It got me thinking about the change in photography. How not so long ago, we'd travel and take a heap of picture and not even know if they came out until we got home. My camera went bust half way through my Thailand - Cambodia - Vietnam trip years ago so I have few photos of the Vietnam portion!
Then, with digital photography, everything became more instant. Now it's gone that step where you don't just want to see your photos as soon as you take but you want to upload them to social media straightaway.
I took a ferry across the Seto Inland Sea which had wifi so I could post photos of the sunrise in real time.
I guess the upshot of all this is that you have a much shorter period of time in which you can bore your family and friends about your holiday!
Anyway, on to the Tokyo portion of my trip. I didn't do much touristing because most of my time was spent on Arashi fan girling and catching up with friends.
We got in late and stayed near Haneda airport then, after breakfast the next day, the most important task was the Arashi goods line! I go nuts buying concert goods. I try to restrain myself -- and I did resist buying the clear files.
Met up with some awesome friends for a belated birthday dinner. I won't post pics because I think it's a bit rude to post pics of people on your blog without getting their permission first but we went to A-Z Cafe in Omotesando, one of my favourite places in Tokyo. We had a table on the rooftop terrace with views over the lights of the city. We could even see the Sky Tree. Lots of great conversation and food and drinks. It really makes me appreciate that I can return to a city and have such awesome friends to meet with.
Then Saturday night, the Arashi concert. It was amazing. Worth every cent we paid for those tickets!
Sunday we went to Nakano Broadway for some shopping. I got new runners because my feet killed. Red runners! Then back to the concert to sit outside and listen because we sure as hell couldn't afford tickets for two nights.
We got to watch the fireworks through our magical Arashi glasses that turn light into the Arashi kanji! That was amazing.
Then Monday my sister left Tokyo but not without us having lunch at my favourite sushi place in Okachimachi. It's so cheap and so good. We ate all the sushi! We'd worked out all the Japanese on the sign outside while we waited to go in then they handed us an English menu but, be warned, like a lot of Japanese places, they leave stuff off the English menu! I dunno if it's because they think Westerners won't like it or they are lazy with translating or just add stuff to the Japanese menu after they translate it to English. You can't keep your katsuo sushi from me though!
After my sister left, I spent a couple of days in Tokyo. I tried to go to the Daimyo clock museum but it was shut.
I might post reviews of the places I stayed in separate posts because I think it's helpful for other people planning a trip. I know I look for blogposts when I'm planning a trip. You can read reviews on various accomodation sites but I want to get an idea of the person writing the review. If someone says a hostel is awesome but you can see from their posts that they are a total pisshead party animal, it's a way different thing from a good review from a grouchy old bag who loves her sleep (ie me).
"I guess the upshot of all this is that you have a much shorter period of time in which you can bore your family and friends about your holiday!" I totally use Instagram as my underhanded way of not having to sit and chat about things I have done in person. Kinda anti-social of me I think but after re-telling my trip 2 times I would prefer people to read the blog post or follow the pictures I post.
ReplyDeleteJust over the weekend I went down to Los Angeles and only took my phone, I didn't bother taking my camera. Phone takes fairly decent pics. Hope to see more of your trip photos and read about where has good hard beds. ;)
I'm so much the same. I had friends who would invite everyone over for photo nights, which was bad enough but then they discovered that they could load photos on the laptop and show them on the tv. That meant you had to hear every single boring story without skipping anything. I'd much rather put holiday photos up online then people can look at them or not as they wish.
ReplyDeleteI usually rely on my phone, I think I-phone pictures are pretty good quality although I amy have low standards. It also means I can upload them quickly, so my friends can roll their eyes at yet another slow training run!
ReplyDeleteAlso, those Arashi glasses are phenomenal! I feel quite privileged to have tried them!
The Arashi glasses are pretty damn awesome. I was going to go to a fireworks display in the city here last weekend, just so I could be the only person in Melbourne seeing Arashi fireworks.
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