Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby: Held up Yet again!

It was a late afternoon in Port Moresby as I was heading back from meeting up with some clients. A normal day by any standards with nothing special on the agenda. We were heading back into Gerehu, the sky was overcast with a few clouds making things a bit darker than usual. Always on guard in this area as its pretty much the wild west when it comes to raskols we approached Gerehu Stage 6 where our factory is located. As we pulled into Koloka Street there was about 7 young guys standing around the bottom entrance gate to the factory. This normally would be a sure sign that we shouldn’t enter and should of kept driving. Our drivers know that they shouldn’t stop in such a situation, they weren’t covering their faces with bandanas or masks so my driver thought it was safe to head to the main gate, about 15 meters away from the bottom gate. It also didn’t help that one of the guys was clearly the nephew of my driver so my driver figured it would be safe to go on ahead as he thought they were just picking up some scrap timber.

At the time we didn’t have any security on the top gate as we didn’t care too much about those things before these held ups happened. So we waited for the gate to open and my staff took an abnormally long amount of time to open it due to the fact that they were pretty busy. It was about 4 pm when the 7 young men started to make their way up to the top gate, and as they split up and started to surround the car I knew straight away that something was wrong. Too late to react or do anything and just as I realized what was happening the car was surrounded with a home made one barrel shotgun in front of the car and I was being pulled out of the car forcefully grazing my arm with a couple machetes touching my neck. The feeling of the dirty blades grazing my neck was a surreal experience. Not saying that it was a good experience but it was definitely more death threatening than the shotgun in front me. As the men emptied my pockets and took about K700 (about $250AUD), my phone and keys. They quickly finished off with taking my belongings (not that I had that much) I sat and watched as they took my drivers bilong (PNG style bag) as someone had obviously tipped them off with wrong information that he might of hand money in their. Not that he had any money anyway.

The raskols had to get away quick as it was my factory after all and it was only a few minutes later that my staff inside realized what was happening and the security bell sounded. It only took a moment for all 70 of my staff to be outside the front gate chasing down the raskols. (its amazing how fast they can react when they could barely win a soccer match haha) IT was good to know that their reaction speed in a situation such as a hold up was second to none. Half the staff had gone out the back entrance to try and cut them off while the other half jumped on the back of the truck cutting the bad guys off in another direction. The raskols were not that smart in holding me up right in front of my factory. They all ran one direction and had to cut their losses and try to jump the fence to run through some neighbors factories just to get away. This was time consuming and they probably injured themselves in the process. But the time they could reach the other side of the neighbors yards my truck with 30 men armed with knives sticks and stones had caught up to them and chased 3 or 4 of them down up a hill. 3 or 4 were severely beaten while trying to get away before being apprehended and taken to the local Gerehu police station. 3 of them got away and the K700 kina was not to be seen again. I headed down to the police station to make a statement which I wouldn’t of done if we didn’t catch any. The raskols were pretty badly beaten as is the way in PNG so at this point I was a bit worried about their payback system. But more on that a little bit later.

I made my statement to the police officers whom nowadays we have on speed dial in case of emergency situations such as these. Although I did not file any charges as no harm was done I was able to get my keys back which were the most important things otherwise we have to change out about 50 locks in the factory (as we had to do last time I was held up) The raskols were probably beaten up again by the police before being transferred to holding cells at the Boroko Police station. At this point I headed to the settlement from where the raskols lived and spoke to the parents, on the back of my truck with several of my staff reassuring them that over time work was still scheduled for that night. Feeling a bit distraught with some adrenaline running through my veins it took a while before the adrenaline was to wear off. It was important for me to speak to the parents so they didn’t miss understand me and the fact that their children were pretty badly beaten, not to mention stuck in a police holding cell. My trusted staff had spoken to the people they knew in this particular settlement and they understood my position and informed me that they had told their children to leave us alone. Reassured that I was not going to be victim to any form of payback I headed home.

The next day I had to make another statement at the Boroko Police station as the first statement that I had made seemed to have gone missing. I made my statement, again without naming any names or pointing the finger as nothing that bad had happened to me in this hold up. Mentioned that I wouldn’t be pressing charges and then headed home. It was a couple days later when my phone magically was found and returned to me by someone who pretty much bribed me to give him a job if I wanted the phone back. I could of just given him money but if I had done that his life would have been no better and he would of still been on the street. So I gave him a job in the sawmill and had my phone returned.

It was a couple days later that the back door of the phone holding cell in Boroko was ‘accidentally’ left open and the raskols had escaped. Not really that worried as I had spoken to the parents I tried to be diplomatic about the situation. But the guys who held me up had all disappeared back to the villages in the deep, deep forests of PNG. To this day I haven’t seen or spoken to any of those people who held me up. They are probably around but as they are leaving me alone I have no quarrels. All in all, the second hold up experience was much easier than the first and I was a lot more alert to my surrounding’s. If anything good came of it, I now see the wider picture when it comes to driving in PNG and I am always alert to the possibility of another hold up. In saying that we have tightened our security measures greatly and thus far, we haven’t been the victims of any more PNG related crime as of yet (touch wood).

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Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby: Retrieval of Cameras

After the hold up I was intent on getting back my cameras more so my girlfriend camera in particular as it had her photos on it from some previous travels. For most people who get held up you might as well just forget about the belongings that were taken. But if you are intuitive and have a good support network around you getting back your belongings (except any cash taken) is possible. I had offered to buy some new phones for my driver and his kids if he was able to get back my cameras and thus began his week or so worth of telephone calls and work of sourcing and finding them. We were lucky enough that the raskols who had taken my particular phone sold it relatively quickly to someone they knew and as such that person had turned it on. My driver was able to contact the buyer of the mobile and talk about the guys who held us up. As they were friends and are protected by their ‘wantok’ system getting their names was next to impossible. He did however speak to them and acted as a middle man in passing on information as to the whereabouts of the cameras. This man was extremely helpful and without this mystery person the retrieval would have been next to impossible.

The first camera was reported to us that one of the boys were trying to sell it at a local market and a police man apprehended the camera as stolen goods. At first thought I thought it was going to be as easy as popping by the police station and claiming the camera. But in Papua New Guinea absolutely nothing is as easy as it sounds. We headed down to the station to speak to the police officer whom we knew had the camera of which we found out wasn’t there. We were greeted by another police officer whom asked us to drive him a good 30 minutes inland to the other police officers home to pick him up. A good hour later we were back at the police station with the police officer whom we knew had the camera as I kindly asked for it back. It took a good hour or so of convincing to him that I was the owner (including knowing the make and model name) for him to admit that he did have the camera at some point. Instead of turning in the camera to evidence (The usual policy in most countries including Papua New Guinea), this particular officer had sold the camera to his brother (which theoretically makes him no better than the raskol who was trying to sell it in the first place).

So instead of him just giving me the camera we had to wait in front of the station for another hour or so pay for his beetlenuts and cigarettes as he argued with his brother to get my camera back. His brother refusing to give the camera back without compensation I had to pay out K180.00 (approximately $60 dollars) to his brother to get back my property. Its amazing that within the space of 48 hours that this camera had been taken from me, tried to be sold, apprehended, and then sold by the police officer. Only in Papua New Guinea could this actually happen. Anyway after a good 3 hours or so with dealing with these particular police I was able to get back the first camera which was luckily enough the camera that belonged to my girlfriend. Needless to say she was extremely happy that she got her camera back all phones still in tact. (We still have this camera even to this day). Now I should say that most police in PNG are underfunded and as such small things like this normally go down without a second thought, but not all police officers are like this and some are genuinely law abiding officers.

The second camera was much harder to get back and it took another week or so before I was able to get back my camera. I was starting to lose hope that I wasn’t going to get mine back until the guy called us and told us that he had sold the camera to a small Indian run shop on the outskirts of town. My driver went there and spoke to the guy who blatantly refused to admit that he had the camera so he enlisted the services of a couple of police officers to go there with a warrant which cost me about $100 AUD relatively cheap for the services that we got. The officers went there and apprehended the camera of which was returned to me. This particular route though was en-route to my driver’s house and Papua New Guinea is renowned for its ‘payback’ system of which if something happens to someone payback is possible. So I had to pay an additional $300 dollars to the guy who we took the camera off just to be sure that he was compensated for the loss of his ‘stolen’ property. All in all I was able to retrieve both cameras with a lot of work and hassle on my drivers behalf, he was kindly rewarded with a couple new phones. But in the end the cost of retrieving my camera far outweighed the actual cost of buying the new model of the same camera.

This story is an illustration of how hard things can be in Port Moresby when it comes to law and theft. But it was a definitely learning experience on my behalf for future situations.

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Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby: Parliamentary Hold Up

*Story note – this is a true story all information provided is indeed true and nothing has been fictionalize for the sake of my readers. It is important to note that even though Papua New Guinea can be dangerous as depicted the good portion of people are generally pretty welcoming and happy to have a friendly chat with you. These stories are not meant to put you off from visiting Papua New Guinea as there is indeed several amazing places to visit, but rather provide a warning to travelers who are unaware of the dangers of this developing nation. That being said, enjoy my recollection of this adrenaline filled event.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when one of my driver’s was heading out for some groceries at the local market. I decided to go with him so that I could go take some pictures of Parliament House. Completely oblivious to the local information that more or less states that one shouldn’t visit Parliament house on a weekend when there isn’t any guards on duty, as it is a no through road surrounded by meter high grass we went anyway. The trip to parliament house takes less than 15 minutes from the center of town and conveniently located in one of the major populated areas of Boroko City which is within Port Moresby, and it is probably one of the most iconic landmarks that Port Moresby has to offer and as such, several tours company provide guided tours to this landmark. Parliament House Is shown on the 100 Kina note and has its iconic green slanted triangular roof.

We pulled up towards the side of the road just outside the gate of Parliament House and stopped the car (bad mistake on my drivers behalf). At this point I had always wondered what a hold up would actually be like and being in Port Moresby I knew that eventually it was bound to happen. We started taking some photos of the Parliament that were mediocre at best due to the fact that we couldn’t even get past the gate as it was closed on a Sunday. I stayed on the back of the ute tray just watching into the long grass. A few minutes later there was a little bit of rustling in the grassland and I knew straight away that something was up. What followed next was something out of an action film where the bad guys close in on their victims.

About 5 guys wearing with covered faces using bandanas as masks came out of the bush with a few machetes (the weapon of choice for Papua New Guinea Raskols) and a home made pistol. Now the thing with the home made guns is that you never actually know if they are loaded (if they are they usually only have one bullet) and you never actually know if they are functional; But the important thing to note is that you shouldn’t take any chances with your life with these guys as they are usually extremely intoxicated on alcohol, home brew (potentially lethal home cocktail of high strength alcohol and marijuana), making them make poor decisions.

The gun was pointed at us while a few of the other guys held machetes around us as one guy searched our pockets for money and other valuable things. Being Papua New Guinea I didn’t actually have any cash on me bar 20 kina or so. So they took what they could a couple cameras (which we both got back – see Retrieving cameras blog), and the really bad phones ($10.00 Aussie each from all of us). Another reason why I don’t wear any jewelry, don’t use any good phones, and don’t carry any money with me. It can be a dangerous place if you don’t have good people to rely on.

It was my first time being held up and everything was new to me, but I will say this its an extremely frightening experience being held up via machete and gun point much more so than my Bungy off the Macau Tower. During the hold up I wasn’t able to obtain any useful information to tell the authorities later on (not that anyone actually reports these kinds of things in Moresby) as everything was happening so fast. Before I knew it I had empty pockets, we were camera less and they were retreating back into the bush. A minute or so later other car started to pull up asking what had happened and I offered them rewards for the sim card (a business man’s life in Papua New Guinea) and the cameras back, not so much for the actual value of the cameras and phone but for the sim cards and memory cards. They all said they might know the people (Papua New Guinea is one big interconnected group of people, of which everyone knows everyone through their Wantok system (which is some knowledge for another blog as I do not wish to get into it in too much depth here).

Feeling a bit shocked with my heart now pumping like a horse about to hit the race track, we left without our phones, our cameras, and not one photo of the very Parliament house that we were trying to take photos of. Feeling a bit pissed off at this point that we were done in like this, I had tasked my driver to obtain our cameras back for us and funnily enough being the small society that PNG Is we were able to retrieve both of the cameras.

The experience all in all really does change you and every time you see someone with their face partially covered you think the worst, this does fade away over time. But this possible near death experience is extremely terrifying and as I said I would rather jump off the worlds tallest bungy or go skydiving than be put through this situation again. Little did I know I was held up a second time, but I was much more prepared for it and our retaliation was quick and fast. But that’s another story for another day I wish to reemphasize that I do not write this blogs to scare you from the tourism that is PNG but if I have any advice to give you it is: if you wish to go and see the sights backpacking and solo travel is definitely not the way of life in PNG and one should definitely seek the services of a registered tour company. This may be a slightly more expensive option but these companies are usually very safe and reliable and sometimes come with private escorts depending on your average spend. Stay tuned for the blog of how I was able to retrieve the two cameras and the annoyances that this actually involved.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Eight: Shinjuku and Harajuku and back to Osaka

It was my last day in Tokyo and I had to visit two places that are a must on almost every tourists list: Harajuku and Shinjuku. Although I had neglected to go to these places earlier in the week it was now time to visit them by myself with what little time I had left. First stop was Harajuku I was a little bit disappointed that it wasn’t a Sunday as this is when Harajuku comes alive with new style fashion and Cosplayers. But I did see a few out-there clothing styles when I was walking the small street that houses all this unique fashion. As I walked down the main street it was crowded as usual just like any other place in Tokyo, but what struck me was the cheapness of the clothes, I don’t mean that in a bad sense – just overall the clothes here were quite cheap. But in saying that the styles are all a bit different to what we’re use to back home. But if you are in search of something a bit crazy Harajuku is the place to come to. After taking some more photos of what I could and by the time I reached the end of the street I stopped for a Kebab and a Crepe before heading to Shinjuku to have a look around.

Shinjuku is the nightlife area of Tokyo especially if your interested in Hostess bars and Pachinko parlours. Although the area doesn’t have as many nightclubs as Roppongi if you know what your doing in this area and have very deep pockets you can have a lot of fun being pampered by Japanese beauties. I walked around and was amazed at how many love hotels and hostess bars there actually was here. The amount was pretty impressive on a slightly seedy standard. Walking down side alleys here brings you to yet another adult orientated location, but at the same time walking down these alleyways can sometimes bring you to a little gem of a bar – only 10 seats big with a local vibe. Unfortunately a lot of these places, foreigners are not allowed to go to. So its really hit and miss when looking for these tiny bars. I had a look through the fashion arcades and was happy to see that everything stays open late rather than our 5 pm shut in Australia. In my opinion one of the greatest parts of a developed Asian nation. I headed back to Harajuku to meet up with my exchange student who was going to take me to the bus terminal so that I could head back to Osaka. The ride was pretty quick as their was mostly taxi’s on the road being night time and before I knew it we were walking around the station waiting for my bus to arrive and depart. An hour later or so my student took me to the right bus made sure I boarded and then we said our goodbye’s till the next time we would meet again. As I wrote a relatively in depth bus trip blog on Day One I will be avoiding writing too much about the bus trip home. As usual this particular trip was uneventful and I arrived back in Osaka in the nice early morning with a crisp cold air.

Thus ends my one week in Tokyo Blog, there are a few other things that I did want to do but I guess I will just have to save them for the next time I am in Tokyo which I’m sure won’t be too far in the future. Stay tuned for more blogs from my first Japan Trip noted by the ‘A day in’ as I won’t be writing them in any particular order but rather just day trips that I made from Osaka.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Seven: Driving out to Mt Fuji and the Five Lakes

A morning waiting for the Baseball game to finished (as my exchange student and his family were hardcore Baseball fans) turned into a drive out to Mt Fuji. Most people catch a train or bus, but I was lucky enough to be driven there which was a lot more comfortable than going on the train not to mention we could go directly to where we wanted to go. Mt Fuji is like a mirage if your lucky you’ll have a clear day and if your not you wont be able to see anything but fog and clouds. I’m sure their might be some reports on the internet that allow you check the visibility before you go, but as a tourist your most likely not going to be checking these and just hoping for the best. It took just under two hours to drive to one of the main lakes of Mt Fuji but we eventually arrived. We got out of the car, took some photographs around the lake, took some photographs of Mt Fuji which annoyingly was partly covered by this one stray cloud. But we were able to see it and thats what mattered. Mt Fuji is pretty spectacular and there are several ways to get here as mentioned earlier, but for me just seeing the mountain is not enough. Thus I will be climbing it in August 2010! Which promises to provide some breathtaking views if I’m lucky enough to climb on it when there aren’t so many clouds in the sky. The photos of Mt Fuji and the lakes only took us about 20 minutes before I decided to head back home. My student quite amazed that he had driven all the way here for just 20 minutes of viewing he informed he wanted to stop for some kind of local Ramen. I had a look at the food on the menu but it didn’t really appeal to me (not like Chashu Ramen does anyway), so I ordered some Ice Cream filled frozen strawberries which were quite nice. Eventually we started the 2 hour drive back home. All in all we spent more time in the car than at Mt Fuji itself. But O well what can you do. It didn’t help that the wind blowing off the lake was freezing to say the least. Another day down only one more before heading back to Osaka.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Six: Tokyo International Anime Fair

There was some advertising on the backpacker wall that the Tokyo International Anime Fair for 2009 was going to be on while I was in Tokyo. Being an avid manga and anime fan I had to see this even if it meant forgoing any other activities necessary. It was a little bit of the way in the new Commerial Zoned area of Odaiba which is home to impressively new architectural structures. My student offered to drive to Odaiba which seemingly took longer than expected because of the traffic in Tokyo but we made it after about an hour for a 20 kilometer journey or so from his house.

It had always been a dream of mine to attend one of this anime shows as people really get dressed up (cosplay) and in the spirit of their favourite anime. Not to mention all the freebies that are given away during these events. There was giant Ghibli dolls, Pikachus, People dressed up as Powerpuff girls – you name it. This anime fair had everything that one would have wanted in this kind of event. The only downfall was that everything was in Japanese, but I guess it was an anime fair in Japan so hence one can’t complain.

I got photos with most of the models who were dressed up and just started walking around collecting freebies for a good couple hours while my exchange student and his friend continued to laugh at my antics. Notable models was girl in yellow costume (above left) and the Full Metal Alchemist girls (bottom of post). After I had my fair share of freebies and photography we headed home to go Bowling later that night.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Five: Tokyo Disneysea, Zed and Planet Hollywood

Tokyo DisneySea the next stop on the Tokyo Disney Resort Loop line. The price is practically the same as Disneyland but I had my two day pass from the day before so this permitted me the entry fee. Upon entering first thoughts were that the decorations and scenery is much more elegant than that of its Disneyland counter-part. The attractions all were masterfully put together to give you some really great photo opportunities. Same as yesterday you can’t really get away from the 3 hour lines apart from utilizing the fast pass system that runs out relatively quickly. Some notable attractions include Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Sinbad (which is kind of like It’s a Small World). But in my opinion the rides here are good, but the photos and shopping are more worthwhile to visit for. There is a plethora of souvenir shops that allow you to pick up every Disney product under the sun. I stayed to watch one of the water shows that happens in the middle of the park, where extravagant floats move around to the tunes of your favourite Disney music. The park overall is a good place to come with friends but as I was by myself it was a little bit boring.

After Tokyo DisneySea I made the 10 minute walk to the home of Cirque Du Soleil ZED which is housed in the Disney area and is easily walkable. But if in doubt you could always catch a taxi for less than 1000 yen. I had seen a few Cirque Du Soleil shows by now and each one is more amazing than the last. Only fault I could give to ZED was that it was a relatively new show and thus the performers where still learning – this led to some near misses and sometimes fire almost being thrown into the audience. The story was good and the acrobatics were second to none. Tight rope and Fire Juggling were some of my favourites.

After the show had finished I had to wait for a few hours for one of my exchange students whom I hadn’t seen in a few years to pick me up. So I found Planet Hollywood. To my knowledge we don’t have any Planet Hollywood’s in Australia so I had to check out this American Themed Bar and Restaurant. The decor was pretty cool and taking a photo with the giant Planet Hollywood Ball was a must. The bartenders on night were quite interesting and were happy to endure my little bit out there requests of fire breathing and communal shots. I stayed for a few hours before semi-drunkenly strolling to find my exchange students car in the car park of which I would be spending the next few days with him and heading to Mt Fuji.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Four: Tokyo Disneyland and the Kodo-kan

A relatively early subway to Maihama station took me to the Tokyo Disney resort. The Maihama subway line is on the other end of Tokyo station so its quite the mission to get to it and involves quite a bit of walking along escalators and stairs alike. By the time you get there the subways run pretty frequently and you arrive at the Tokyo Disney Resort before you can blink your eyes. You first start to notice the group of Disney hotels with the Walt Disney suite setting you back $5000 AUD per night. Prices generally start from 200 per night for a normal room. Once you arrive at Maihama station you need to change subway to the Tokyo Disney Resort Loop line with carriages decorated in true disney fashion. I arrived pretty early and headed over to the Tokyo Disneyland ticket purchasing line and got myself a two day pass value at 10000 yen for both parks to be used within two days.

Upon entering the park the first thing that struck me was the fact that there was just so many people here even though it was pretty early. It wasn’t a school holiday or anything but the amount of local Japanese tourists here, and school groups was immense. This lead to me standing in waiting lines to go on rides 3 hours deep. The Disney fast passes which allow you go on the rides and skip the queue run out pretty early in the afternoon and there’s nothing you can do but wait in the lines. I was lucky enough to get a couple fast passes, but the only ride with a line that moved quickly was ‘It’s a Small World’ as the boats held a large quantity of people and there was a lot of boats. Fond memories of when I was a child and went to the California disneyland re-sparked as I sat listening to the It’s a Small World theme song that is universal to all Disney parks. Getting a bit sick of waiting in all the lines I opted to just watch some shows for the rest of the night and take photos with the famous Tokyo Disney castle. The shows and parades drew huge crowds and finding a good seat one would have to go pretty early to the parade circuit. In typical Disney fashion the parades were extravagant with costumes and floats truly fitting to be part of the Disney empire. There is a a lot of rides in Tokyo Disneyland but one would have to be able to stomach the immense waiting periods on most of the rides unless your going with your parents and can use their fast passes. For me taking photos was more than enough as riding on rides by oneself can be quite the boring task. I didn’t want to spend the day waiting for the fireworks at night so I decided to head home instead. I’m sure I will be back with some friends in the future and that might make my Disneyland experience all the more enjoyable. But for this time it was pretty boring to be honest.

As i headed home I thought I was going to get an early night but instead my English friends who I had met earlier in the week invited me to go to the Kodo-Kan; one of the largest Judo halls in Japan. Not evening knowing that this place even existed I definitely had to check it out even though it wasn’t exactly my thing. But Judo is a traditional Japanese martial art and thus missing out would of been missing out on part of Japan’s culture. The Kodo-kan was quite large with several training floors, only a couple of hte floors are open to public viewing but the moves that these young men were performing were quite entertaining. It was interesting for me to watch them practice their art as they followed all the traditions perfectly – as to be expected from Judo in Japan. We headed home about an hour later and got some well deserved rest. The day was pretty long and tiring but I did achieve quite a lot.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Three: Tsukiji Fish Market, Hama Detached Garden Palace with Tea Ceremony, Ginza, Tokyo Tower, Corteo

My day started with my new found friends, Emma and Tom who were students on a gap year from England. As we had similar plans for the day we decided to just head out together which made things easier for photographs and other group activities. As our alarm clocks rang at a really bright and early 5 am so that we could make it in time for the first subway to Tsukiji. Our first stop was to visit one of the most famous fish markets in Japan and notably one of the largest in the world. The Tsukiji fish market. There has been a bit of controversy over this fish market and tourists over the years, and due to this caution is to be advised when visiting. After all it is a working fish market and tourists getting in the way and taking photos distracts sales staff and also get in the way of the operations of the market. Currently the market still remains open to foreign tourists but who knows when this will change. Be aware that when you visit here that you are a guest in their domain and that you shouldn’t expect any friendliness from the hardworking staff and moving utilities that zoom their way around the market. You are the guest and thus you should be the one to take all cautions. Knowing this we went on inside what was a pretty amazing sight. My first impression was amazement at how huge this market actually was. We snaked our way through the maze of fish stalls so that we could make it in time for the tuna auction. Nowadays tourists are zoned off into a small area and are not allowed flash photography. It is important to understand that these fish go for several thousand dollars each (the top fish) and flash photographer distracts the buyers and sellers and could cause communication problems. Feeling lucky enough that we got to witness this fish auction was good enough for us and we stood there in the zoned off tourist area with a guard on either side of the line making sure that no one was taking flash photography pictures. The pace of this auction was quite incredible the auctioneer was spurting out more Japanese words that I knew and at a speed that was faster than I could talk – all to sell a single fish. We stayed for a little while and just immersed ourselves in the idea of being in a possibly closed off area for future tourists, before heading off to explore the rest of the fish market. The markets open earlier and stay open till about lunch time, and host a huge variety of every single possible fish and crustacean in the ocean – most of which are still flapping and breezing. There were more species of fish than I could name, with more stalls than I could fathom. Navigating the hustle and bustle of these aisles was hard enough due to having to constantly dodge the moving vehicles that don’t give way to tourists. Not being my place to complain we always had to watch our backs to avoid being hit. Continuing to walk around, we enjoyed watching the fine artistry of the tradesmen here slicing up the best portions of tuna and cutting up a squid or to. For those who come to Tsukiji most want to try some of the freshest sushi that they will have ever tasted; This was the general idea but as we went to the sushi stalls the lines were huge and opted to not get some sushi at this time. Did I miss out? Who knows, but I have tried some pretty amazing fresh sushi in other parts of Japan – so I’m not really too fussed about it. We got out Tsukiji fish market fix and went to check out the close by Hama Detached Garden Palace.

Hama Detached Garden Palace is a gem of a park that is conveniently located only a short 5 minute walk away from the Tsukiji fish market grounds. It does have a small entry fee about 500 yen from memory but this entitles you to the full extent of the grounds – which is home to some pretty awesome photo taking opportunities. Now there may be better parks and gardens around Tokyo, but this one is definitely worth a visit. Plenty of flora and a lake with skyscrapers in the backdrop allow you to take some pretty impressive looking photos. It doesn’t take too long to navigate the way around this area, but towards the end is a small little traditional building on the lake that allows you to partake in your very own Japanese Tea Ceremony for a small price. To start this isn’t a real tea ceremony but it is pretty good for what you pay. For less than 1000 yen you get a small Japanese sweet, some traditionally made green tea, and an instruction sheet detailing how your suppose to drink the tea and eat the sweet. It was my first time to partake in any such a ritual but it was interesting way to spend some time with my new friends. We followed the instruction sheet and completed our very own tea ceremony before we started taking photos and just sat and enjoyed the view in one of the most interesting cities on Earth. (Tokyo – if you are confused of where I was at the time) After we wandered a bit more through the remaining sections of the Garden Palace grounds we made our way to the next stop of the day: The famous high end streets of Ginza!

As my friends were on a bit of a tight budget we decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to Ginza from the Tsukiji fish market, but the walk was quite technologically scenic so in the end it was worth the effort. Heading towards Ginza buildings started to get higher and higher and before we knew we were in one of the most famous high end streets in the world. There are several boutiques and famous fashion lines from Louis Vuitton, to Chanel and Gucci, but I didn’t come here to shop; Instead I really wanted to see the Sony Building and the Kabukiza Theatre. The Kabuki theatre houses a traditional dance style Kabuki and there are several shows daily. This particular theatre though is scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt in 2010 so it was a must that I could take a photo of it. Lucky for me it was still standing in its former glory of over 100 years old when I arrived and taking photos of this soon be removed building was as good as sitting inside and actually watching a show. As I had seen a Bunraku (Japanese traditional Puppet dance) in Himeji I wasn’t all too interested in watching Kabuki as the former almost made me fall asleep (possibly because everything is in Japanese) so I got the photos I was after and we headed across the street to go into the famous Sony Building. I had seen this sony building on a documentary and it looked like a really good addition to the day. It was still a bit too early for the building to open so we went into a near by department store to look at some of Japans fashion. As time approached we worked our way through the department store back to the entrance of the Sony Building to scale this complex one by one marveling at all the good gadgets that they had on offer currently and possibly in the future. There are several floors that make up this building and any guy who loves his gadgets would love this place, they had the latest gear, to the most futuristic gear that I hadn’t even seen released in Australia yet, but most impressive to me was the huge movie room on the top floor. This place was awesome shut off to light, the best quality screen and projector displaying movie trailers in super HD even before LED technology was released overseas. I sat in here and marveled at how great humans are to actually be able to create all this technology before browsing the goods of the bottom floors once more before heading over to another mammoth technology conglomerate BIC Camera. BIC Camera is very similar to Yodobashi Camera as both sell all the technology under the sun, from futuristic washing machines, to fridges that play your latest movies to every type of MP3 player available. If your a technology buff heading into one of these two chain stores someone in Japan is a definite must see even if you don’t have the money to buy anything. As I had been to the Yodobashi Camera back in Osaka several times I mainly went in here as my new found friends wanted to check it out. But me loving technology quite a bit, I wasn’t too fussed that we had to spend a bit of the day looking through this place. After my friends finished looking around our next stop was the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace of Tokyo is the current residence of Japan’s emperors and as such visitors are restricted to visiting only certain sections and are not normally permitted entry. There is however 2 or 3 days a year where the gates of the imperial palace open to tourists, foreign and domestic alike to take a look at this impressive structure. Outside the palace grounds the parks and rivers and streams make for some good cheap picnicking and photographer, but if you have a good enough zoom on your lens there are certain spots which allow you to take pretty good photos of the building itself. As we weren’t allowed entry our time here was short and our next stop was another famous landmark of Tokyo. The Tokyo tower which looks similar to the Eiffel tower but is in fact a much taller structure and colour….

The Tokyo Tower is one of Japans most famous landmarks and its main purpose is to broadcast zombie signals to the people of Tokyo making them work harder. Ok thats a lie but it does broadcast several stations on their local TV’s but knowing Japan’s technology it would not surprise me at all if it did have the former capabilities. There is two sections of this impressive tower the lower observatory and the top observatory. Both of which you need to pay for. Unfortunately there are not many free towers that you get a good view from unless you expect to be paying to use the elevator. The view from the first observation deck was not too bad but it certainly was not as high as some of the other views I had been up for example Taipei 101 in Taiwan, but it did give me a feeling of being closer to the surrounding buildings. Heading up here is reasonably cheap at less than 1000 yen, but heading up to the second observatory offers much better views of a city that never ends is a definite must if you had already forked out the money to go on the first observatory. From the two pictures below you can easily see the difference in views from the two observation decks, but I guess it is just personal preference of whether you want to fork out the extra money or not. A good extra incentive to go the top observation deck though is that there are parts which house glass floors where you can literally see the ground. Although they are probably highly reinforced standing on these glass panels give you the feeling of standing on nothing but air. I reckon everyone who stands on these panels has the same thought going through their heads at least once: Will this break? Thus far it was a pretty tiring day so I decided to head back to the backpackers to get some rest before heading to Harajuku to catch my Cirque show that I had tickets for.

At the time of travelling there were two Cirque shows in Japan, ZED which is a home show of Japan (near Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea) and Corteo which was currently touring. Cirque Du Soleil is a pretty amazing circus and I was lucky enough to see Dralion in Australia, and although after this Japan trip, ZAIA in Macau. I jumped back on the Tokyo Loop line and got off at Harajuku which was were the show was located and walked for a bit before running into a bit of trouble. Now I made it to this huge stadium where all the crowds were gathering, the people ripped my Corteo ticket and ushered me inside. My first thoughts were: What on Earth is this? Where is all the Cirque signage? This looks nothing like Dralion in Australia? Only after asking around at where Corteo was playing only didn’t I find out to my horror that I was in a stadium for another performance for some singer! Now I was quite angry at the incompetent staff who had ripped my ticket! I went back to them and tried to communicate in sign language, trying to tell that, that this was the wrong show and i needed the other half of my ticket back. So several staff all came out of no where and opened up all the ticket bags and tried to search for the other side of my ticket stub. After a good 30 minutes with me stressing that I was going to miss the first half of Corteo they did find the ticket and I power walked a couple extra hundred meters down the road where the real Corteo was. Seeing the Corteo sign (the picture on the left) was a huge relief and with a good 20 minutes to spare before the show started I could finally relax a bit. I wont get into detail of the particular Cirque show but it was just as amazing as I had hoped and for the ridiculously expensive ticket that I had paid (about $200.00) AUD for front row seats it was well worth the money. My only complaint is that I didn’t really feel like sitting in the front row was a good idea as there was a lot of sky acrobatics and my neck was extremely sore from looking up all the time. But other than that the performers made little mistakes and the show did go pretty smoothly. Until all of a sudden the show was halted for some reason and we were all stuck sitting in our seats with announcements made only in Japanese. From what I interpreted there was a malfunction with something to do with the show and they were fixing it. 10 minutes later the show went on and went off without a hitch. After everything was over I went to pick up my traditional Cirque purchase of the show CD and souvenir program before heading home after a very tiring day through several parts of Tokyo. I’m pretty sure if I was with a large group there would of been no way I could of accomplished todays activities on a group time frame, so for that reason I was happy it was just me and my two new friends.

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Japan, Tokyo, March 2009, Day Two: Asakusa, Ueno Park, Akihabara

After I navigated my way through Tokyo station exhausted from the night time bus ride I found myself looking for my backpackers following a small tiny printed map at Asakusa. As I was told to head towards the river and look for the Asahi Beer Headquarters or more commonly known as the Asahi Poop building (shown above left) and then go down a backstreet, I did finally end up finding the place. I checked in my bags at the backpacker as it was still way too early to actually be allowed up into my room, I headed off to do some sightseeing for the day. A quick stop at Mcdonalds for some breakfast and I was off for the 5 minute walk to one of the most famous temple complexes in Tokyo – Senso-Ji Temple, which is highly famous for its huge red lantern like structure and having a good kilometer or so of street stalls selling all your favourite souvenirs. Unfortunately for me it was still pretty early to come here so most of the stalls were only just opening but this did mean that I could visit the temple without squishing my way through the crowds of people. I made it to the main temple complex and found a huge incense burner and in Buddhist tradition its common to pull incense smoke into your head, I believe this brings good fortune or at least something good for you. I spent a bit of time here while waiting for more of the shops to open so that I could take a look at what they were actually selling. Most of the shops here sold local sweets for domestic tourists and a huge variety of foreign tourists souvenirs, Kimonos, Lanterns, Yukata’s, fans, scrolls etcetera. You name it they probably have it here. The goods here are also reasonable priced so it does make for some good gift shopping for those back at home. As I was by myself I could cover sights much faster than with someone else so before I knew it I was already on a subway heading to Ueno Park..

I arrived a Ueno park and was greeted in the typical Japanese way – by giant cartoon characters singing and dancing along. What this had to do with the park is beyond me, but they were there. Ueno park is famous for having a pretty amazing Cherry Blossom blooming season, and it also hosts several museums, shrines and temple complexes. There is a good water fountain structure in the middle but it is not turned on all the time. What really shocked me was the level of poverty here, there was a lot of homeless people living on the sides of the park. The difference here between these homeless and the homeless back home, is that people generally give their old things to these homeless people – and thus begging is very low here. I wanted to visit the museum here along with some of the temples, but typical for my luck it was the only day of the week where most of this was closed. I don’t remember what day this was, but its best to check on the internet before hand if you want to go into these museums.

So instead of going into these places I had to just accept that I could only take photos from the outside, so thats what I did. I took a couple shots of a pretty impressive looking pagoda and a shrine entrance *A bit of background here, Temples use the Tori gates, shrines use the backwards Nazi symbol – these two faiths are the two main religions of Japan – Buddhism and Shinto*. After my photos there was one place I really had to check out – Akihabara.

Akihabara was one of my main reasons for coming to Tokyo, not only because I like most things Otaku (figures, manga, anime* but also there is so many electrical goods stores here, it puts other cities to shame. So I jumped back on the subway and made my way to Akihabara station. There’s two sides to Akihabara, day time – when all the street signs and girls in maid outfits are touting for your business, and night time when all the neon signs are brightly lit up and the streets are just as alive. I was in heaven navigating several floor Otaku buildings selling all the latest figures and toys from Japan, I could easily spend a few weeks in Akihabara buying and looking at all of these awesome things – but unfortunately for me I didn’t have weeks. I spent the better part of a couple hours figurine buying before heading over to the main electric streets to really see why this place is called ‘Electric Town’. Well for starters the massive buildings have neons and lights everywhere so thats a pretty good reason, but more so there are so main electrical goods stores here, starting from your small stay at a home shop to you retail giants like BIC Camera and Yodobashi Camera. For a man going into one of these giants is a must do and you could easily spend a whole day looking at how advanced Japan’s technology is compared to most other Western countries. I continued my walk through Akihabara and couldn’t stop but noticing the tall buildings that sole purpose was to sell adult goods. These buildings are no ‘Naughty but Nice’ stores and sell just about everything under the sun. On the ground level they sell the usual bits and pieces, but as you ascend the building level by level things just get more and more strange. How high you get on these buildings really only depends on one thing – how much sexual appetite can endure. Feeling a bit strange being in these buildings myself I only made it to the third floor, and boy did they have some weird things already. I can’t imagine what they would stock on the higher levels up.

After sussing out these adult stores there was another important aspect of Akihabara that I had to see for myself – the Meido Cafe. These places are not hard to find as there are girls dressed up in Maid Costumes touting on the streets giving you flyers and what not to visit the cafe that they work for. I didn’t actually go into a Cafe as everything was in Japanese and at the time believed that I would be hit with a massive bill just like a Hostess club. But from further research I’ve been told that the prices are reasonable for what you get. Before all your weird minded people get any ideas – no you don’t get to the touch the girls in general and they don’t strip for you. But instead they do call you master and get you drinks and make polite conversation making you out to the be, your very own king for the time that your in there. Prices differ from just paying for drinks to paying for the privilege to talk to the girls in uniform. But its best to go with a Japanese speaking person so that they can read the menu for you – if you don’t want any surprises. It was getting late so I ended up doing a bit more Japanese collectible shopping before heading back to Asakusa to finally check into my backpacker and get some well deserved rest for a very, very bright and early morning. On my way back though I met an English couple staying in the same dorm as me, about the same age, with similar interests and thus began our friendship over the next few days.

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