Best Vacation Ever BFF Forever!!

Food review: America

2010-07-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Bill and Kristen bought us many delightful treats and I ate most of them so here we goooooo~

TGI Fridays Potato Skins (Cheddar & Bacon)

These start off great, and then get worse the more you eat. They originally taste like Rashuns (which is awesome because Rashuns are awesome) and then after the fifth one they taste like feet. They are not potato skins btw, they are just reconstituted potato like everything else in America.

Rating: 2 stars (4 stars if you only eat a couple)

Burger King Ketchup Chips

I didn't eat these because tomato sauce is gross. They smelled a lot like Tomato Munchos though. Which probably means they are gross. Bill liked these.

Rating: 1 star (estimate)

Doritos: Late Night Taco flavour

These tasted exactly like what they are, which is Doritos that have been dusted with the seasoning sachet you get in an Old El Paso taco or burrito kit. They tasted okay, I guess. Would be easy for non-Americans to replicate.

Rating: 3 stars

Sun Chips

Inferior Grain Waves.

Rating: 3 stars

Peanut Butter M&Ms

I will never understand America's boner for peanut butter. These were the worst M&Ms I have had. They are better than if someone made M&Ms with raisins inside, I guess? They are still M&Ms though. Everyone else seemed to like these for some reason.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Almond M&Ms

Superior Peanut M&Ms. Would eat again.

Rating: 4 stars

Pretzel M&Ms

THESE ROCKED MY WORLD

Rating: 5 stars

Milky Way

I didn't try any of this, but it just seems like a Mars bar without the caramel? How is that good on any planet?

Rating: 2.5 stars (estimate)

Butterfinger

I did try this, but I can't really remember it. It was really chewy? Maybe a wafer or some form of nut at the bottom of it? I dunno I don't remember it being that exciting. Butterfinger is a really unappetizing name btw

Rating: 2.5 stars

Baby Ruth

Again, I think I tried this, but I don't remember it too well. Kind of like a Picnic I think? Maybe this was the chewy one. I do remember this being significantly better than the other ones.

Rating: 4 stars

2010-07-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hey dudes we are sad to be leaving America. Got to hang out with heaps of ultracool bros and met some new ones! Thanks for fun times and please visit Australia soon ok!

Celebrity zillionz at Kmart

2010-07-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

2010-07-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

2010-07-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Today we ate lunch at the self-proclaimed best pizza in New York, Lombardi's. It was pretty good, 4.5 stars. I had a beer that cost me $7 with tip (I was not aware it would be this much before ordering).

Webber ate this for breakfast

2010-07-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

What

2010-07-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hotel breakfast in NY. ilu America

2010-07-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

this was in the science museum in london, note that it is mac OS7 or something & the file name indicates it is from 1994

2010-07-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

this is a french style hotdog, 5 stars!

2010-07-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

this weird stuffed guy was in a shop window

2010-07-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

on Viðey Island

2010-07-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

I rode this guy but the guy webber rode kept stopping to eat grass lol

2010-07-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Riding guys

2010-07-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Nice day in Reykjavik

2010-07-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

"I don't remember this phase of the village people" - Lyndal

2010-07-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

There is quite a lot of John Farnham for sale at Icelandic flea markets (2 copies)

2010-07-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

It's all about the Ragnheidurs

2010-07-11T02:09:00.000-07:00

devo walking area

2010-07-10T12:22:00.001-07:00

This biscuit is delicious! 5/5

2010-07-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Iceland airport activity at 1am

2010-07-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

Landing in Iceland at 11:00 pm

2010-07-09T04:07:00.000-07:00

This is your head rest on the plane

2010-07-09T04:06:00.000-07:00

No thank you Icelandair!!

2010-07-09T04:05:00.001-07:00

I actually disagreed with this later

2010-07-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

Iceland is hilarious and this weird plane survey was just the start

2010-07-09T04:02:00.000-07:00

2010-07-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

in iceland all the hot water smells like sulphur. it reminds me of rotorua and also farts. iceland is fun so far stay tuned!

This would be good for Kat but was also £95

2010-07-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

What? We couldn't find NZ

2010-07-08T00:37:00.000-07:00

One of the worst things with one of the best things. Together at last!!

2010-07-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

from the royal college of physicians (they have free wifi, obv)

2010-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Burying webber at Brighton

2010-07-07T00:53:00.000-07:00

I assume the award was "beach that is most uncomfortable to walk or sit on"

2010-07-07T00:07:00.001-07:00

lyndal's feet around the world: pebbley brighton beach edition

2010-07-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

this will "help maintain male comfort"

2010-07-07T00:04:00.001-07:00

2010-07-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

"if you hang around me you'll always be a bit sick"

- lyndal

Reviews: London

2010-07-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

No pictures here sorry.

Irn Bru

I know this exists in Sydney but I'd never tried it and everyone always wanks on about how great it is so I thought I'd give it a go. It tastes super super sweet. It reminds me of something I've had before that I wasn't fussed on, but I can't think of what. Maybe creaming soda? Anyway Irn Bru is not as great as everyone wants you to think; don't listen to them.

Rating: 2 stars

Rolo milkshake

This seems to be a thing in England, where you select a chocolate bar or fresh fruit and then they make a milkshake out of that for you for around 2.5 pounds. I had a Rolo one. DELICIOUS. This is up with cricket as the greatest thing you have ever invented England, well done.

Rating: 5 stars

Steak lunch at pub

This was real dry and terrible and also five or six pounds. BOO

Rating: 2 stars

Blackcurrent soda

I was at the pub and I asked the guy what sodas he had and he didn't understand, and so I asked him what soft drinks he had and he didn't understand, so I ended up getting this because Ro ordered this right before me. It is a glass of soda water with a bit of blackcurrent syrup at the top. This is the best drink because it is 30p for a pint. A+ would drink again.

Rating: 4 stars

Wanky fish and chips

On our first day in London we went to a wanky fish and chip restaurant in Covent Garden. It was like 11 pounds but it was real good, so probably worth it. Take off one star if you want to take into account how expensive it was.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Things about England:

2010-07-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone here loves Lucozade. It's like the most popular drink after beer and Coke.
The most English thing seems to be having a pier jutting out into the ocean, and then filling that pier up with slot machines and then letting five year olds play those slot machines. Ro also loves doing this.
I didn't realise that ale is just flat beer until I ordered one. Ale is gross.
England is totally the rudest country ever. I think out of about fifty customer service experiences we have had in this country, ...two? have been friendly? All pubs and shops are populated by severe eastern European woman who answer requests with "YES." and then don't do what you want until you ask them another three times. If England is what America would be like if tipping didn't exist then y'all should probably just keep the tipping.
A lot of people just have their dogs wherever, often off the lead. Like not just parks and stuff, on streets in the middle of London and on the tube and things like that. Real weird.
There are Australians everywhere.
Fosters is a thing here. It's available at all the pubs and people seem to actually drink it. I might have to try it one day, for science.
Mind the gap
The tube is too small. Get a bigger tube, England.
It is summer here, so people keep walking around with their shirts off and announcers on trains keep encouraging people to drink plenty of water ps it is like 20 degrees
Americans talking about the "toob" are real funny

this was in japan i forgot to post it

2010-07-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

See!! Proof!!

2010-07-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Romany and I are driving

2010-07-05T14:07:00.001-07:00

Vampire deer

2010-07-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Science!!

2010-07-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

O cranberry guy! This is from some exxy Japanese donut store btw

2010-07-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

This is a delicious salted caramel donut from New York donut or whatevs

2010-07-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

What do you think about this??

2010-07-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

yesterday

2010-07-04T05:23:00.001-07:00

yesterday sucked the end

in the toilet at Vienna airport

2010-07-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

food & drinks review

2010-07-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Georgia Vintage Coffee - ¥120
This was advertised on the train as a double gold medal winner. Was watery & not sweet enough - 2 stars

Rockmelon Soda - ¥80
This tasted EXACTLY like rockmelon! DELCIOUS!! 5 STARS!

Peach Drink - ¥120
This was pretty nice, but quite sweet. Tasted like grape Zappo lollies - 3 stars

Nashi drink - ¥130
Tasted just like nashi! Apparently has 10% - 3.5 stars

Seafood riceburger meal with white grape soda from Mos Burger - ¥650
I ate Mos Burger in Singapore in 2000, and was excited when we discovered there was a store across the road from the hotel! The burger is made with two rice patties rather than a bun, and the middle had a patty made with seafood and tempura peas.
The grape soda was just like white grape gummi lollies, and the cup had a cute tiny bird on it - 4.5 stars

Coffee thickshake (no photo) - ¥210
SO DELCIOUS! It was the thickshake of my dreams - 5 stars

Japan 'away jersey' ramen - ¥160
There was also a 'home jersey' type, but this one looked tastier. This was seafood flavour and was quite tasty, but it really lacked enough vegies - 3 stars

Boss Cafe au Lait - ¥120
After sampling many types of coffee in a can, I now see why Tommy Lee Jones endorses Boss brand. It is far superior, with a lovely coffee flavour without being watery and there is enough sugar - 5 stars

When we met with Sara yesterday, I mentioned how I love coffee in a can. However, apparently all the vending machines suddenly swap from having hot coffee for wintertime to cold coffee for summertime. So I have to make sure I only come in hot weather to avoid horrible hot coffee.

I have drunk so many fancy drinks while here, I haven't drunk the same thing twice. Normally I would never ever pay for a drink, unless I left my water bottle at home. But with so many delicious choices, what am I to do? There are many more I didn't take photos of, but you will just have to imagine all the things I drank and ate.

cupman, explained

2010-07-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Previously I posted a picture of cupman, but the text didn't email through.

I bought this guy in a fancy department store for ¥750, which I feel is worth it. His sole job is to hold down the lid of your pot noodle, rather than struggling with a fork. As the noodles cook, his arms go white, to entertain you!

I made a point that Japan has superior instant ramen technology, in the above noodles it has a separate tear off section to easily and safely pour off the water from your ramen without losing any of the tasty cabbage & meat cubes inside.

The ramen above is UFO (¥168), and is super tasty. The dehydrated meat cubes inside are DELICIOUS! We might take some to Iceland because we won't be able to afford any other food - 4.5 stars.

THURSDAY THURSDAY

2010-07-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a big day because we were going to meet Sara! Sara speaks Japanese so we were super excited to ask her a bunch of questions about what was going on. In Japan you spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is going on. We were meeting Sara at 1pm at Nakano station. We were planning on getting up early and doing something beforehand but this did not work out as we are extremely lazy. Before I get to that, the night before I was reading the hotel book as I wanted to find out the price of meat lump. In the elevator there is a picture of a meat lump on a nest of shredded cheese and we think they are pouring oil on this. It could also be Ponzu which is something that Sara told us about. People put ponzu on everything even on your fried (or friend whateva) chicken (if you like). I almost wrote fried children but that is ok too. Anyway there was no price for meat lump but I did find this and racistly took a photo of it for you
So make sure you do that at the gym. So Thursday morning we went to Mos Burger to eat the naan with curry sauce, cabbage and sausage. There is also a Mexican naan with mince, corn chips and a bunch of other junk. It was quite great but not as great as the other Mos burger which ROCKED anyway this is what it looked like (3.5/5)
Yummu so then we headed off to meet with Sara. We were a little bit early so we went to look for a post office but we were on the wrong side of the train station. Webber bought some CC Lemon so he has now drunk 140 lemons or something. We met up with Sara, gave her a slightly melted Caramello Koala and went to Uniqlo which is a cool store and I got some amazing roomwear shorts and sunglasses. HEL YEH! Then we went to Nakano Sun Mall which is full of heaps of nerdy stuff including some picturesque face washers that featured Star Wars characters walking underneath cherry blossoms etc. They were magical but also about $18 so we didn't purchase any. Sara told us all about SMAP and also Arashi who are on EVERYTHING! They are on pretty much every TV show and they also manage to advertise competing cell phones! This morning I was wondering when they get to sleep as when I went to sleep they were on TV and when I woke up they were on it again! Sara told us that they all work for the same talent agency and they just get paid like a salary and you get more money the more senior you are rather than how popular or how much work you do. Also there is a girl band with 48 members! Only 20 members perform at one time but you get to vote for whoever you want to perform! They are called AKB 48 you should google them! We went to a chain restaurant which had cold green tea which was delicious and they gave us a glass of water to chill us after our spicy Japanesse curry (Japanese curry is not spicy). Then we caught the train to Harajuku so we could walk down Takeshita Street and eat a crepe!
This was the guy we got! Delicious! He had a whole slice of cheesecake in there! The whole crepe was soft unlike the crepe I ate at ice cream city which was crunchy on the outside. At one of the shops here Lyndal bought a small straw hat!
It was only 315 yen! Bargainb! Then we walked to Shinjuku because we wanted to go to Loft and Muji. Loft was full of amazingness such as this

(Sara-lobster, Lyndal-flon and Webber-pig)

They had some pretty awesome paper sticky tape there but it was too exxy and also woah they had some super special furniture. There were many things to buy but we don't have a house in Japan to put them all in. Then we went to Muji which is all stuff that is unbranded. I drank peach nectar DELICIOUS! Lyndal drank jelly drink DELICIOUS! Then we went to an izakaya where a man crouches by your table to take your order. Webber ordered a cocktail which was a carbon offset cocktail and he got some free chopsticks! We all got tiny foodstuffs to eat with drinks and it was delicious good times. We left at about 20:20 and Sara had to catch her train back to her town which takes about 90 minutes! Sara explained many mysteries to us like why people all go eeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh all the time (they think this is what western people do) and she told us all about what the magazines were saying. Oh my this post is huge ok so then we came to hotel and went to sleep after watching Arashi. This is to ensure that we dreamt of Arashi which of course we did! So des ne!

Hullo!

2010-07-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

I have to talk about what happened after we went to look at fake food. Fake food was super expensive so every time you see a fake food display in Japan you should think about how that fake bowl of ramen cost at least $50. So after this we caught the train and went to Ginza. We wanted to show Lyndal Mitsukoshi which is a super fancy Japanese department store. Last time we went it was full of $100 mangos but this time it was being renovated and was not fancy at all! But the exciting thing was that there is now a Ladurée in Mitsukoshi! OH MY GOD!

Delicious! Anyway there is high tea for 7100 yen which is pretty sweet (this is for two people) and you get to choose what delicious cake you would like! Anyway I wanted to eat the St. Honoré Cake but it would not have lasted the trip home. Lyndal and I bought four macaroons

We bought raspberry, red fruits, coconut and chocolate. All were delicious and not sickening? That was odd. Anyway delicious and amazing Japan ilu! Please excuse these terrible underexposed photos! After this adventure I am pretty sure we went home and may have watched the best show ever which is called Dero which means Let's Exit (we know this thanks to Sara).

In this show you get locked in a room and you have to answer questions in order to escape. These girls were wearing big wooden circles on their feet and they were in a room of rice or something. They would sink 1cm every few seconds if you get the question wrong. Both of these ladies sunk. The next segment was about two adults and a child in a room where the roof was coming down on them. I didn't watch this one too closely but in the next room two ladies and a man were trapped and the water was slowly rising. They had to solve very complicated puzzles and find keys to open boxes and at the end they had to answer a quiz and if they got one wrong they suffered a 30 second penalty where they couldn't do anything as the water rises. Sara said that one of the questions they got wrong was name countries which have a higher population than Japan. They had one country left and instead of saying India or something obvious they said Korea! Dumb! Anyway they got out in time. Oh I forgot there was also some people who were eaten by huge fake monsters? I wasn't really watching that one either but Lyndal and Webber know all about that one. It was a pretty great show!

Day 5: Tkoyo (part 1)

2010-07-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I forgot to talk about yesterday and a lot has happened since then so please forgive me if my memory is patchy.

Yesterday we decided to go to Asakusa, because Shara and I hadn't been and it looked like it might have some exciting things. We got out of the subway station and were immediately confronted by a giant panda hell yeah:

We are doing that pose because we once saw an elderly man do it while posing for a photo and it was amusing to us. Anyway we first went to Senso-ji because Lyndal had yet to see a temple. While we were looking at the map on the street trying to plan our trip a man came up to us and asked us if we wanted directions. We told him what we wanted to do and he gave us very detailed help. We thanked him and gave him a Caramello Koala that Lyndal had brought with her for just such an occasion. He initially refused but we insisted and he got really excited and said "thank you! It is so rare!" which was good.

Anyway here are some photos of a temple (Shara wanted me to point out that she hasn't fixed things in Photoshop yet):

While Shara was taking that last photo she got stuck in a river of elderly Japanese people. It was a very slow-moving river.

These people walk very slowly

Fortunez

Shara and Lyndal got their fortune at the temple (they both got "regular" fortunes which is better than a bad fortune I guess?) and while they were doing that some old Japanese dude came up to us and spent 5 minutes asking us English Conversation 101 questions. After he ran out of english to ask us he took his photo with us and left.

This woman is a taily

ilu vending machines

This guy is everywhere

Thoughtful Lyndal is thoughtful

After we had a look around the temple we wandered through Asakusa looking for Kappabashi-dori. On the way there we walked past a porn theatre which just had a bunch of pictures of nude ladies out the front which was weird to us (NSFW obviously). Next door were these clown figures:

The entrance to Kappabashi-dori had many streamers for some reason, maybe to differentiate it from the streets with brothels and porno theatres for the tourists.

Lyndal waves to Japan

The purpose of Kappabashi-dori is to house many different shops that sell supplies to people who own or wish to own diners. There were heaps of stores selling knives, bowls, cooking equipment, LED signs, and what we were there for, fake food. Almost all Japanese diners and restaurants have a bunch of shelves of fake food in the front window, showing people what they can order and how much it costs. This all gets sold in Kappabashi-dori. Unfortunately because it is being sold to businesses it is all mega-expensive, so we couldn't buy anything :( It looked amazing though!

This fake beer is very cold (it is not very cold)

On our way back to the station we found our first ever Japanese supermarket! This was very exciting to us because up until then we had only ever been into the convenience stores that populate the cities. Here are some exciting products you can buy from a Japanese supermarket:

This watermelon was like $30

After this we went to Ginza for a look around and some more stuff happened, but it is late and everyone else has gone to bed so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

IMPORTANT

2010-07-01T06:32:00.001-07:00

Hi this is the best song fyi. Sara loves Arashi but she is wrong because this is the best song

Day 4: Toyko

2010-06-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the train to Shinjuku to have a look about the place and went to a fancy department store where there were many beautiful things such as these toasters:

Shara & Webber bought some cool stuff including a new alarm clock, but when we took it to the counter they couldn't find a new clock and seemed embarrassed they had to give us floor stock. Then the cashier brought in an extra person to help her find a spare box, and when they couldn't be found a 3rd person helped wrap it beautifully in foam.
I bought the cup man featured in a previous post, I did explain him in my email post but apparently that doesn't go through. When I next go downstairs to the free wireless hotspot I will email a better picture to myself and then download it in the hotel room then upload it to the blog SEE THE WORK THAT GOES INTO WRITING THIS BLOG JUST FOR YOU?
I gave the cashier a ¥10,000 note and she had to check it with another employee, count the change with him and then count it again with me.

We walked for a bit to look for Kinokuniya, a 7 floor bookstore, but while I was taking the above photo for a cat cafe Webber was trying to figure out where we needed to go. A middle aged man asked us in English if we needed assistance, then told us where to go. I felt bad that I had left the little gifts of chocolates in the hotel room.

In Kinokuniya we were looking for the Maru book, but discovered on the magazine floor ther were ONE MILLION MAGAZINES ABOUT DOGS & CATS. I bought a magazine called CreatCat which cost ¥880 and is worth every single yen (this was also the cheapest one), and Shara & Webber bought one called Corgi Style (there were at least 3 just about corgis).
Luckily my cat magazine had a feature on Maru, along with other famous television/internet cats, so we were able to muddle together with the sales staff what book we wanted. The book was only ¥1600 which was way cheaper than Amazon, so if you ever need books about Japanese cats I suggest you come straight to the source.

At some point I took this photo of a little fruit market stall, just look at the price of those watermelons! About $30! And the apples are massive, if you can compare the oranges and grapefruits on the left.

And then we had planned to walk to Harajuku before catching the train back, but the maps on the street in Tokyo are a bit crazy because they are oriented to the street which means they are not always with north at the top. So when we knew we had to travel south, we started off and started walking only to discover after a couple of kilometres we had just been walking back north towards Ikebukuro. We were too tired and just went back to the hotel.

In the evening we went back to Tokyu Hands department store to buy all the presents and fun things we saw when we went earlier to go to Nekobukuro. We spent ¥11,000 so we could get the tax back, but in the end it was only ¥600 back oh well.

One of the really great things about Tokyo is that there are heaps of super cute lady european bikes everywhere with baskets, nobody locks their bikes because nobody would steal it because that would just be terribly rude.

cupman

2010-06-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

this is how medicine works

2010-06-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

breakfast times!

2010-06-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

This sushi guy had bits of seaweed mixed into the rice perhaps? There was nothing inside and it tasted weird so I gave it to Shara - 1 star

I like these weird triangle guys! You have to read the instructions for opening because the rice is wrapped in plastic and the nori and separated, so you have to construct it yourself. I was a bit scared of these though because I know that having a plum inside is very popular but this guy had a picture. It was kind of sweet, maybe teryaki? - 3 stars

This triangle guy had a picture with mayo so you can't go wrong! It had tuna and was delicious! The only downfall was that soy wasn't included - 4 stars

Shara bought this without realising that it was coffee (despite all the coffee beans on the packaging). This came in a plastic bag and was in 2 types of plastic case and also had plastic on top of the cream. The cream was the bulk of the cake but it was fresh, and the cake had a very light flavour - 5 stars

Shara had this as her breakfast dessert but I had some too. It was a crepe but inside was a piece of sponge, some cream, some crunchy crepe covered in chocolate and some custard! Amazing!! - 4.5 stars (Shara rated it 4.5 stars too)

---

Yesterday we spent about 5 hours watching tv after lunch which was insane but also so amazing. It's fun to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
When we went to Namjatown we were unsure if we should be spending ¥300 on entry to what was probably just a food court but WHOA it was so amazing I mean you got a cute ticket to put through train ticket gates and the section before Ice Cream City had a WWII themed section with lots of skeletons without heads, but there was calypso music playing everywhere? I guess it's because Japan.

I'm not sure what we are doing today, everything has been amazing without even trying!

Japan.

Food Review: Tokyo 2

2010-06-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

Weird spicy chips

I was emboldened from the last spicy chips I ate that weren't really spicy at all, and I thought these would be a piece of cake. The first few were not too spicy, and so I ended up eating about a third of the bag. Then my mouth went on fire, and hasn't really gone out yet. Really tasty though. About as hot as red hot cheetos, but definitely more delicious.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Weird panda biscuits

These were fake Hello Pandas, just small biscuits with chocolate on one side. However these guys have white and milk chocolate, which I don't think Hello Panda has? Anyway the white chocolate made these totally delicious. Would eat again.

Rating: 5 stars

Asahi Peach Juice

We were a little worried that this would end up being a Calpis-esque milk drink (which is okay, but a little weird and not that refreshing imo), but it was actually just peach nectar I am pretty sure. Had lumps of peach pulp in it too. This was totally totally delicious and I want to drink one million of them. A+ best beverage in Japan so far

Rating: 5 stars

Fanta weird energy drink thing

They have heaps of awesome Fanta varieties in Japan, but I had never seen this guy up until now. Judging by the branding and the relatively small size of the can, this was some sort of energy drink. It tasted pretty good for an energy drink. It tasted like green jellybeans! Probably got a bunch of shit in it that is going to give me cancer but whatever if I get tired and there is a vending machine around I am going to drink this again.

Rating: 4 stars

Namjatown

2010-06-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to Namjatown, it was real great! It is an amusement park that is in the place we are staying that is run by Namco. It's basically a repository of arcade games made by Namco that you have to pay to get into, but it also has GYOZA STADIUM and ICE CREAM CITY, which are collections of many different stores that sell gyoza and ice creams respectively. Lyndal found a super fun drum game and played it (the people in the video are very bad at this game). Judging by ads on TV this game is coming out on DS shortly so if you know what it is called you should tell us immediately. [Addendum I have just found out that this game is called Taiko Drum Master and it is out on PS2? It is fun and I want to buy it]

This was a burger store at Namjatown. Should we have eaten here? Yes that burger does have corn in it. They also sold an America burger with a USA flag in it and some cheese with "HERO" burnt into it, p. great.

These cats were all over Namjatown, together with a really surly cat with a monocle and a pocket watch. Is this some secret mascot for Namco I don't know about? Anyway these cats are hilarious.

All of the stalls in Gyoza Stadium have these info sheets that tell you how big their gyoza are etc. We chose this lady because when we walked past she rushed out and told us that her gyoza were NUMBER ONE, which was good enough for us. Also this lady was literally half Shara's height.

She recommended the regular gyoza, so I tried that. Very salty and garlicy but I liked em 4 stars!

She also recommended the garlic butter gyoza, and Lyndal got excited and ordered that. It turned out that garlic butter gyoza is just regular gyoza but with a lump of butter and some dried garlic on top. Still the gyoza themselves were good and she liked them well enough, so she gives this 3.5 stars.

I ate this icecream. I got it from a place specialising in soft serve in Ice Cream City. They had like ten different soft serve machines to dispense many many flavours. This is chocolate and strawberry. It was pretty good 4 stars. Shara and Lyndal bought some crepes from Ice Cream City that will be reviewed at a later date, when we get the photos off Shara's camera.

We did not go to this restaurant but maybe we should have so that we could have eaten rice in the shape of a cat and a gigantic goblet full of jelly and icecream?

On the way back we saw this guy standing around a courtyard in a mall at 9pm. He was trying to catch a bug in the net he is holding. This appears to be his job. Also the courtyard was very large and encompassed two floors, so the bug could just fly away. Japan

This guy was delicious 10/10

2010-06-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

Dese are the guys at the cat cafe

2010-06-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

IMPORTANT

2010-06-28T02:06:00.000-07:00

for your information

YOUR BUTT X 1

2010-06-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi we have been watching Japanese TV for three hours now. It is p amazing. Anyway I have to talk about things or something. I think I have to review things. Listen up these photos are all unedited as there is no editing software on this tiny computer. So I am apologising in advance HOW EMBARRASSING like seeing someone WITHOUT THEIR MAKE UP. Anyway I ate this thing it was 1100 yen or something. It was pretty great the lettuce was hot though. The meat lump and rice was most delicious and the pasta, which was eggplant, actually tasted like fish, weird. That is the only thing I have a photo of yet so I will just say what happened today.

Under exposed and angry cat. There is an angry rock star chair on TV right now singing. A hugely muscular man just did aerobics with three children and then a talking cactus appeared. TODAAAYY or MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY as Hollyoaks would say. Today we got up at 9am which means we slept for 10 hours! If there are crazy typos in here it is because this machine will not inform me of them. So we got up and then spent three hours trying to decide what to do. We eventually decided to go to Gyoza Stadium and Nekobukuro. We did go to Nekobukuro which is a cat playground but have not gone to Gyoza Stadium yet. Nekobukuro would not Lyndal and me enter as a couple which is rude we could have saved 200 yen! It was pretty amazing and we met many angry cats. There was one trapped in a train! There was a huge fluffy Maine Coon tried to bite Lyndal, me and also another lady! Hilariously there was one of those cats with a squished face but it was all shaved. I have photos of all these cats but due to their uneditedness I have only included this guy. There was also a Jose guy and some happy cats ho were trapped in their weird cat rooms. We were there at dinnertime so we got to give everyone a little bit of kibble. Sorry I am majorly distracted by the most amazing show which is teaching Japanese children English. Ha-ha-ha-ha I'm Happy!

Before we did this we spent about an hour walking around an AMAZING store where we decided to buy EVERYTHING! We haven't done this yet but we will OH WE WILL. I can't tell you about this look I have to stop typing TV is too amazing

Things about Japanese TV

2010-06-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

I believe there is a lot that can be learned by watching a country's television shows. Here are some things I have observed about TV in Japan:

There is writing all over the place. Hardly anyone says anything that isn't accompanied by some sort of writing on the bottom of the screen. Or the side. Or in the middle.
Everyone says "ehhhhhhhhhh~" a lot. A LOT.
There is an ad with some some dude just making a mii on his Wii. It goes for like 30 seconds, and has been repeated several times. The Wii was released four years ago.
There is a show where people (I assume celebrities?) do karaoke to the themes of famous animes.
Almost all ads in Japan feature women. Most have both men and women in them, but there are almost no ads with only men in them. Many beer ads do not have men in them, which is totally weird coming from Australia. There is an ad for whisky which has a woman being all "whisky~!" and drinking it up, which surprised me quite a lot.
Japanese people love watching shows about food. They seem to be far more interested in watching people eat food rather than cook food, too.
News and current affairs shows here seem to rarely show graphics. If they want to show a graph or something, they print it out on a bit of paper, and then point at it with a stick. This is one of the weirdest things.
Japanese TV has the worst production values I have ever seen. All TV shows fit into one of the following categories: shows where people make food, shows where celebrities eat food and other celebrities watch them; shows where one celebrity goes somewhere in Japan or somewhere else in the world and does something ridiculous, while other celebrities watch; soaps about samurai that look like they were made by a cable access channel; news and current affairs shows that point at charts with sticks; shows about animals; anime. For this reason I posit that Japanese TV networks are the most profitable companies on the face of the planet.
In Japan they show advertisements for elevators in primetime television.

Classic Japan

presented without comment

2010-06-28T00:11:00.001-07:00

coffee

2010-06-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

One of the things I forgot was big in Japan is COLD MILKY SWEET COFFEE IN A CAN! I absolutely love this stuff and you can buy about one million types in Japan, most are ¥ 120 for a ~200mL/7oz can and available from every vending machine everywhere.
So here are my first round of reviews of coffee & a couple of other milk-based beverages.

Boss Coffee - ¥100
My first drink bought in Japan! Purchased from a vending machine at Narita Airport railway station. Webber suggested I purchase this brand because Tommy Lee Jones endorses it on television.
It was a touch too watery, but the flavour I am familar with - 4 stars

Starbuck's Orange Chocolate Coffee - ¥ 160
Had high hopes for this, but it just tasted like Cointreau? Not really like coffee or chocolate either. I was worried it might have been alcoholic, but it was too cheap - 2 stars

Georgie Emerald Mountain Blend - ¥120
Here is where I learned a valuable lesson: check what colour the price of the drink is, if it's blue then the drink is cold, but red means it's hot. So accidentally I bought a boiling hot coffee (I couldn't hold it, and had to just put it in my bag).
Once it cooled down enough to hold and drink, it was kind of gross. I think maybe it was not milky enough for me - 3 stars

Quality Coffee - ¥100
This was the type of quality you can expect from a cheaper coffee in a can. It wasn't sweet enough for me, won't purchase again - 2 stars

Cocoteen Ice Cocoa - ¥ 120
This was delicious! It really tasted like cocoa I have made at home from American recipes, where you cook it on the stove.
Also, I impressed Shara & Webber with how thick the cans are. You cannot crush these with your hands! Exiciting - 5 stars

Maxim Strawberry Latte - ¥ 200
There was lots of weird powdered drink in sachets, like Twining's English Breakfast with milk. I thought Strawberry Latte sounded relatively safe, and it was basically like drinking a hot nesquik - 3 stars.

Misc photos

2010-06-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

presented without comment

2010-06-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

Food Review: Tokyo 1

2010-06-27T23:00:00.002-07:00

We have been eating quite a lot of things, but many of the pictures are stuck on our phones at the moment and Lyndal and Shara haven't got around to reviewing stuff yet. In the meantime, here are some things that I have eaten.

Weird spicy chips

I got these at Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store btw) for about ¥280 (pretty expensive). They are some sort of spicy crisp, but they are way less spicy than the bag makes out. I am a wuss when it comes to hot things but these are no problem. The aftertaste feels a little lacking though. Maybe it tastes... prawny? I dunno. Still good, though. Shara and Lyndal seemed to really like them.

Rating: 4 stars

Meiji Chocolate

This isn't super good chocolate or anything, but it's only ¥100 for a chocolate bar, which is pretty cheap. Enjoyable enough.

Rating: 4 stars

Bag of French Crullers

Shara bought these from Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store) for less than ¥300, which seems super cheap to me! I have never eaten a cruller so I can't say how authentic it tasted, but I thought it was real nice. It was megasweet and kind of crumbly. It kind of dissolved in my mouth which was interesting. These tasted like the waffles we used to buy in Shin Osaka JR station which are AMAZING, so they are good. GG Japan.

Rating: 5 stars

presented without comment

2010-06-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

2010-06-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

They are pretty excited about the world cup in Japan. They have a clay jar that you can speak messages into and then I guess the players receive those messages? There is also a camera at the bottom of the jar so we got to see many people's upside down faces. I hope they didn't tell the Japanese soccer team all their secrets because now we know them too! Anyway the reason why your country was eliminated from the world cup is that you did not send the team your support via an earthenware jar and also they are not very good at football.

IMPORTANT

2010-06-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

Hi there was an ad just on with a disembodied head floating above the Hudson River. Dialogue was as follows:
"I am a boiler!" *spurts steam out of nose*
"Miura boiler!" *more steam*
"Please don't forget!"
"I am a boiler!" *a lot of steam*
"Miura boiler!"
"Have a nice day!"
Ad ends. This was preceded by an advertisement featuring a fish with a man's head, a la seminal Dreamcast game Seaman.

japan

2010-06-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

Do u wanna eat this parfait? Lyndal claimed she was going to but it turned out she was all talk.

2010-06-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

In Japan they show the weather updates with Van Helsing playing in the background for some reason.

2010-06-26T23:13:00.001-07:00

shara is snoring it up big time now

Day 1: Tokyo

2010-06-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the first blog entry of our trip! You excited? We began last night flying out from Sydney to Tokyo at 10pm, arriving at like 6am. It was the worst flight! We flew Qantas which was pretty good but I can never sleep on planes. I was too uncomfortable to be able to get any sleep. I got a little drunk and had some phanergan but all that did was make me too drowsy to do anything, so I just spent nine or so hours with my eyes closed half listening to podcasts. Shara and Lyndal both foolishly became ill before leaving on the trip so I don't think their trip was much happier.

As soon as we got to Tokyo airport all of the escallators started talking at us which is always exciting. We took a train to the place in Tokyo we were staying which was maybe a bad idea because it seemed to take like 2 hours and cost 3,000 yen each ($45). We were too tired to figure out a better way though. We got to our hotel at about 9am, and were told that we couldn't check in until 2pm. They took our bags and we sort of walked around for a bit. We found many great things in the department store next to our hotel but most of them were two million dollars. At some dude at our hotel's recommendation we went up to the top four levels of the department store, each of which was filled with about 10 restaurants. It was a kind of weird thing, where all of the restaurants were pretending to be outside and had all of these faux-outdoor fittings like brick walls and lanterns, even though we were inside on the 12th floor of a massive building. Japan is weird. We walked around looking at all of the restaurants' plastic food (restaurants in Japan often advertise their food by putting plastic versions of their dishes in the front window), and then picked the weirdest restaurant and went in for lunch to kill some time. Shara and Lyndal got some real weird things (reviews pending), but I was not hungry.

After this we walked all around Ikebukuro, and went into all of the convenience stores we saw while we waited until we could check in. Finally at 2 we were able to get into our room. We stayed there and watched Japanese game shows for a bit. In between rounds they play Organ Donor by DJ Shadow which is p. weird. Lyndal took some shampoo in her bag and it exploded. She kept it in a plastic bag though and on the bright side now all of her stuff smells like shampoo.

Now everyone else is sleeping (Shara is snoring and it sounds like "shhhhhhh... pshhhhhh") and I am megatired too so I am also going to take a nap. Sorry this wasn't a very exciting entry but we will hopefully do more interesting stuff when we don't feel like wanting to die!

Look at this amazing vest!!

2010-06-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

What

2010-06-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

What

Candy Review: Chunky

2010-05-08T19:30:00.001-07:00

Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, milkfat, lactose, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavors, PGPR - an emulsifier), peanuts, raisins, TBHQ and citric acid (added to preserve freshness)

After the Whatchamacallit, I was heartened to see that "chocolate" was the first ingredient here (although actual chocolate was a minority ingredient in that "chocolate"). Nestle bills this as "milk chocolate with peanuts and raisins". Pretty standard, just fruit and nut in a little 40g square. Shara opened this, and was overwhelmed by the smell. Indeed, having consumed this some time ago, the smell coming from the wrapper is still quite powerful. It smells like chemicals. A lot like chemicals. The taste was a bit better, but still not great. The raisins and nuts were fine, but the chocolate itself didn't really taste of anything. The closest it got to chocolate flavour was a very mild taste of instant coffee. Shara said it tasted like charcoal but I thought it just tasted like a bunch of sugar with some peanuts in it. Again, I feel much worse after having consumed it, but I don't want to put all of the blame for this on the candy bar.

My rating: 2.5 stars
Shara rating: 0.5 stars

Candy Review: Whatchamacallit

2010-05-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

An associate has provided me with a number of candy bars from America. As I make my way through them I will document my progress and give you the definitive outsider's view of amusingly named high fructose corn snacks. Today's is the Whatchamacallit.

Ingredients: Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, crisp rice, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (palm kernel and soybean oil), vegetable oil (cocoa butter, palm, shea, sunflower and/or safflower oil), partially defatted peanuts, non-fat milk, chocolate, partially hydrogenated coconut oil, corn syrup solids, whey (milk)

This is the candy bar I was most excited to eat. The wrapper claims it is made with chocolate, peanut flavoured crisps and caramel. That made it sound like a cross between a Snickers and a Kit Kat, which is a great concept for a candy bar. That's more or less what it turned out to be too, but to be honest I found it a little underwhelming. It felt like the rice, peanut and caramel were all competing for attention rather than working together, and this made the experience a little forgettable, at least compared to, say, a Snickers. The chocolate was pretty thin and bad too. I feel it could be improved by replacing the rice with wafer a la the Kit Kat, or perhaps swapping to dark chocolate. I should note that this candy bar contains 9 grams of saturated fat, which represents 45% of your recommended daily intake (this is slightly less than one Big Mac). I do feel incredibly sick afterwards, but to be fair to the candy bar, this could be just as easily due to the popcorn I ate for dinner.

My rating: 3 stars
Shara rating: 3.5 stars

What?

2009-12-10T00:12:00.001-08:00

We are going to do this blog again but uh in six months time. Can you hold on that long?

FOR YOUR REFERENCE

Saturday 26th June - Sydney - Arrives Tokyo (27/06/10) 6:55

Saturday 3rd July - Tokyo - Vienna - Arrives London Heathrow at 18:40

Thursday 8th July - London - Arrives Reykjavik 23:10

Thursday 15th July - Reykjavik - Arrives NYC 12:30

Saturday 17th July - NYC - Arrives LA at 22:10

Thursday 22nd July - LA - Arrives Sydney (24/7/10) at 6:15

OK PHOTOS

2009-02-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

ARE HERE MOSTLY

Off you pop! There are still a few more to go but mostly they are up!

They are even glaring at each other on Flickr

2009-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

Amazing!!

Editing

2009-02-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I am editing about 150 photos from this trip trying to make you all seem as beautiful as you are to meeeee! Then I will flickr them for you. If you want a big version of any of them just email me and I will send him to you.

I miss everyone unless you are lame and you are all invited to stay at my place in Sydney unless you are lame!!

Cake wreck

2009-02-12T15:13:00.001-08:00

We saw this in LA. What is going on here? I have no idea!

I'm gonna

2009-02-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is a real drink but there were none left :(

Yes this is a real thing in LA

2009-02-12T11:44:00.001-08:00

Should we move there??

This is the best!

2009-02-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

In summary

2009-02-11T08:03:00.001-08:00

ps

2009-02-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

unlike lyndal i will miss the people in america too, not just the lemonade

BYE AMERICAZ!

2009-02-10T21:09:00.001-08:00

We're on our way out of the country!

I had $3 left on my America travel card and we've signed up for a T-Mobile internet plan that costs $5 or something so SUCK IT T-MOBILE.

We had great times and I will miss lemonade like nobody's buisness, had a great day with Kat going to The Grove and the Farmer's Market and it was a beautiful day in beautiful California.

So this is us hotties saying THANK YOU AMERICA and we will see you again some day soon!

Kissles!

(ps. Shara was on the phone to Sam & Marnie in Dubai on their way back to Sydney from Europe)

We ate this sucka

2009-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

G'night NYC

I went to the crayola factory

2009-02-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

Yeah I feel better now :)

Toothpaste Review

2009-02-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

Crest 'Whitening Expressions' - Vanilla Mint

Bought the 'shampoo bottle' shaped gel in New York City, then purchased the paste in King of Prussia, PA.

The flavour of this toothpaste is amazing! Like you are brushing your teeth with lollies, very similar to just eating a bunch of chocolate mints (which happens to be my favourite flavour for anything ever, I just polished off a large box of Junion Mints in just over a day).
However the consistency of the gel is very thin, not a lot of foam which is disappointing. The paste is much thicker and has a better level of foam.

Would definitely buy again, may need someone to post me some more in the future (along with some Country Time Pink Lemonade, yet to be reviewed)

Rating: 4 stars
Contains HFCS: No

Pretty

2009-02-07T15:09:00.002-08:00

Taken in car with iPhone

This is how tired and sick I am

2009-02-07T15:09:00.001-08:00

Yes I am wearing the same jumper!! Get over it!!

Look at these guys!!

2009-02-07T08:14:00.001-08:00

Someone wrote cat poo

2009-02-07T08:08:00.001-08:00

everywhere

Lyndal Bush

2009-02-07T08:07:00.001-08:00