View of Tokyo from the Roppongi Hills building.
Earlier in 2012 I remember writing that we were going to go on a holiday to New Zealand…well our plans got changed somewhere along the way and we ended up going to Japan in December. We still hope to go to New Zealand one day soon!
We traveled with one of our friends who lives in Singapore, where we also spent a few days and had a ball. I became quite addicted to the shopping scene over there and enjoyed lots and lots of tasty meals. It is so great visiting a city where you know people, they always show you the best things! After four days in Singapore we were on our way to Japan.
Japan is such an interesting place. It is so technologically advanced in so many ways, yet so many aspects are rooted in the past. We spent ten days visiting Tokyo, Kyoto and a little town called Hamamatsu, which we were told is quite similar in size to Perth. Unfortunately I was sick at the beginning of the trip, which slowed us down a little – but I managed to perk up towards the end!
Here are some of the highlights of our trip:
Pigging out at a chocolate buffet in Singapore – Oh my gosh. I was in a world of pain after this, but it was so worth it. We all went a little crazy from the sugar overload and took some silly pictures with chocolate all over our faces and running down our chins. It is worth noting that we were at an extremely posh hotel!
Going indoor sky diving – Anyone who knows me well will attest to the fact that I am the biggest scaredy-cat out and I would NEVER go sky diving. So when my boy bought me an indoor skydiving session in Singapore I was a little apprehensive. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life and ever since I have been telling everyone and anyone that they need to try it. The one thing people never tell you about sky-diving (indoor or outdoor) is that you drool a heck of a lot, luckily you can’t see it in the photos!
Visiting a cat cafe in Tokyo – When I saw that Stef and Erin went to a cat cafe on their trip to Tokyo, I knew I had to go. It’s so funny, you pay around $10 (AUD) to go in and that includes a drink, then you can choose to pay a little extra to get some food. We didn’t do this at first, but after about 10 minutes with no cats for company we decided to pay the extra to get some cat treats, after which they came swarming (great business strategy). Only in Toyko!
Posing like samurai’s in front of almost every temple in Kyoto – Oh boy did we have fun with this. The temples we visited were very serene so posing in such ways felt a little absurd, but it created some great memories and photo ops!
Rocking out at karaoke in Tokyo – We enjoyed this so much that we went two nights in a row. They have the karaoke experience down-pat in Tokyo. I really love how everyone embraces it over there as a fun activity to do on any given night of the week. I wish we could bring the Japanese karaoke scene to Perth!
Having fun at Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea – Our trip to Japan would not have been complete without a visit to Disney! Tokyo Disney Sea was definitely the standout. I surprised myself and went on a ride which had a 360 degree loop and ended up loving it and we had lots and lots of silly fun!
Taking a ride on the bullet train and spotting Mt Fuji – Wow! The bullet trains in Japan are incredible. Looking out the window whilst traveling 300km/h really tests the limits of your eye sight. Despite the speed, we managed to spot Mt Fuji and get some great photos. It is so beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed a few snapshots of our trip, I had better get back to reality for now!
