Lookback: Japan (2012): Tokyo and Osaka

Last few weeks we have had a lookback on my Thailand (2012) travels and we've now arrived in Japan

Lookback series

As many of the photos are around 10 years old, they might not be as high resolution and level of quality we try to stay at today

Checkout #lookback and #backpacking2012 for other articles in this series

I`m in heaven

I haven`t stopped smiling since the plane touched the ground on Haneda International Airport. Even if I had some problems with customs, they wasn't to pleased / used with dealing with people that had no concrete plan on what to do and not even where to sleep the first night. I got a strict warning that this is a one time event that they let me through without any concrete plans

Tokyo and it`s many districts

Sleeping in Capsule Hotels. I guess you are wondering what that is, a Capsule Hotel are commonly male only hotels where you sleep in your private capsule, in a room full of capsules and stacked two in height. Similar to something you see in a space shuttle in an sci-fi movies. You have access to a sauna and Japanese styled showers (the ones where you sit on a stool and clean your self in a public shower)

I have a huge passion for comics/cartoons, especially for anime (Japanese cartoon) and manga (Japanese comic). Everybody who really know me can verify this without doubt, of course they`ll most likely also mention ice-cream, but that`s another story

Coming down here to Japan also gives me a strange feeling, I`m finding endless supply of what I love (Anime/Comics) everywhere and it`s cheap (I can`t really understand that I haven`t gone on a shopping spree yet and blow away all my money). But down here I`m just an average joe, I see even old men reading comics. I`m not saying I don`t like it, just that it`s strange not to be the only one readying/watching cartoons they way I do anymore (yeah, I know there are more of the cartoon lovers around me, but not that many)

Down here you`ll see arcade halls (Game Centers) everywhere and I love it. You have mainly three different kinds of arcade halls (they might contain more than one kind), Arcade Game; this is where you play regular video games, Slot; it`s similar to one armed bandit mainly, and Arcade Prize; this is where you play for prizes

Osaka

Most of this castle was burned to the ground during the Meiji Restoration, so today what you see is an modern full size replica (on the out side), inside is now modern and created as an museum scattered over 8 floors

Even the castle wall is massive and surrounding the entire building (with water around most of it as well). You even have more levels of this castle wall. So it`s enormous, and the castle have a beautiful garden(s) surrounding the entire area almost as far as the eye can see. The castle have gone through two major wars, and after the first one the wealthy people around stepped in and helped repair and rebuild the castle

Around on the stone bricks (on nearly all of them in fact) making the wall you`ll see numbers and emblems engraved. The emblems represent the family donating the stones, and the number represent where the stone should be placed in the construction

Next Sunday we'll travel to Kyoto, Okayama, Hiroshima and back to Tokyo