Monday was boys day!! Daddy, Jason and I went and did some baseball batting practice and it was awesome! While we were at baseball the ladies all went on a tour of the Fish Markets and had a Sushi making lesson. They all think they're sushi chefs now, so I can't wait until we get home and they make us some!! After batting I got some hot chips from a vending machine. They were rotten!
We all met up in the afternoon and did some shopping before going to a Ninja restaurant for dinner! The Ninja restaurant was cool. We had our own private room and a Ninja served us dinner. Another Ninja came and performed a magic show and he was really good. The restaurant was all hidden and dark and we had to walk down tunnels to find our room - it was scary when we had to go to the bathroom!! The next day was our last day in Tokyo. We got up early and packed all our bags. We had so much stuff that we had to leave some things behind! We met up with the Kitto's and tried to get on the subway but it was peak hour and there were people EVERYWHERE!! We had to all separate and squish into the carriages with our luggage - there was not much room! We got off the subway at Ueno to have a look around. After putting our bags in lockers at the station we went to the Zoo. We saw lots of cool animals at the Zoo. There were red Panda's, giant Panda's, a Polar bear, seals and even kangaroo's! I like the seals the best and my mum liked all the Panda's. There were heaps of different types of monkeys and even a Gorilla, but he was hiding so we didn't get to see him. We saw a Lion, tigers, elephant, hippo's and a giraffe. It was awesome. After that we went to Sensoji Temple which is a very large and important temple in Japan. It has a large market at the front which was full of people and lots of souvenir's and food. We went in to the main temple and saw the special smoke which people wave over themselves for good luck. We walked through the gardens and looked at the very old statues. It was really pretty. Late in the afternoon it was time to head to the airport for our flight home. We flew through the night and arrived back in Australia early on Wednesday morning. I was sad to leave Japan, but happy to be home. Now I can't wait until our next trip!!
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We said goodby to Nozawa Onsen yesterday and I made an origami Koala for Ko-san to say thankyou for such a wonderful time. Ko-san is the owner of the Ryokan and she was so nice to us. She gave us a small tatami plinth and a jar of her mother's apple jam as a gift. We really enjoyed staying there and would like to go back one day. We caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo and found our hotel. Our room here is very small, but we are across the road from a big department store so Mummy is happy. So far we have been to a nearby temple, iceskating with Caitlin and Emily and have done lots of walking! After dinner last night, Daddy was tired so he went back to the hotel and Mummy and I had an adventure! We caught the metro subway to the Tokyo Tower and saw the City all lit up at night. It was really pretty but looking down was a bit freaky! Today I tried to watch a karate class, but they said 'No!' so we went shopping instead. After lunch we went with the Kittos to Legoland and it was awesome cool fun! There was a ride where we got to shoot targets, an indoor climbing frame, a 4D movie of Lego Chima and a Ninjago training centre where you had to dodge lasers! At the end I chose a Hulk lego keyring and Daddy chose Chewbacca. Daddy likes Chewbacca because they speak the same language! Today was my mums birthday and she got to ride some fat powder skis!! It started snowing yesterday afternoon and didn't stop all night and most of today - there was so much powder that half of the mountain was closed because of avalanche risk and I sunk up to my waist a couple of times. It was really hard work getting through the moguls with all that snow. I fell over heaps of times and once I did a front flip into a heap of powder - it was awesome!! Daddy had a little adventure when he decided to go looking for some fresh tracks in the trees. He got stuck in the pow pow and couldn't get out for about half an hour! He eventually dug himself out and popped out on a proper run. Mummy was mad when she found out because he had not told anyone where he was going! Yesterday Daddy and I had to go looking for a birthday card for Mum and we couldn't find any so we had to get her postcards instead. I also found a fan that I thought she would like - Happy Birthday Mum! Last night we had dinner in our Ryokan and it was a traditional Sukiyaki dinner which is beef in a frypan over a flame with noodles, vegetables and broth added. When you take any food from the pan you dip it into a small bowl of raw egg and then eat it. It tasted a bit like a cream sauce and was pretty good. We also had some salmon sashimi, flavoured tofu, vegetable and seafood tempura, and a savoury egg custard. Mum and Dad got some home-made plum wine and then we had a Bavarian cream dessert with orange. It was really nice. I am pretty tired tonight and a bit sad that it's the end of the skiing for this trip, but I am looking forward to getting to Tokyo tomorrow! Last night we went to a pizza restaurant and it was different to our pizza's in Australia. The crust was really thin and light and I had spaghetti meat sauce and cheese on my pizza! On the bar in the restaurant there was a cat lying in a bed with a blanket over him! I gave him a pat but he just wanted to sleep. After dinner we went for a walk and I had a giant icecream wafer sandwich for dessert. It was so big I could only eat half, so I saved the other half and had it after breakfast this morning! We got up early this morning and went skiing. It was snowing and there were really low clouds which we were skiing through. It was a bit hard to see sometimes, but it was fun. Today was Mummy's turn to crash and it was the biggest one ever!! We did some moguls and she went tumbling down, lost her ski's and had to get someone to bring them down to her! It looked really funny and she wasn't hurt, so that was good! We came home after that and had a relaxing onsen. Then I did some homework. Tonight we are going out for Sashimi for dinner. I am looking forward to having some salmon sashimi and some beef tataki - yum!! On Sunday we left Hakuba and travelled to Nagano by bus. There we said goodbye to the Kitto's as they went to Tokyo for a few days and we caught a bus to Nozawa Onsen. Nozawa Onsen is a small hot spa village on the other side of Nagano from Hakuba. It is really pretty and has a LOT of snow. We are staying in a Ryokan which is a traditional Japanese hotel which is a bit like staying in someones home. It is very different to my house because we sleep on the floor!! While we were out at dinner a futon ninja came in and put our beds out on the floor; then when we got up yesterday morning we went down to breakfast and when we came back to get changed the ninja's had been in and put our beds away! I think it's pretty cool but Daddy has a sore back and Mummy has had to put an extra futon mattress on her bed! We skied on Monday and it was awesome! The weather was really warm with blue skies, so we went right to the top of the mountain and skied all the way down to the bottom. We did some green [easy], red [medium] and black [hard] runs. I also did some moguls which are the hardest black runs - I love moguls!! I even got to go on the chairlift by myself and mummy took a video of me skiing down the moguls. Today is a rest day because there's no fresh snow and we wanted to explore the village. We have tried some different foods and my favourite so far is a banana roll which is fresh banana and cream rolled inside a sweet bread/sponge - they are YUMMY! It is supposed to snow tonight so I'm really looking forward to skiing tomorrow :-) My last skiing day in Hakuba we went to Goryu where there was sooooo much powder!! We did some steep red runs and played around in the snow. I fell over again and mum and dad decided no more skiing for me! It wasn't as bad as the first crash and the ski patrol came and checked me out - I am fine! We caught the disco bus out to dinner that night and it was awesome! There are disco lights, loud music and we were dancing. Then we got to have a party sized plate of Gyoza for dinner - yum! My last day in Hakuba was a rest day for me. I watched movies while everyone else had their last bit of skiing. We had a great snowball fight in the afternoon though, so that was fun. We caught the disco bus again and we all got a bit silly!! I am sad to say Goodbye to Hakuba and I hope we get to come back again soon. I had lots of different Japanese food in Hakuba and we met some funny, interesting and awesome Chefs. 'Awesome J' was was the singing chef from Hotel Mominoki! He sang with us, gave us drinks and made us a special french dessert! We ate Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu for dinner. They are both 'hot pot' style meals with lots of meat, vegetables and soup which you cook at your own table. We also met a 'Sumo Chef' who owns Sumo-tei in Hakuba. He was the biggest man I've ever seen! He also made us hotpot and it was so yummy. It was full of prawns, fish, vegetables, noodles and soup. There was another that had beef, chicken, vegetables and soup. One of our other favourite foods is edamame, which is boiled soybeans with a bit of salt on them - yum! After eating edamame, we like to have some Gyoza which are fried dumplings with pork and vegetable in them. Another great meal was at the Samurai/Ninja show that we went to. We had Korean BBQ which is thin pieces of beef, pork, chicken, prawns, capsicum, bean shoots and sausages all cooked on our own small grill at our table. We also had some sushi rolls and a doughnut for dessert! Then we got to see a special show with Samurai swords and ninja stars and we even got to throw some stars at a target! Nanna, Grandma, Poppy, Nat and Aunty Deb: Daddy is still in one piece, we are having a great time and I am loving the Grape Fanta and Hot Chocolate in a can! Godmother Kylie: I am smashing Daddy on the tree runs and Mummy is letting me spend my money!! Kitto's say 'Hi' and we are looking forward to catching up when we get home. This morning I caught the bus with my friends Caitlin and Emily to the chairlifts while Mum and Dad caught the Gondola and went right to the top of the mountain. I skied some runs with Caitlin and Emily until Mum and Dad came and met us. After morning tea [hot chocolate of course!] Daddy and I went up and skied through some trees and found some jumps. After lunch Mummy came with us through the trees and she crashed. A few runs later we were skiing through a secret passage when I had a MASSIVE stack and hurt my arm. I thought I had broken it, but Daddy says I haven't. It's still sore, but ice and Grape Fanta is helping! Tonight we are going to the Samurai show and we will be having Korean BBQ which we cook ourselves! Yesterday was Snow Monkey Day! We got on a bus and drove 2 hours to the Jigokudani Park where a troupe of Snow Monkeys live. These monkeys love to go in the hot spring to keep warm. We saw some mokeys in the water, some were on the snow looking for food and others were climbing high up the hill to sit in the warm sun. After visiting the monkeys we got back on the bus and drove to a ski area called Shiga Kogen. Once we were there we rode some snow mobiles. I rode on the back of the snow mobile with my dad on the front. We rode through lots of trails for about an hour. My dad only crashed once when we were going around a sharp corner. My mum got to ride by herself and she didn't crash at all. At the end the guide let me sit on the front and hold on while he stood on the side board and steered. We rode around up on one ski and I thought we were going to tip over- it was awesome!! After all of that we got back on the bus and drove home. We were so tired we just had some pizza and went straight to bed! |
About me...I am Jake. I live in Australia with my Mum and Dad. I love Rugby, BJJ, Zen Do Kai, Motorbikes and Skiing!! This is my second trip to Japan and so far I've seen Disneyland, Tokyo, Hakuba and the Snow Monkeys. ArchivesCategories |