I was so excited for Japan. The vending machines, eating, electronics, department stores and cool gadgets I can learn about. We spent two weeks in Japan.
TOKYO
When we arrived in Tokyo it was CCCOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD! When we got to our apartment, we unpacked and jumped straight into our beds to warm up. After we went out to look for a place eat. We couldn’t find a restaurant so….drumroll please…..we went to Seven Eleven for dinner. What, what?!?! I got steam buns.
In Tokyo there are crowds of people and everyone is speed walking. It’s like a crowd of bulls running at you if you’re walking in the wrong direction. Like in the TV shows when there’s dust everywhere when they’re running so fast. Someone once tripped and got crushed by people (we didn’t see this happen) and no one stopped, they just kept walking. So I guess it’s kind of dangerous.
There’s a part of the city that has a lot of department stores and I couldn’t see 1m ahead of me because it was so busy.
KYOTO
We took a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. The train was so cool. When we arrived we took a bus to our apartment. The next day we took a walking tour and learned facts about geishas. We learned geishas are not allowed to use pillows when they sleep because their hair could get messy. They do their hair only once a week. They sleep with these pillows on their necks. Geishas wear outfits that cost a fortune, between $5,000 to $3,000,000.
In Japanese culture a bow is a greeting, thank you or apology. When you apologize to someone you have to bow for 3 seconds to him the person you are apologizing to a chance to rip your head off. The good thing is they don’t do that any more.
While in Kyoto we visited Fushimi Inari Taisha we took a two-hour walk to the top. It was long. Did you know there are 1,000 tori gates in Fuchis (spelling?). Tori gates look like a half circle with a line underneath it and two poles that hold it up. The gates are red. The fox is the messenger from the god of rice.
JAPANESE TOILETS
We’re going to learn today about a butt washer, a butt warmer and best of all a music machine. …all in one toilet. Ok, let’s get this straight, it’s a butt heaven. Even your butt is jealous. It’s all over Japan. Ok, let’s start. Why have music when dirt drops out of your butt? Well, when you take dump no one wants to hear ‘plop’ and the butt washer washes your butt when you have brown dirt on your butt. So you sit down and let the water wash and there’s buttons and buttons to press. Sponsored by Butt Heaven Japan.
RAMEN
While in Tokyo we went to a ramen noodle restaurant and the soup was so good. When you enter, there’s a vending machine where you order your food. The machine gives you a ticket then the waiter gives you a sheet to customize your order. For example, if I want extra spice or garlic, I can add that. When you go inside they give you your own booth and water station and like 10 cups. You’re suppose to slurp noodles like ‘slurpppp’.
OSAKA CHERRY BLOSSOMS
We rode our bikes to see Osaka, the cherry blossoms and have a picnic. I was on the back and my mom was peddling at the front. We rode for half hour and stopped at the cherry blossoms. There was a view of the lake and cherry blossoms all around us. We went to the nearby convenience store to get lunch for our picnic. There was actually some healthy stuff but I got some strawberry milk with steam buns!!!
We also visited the Osaka Castle with 50x more cherry blossoms! It had a river surrounding it. At Osaka Castle you kind of feel like a local because everyone is doing their thing and there aren’t much tourists.
OSAKA AQUARIUM
The Oskaka Aquarium is one of the largest in the world. When we entered there was a large shark and I took a picture with it. Then there’s like 20 souvenir shops at the beginning. Ok let’s go back…so the aquarium is in Osaka and it’s 26,570 sq meters in size with two biomes: rainforest and the north pole. There are more than 15 tanks and one is humongous and has a whale shark. Their tank is 9m deep and 34m wide and has 5,400 tons of water. That’s where the big whale shark lives.
WHALE SHARK FACTS
- The whale shark is the world’s largest fish and can grow 40ft long and weighs 100 tons (an average elephant weighs between 2.5 and 7 tons).
- Whale sharks live in warm water and towards the surface of the water.
- Their eyes are as small as golf balls.
- Whale sharks have been around for 60 million years. The oldest whale shark is 100 years and the oldest human is 115 years old. Boom we got one off the list. What’s next, basking shark?!
- The largest whale shark record is 12.6m long.
- The whale shark can open its mouth 5-feet and 1.5-metres wide. That is enough to swallow a mini bath tub. It can fill 1,500 tons of water per hour. Whale sharks are actually playful. There was never an accident with a whale shark and a human. The whale sharks give free rides and they are never afraid. But the bad thing is, the whale sharks get close to a boat, they get hit by the boat paddle. Each whale shark has their unique pattern, this is interesting. And if a whale shark stops moving, it will drawn. Did you know if a whale shark stops breathing it will drown. Because they are a ram breather, well if you don’t know what a ram breather means, it means that they pump water through their mouth and over their gills and keep on repeating that to breathe. That method is called buccal, called pumping and ram.
Japanese Facts:
- Did you know you could get an entire meal from a vending machine?
- When you go to the washroom the toilet seats warm up.
- The Shinkansen train takes 2 hours minutes to get from Tokyo to Kyoto. A normal train takes 9 hours.
Japan was fun but two weeks was not enough. The department stores were crazy cool. They had everything, from food to electronics. I recommend you go to Japan. I bet you’ll have a lot of fun.
PS: Whoever is reading this, please get me a Nintendo Switch.