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Where to visit in Japan

July 12, 2017 By Elias

Where to visit in Japan

So you finally decided to visit Japan but you don’t know where to visit in Japan. Well luckily, we have some monkeys stationed in Japan so we’ll try to help you out. Many first-time visitors of course want to visit Tokyo, Japan’s metropolis. I mean Tokyo is Japan (!) or is it? Well it surely is a big, or rather crowded part of Japan. It has a lot to offer, museums, restaurants, bars, nerdy stuff, cool stuff, yeah you name. It’s the capital of the third largest economy in the world so of course you can find most things in Japan, and then some.

Japan itinerary – Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara (2 weeks)

Lets assume that you have 2 weeks in Japan. I would start by taking a flight to Tokyo, the city you might have heard so much about. Spend 3-4 days here and visit the major areas like Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ginza, Harajuku, Asakusa as well as parks, museum and so on that might interest you.

Next, you take the bullet train (Shinkansen) to either Osaka or Kyoto. This will be your base for about 5 days. If you like to stay in a city with more traditional temples, choose Kyoto. If you enjoy a busier city, choose Osaka. In either case you’ll be able to visit both as much as you want as only 30-60 minutes separates the cities. Also, when you stay here, take a day-trip to Nara. It will be a day-trip that you will surely remember. To spark your interest and imagination, Nara is a city where deer run around freely around the city. You’ll be able to interact with the animals as you walk around. Nara also the world’s largest Buddha bronze statue (Toudai-ji).

When you are done with Osaka/Kyoto-area it’s time to head back to Tokyo again. The remaining days you could use to visit places you missed the first days and do some shopping before heading home.

This is a very brief and not detailed itinerary. But hopefully it gets the ball rolling on where to visit in Japan. It’s a popular route amongst first-time visitors. We would also like to mention that if a itinerary like this seems appealing to you, you should consider purchasing a Japan Rail Pass or Willer Express Bus Pass. Taking the train in Japan is VERY expensive.

Filed Under: Blog

Chile – a brief introduction

April 7, 2016 By Elias

Some time has passed since our last blogpost. Today I have post that is long overdue. In December I took a flight that took me across the Atlantic. I spent 3 weeks in Chile, the land of wineries, empanadas and great outdoor experiences. I and my travel companion arrived in the 30th of December, just in time to the New Year’s celebrations. We spent new year’s with some family and friends at a restaurant in the outskirts of Santiago. I’m glad we did, we got to experience the real Chile with great food and a lot of dancing! Cumbia is definitely the most popular type of dancing during celebrations in Chile but we also got a chance to watch the local dance “Cueca”, the national dance of Chile. If you ever visit Chile I strongly encourage you to experience the dancing culture. If you don’t dance you should at least visit a show. It’s part of the experience. But today I’ll leave the dancing-topic with the video below.

Cueca from Chile

Anyhow. During our stay “in” Santiago we were situated just outside of Santiago, about 20-30 min outside of the city. This gave us the opportunity to experience the countryside and relax a bit. The first few days we spent in the countryside simply relaxing, reconnecting with family and getting to know the country. It’s hard not to relax is the environment shown below…

Santiago countryside

The days when we were not too lazy we traveled to downtown Santiago to get a view of the city. The city offers excellent commuting, the best way to move around in the city is with Metro, it might be a bit crowded during rush hours but it surely the most effective way to move around.

Santiago Chile

Santiago, Chile

In Santiago you can experience excellent shopping and dining. But you if you visit Chileyou shouldn’t spend too much time in the capital. Chile has much more to offer. So bring a guide book and check off the typical tourist must see locations and move on. Chile is a narrow but very long country with the Atacama desert in the north and the Patagonia wilderness in the south. That is why we left Santiago as soon as possible. We headed south to the city of Pucón to start the real adventure. The village of Pucón and the surrounding region offers a lot of outdoor activities. It’s a “must visit” for anyone that is visiting Chile and looking for some outdoor experiences. Pucón offers the whole package; whitewater rafting, kayaking, trekking, canyoning, horse trips etc. All in a green mountain region. During our stay in the south this was my personal favorite. Each day we chose one tour to take/do and in the evening we either relaxed in our cabana or visited one of the many restaurants/bars.

Pucón Chile

Pucón Chile

Los tres saltos Huepil Pucón

Los tres saltos Huepil Pucón

White water rafting Pucón Chile

White water rafting in Pucón, Chile

During my stay in Chile I covered only a fraction of the land. There is wayyyyy more to see, eat, do… With that said, I can really only give you this short “article” that consists mostly of photos to possibly spark an interest the land. It’s well worth a visit but you are going to need time, lots of it. According to Wikipedia the country is 4270 km. So plan ahead to make sure that you are able to experience what Chile has to offer.

Filed Under: Blog

Halloween in Osaka

November 10, 2014 By Elias

I realize this post might a bit late but here is a short piece on Halloween in Osaka 2014!

If you are in Osaka during Halloween you basically got two alternatives if you are looking for a great party (I realize this might be a bit subjective). Head to Namba/Shinsaibashi area. When you are there you could either head over to the Dotonbori bridge or Amerikamura (a.k.a. Amemura). Here you will see an endless amount of people pass by in different Halloween costumes. You will definitely not want to forget your camera! During the evening it is quite alright to stop people and ask for pictures. And if you decide to dress up, people will ask you for pictures in return for sure.

The best time for people watching starts sometime in the evening and continues to about 1 am. After that a lot of people head towards the nightclubs for some time on the dancefloor.

So here is what we did

Halloween is a can’t miss for our crew in Osaka. This year we met up at Dotonbori bridge. It was crazy! Crossing the bridge took like 10 minutes (not a big bridge!). When everybody had arrived we moved over to triangle park in Amerikamura. This place was even busier. People everywhere, taking pictures and showing off their outfits. Even though its a fast pace place its a nice place to start out the evening in a relaxed manner. This year we did what we always do, bought a drink at the nearest convenience store and simply did some people watching. When we some cool costumes we stopped them for a brief photoshoot. After this phenomenal street party we entered Ghost, a nearby club in Amemura.

As I typed I realized that it seemed that not much happened during the evening. But I can assure you it did. However it is hard to reproduce a Halloween night in Osaka. It’s a night that must be experienced. I will leave you with a few pictures.

Halloween Osaka

Amerikamura

One Piece cosplay

One Piece Cosplay

Mario kart costume

Mario kart!

Halloween in Osaka

And of course a SWAT-team to keep people safe 🙂

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Halloween, japan, osaka

Europe by train

September 1, 2014 By Monkey on a Plane!

Europe is kind of amazing when you think about it. So many countries so close together. It’s not that difficult to get around and see a lot of different things and experience new places. And Europe has got a really interesting history aswell and I can assure you that you will be amazed during a eurotrip. If you want to travel around Europe – the train is a great way to do so. And if you’re a resident in a European country you should definitly try the InterRail! This is a great way to get to meet new people, explore beautiful places and make memories that will last a lifetime.

You can buy the InterRail pass online or in selected stores. There are a couple of different passes you can buy so make sure you’ll get the right one for you and your wishes. Good to know is that if you’re under 26 you’ll get a discount! When you have your InterRail pass it’s time to plan your trip. Of course you don’t have to plan everything, but a few stops that offer special things to see or do is always good to have in mind. There is a special app, The Rail Planner App, that is a great tool during your trip. With this you can get information about trains and it works offline aswell. If you want to learn more about the InterRail pass you can visit http://www.interrail.eu.

One thing that is good to know before your adventure begins is that you almost always have to make a reservation before you get on the train. And in countries like France, Germany and Italy for example, the reservationfee can be rather expensive. But in the eastern part of Europe it’s still pretty cheap.

If you’re on a tight budget a hostel is a great place for a good nights sleep. Sure you have to share a room with other travellers but this is also a nice way to make new friends. The Hostelworld App is awesome and makes it easy to find a place to stay for the night. Most of the time you can make a reservation just a day ahead. It’s always nice to know that you have somewhere to go when the night comes.

Talk to a couple of friends and see who’s interested in this exciting way to see Europe. Then pack your bags and go!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: europe, interrail, train

NYC Tourist Tips

August 2, 2014 By Monkey on a Plane!

Are you visiting New York City anytime soon? Then you might want to watch this video first so you know how to behave.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: New York, NY, NYC, USA

My first trip to Japan – Part 2

July 31, 2014 By Elias

Alright, it’s time for me to type up my second entry here on Monkey on a Plane. I hope you will bear me as I’m still discovering my writing style. In any case part one covered our stay in Tokyo very briefly. In this entry I’ll talk about Kyoto and Osaka for a bit.

We took the bullet train (Shinkansen) from Tokyo to Kyoto. Traveling is a very easy and comfortable way to travel. The Shinkansen is very clean, service is great (like in the rest of Japan) and the train is very very very rarely late. The only downside that I can think of is that the fare is rather expensive. However before we left for Japan we bought a Japanese rail pass, this is a big money saver for the one who is going to be covering some distance in Japan. But bear in mind that the rail pass can only be bought outside of Japan. If you are already in Japan I’m afraid you are too late.

When we arrived in Kyoto we went to our hostel to drop off our backpacks. By the way when traveling I really want to recommend hostels before hotels. You will meet far more people and make far many more friends if you stay at a hostel. I know that some people have a poor image of what hostels are like. But throw away that prejudice and at least try it once. You are gonna love it! Of course there are bad ones also but if you check their rating using one of many free online services you will be on the safe side.

Kyoto

Anyhow… we had arrived in Kyoto and dropped of our backpacks. This trip was taken in 2009 so my memory is a little blurry. Anyhow in Kyoto we visited the imperial garden and some other temples and shrines. I must say that the imperial garden was my personal favourite. The pictures below are all except one taken in the imperial garden in Kyoto. The last one is taken at a small shrine in central Kyoto.

kyoto imperial garden imperial garden kyoto kyoto shrine

To Osaka and back to Kyoto

After some sightseeing in Kyoto we had planed to spend 2 days in Osaka before taking a flight to Okinawa. However our stay in Osaka was unfortunately cut short. It have only had a problem with cleanliness once in Japan and this was it. We had made a reservation at a hotel in Osaka. When we arrived we quickly realized that we shouldn’t had chosen the cheapest alternative. The hotel we chose was very dirty and had critters between the sheets… We decided to go back to Kyoto and stay at the hostel we had been at the night before.

The next night our bad luck continued. We had to take a flight to Okinawa so we headed for Kansai International Airport. I can’t remember why but somehow we took a late evening (midnight) train. During a transfer we had to make we discovered that the train service had stopped! We checked with cab drivers but driving us to the airport was going to cost a fortune. Now we were in trouble. We could miss our flight in the morning, we didn’t know where we were and we had no place to sleep. After some phone calls and talking to people we found out that if we took the first morning train we were going to make our morning flight. The next thing was to find a place to spend the night, a task that was going to be quite hard. After spending some time walking the streets (in Osaka) we passed an Internet café. Japanese Internet cafés are not the same as one would encounter in Europe. Instead of a chair and computer one could rent a entire room (different sizes). As it was our only choice we spent the night there. It wasn’t too bad. We each got a room the size of about 1,5 square meters with a futon in it. Nothing luxury but at least we got some sleep before setting off for Okinawa in the morning. Unfortunately I’ve got no pictures of the place.

I hope this post wasn’t too boring. In the next part I’ll cover Okinawa!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: japan, kyoto, osaka

He flew 28 hours to surprise his girlfriend

July 29, 2014 By Monkey on a Plane!

A girl Ella had been living in Australia for the past 3 months. During a Skype-call she her boyfriend that she misses him. This leads to a surprise visit from her England based boyfriend. And best of all the boyfriend Jackson Harries made a short movie starting with their Skype-call and ending when he is outside her door in Sydney, Australia.

A Film For Ella

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: long flight, love, romantic

My first trip to Japan – Part 1

July 29, 2014 By Elias

I had recently finished High school when I decided to visit Japan for the first time together with a childhood friend. As a person that has been brought up in the west this was a trip that I will treasure for the rest of my life. With in this blog post I will give you an overview on my trip that was done in 2009. Some time has passed since this trip and other trips has been made in between but I will try to reproduce the trip as much as my memory allows.

The route – Overview

We landed at Narita Airport in middle of April. From there we took the express train to Tokyo. Here we spent a few days before setting off using our Japanese rail pass and Japanese fly pass.

Route: Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka – Naha (Okinawa) – Tokyo

When we left Tokyo took the bullet train to Kyoto. During our stay in Kyoto we also visited Osaka. The travel time between the two cities is only about 30 minutes. After spending time in cultural Kyoto and a brief visit in Osaka we took a flight from Kansai International Airport to Naha (Okinawa). We spent 5 days in Okinawa relaxing on different beaches and visiting some smaller islands. When we were done with the easy life on the islands we spent two or three days in Tokyo doing some shopping and meeting some friends we made during our stay. Before we knew the it was time to head back home.

Tokyo – The capital of Japan

As the title explains Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the place that most people include on their trip to Japan. It’s an amazing place in the sense that it managed to maintain their heritage at the same time as being one of the most technical advanced in the world. It’s a city of big contrast. Well to be honest this apply to the country as a whole. Anyhow when we arrived in Tokyo we headed for Asakusa as our hostel was located there. Asakusa in a traditional area of Tokyo. Here you may visit the Asakusa jinja shrine (a.k.a. “Shrine of three gods”) as well as the buddhist temple, Sensō-ji.

senso-ji temple

The shrine in Asakusa is popular tourist spot for both foreigners and Japanese people. The shrine pays tribute to three men who founded the Sensō-ji temple. On the picture above the entrance to the temple area is shown.

Cool places in Tokyo

We visited quite a few places during our stay in Tokyo, but the most memorable places was Akihabara and Harajuku.

Akihabara is Tokyo’s electric town. This place is Japan’s and probably even the world’s geek center when it comes to manga, anime and other geeky stuff. It’s truly a unique place and a must visit all who visit Tokyo.

akihabara manga building gundam

Harajuku is a another part of Tokyo near Shibuya. When tourists talk about Harajuku they usually refer to Takeshita street and other small backstreets that houses boutiques selling youth fashion and culture. Many independent stores can be found in this area. Close by Takeshita street one can also find more high-end type of stores. Anyhow one who likes shopping should take the train to Harajuku station. Takeshita street is just outside the station. Another alternative is to take the subway to Shibuya and walk from there. Unfortunately I have no pictures from Harajuku.

This concludes my first blog post here on Monkey on a plane. I hope you enjoyed it. In my next post I’ll try to cover our stay in Kyoto and Osaka.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: akihabara, asakusa, harajuku, japan, shrine

Welcome to Monkey on a plane!

July 28, 2014 By Monkey on a Plane!

Today we start our journey together to create a fresh and friendly place for people from around the world. Monkey on a plane! – is meant to be a relaxed travel community for people to where people can read articles, watch cool videos and rest their eyes on beautiful pictures from around the world. We have had a hard time about labeling the site. The website is about travels but at the same time it is much more than that. We did however try to explain it on our About-page. We will must certainly update this page as we go along and shape the future of this website together with the community.

If you visit us during the comings weeks you will probably see a lot of changes taking place. We are still under a construction-phase.

Filed Under: Blog

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