what a Series of unfortunate events + Mt Fuji

lets start last night in Kyoto where I had to wait around with the beginnings of a cold until 12am when my night bus showed up. No real biggy, just wasted time and sleep, especially since it was a saturday night.

So I got into shinjuku state around 7.30am, just enough time to pick up my written ticket and admission to fuji-q! (That has world's record roller coasters), but when I get I there they have no records of my booking,  also they spoke no English (not their fault obviously) so instead of getting the much cheaper package deal I just bought a one bus ticket.  The bus ride took around just over one hour,  And once I got to fuji-q I quickly bought a return ticket at 5:10pm thinking I would get back to shinjuku by around 7:00pm at the latest.

The admission costs were either 5000yen for everything or 1400yen but then you paid for each ride (the main ruler coasters were 1000yen each).  I ended up doing the cheaper option since it was a Sunday and i knew it would probably be too busy to get to all of them.  Once in, I quickly got in line for the highest roller coaster in the world, which at its peak was 80m high! ( l think), the line took a few hours but it was worth every minute!, the best anything I've been on! , and it just went on forever (2km) so definitely got my moneys worth!. The second (and last) roller coaster I went on was the steepest roller coaster in the world!, and boy was it!, it's hard to explain just how many times you were almost thrown out of it!  But once again it was worth the money and time.

The park has two more famous roller coasters but I had sadly already ran out of time to try the others since it was 2pm.  Instead I went to a famous onsen just out of the park for the last couple of hours,  and talk about an experience! , getting naked with 50 men,  washing with them all around you and waking to all the different pools naked was pretty fun (it helps they were all Asian men). I made a huge mistake at one point by going into the sauna then dipping (without thinking) into the "cold pool". It wasn't till I almost passed out that I saw it was only 10 degrees!.

So anyways by now it was around 4pm so I tried to change my bus to a earlier one since I had no chance to get onto another ride,  but they were booked out,  understandable.  My bus didn't arrive until quarter to 6 (disappointed in you Japan! ). Well lucky I gave myself such a large buffer!... famous last Words (again).
The traffic Seemed pretty bad at first, then it just grinded to a crawl. Fuji-Q to Tokyo is approximately I00kms and by the time it was 7pm, Tokyo was still 67kms away!  What the hell! The last train to the airport leaves at 8pm!. So i got to shinjuku station at 9:15pm with no back up plan.  My flight to Takamatsu has a check in of 6am and the trains don't start back up til around 5:30am and the airport is like 2 hours away! . Screw this thing about all Japanese people are nice,  two information kiosk people literally wouldn't turn their head to look at me when I asked, another pretty much said I was screwed.  Luckily one nice guy from a bus company pointed me to the correct bus company I needed that goes to the airport.

So here I am at mc donalds writing this since japan pretty much closes at 10pm,  waiting till 1:30am for a bus that will get me to the airport on time for 3x the price of a train,  also I had accommodation booked out there which I will likely have to pay anyways .

So from this Japan is definitely not a place I would live in. This whole "shut down by 10pm-12am" is a crock for the most densely populated city in the world,  also who puts their airport two hours away from their City. ...

Kyoto - Take Two

Just photos this time.

Nara (the place with all the deer)

Yeah so since the day beofrehand was just a right off, i went to bed super early and went off to nara at the crack of dawn, stopping off at this place with a million orange gates. Anyone that knows about the website "stumpleupon" will know it, its on there like every 10 clicks.

I really liked Nara, although after a while youve seen enough temples and shrines for a day.So i got on the train to Osaka where i was staying that night and caught back up with the guys from the party a few nights ago. This time it was just food since everyone needed to get back on their respective trains before mid-night. The place we went to eat was a chain store where everything on the menu was only 300yen and gees it was good!.

First day in Kyoto, then a BIG night in town

So i got to Kyoto around mid-day and took the wai-wai express to most the temples and shrines to the east of the city without realising they are pretty far apart. no matter, the place is awesome! i love Kyoto, so many things and places to see i was never bored. I wont talk about the temples and stuff though because none of you care, you just want to see the photos, then read about the BIG night dont you!

Firstly you've probably noticed ive found a new little feature on my camera that i just cant stop using. Love it.

Anyways so this night started pretty relaxed. We found a place where you just deep fry whatever you want for 2000yen, then all you could drink was another 1000yen (so all up around $35), and i made sure to abuse thats free drinking part.
Thats when it all got pretty hazy (sorry mum), i honestly cant remember much, but we just partied all night in random clubs in Kyoto, met some locals, bought them drinks (mistake) and then came back to the hostel for drinking games once all the clubs closed (which is pretty early here). The next morning i woke up at 1.30pm!, i have never done that in my life! i couldnt believe it! my plan of going to see all the other temples were ruined!.
so after only getting in a couple of hours in Kyoto, the post drinking headache finally kicked in, which sucked because i  got asked by the same group to go out again but there was just no chance!. Before they left they filled me in on some of the night and the stories were crazy!,  a guy passed out in the elevator, a guy hit on me and i almost got in to a big fight with him because of it, i drew all over the fridge and said "that's just what New Zealanders do", and finally a guy had a picture of me in my boxers passed out in the dorm. Good times.I need to make the facebook rounds to get a few more of the photos but this is what i found on my camera.