Iriomote Island – it’s a jungle out there!

I loved travelling to this island. All the smaller islands near Ishigaki are so easy to access due to the ferries which leave at regular times throughout the day. Iriomote was one of the islands that we visited.

As soon as we got to this island, we were taken on a cruise along the Irauchigawa Kankou River. This was really spectacular because we got to see these really cool trees with strange-looking roots growing from the ground.




This is a picture of the Irauchigawa Kannkou River from the cruise boat we went on.


The cruise boat took us to a jungle with thick, dense foliage.


It was so beautiful and green and pretty. I was so happy to walk through this jungle and enjoy the scenery. It was also really shady and cool because there were so many trees and plants to block the sun.

We saw lots of wildlife amidst the jungle. There are many little creatures and bugs and insects that live within the jungle. These are just some of the creatures we saw:

A cute little red crab


A centipede


A strange-looking lizard with a bright blue tail


There were also many strange-looking trees and plants growing in the jungle. This tree trunk hugely resembled a snake, so it was definitely worth taking a photo of because it looked so interesting.


Our aim whilst walking through the jungle, was to get to the end where there was a beautiful waterfall flowing through the jungle.


This is a small one that trickled down the rocks. It was so pretty and the water looked so clean.


This was the rocky river that we got to see during our travels on Iriomote Island.

There was also a good view of the river from the top of a bridge. This photo shows how truly beautiful this place really is. Jealous yet?

There was also a really beautiful beach that we stopped at before leaving the island. The water was so clean and blue and it was so picturesque. Even though it already looks so beautiful in the photo, it was even more beautiful in real life!

Ishigaki Island

From Naha, we then went by plan to Ishigaki Island. It was a one hour flight and a very smooth one at that. It almost felt like we weren’t even flying but merely sitting inside a stationary plane the entire way! It was a very comfortable flight.

We also got to see the most spectacular view from the plane of the tropical reef in the ocean. It was just beautiful!


Just about every night, we ate a piece of steak.


It was so exciting to be able to eat good quality beef because I hadn’t eaten a nice piece of steak for so long! This was yet another meal that I ate which consisted of lots of meat! YUM!!!

We also ate a piece of chicken steak too, which was equally as delicious. Feast your eyes on this!


In the hotel we stayed at, there was a souvenir section and Lauren, Tina and I were really interested in the rare stones that were only found and produced in Okinawa.


There was a really special stone that was turquoise in colour that we all liked very much. We saw a cool pendant in the shape of a leaf which looked beautiful and it was so nice that we all wanted to buy it. Luckily, there were three more leaf pendants left so Tina, Lauren and I decided that we would all buy one! This is a photo of us with our leaves and the cute little lady who sold it to us. We made friends with her and thought she was so nice!

On our last day at Ishigaki, we went to Maesato Beach.


This was another beautiful, blue beach with crystal clear waters and nice white sand. It was also fenced off so that none of the scary deadly sea creatures could come and hurt us. I felt very safe and enjoyed swimming in this beach.

Okinawa…Japanese Hawaii

Tina, Lauren and I have been looking forward to going on this trip to Okinawa since the beginning of the year! Okinawa is an island off of Japan which is famous for its beautiful blue, clean, crystal clear waters and tropical reefs. Of course, everybody in Japan wants to go to Okinawa and everyone who we have told about going there, has been so jealous of us! Maybe you will be too, after you have read about what we did!

There are many small islands off of the main island of Okinawa.


The main island is called Naha which was where we went first. Naha was a cool, big, happening place with many high-rise buildings, souvenir shops and people. As you can see in this photo, Naha has a beautiful night view.

We went to a beach on the first day, which was a little disappointing because it wasn’t what we had expected Okinawa to be.


Afterwards, we found out that this beach was a man-made beach and not known for being one of Okinawa’s most beautiful places. We still had fun there, nevertheless, enjoying the warm water and the hot sun.

We went for a walk down the main street in Naha which was very busy and highly populated. Souvenir shops covered both sides of the street as far as the eye could see and tourists swarmed from every direction. It was a very exciting atmosphere!

As we looked around, taking in the scenery, we spotted this strange alcoholic drink for sale.


The reason why it was so strange was because it had a really scary-looking snake inside the bottle with its mouth open showing its ferocious fangs.


You wouldn’t believe the price if I told you, so I took a photo of it just to make sure you knew I was telling the truth. It cost 68 000 Yen which is equivalent to $680!!! Can you believe it? Firstly, who would be game enough to buy a drink with a snake inside it, and secondly, who would be rich enough to be able to afford a 680 dollar drink??? It was definitely worth a photo!

This is another out-there photo to show how big some of the alcoholic beverages for sale actually were!


We were getting hungry by this stage so we decided to go and get something to eat.


Okinawa is famous for its steak and seafood restaurants because there is a marine base on the island, so many Americans like to eat at the steak restaurants. They are so delicious and I was so happy to be able to eat a descent piece of steak along with half a lobster mixed in with the most delicious sauce! We also tried traditional Okinawian alcohol which was just as delicious as the steak!


During our walk around the markets, we found some quaint fruit and veg shops. This is one of them with the little bananas hanging from the roof.


The markets also sell dried snakes to eat. To me, it didn’t really look that appetising, but I think it could be a delicacy in Okinawa. I wasn’t game enough to try it, though!

In the fancy rancy hotel we stayed in, we were able to get a yummy free cocktail in the bar on the top floor. We definitely made sure that we got this cocktail because we didn’t want to miss out on anything free as our trip was so expensive!


The fancy hotel also had a really nice pool, so Tina, Lauren and I spent most of the afternoon relaxing and swimming in the pool. One of the pools had a diving board so Tina and I were practising our diving skills with the board! It was lots of fun!

Yoyogi Koen

Yoyogi Koen is the place to be on a summer’s day in Tokyo! There are so many people who go there and play all kinds of sports. From tap dancing, to BMX riding, to drums, to jogging, they do it all in Yoyogi Koen! It is really cool just to walk around and watch people doing their own thing. Many people will just go there by themselves to practise their specialty. Some will go with their friends for company. It is so cool that there is a common area for people to go and do whatever they want to do.

This is a boy practising his tap dancing. It was so hot on this day, so the park wasn’t as busy as it usually is, but there were still a few people out and about.



This guy was so good on the BMX. He was doing all sorts of fancy tricks like riding backwards and doing spins and jumps.



These men were playing the drums. We sat in this spot for a while under the shade enjoying the sound of the drum beat.



There were also some Japanese Elvis impersonators who joined the scene. They had really nice cars and gelled their hair just the way Elvis used to!



In between the Harajuku shopping area and Yoyogi Koen, many young, teenage kids hang around and dress in the most amazing costumes.

It would take so much effort to dress the way they do everyday, but they look so good in what they wear! I don’t think I could ever get away with wearing the clothes they wear, but they look great!

We asked these three girls if we could take a photo of them. I think they were a little embarrassed, but they posed for us anyway.



We thought this boy looked really cool.


He was talking to his friend on his mobile phone, but when he saw that we wanted to take a photo of him, he did a little pose for us while still talking to his friend! It was really funny!

Just around the corner, there was an artist selling paintings of sakura. I liked them so much that I decided to buy one. It was only 1000yen which is around ten Australian dollars. I thought this was a great price! This is me with the artist and my new sakura painting!



Just near Yoyogi Koen is a place called the Meiji Temple. It is really famous and really old. I love looking at different types of temples. This one was really interesting because it was so big and prominent.



There was also a large area where people could write what they wish for and hang it on display.


This is at almost every temple you go to. I love reading what people have written because it is usually something nice they wish for about their families or their children. Obviously, most of them are in Japanese, but there are some that are in English also.

A Wild Night in Tokyo

It was a Saturday night in Tokyo, so what else is there to do but check out the night life? Actually, to tell you the truth, I was a bit buggered and couldn’t really be bothered having a massive night going out and I was almost gonna say to Tina and Lauren to go without me, but I didn’t want to miss out on all the action, so I just grinned and beared it!

In Japan, it is fashionable to wear sunglasses at night time when you are going clubbing.


So Lauren, Tina and I decided to imitate this fashion within the walls of our hotel room! We only wore them in the hotel room, but it felt weird to wear them around outside at night time, so I decided to leave them in the hotel!

I love the way that Japanese people dress.


They have such a different fashion sense compared to Australians, but it is so interesting. While we were walking to the clubbing area, Tina’s goal was to try and take as many photos of different types of Japanese fashion as she could. This is one of the photos she took. Usually, when you ask young people if you can take a photo of them, they get really excited and fully pose for the photo which is really funny!

We went to a night club in Shinjuku which is a really lively area in Tokyo. There were so many people roaming the streets looking like they had had one too many drinks! We got a couple of African guys to lead us into a night club that played hip hop music. It turned out that they lead us to this place that Tina and I had been to once before! It was really quiet to begin with, and then more people started turning up as the night got later. We danced all night and it was so much fun!

We met a group of Japanese girls in the night club.


They were so friendly and we ended up dancing for most of the night with them. One of the girls we met had a birthday that night so we celebrated with her. There was a Japanese man who had two gorgeous-looking Japanese women with him who kept on buying us Tequila Slammers all night and he also bought us a glass of champagne each to celebrate the gril’s birthday.


So we didn’t know anyone in the club at the beginning of the night, but by the end of the night, we knew pretty much everyone there! We made lots of friends that night and ended up getting home at around 5am!

Lauren also met a nice Japanese boy that night who she spent the rest of the time dancing and talking to.


We were all so happy for them and kept on making a big deal that they had met! I think she was a little embarrassed, but she enjoyed herself...we all did!

Terrific Times in Tokyo

After visiting Nikko and having a blast, we moved on to Tokyo where much fun was to be had!

We started off visiting Odaiba and we got there by monorail. We were lucky enough to get front seats so we had the best view of the monorail track. It was really cool!



When we arrived at Odaiba, we saw the coolest building called Fuji TV. It was definitely worth taking a photo of!



Within this area, we also saw something that looked totally out of place in Japan. We saw a replica of the Statue of Liberty! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, but it was definately there! I have proof!



It was amazing how many dogs were around this area!


They were all spoilt to the max with their owners taking them to special dog beauticians to look all pretty before taking dog photos (like pixi photos but with dogs!). It was so funny! Then even had a little restaurant that sold food for dogs. I couldn’t believe it! It was the funniest sight! We also saw many dogs being pushed along by their masters in prams. This one lady had four dogs in her pram all dressed up prissy-looking. One of the dogs got so excited to see us that it jumped out of the pram and came up to us. The lady gave the dog to Lauren to hold while we took a photo of her. The other three dogs in the pram were all posing for the photo too! It was so funny, but very cute!

We then made our way to Venus Fort.


This is a cool shopping centre with a roof that looks like the sky. It was so well painted that it actually looked real. It was heaps cool because as the day got on, the blue sky started turning into a sunset colour. It was awesome! I bought some new sunnies and bathers for when I go to Okinawa!

Inside the shopping complex, there was a place called Mega Web.


This contained hundreds of different types of classic, expensive cars on display. There was also a section where we could go for a ride in a car along a course and you didn’t have to steer the wheel. It was all controlled for us! Lauren and I enjoyed our little ride in the cute car while we waved to all the people in the shopping centre as we went past them. It was so funny! They all thought we were a bit loony, but I didn't care because I was having fun!

Check out some of the cool cars that I got to see in this place…


The delorian from Back to the Future.



This cute small car that fits two people in it



The cutest car in the world that is so tiny that I am heaps bigger than it!