Last weekend I had a pretty unique experience with my buddies Mike, Mike and Jason. We went on a haikyo - the Japanese term for urban exploration - a really cheesy term for a very cool activity. Haikyo is basically just going and checking out abandoned developments & buildings. For what? Well - just for fun actually. Strange as it may sound - it is really interesting.
The Russian Village is an abandoned theme park (as of about 5 years ago) in Niigata prefecture - about 4 hours by car north of Tokyo. We rented a car - and Jason kindly drove us up to the location that British Mike had targetted for our adventure.
The park was unbelievable. While some parts were a bit vandalized (graffiti, broken glass, etc.) - many parts of the park were in great shape aside from nature taking over. We took the liberty of making some non-destructive signs of our visit to the park…
The village consisted of a hotel, a Russian church and a courtyard with various shops, restaurants and attractions. The whole complex seemed really geared towards wedding parties - which obviously was a bad business decision in such a random part of Japan.
Above pics courtesy of Jason - he and Uk Mike have some great writeups of the event including videos and more pics (Mike’s, Jason’s). Canadian Mike assures us he will also post something eventually… ;-) Edit: Correction - he has!
Below is my contribution to the capturing of the weekend on film …
Last weekend Makiko & I went to Hakone for one last little getaway before life drastically changes in November. If you have no clue where or what Hakone is - I don’t blame you - why would you unless you lived here? About two hours outside of Tokyo by train - Hakone is a great place to go sightseeing or to just get away from the insanity of the big city. While officially it’s a town, it’s really more of a huge area for recreational activities like camping, boating, skiing and just plain hanging out in hot springs. The latter being of course our main objective!
Hakone is within spitting distance of Mount Fuji - but you wouldn’t have known that last weekend. Sadly, it was far too cloudy to get a glimpse of it the whole weekend. There’s something special about just looking at Mount Fuji. It has a calming effect on one - and I was looking forward to seeing it. Alas, I will likely have to wait until winter time when Mount Fuji becomes visible from Tokyo on those crisp winter mornings.
So - in any case, we did have a lot of fun and took in a lot of sights, smells and most importantly - tastes - of Hakone last weekend. There’s plenty of crazy ass pictures to boot. You may even see us eat a few of these little guys…
For your viewing pleasure - in case you haven’t been nosey enough already - there are some pictures of our great escape back to the promised land - Canada! Ahh - yes, Canada. Home of the Canada goose, poutine, mounties and of course me!
Next stop was Fredericton for our Canadian wedding party! While not quite as elaborate as our Japanese one - it was still an excellent time and very memorable. If you were in attendence - thanks! It would have sucked without you.
After our party - we pretty much chilled and enjoyed all there is to enjoy in New Brunswick: fresh air, good food and good beer! Actually - not all that different than Tokyo really… except for the fresh air bit. Anyway - more pictures are up for your viewing pleasure.
Life is finally starting to get into some sort of routine for us here - expect more updates as a result.
Ok - so I may spend a bit too much time in hotel rooms thinking about stupid stuff. When you have a job like me that warrants a lot of travel, it comes naturally.
I think about stupid stuff all the time like how to get free hotel porn pay-per-view movies, how to maximize the amount of free soap you get, and why oh why do the maids in EVERY hotel I’ve EVER stayed at do this:
Does my toilet paper really need daily folding? I don’t do this at home - and it works just as good. In fact - I’m a bit grossed out by the fact that someone has touched my toilet paper and folded it as such. Call me a germaphobe - but I always throw away the first 3 or 4 sheets since they’re not clean enough to grace the bottom of my soiled arse.
So - we spent my birthday weekend in Gold Coast (pics here!). (Yes - I need a whole weekend because I’m special!) It’s not that far from Sydney really - just an hour or so’s flight up the coast. Gold Coast is actually a city - even though the name doesn’t sound like it. It’s very touristy - in fact I’m pretty sure no one actually lives there. I say that, yet it’s the 6th most populous area in Australia.
Being the tourists that we are, the main goal of the trip was to hit the roller coasters at Dreamworld. Gold Coast is one of the few places in Australia with some serious theme parks. While no Canada’s Wonderland - Dreamworld had a few good coasters, but could definitely use a few more in place of crap like Wiggles World.
The newest coaster there has got to be the most red neck ride I have ever seen: Mick Doohan’s Moto Coaster. On the Moto Coaster, you hop into mock motorbikes and “race” around the tracks. It’s an interesting concept, but quite tame in terms of thrills. Have a look for yourself:
All and all - good weekend. My only regret is that we didn’t hit another theme park during our stay. With 5 theme parks in one city - there’s definitely more fun to be had!
Anyway - 
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