TTT Day 1 ~ Ghibli Museum and Roppongi Hills

Posted by Tiffany on September 11, 2009 in Travel

TTT = Tiffany’s Tokyo Trip! Hello all!! I’m finally posting some ‘real’ photos from my trip to Tokyo a couple weeks ago. I’m very sorry that I didn’t really get anywhere with that last post, but thank you for being patient with me. =) So here is my first official full day in Tokyo, since we got there during the evening the day before and that doesn’t really count! Anyway our plan for the day was going to the Ghibli Museum and also seeing the Roppongi district.

It was our first experience with taking the train around and it was relatively simple to figure out! Everyone I talked to about the transit system made it seem so tricky! It also helps that there was three of us because there was always one of us that knew where they were going. The Ghibli Museum is located in the Mitaka district and it was only a short 20 minute train ride to get there. From the Mitaka station it was about a 15 minute walk to get to the museum. We had to walk through a nice park/forest area to get to there and along the way there were signs telling you how much further it was!

Studio Ghibli is responsible for bringing you many wonderful animated films such as ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, ‘Princess Mononoke’, ‘Spirited Away’ and most recently ‘Ponyo’. I have yet to see Ponyo, but I highly recommend the other ones if you haven’t seen them yet!

Walking to the museum..

Tiffany Goes to Tokyo!

Posted by Tiffany on September 5, 2009 in Travel

Japan has been at the top of my list of travel destinations for a long time and I had finally planned a trip to go with two of my close friends! We went for about eight days (not long enough! ;D) and we stayed in Tokyo. Such an amazing city, it was so much more than any of us imagined. No books, travel guides, websites, photos or word of mouth can really do it justice. It’s a place you really need to see and experience for yourself. We were all pretty much blown away when we got there.

We had figured out our itinerary for each day beforehand and planned out all the places we would be going. We wanted to see as many things as we could but I think we really underestimated the amount of walking, transit and energy required to do all of it! We were all pretty pooped at the end of the day but so happy to be there at the same time. My feet were definitely killing me every night, I was dying. I really should have invested in some better walking shoes before going there haha.

Tokyo here I come!! Some things I made sure to pack for the trip, Japan Lonely Planet Travel Guide & Point-and-speak Japan (thanks Rosa for lending me those books ^^), a leather camera case for my LX3. The black and white piggy thing is my money pouch – it has 2 separate zippers which is useful for separating currencies. I carried Canadian and US Dollars, and Japanese Yen! A map of Tokyo which was free from a travel agency but we didn’t really use it because It wasn’t detailed enough. Also a print out of the JR East train route map which was very useful since we took JR lines 90% of the time, and lastly my handy dandy notebook with bunch travel notes, useful info about restaurants and stores scribbled in.

The Point and Speak book was the best, I brought it along everywhere! It was so helpful because there’s images along with the English word/phrase, the Japanese characters, and also how to pronounce it in Japanese. There’s a very helpful section with all sorts of meats/fish, food and snacks which helps a lot. I love the illustrations too, they’re so cute!

I shall demonstrate how easy it is to use:

*point* and say “yoroshiko onegai shimas!” which means nice to meet you!

My little travel buddy for Tokyo! Quatchi, one of the adorable mascots for the 2010 Olympics! He fits right into the side pocket of my bag hehe.

My Trip to Ontario and Quebec! (Part 3)

Posted by Tiffany on August 17, 2009 in Travel

Yatta! We’re at the final post of the trip to Ontario and Quebec which I took in July. It took a little longer than expected to get these posts up but hopefully in the future, I’ll be more efficient with this stuff! The most time consuming part for me was definitely all of the photos. Browsing, selecting, editing, uploading, seems like a lot work doesn’t it? I’m probably just a big slowpoke! Regardless of however long it took, I still really enjoy sharing my photos and experiences with all of you. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my trip! Scroll on to read about what I did on the last two days!

If you missed the previous entries, read them here:
My Trip to Ontario and Quebec! (Part 1)
My Trip to Ontario and Quebec! (Part 2)

Day 5 – August 27 : 1000 Islands and Niagara Falls

This is the tour boat that took us around The 1000 Islands.

Spotted these untied shoelaces while sitting on the top deck of the boat. They were bugging the hell outta me! I wish the kid would tie her laces, now they’re going to get all dirty! hahah

This is what a boat garage looks like!

I thought that the houses sitting on those mini islands looked a bit surreal. I can’t imagine living on a tiny island.. I guess I’m a city girl haha.

I think these coin operated binoculars look pretty cool, kind of like a robot or something.

This is Boldt Castle. It was built by the millionaire proprietor of the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City as a display a love for his wife. Woah, imagine someone building a castle for you!! That’s just crazay.

You could visit the castle if you wanted.

There was even a US Customs / Border control at the castle. This is because The 1000 Islands are spread across USA and Canada. I left my cell phone on during the boat tour and ended up having to pay 6 cents in roaming after I got my bill haha