Konnichiwa!

Its been almost two weeks since we departed from the land of bunny chows and humidity (Durban). It was a mad dash before we left to squeeze most of our earthly belongings into bulging suitcases. After packing and unpacking and Rob loosing his temper and throwing his cardigan on the floor, we finally shoved our bits and bobs in to our cases. Saying goodbye to loved ones was, as always, harder than expected. Damn you Durban, you wormed your way in to my little heart.

Rob beginning to loose it

The chaos in our room

A very 'guido' looking Rob has now completely lost it

Our friends drinking tea and watching us stress

Our journey to Tokyo was surprisingly smooth and easy. Our luggage was hugely over weight and we were waiting to get nailed by some grumpy airport worker for it, but alas, we managed to avoid it. The Kulula lady who checked us in must have seen the desperation in our eyes and over looked our 26kgs over weight. Once in Joburg, we had to check in again for our Qatar flight. Our Qatar check in lady was less sympathetic and sent Rob off to pay the excess baggage. When he got to the cashier and was told how much we owed, all colour drained from his face. We got to Japan by the skin of our teeth and didn’t have a lot of cash left over. I am still not sure how it happened but I think the cashier saw the look of pure horror on Robs face and somehow took pity on our broke asses and let us off paying the money. It was a miracle. The rest of our journey was equally as wonderful. Qatar is hands down the best airline I have ever flown on. We had so much leg room, great food and about a million films to choose from. Food and films is all I need to be a happy girl. The first flight was eight hours and went quickly, the second was twelve hours and that one was a bit tiresome. Anyway, before we knew it, we had safely landed in Tokyo. We were a bit worried about customs, although we had visas, you just never know with a boerewors book (South African passport).  It was all so smooth and quick and efficient and truly a reflection on Japan as a country. From the airport, we had to get two trains to our hotel in Shinjuku. It was easy and pain free. Once we got to Shinjuku station (which is the busiest station in the world) things got a bit trickier. We were hauling five cases and over a hundred kgs between us through a mass of people. Once out the station we turned left instead of right and ended up hopelessly lost. Some really kind and animated police officers helped us find our way. Our hotel was really nice but Japan is notorious for having tiny hotel rooms. With all of our bags inside, there was no room for us to stand up and I hit my knees and ankles on every wall possible.

Thanks to a huge dose of jetlag we were still lively at 12 at night. We decided to go missioning and we felt like we were walking on air after shedding the extra hundred kgs of weight. Tokyo is an amazing city. Its clean and efficient and so easy to get around. We went to a noodle bar and ordered off a vending machine.

Still awake, we roamed the streets and then later went for the most expensive beer known to man which we ordered off a computer screen. There were so many people walking around late, it was really refreshing, Still not as lively as Hillcrest though ( if you are lucky enough to have gone there or luckier still, to live there, you’ll know what I mean). At about 3 a.m we admitted defeat and slunk back to the hotel.

The next day, we had a few hours to explore Shinjuku before we had to catch our bus to Takayama.  We had an amazing Starbucks breakfast and walked around the technology district. Our minds were blown. There were gadgets coming out of our ears, anything you can imagine, they had! Our most exciting find was a phone that projects on to walls. So you can project a film from your phone on to a wall. Amaze!

After a few hours of our minds being blown, we picked up our suitcases from the hotel and struggled on down to the bus stop and we still have the blisters on our hands to prove it. 

Famous plastic food and me, hungry

Ordering noodles off a vending maching

Noodle Bar

Yummers!

Ordering our beers

Beers and a plate of soy beans at 2 a.m

Space mobile / Scooter

When in Tokyo...

Our bus ride was mind blowing. Once we came out of the sprawl of Tokyo, we were met with beautiful mountains and green lakes. We stopped a few times and Rob kept the bus waiting when he went to buy some Japanese snackies. Tres embarrassing! When Japanese people say they are going to leave at quarter past, they mean five past.

As we drove around mountains and rivers it got colder and colder. Gradually the landscapes went from lush trees and grass to completely covered in snow. It was exhilarating but we were also mortified because it was supposed to be spring and we didn’t even have warm coats. What we realized later was that we had driven up high in to the mountains and then descended down in to Takayama which actually was still freezing but at least it wasn’t covered in snow. 

Cold and confused

So, that was our journey here. Takayama is an unbelievably beautiful place but as you’ll read in our next post, my jetlagged eyes played fiddle sticks with me the first few days.

Au Revoir x

Sayonara

So, we are 6 days away from our grand adventure. We have sold all of our things, quit our jobs and researched the living hell out of our next destination. It has been my dream (Justine) to live in Asia for years and when Rob and I met, it became his dream too. When we were on our six week road trip honeymoon last year, we spent hours at an internet cafe, applying for teaching jobs all over Asia. I stumbled across one job, looking for a married couple to teach in Japan. We applied and went back to our hotel but neither of us could get the job out of our minds. We decided to call the recruiter in Japan and introduce ourselves. After a couple of very intense phone interviews and some sleepless nights, we woke up to a phone call whilst we were in Kalk Bay to find out that we had the job. We popped Champagne at about seven in the morning and phoned every human we knew to tell them. It was two days before Christmas, we were on honeymoon and we had just got the most amazing job lined up.

We get on our flight to Japan in six days and we are so incredibly excited. The tsunami, earthquake and nuclear situation has admittedly taken the edge off slightly. Some of our excitement has been replaced by nerves. When it all happened, a month ago today, I was pretty sure that we wouldn't be able to go to Japan anymore. After a lot of intense research on Fukishima, we have come to the conclusion that the media has definitely blown things out of proportion and although it is still a serious situation, it is not quite as serious as the news has made it out to be. All we can do is be cautious and aware of the situation whilst in Japan. Our colleagues over in Japan keep telling us how unbelievable the Japanese people are and how they are completely united through this crisis.

We are moving to a mountain town called Takayama which is up in the Japanese Alps. From the millions of photos we have looked at, it looks so incredibly beautiful.

I (Justine) have come down with terrible flu so I need to go rest. We will blog again closer to the time.

Au Revoir x

Bonjour

We are Rob and Justine, a young couple currently living in South Africa. We are about to go off on our travels so we wanted to start this blog to keep in touch.
This is more than a travel blog to us, we want to also write about the things that make the world interesting to us. These things include, film, vegetarian food, design, photography, vintage clothes, musico, books, art and our mild obsession with French culture and language (hence le title of this blog.) 

Please Enjoy x

♪  Currently listening to -  Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth

    Currently reading - Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer
    

    Currently listening to and watching Warpaint-Undertow