Korakuen Garden, one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan.

 So yesterday we visited Korakuen Garden in Okayama, which as a student of the university we get free entrance into! 

Okayama is famous for its fruits, in particular its peaches, so of course I had to try the peach ice cream!

Because I, in my humble opinion, think these pictures are pretty, for this post I shall make them giant sized :)  

A distanced shot of the castle, which I shall visit at a later date

Children feeding the giant koi that inhabited the pond on the island in which the gardens were situated.  

View from up the stairs

Incredibly peaceful in this building, you cannot really tell from the picture, but the stream ran through the middle. Everyone removed their shoes and just listened to the running water.

A crane landing as evening began to fall. 

A little wikipedia and pamphlet knowledge if you want to know more:


"In 1687, the daimyo Ikeda Tsunamasa  ordered Tsuda Nagatada to begin construction of the Korakuen. It was completed in 1700 and has retained its original appearance to the present day, except for a few changes by various daimyo....In 1884, ownership was transferred to Okayama Prefecture and the garden was opened to the public. The garden suffered severe damage during the floods of 1934 and during World War II bombing in 1945, but has been restored based on Edo period paintings and diagrams."

Bonus picture, apple pie latte and Krispy Kreme donut :D 

Day 12

At some point I plan to dedicate a whole post to some of the weird and wonderful foods I have seen or eaten since I arrived, I seem to have already stockpiles quite a few pictures! 

This is a kit to make jelly sweets in the shape of sushi!  
How could I resist buying?! 

Grapes the size of small plums, 1p for scale.

Anyway this post isn't to be about food, it is a small picture heavy update

Slightly heart shaped leg bruise from my bike

Traditional Japanese houses

A park near my accommodation,
with mountains in the background :)

Now a few more products I have found, for which I can provide no explanation... 

In other news, I signed up to a ridiculously overpriced contract in Japan, with it I get a very fancy phone, which apparently comes with a talking sheep application. But of course he is in Japanese, so besides the fact that the character presents me with cake every so often, he is of little use to me :(

I have learnt that no matter how expensive your contract is, it never includes texts, so everyone communicates via email, which is new to me. Furthermore, my phones email has already got on a spam list somehow (I suspect the phone company sold our email addresses), which means I am constantly getting weird texts about buying stocks   o.O  

Also one feature Japanese phones seem to have that English ones don't have, or at least modern ones do not, is an antenna. Watching films and TV on your phone is so popular here that they force TV deals onto you when you buy the phone, and the phone comes with a massive antenna.

Put all my pictures up to remind me of home
 and the awesome people back in England 

The TV I found

I was incredibly happy today to buy a kettle! Not so happy that I have now created a serious fire hazard with all the plugs in my kitchen :/

Bonus picture of Dave the tortoise and his lego house...

As promised....

Just some of the buttons I had to deal with when on a toilet break in Haneda airport, Tokyo.

The day I learnt not to accept random drinks in Japan

Day 4: 

The first day I haven't had a nap, and I am feeling ridiculously proud! I woke up at 4am, after a nap the night before had turned into a proper sleep. 

Today has been my busiest day so far, and things are finally starting to settle down and slot into place. 

I got a new bike, well I say new, it is new to me at least. I had to register my bike to me, and apparently I have to carry this ID around to prove it is mine if stopped by the police. Already the light on my bike doesn't work, also not good, and my breaks sounds like a dying banshee. But besides that it does the job. Interestingly though, none of the bikes here seem to have any gears or suspension, I guess this is due to the fact that the land is essentially flat everywhere, and because everyone cycles everywhere, the pavements are very even and well kept. Nevertheless, a day of riding about has resulted in a bruised bum, achey arms and back, and a huge bruise on my knee (which I am sure I shall post a picture of at some point).

A couple of lovely Serbian girls I met, and myself, had a slightly unsuccessful trip into town to get mobiles. It seems that I have to settle for renting an outdated mobile at a ridiculous price, or I have to pay upfront for a smartphone, plus pay an inflated rate (about £45 a month) for the contract, a long with a £60 cancellation fee when I leave. On top of this there is no guarantee that the smartphone will work back in England :/

Our next adventure was to get my first Japanese sushi (yayyy!), which was crazy cheap! For about £3.50 you got a big bowl of miso soup, three plates of sushi and as much tea as you could drink :D 

Then to 'Love Drug', I guess their equivalent of Boots. Whilst wandering around I spotted a funny item on the shelves, so I picked it up, photographed it, and returned it. A minute of so later a shop worker appears handing me and the others a drink. For whatever reason I do not connect these two events, and so I proceed to drink it. Thinking to myself "ooo this is quite tasty". The the realisation, he had handed me a sample of とってもおいしい プラセンタ or in English, 'Delicious Placenta'.

Does this make me a cannibal? 

Some other hilarious items with random English words on them...

Just look how sad that pore is! 

'Flap it every day'

'Nudy Aura'?

'Acnes'? Plural? 

The Journey

After a lot of confusion between British Airways and Japan Airlines, I ended up paying an additional £140 for excess baggage, not a great way to start my journey! It felt like it only took seconds to get rushed through security, through the gates on to the plane, where I was sat between two German gentlemen, who later gave me funny looks as I cried at a Disney movie, but hey what can I say, I had a lot of emotions to let out! I also have to confess that I rather enjoyed my flight food. 

Soon enough I had arrived at Tokyo Haneda, where I had my first run in with immigration (which was beyond confusing, and I think the Japanese now have my fingerprints on file) and where I had my first experience of Japanese toilets. I had the choice of essentially squatting over a hole, or sitting at a toilet with more buttons that my phone. (I will upload a picture later)

Once that adventure was over, in a sleep filled haze, I wandered onto a bus outside, not really knowing where I was or where I was going. The seat next to me was soon filled with a little old Japanese man, who was quite happy chatting away with me half in English and half in Japanese, and soon enough half the bus was trying to chat to me in broken English, all the while the bus continued to drive further and further away from where I thought I was supposed to be. Eventually I parted ways with my new Japanese bestie, and I had the enjoyment of navigating yet another airport. Now in the domestic flights building, my world was quickly becoming more and more Japanese, and once on the second plane I soon realised that I was the only non-Japanese person around! 

Yet as this plane took off from Tokyo, the sight from my window was stunning! As the plane broke through the fluffiest clouds I have ever seen, I was faced with bright blue skies. Below me, between the clouds stretched out Tokyo in all its glory, accompanied by a double rainbow, which from above you could seen almost the entirety of. For the first time I felt a little relaxed. Soon the landscape turned into mountains and fields, and I was amazed at how flat the land was, where there wasn't a mountain the land appeared to have no slopes of any sort. 

Once in Okayama, and a stressful taxi ride later I arrived at my accommodation. It would be safe to say that the accommodation was not what I had imagined, and through exhausted, jet lagged eyes it seemed even worse. 

Before I even got a chance to nap I was off to meetings and registrations, I had to buy food, cleaning products and everything else. So much happened in that one day that it already feels like weeks have passed. 

Luggage drama

It took me far too long to decided on what suitcase to buy as I got confused and distracted by all the specs, reviews and questions I had to bare in mind, like 

1) How many wheels do I want?!
- What are the chances said wheels are going to fall off? Causing me to abandon my possessions

2) Hard case or soft case?
-Will it split if I overfill it, leaving my clothes sprawled across the runway?

3) What size?

4) (and most importantly) What colour?
- I what to look good whilst wheeling this bad boy around the airport in flustered panic!

If I am honest I didn't have a clue, whilst choosing I was pretending to myself that I was some sort of suitcase connoisseur... "ahh yes, it is very important that it is lightweight and durable, and it must be able to withstand winds of up to 80 mph", but in reality I was thinking "oooo it is purple!".

This, however, may have backfired as I now have two ridiculously huge suitcases (but in the colours I wanted).

Bruce: "are..are you leaving me? :("

As a result I have managed in a practice pack, to get all my clothes into a single suitcase with space left over! Leaving one bag for hair products, shoes and food :D 

Bonus picture: Nutella & Go! = nom nom nom

Good ol rainy London, the awesome Megin and the Visa application...

Had a little trip into London yesterday to visit the Japanese embassy to apply for my Visa, was a little stressful, the most frustrating part was finding out that I had provide my own envelope. But seeing as that was my biggest problem, I would say the whole process has been relatively painless so far...

Whilst in London I decided with the help of my trusty companion, Megin, to do a little window shopping for things far out of my budget, and to enjoy some of the sights that London has to offer

Megin looking fine as usual

Some very British themed protection

Found this in a Japanese themed shop called Muji, like those flannels you used to get that start very small and when you add water it turns into a normal size face towel. Well this was exactly the same, except it started as a tiny cube, and turned into a full sized dress...

Couple of signs down a
backstreet 

and a giant blue cockerel, 
symbolic of Britain?

Trafalgar in the evening 

Ohh and we had just enough time to get my
 favourite crisps evaaa from China town :D