!!
I'm just going to dive right in with the pictures...

Racist pants

Pure Engrish

Hip cushion: apparantly it's 'stimulating'

This seems to be some kind of lude wash cloth for men, the drawings are hilarious, I'll put a couple close ups in underneath for you!!!

This believe it or not is lube. Very well disguised lube if I do say so myself. There were a lot more products that were adult in nature but my dad reads this blog so you will have to request those pictures privately!

There would've been a lot more pictures (like the jumper with a story of someone coming off crack on it) but the words were too small to work out in a photo. So you will have to settle for a picture of some mad mall mascots. It would've been me with the mascots but Jamie got so sick of shopping (it only took like 40 minutes!) so I was by myself and therefore too shy to ask for a picture with them :(

Now here are pictures of my wonderful purchases. Men, no need to look away as there is some good Engrish on them.


My favourite and most expensive top (favourite not only because it has the word gluttony on it, but also because it has a squirrel)
In case you can't read it this is what the speech bubble says...
"This taste has got me! It's warms the cockles of my heart"

This shirt come in two parts, this is the back which oddly enough should be read first.



Erm... I don't think anyones favourite word is interview!!!


Now I don't understand why they would equate Obama with chanel, but that's that's the Japanese for you! You're always wondering (erm... why?!)


front



the back is the best

Now I will leave you with a picture of a menu. Oh but not just any menu, see if you can spot two Engrish'isms

One for the girls

I didn't blog this morning as I had awful jet lag last night and only got to sleep at 3 AM. So I had to use my time wisely this morning to make time for SHOPPING!

This post is definately one for the girls (and will contain a lot of pictures) since it will be about not only shopping but chocolate!
So, we visited a chocolate factory yesterday and it was fabulous. It was also our first ride on the metro which was amazing in itself, seriously, England should be ashamed. It was not only clean and spacious but on time and quiet (none of that horrible earsplitting screeching).

Marvel at the shiny floors!!!
So, onto the chocolate factory, which is very close to the outskirts of Sapporo (the mountains are VERY close here). You can smell the chocolate from a block away, I wish all my bodily odours smelled of that wonderful smell!!

And here is the entrance, I have no idea why it is called entrepot. Jamie suggested it is Flench (something we have encountered much more recently, like Engrish but French influence instead)


The museum was interesting and fun, but not so interesting that I'm going to make you look at pictures of the various historic exhibits. Though I WILL show you where the magic happens. I love how you can only see the workers eyes. Tee hee hee.


After the exhibits and a view of the factory the cat paws on the floor indicated we should now proceed to the cafe where I had the best mocha in my life. Seriously, if you get a chance to have a mocha with chocolate in it that was made and melted on the premises, DO IT.
The 3 images that follow are my mocha, Jamie's hot white chocolate (which he was given strawberry puree to pour in, also a very tasty beverage) and finally our view from the cafe.





After this we did various touristy things ('when in rome') such as take a picture of ourselves in front of the tudor house (the grounds were definately English in theme) and get a picture taken with Abraham Lincon. Though I wouldn't recommend this, he was very unresponsive. Maybe get your picture taken with the other famous people sitting on benches in the museum that day, maybe Beethoven? Mona Lisa? Or even Pinnochio? (why? Where is the theme that connects these people?!)
Every half hour they would spout bubbles out of random places in the garden which everyone got very excited about. Though note they are very hard to see on camera!!







Now I have just decided to seperate the chocolate and shopping posts to make it easier for you. So as always I will leave you with a picture, this time of 'Funny Tree' which is apparantly 'Amusing! Funny! Novel!' Hopefully this will get you in the mood for the next post!

Nightlife so far...

Last night we ventured out of our immediate area and experienced some Sapporo nightlife, it's only Thursday so note that it is a little tame. Now most streets no matter how busy they are usually have some kind of neon signs, but in the main areas these signs are EVERYWHERE! It's like Picadilly circus over and over again!



Note in the picture above the sign saying 'Jog, the joyful human stage' yeah, tell me that when I'm jogging in the park today while people point at the unfit gaijin almost passing out in the rose bush.


What's weird it some of the adverts have sound that is blaring into the street. I wouldn't want to live around here that's for sure!


Now walking to the main area was a little strange, we started hearing music that made me feel like someone was trying to sedate me. We eventually found that it was coming out of these weird boxes that looked like bins!! As we walked down the music was following us, there were speakers at various points down the streets! Here is a video to illustrate my point!




After much searching we found a sushi place which seems to be the Japanese equivalent of a macdonalds. Even so, the sushi was awesome. It was also on a conveyor belt, always a plus. The best thing about it was there was this chef in the middle that every time someone gave him an order that required more ingredients than he had in front of him he would repeat it through a microphone linking through to the kitchen in the back and you'd suddenly hear all the chefs acknowledging his order through what sounded like cheers, well it sounded like they were saying 'yaaaaay' and it sounded like there was a big crowd of them! Hilarious.
Here's a picture of the sushi bar...



Here is a picture of a sushi Jamie ordered just because he wouldn't be able to get it in England. He said it was pretty intense (yes, that's egg yolk in the sushi!). There was also this strange soup with the consistensy of custard, though I didn't take a picture of it; it made me feel a bit queasy.


While writing this entry I have been watching TV and it seems the Japanese have produced some kind of miracle foundation that erases lines and anything to do with ageing!!! It looks amazing, and I am definately getting some for my mum tomorrow. They showed women putting it on and it looked like they we're slowly getting younger and younger, quite freaky actually. It also says clear esthe veil on the bottle, which I suspect is just Engrish nonsense to make it sound cooler. Apparantly it is also 'For a more beautiful and fulfilling life'. Exciting.



Oh, I almost forgot, we found our first 'Irish pub' though it was strangely named after an area in London where Jamie couincidentally went to school. And they had English football on inside, and were playing salsa music?!?! They also had a selection of Scottish beer :S. I think it was more of a 'General English pub' Here is the sign they had outside :D
If you can't make out what it says on the sign here it is...
'St. John's Wood is district of North London in England.
It is famous for the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded.
and it's own Underground station in London.
Please be enveloped in the warm relaxing atmosphere of an authentic Irish pub is Susukino'


Well, Jamie is almost finished getting ready and we're off to the Sapporo chocolate factory!! Yaaaaay!!! I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow. I will also in the near future be telling you all about the Japanese love of getting drunk at the weekend when I have the opportunity to film completely pissed business men (and oh yes, there will be many!!)

I will in the meantime, leave you with a picture of a strange square fruit. oooOOOOOoooh!