Photos from the 2nd day after the Gap Adventure

Maya and Melissa.

More Astro Boy stuff.

Here's a picture of the Edo - Tokyo museum that we had gone to in the first days in Tokyo.

This is the craziest pile of bikes I've ever seen.

SUMO

Photos back out in Tokyo

Visiting Ikebukoro we saw this building. I thought it was pretty cool.

It looks like subway cars stacked up into the sky. And so I took a picture.

I think that's what I've amounted so many images on the trip. Trigger happy.

Take a look at one small shop in Akihabara.

I bought a watch near hear. There are small corridors with tons of cool stuff.

From super famicom to phones we have here (that are selling for 5 bucks).

It's all there. I even saw a Pirates of the Caribbean dvd player.

Also in Akihabara are about a million of these vending machines.

This is a store that has about 100 of them, lined up and stacked up.

You can get gundams, dragon ball stuff, everything surpassing what we

ever had in our vending machines as kids. Oh. there was also a change 

machine by the door. Any parent in Canada with a kid would ensure

to stay way clear of this place. It's nutty!

For all those Astro Boy fans out there!

We went back to Yoyogi park to see the goths, the bands and the greasers.

We found some other fun friends when we were there.

This band was the spikeys and they were just strange.

Love the outfits!!

Check the Spikys setup! It's pretty pimp!

There were people practicing dance moves, choreographed singing routines, a juggler

And this guy too.

Another band with people walking by. I just love the concept!

This photo marks another change in our trip.

We were out in Ochidoricho. It's near the end of a private subway line called

the Tokyo Ikegami line. This means we were about half hour outside of the city.

We got stuck one night 3 stops away from our ryokan and had to walk.

Japan streets are so quiet at night outside of the city. It was almost a peaceful walk.

Here's a shot of our lodgings. Again. 30 bucks per person a night.

We had a closet and tv in this one too. Not too shabby.

Exploring Harajuku we came across the Audi Forum Tokyo.. basically the sales floor

for Audi in Tokyo. Many cars were present including the slick and crazy R8.

Also in Harajuku they have this 3 level t-shirt shop called UT.

Notice the canisters on the wall, those are all the different types

of t-shirts they have. They line the walls on each floor with different sizes.

How it works is there's one of every t-shirt on the floor and there is a tag

that associates to an electronic tag below each of the canisters. Find the T you like

find the canister, pick it up and purchase! done!

Photos from the last day of the Gap Adventure

The hall in the Tagaogi ryokan in Kawaguchiko

The group piled into the bus and we were off again. Heading back for Tokyo.

We waved goodbye to our karaoke bar hang out.

It was a bit of an ugly day when we left kawaguchiko.

Yup. Just thought this was cool. Random gnome watching from the roof above.

Riding in this train brightened our day.

Check out the leg room!!!

The crew! Pam, Laurren and Maya!

This photo just looks like there's a photo behind it.

Not so much. We were headed out to Shibuya!

Look at me! I look so happy! I love going out to take photos at night!

And going out to take photos at night in Tokyo! My favorite place yet!

It was like umbrella city.

Really umbrella city. This is Shibuya crossing.

I posted a picture of this before but it's amazing with all the umbrellas.

I think we caught one of the last trains back to our hotel cause look at how crazy this is.

Photos from the second day in Kawaguchiko: Mt Fuji Climb

We saw some pretty amazing terrain and sights while on this hike up Mt. Fuji to the 5th station as I've posted before. But this shows a little bit of how nicely it started of and that in no means could we know there was snow before station 5. Look at how nice it all looks.

Near the Temple at the bottom of the hiking path Joanie 

continues her path as a tree hugger.

Japan has cool monkey statues! This was just near station 1.

I'd love to know the history of this little piece. It's great.

There were two facing each other if I recall correctly.

The path is well worn and was the same path walked up Mt. Fuji way back.

Notice the part of the path where it splits and one path traverses across.

That's where we were headed and it all seems so attainable on the little piece of stone.

Nothing to worry about right?

This was a very cool broken down shack at station 2 or maybe it was 3.

Mil was commenting on our determination in the hike.

It wasn't an easy one and at this point we had just gone through

a whole bunch of wooden steps. After walking all morning our legs felt a little heavy.

It would almost seem that we were the first 

group to hike up from the bottom for the year.

There was a lot of destruction, fallen trees etc that 

made the path that much more interesting.

The snow begins. We all know how it ended. If not, just click on 

the post about climbing Mt. Fuji to get the whole story.

Photos from the first day in Kawaguchiko

The view of our spectacular room in this amazing ryokan.

Here's another shot. Full on Tatami and some wood floors to rest luggage.

Here's another shot. Each room had a minifridge a vanity and sink.

And to top it off a full bathroom - the Japanese way. Each was in a seperate mini room.

The toilet was to the right of the vanity and the shower/bath stall was to the left.

We loved this place.

Another reason to love this place so much is our view.

We look out of our window to see this. Mt. Fuji staring us in the face.

AMAZING! Sugoy!

Small little mountain town

These are the recycling bins at the supermaket.

Notice all the separation. We loved it.

The little details always got us. Like the Fuji symbol in the traffic lights.

The views were great all around. Look at this!

We all thought this was the most kickass boat ever. It's a dolphin!

It's just nuts.

And of course we return to our room after dinner to find our beds set up.