Akihabara is the shopping district for what is called Otaku culture. It’s basically an obsession with niche or specific things. What this actually means is that they have crazy tech, hobby and anime stores. There is no way to actually convey how huge these stores are. Take a mall like we have back home, make …
Author Archives: shon911
Samurai Museum
There is a small museum in Tokyo dedicated to the history of the Samurai. The Akira Kurosawa fan in me was basically screaming with joy on the inside the entire time I was there. The armour on display was all authentic and beautiful to behold in person. I’m not entirely sure how I’ve been so …
Blade Runner… I mean Tokyo
Our first night in Tokyo was like something out of Blade Runner. There were giant robots, neon, raman, and every kind of adult entertainment you can imagine. That was our first day. The weather here is hot, but so far pretty much no affect from the Typhoon. We are averaging over 10 km per day …
Osaka Aquarium
Our last day in Osaka before making a hasty exit was spent at the aquarium in Osaka. It had Amanda’s very favourtie thing, jellyfish…and sharks….and Hello Kitty? Although not actually in the aquarium, there was a mall where Amanda had her first encounter with an entire Sanrio location. One of the things that can’t easily …
Escaping Osaka
We had to leave Osaka earlier than originally planned due to a massive typhoon warning. Or hurricane for those of us in the West. We received notification that the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) may be shut down and we would be stuck. So we boarded the train and headed for Tokyo early. Although the train is …
Dotonbori
Dotonbori is the most famous tourist area of Osaka. It is the largest shopping area, endless restaurants and blocks and blocks of every type of shop imaginable. We spent over 6 hours walking this area and still didn’t see everything. It was crazy how the shops would all be mixed together. That high end bag …
Osaka Castle
Saturday was spent at Osaka Castle. Having grown up on Samurai movies I was extremely excited to explore the grounds. This was slightly dampened by the fact it was 36 degrees in the air and over 40 on the castle grounds. HOT! Here we can see the main gate into the inner compound. The library …
Exploring Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street
Amanda and I spent the day exploring the over 2km long Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street right near the hotel. We started off the day with breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was absolutely amazing. It was then off to check out the shopping street. This mostly covered, walking only, street stretched on seemingly forever and had …
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Landed
We took off from Victoria and were on our way. After a brief stop over in Vancouver we had a pretty smooth 10.5 hour flight into Osaka. Hilariously both the approach and first few minutes in the airport could have been YVR from all appearances. That is until we went through the quarantine area where …
Japan-a-Moon 2019 