Matthew's Here

We had already prepared ourselves for the fact that Matthew might not make it to Japan because of the snow, so when he walked through the airport, I was honestly SO HAPPY!!! Before he had come out I had watched a girl greet her parents... they stood there hugging and swaying... they were crying ... (and I was crying). lol I'm so soppy!! God knows what it's gunna be like when my parents come to visit me... I think I'll need to pull out the waterproof mascara! haha. Anyway! MATTHEW'S HERE!!!

 We came back from the airport by the skyliner (kind of like the Shinkansen) and we saw rice fields and beautiful scenery!! It was really nice! We stopped off at Ueno and went straight to TGIs for some food!

We decided to take a walk down Ameyoko market street and we found a little shrine hidden away,
which had autumns leaves! Can you believe 24th December and there are Autumn leaves? hehe

It was funny walking down these streets because Japanese people keep their heads down and go straight to what they are looking at, where as we were looking all around us and as soon as you make eye contact with the people working on the stall, they start shouting at you to go and buy their food! It was so funny;

"Sushi!!!" "Fish eggs!!!" "Please try"

And they all compete with each other, who can shout the loudest!

 We put Matt's suitcase in a locker at the station and headed to Akihabara Electric Town!!!

These cut outs were outside this adult entertainment store called Legs Avenue! This was hilarious trying to take this photo because everyone was looking at us!!! We went into the Sega building which was filled with Sega Arcade game,s with lots and lots of Anime characters everywhere!

We went to a couple of random shops in Akihabara, then we decided we would take Matthew to a Maid cafe, as we hadn't been to one yet and we thought we should go at least once whilst we are in Japan. There were so many girls stood on the main street with flyers for their maid cafe, some dressed as maids, some in cute animal costumes and some in Santa outfits! We decided we didn't want to go somewhere mainstream, so we headed down a random back street and found this cute little cafe called Pinkys. The girls were dressed up in santa costumes and when we went in the room, all the lights were off and there was a disco ball spinning round and some people were waving glow sticks and in the corner was a little stage with one of the girls singing on and another girl was kneeling in front of the stage hitting the tambourine intime with the music... all I can say was it was soooooooooooooooooo typically cute Japanese!!! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside the cafe, but our waitress was lovely and we got a Polaroid photo taken with her!

It was really nice in there, but I'm not sure I would go back to the same one because that might be a bit creepy, although I did have a points card - haha. Matt was totally knackered, so we came home!!! Really great first day :-D

A day in Ueno with Rieko

Well we had a great day! This was my first professional Photoshoot out here in Japan and I think it went just great!

You can see more photos on 

The Photography By Vicki Website

Photography By Vicki's Flickr Site

Photography By Vicki's Facebook Site 

(don't forget to like the facebook page!!!) 

We are doing another shoot of Rieko in her Yukata very soon - which is VERY exciting!!!

We met up quite early! Infact that was so far my WORST train experience ever! I don't think I have ever been so squashed in my life! I couldn't even put my arms down by my side! Anyway, we wanted to go to the park for some naturey shots and then we wanted to go to a cafe - Rieko is a proper coffee house junkie! She loves vintage style coffee house so she wanted to take me to one. So that we could take photos were she feels most comfortable and herself! I had a Mango and vinegar smoothie. It tasted great but it was too thick for me to drink. But I am pretty sure Fran would love it (when I told him about it as soon as I said vinegar he turned his nose up! you cant taste it though - promise!)

Ameyayokocho Market Street in Ueno

Finally Fran was off and we could go somewhere together - I am so lucky that I can entertain myself by going to somewhere I've never been before for hours as long as I'm taking photos, and then sorting them out when I get home! Fran had never been to Ueno before and I though he should see the park as I was amazed by the size of it. In Tokyo you would be suprised how one minute you could be in the busiest of places and a 5 min walk can take you to most beautiful park. It's still quite surreal! We decided as it was a sunday we should get out and see the famous Ameyayokocho - Ueno's market streets.

I got some gorgeous Yakitori (chicken with onion on a stick covered in a gorgeous soy sauce - YUM!) I had had one the day before at the festival but when I decided I wanted to get some more they had sold out!! They mainly sold fish and meat, but they also sold shoes and bags and umbrellas and other things that you would expect from a market, the prices were pretty cheap for Tokyo as well... I was pretty shocked by the squid legs for sale in ice!!! pretty awful! Take a look at this video!



YUCK, Yuck yuck!!! well I was over it as soon as I'd seen it to be honest - at least I don't HAVE to eat it!!! We went off to Ueno Park and walked around the lake. There wasn't alot we could do as we were melting in the heat (around 36 degrees) so we walked in the shade and ended up chilling on a park bench for a bit. Here are our photos from the day. We soon went back home and chilled out in from of the air con!!!

A Day at Ueno Zoo

So, as Fran started his training yesterday ... I had to keep myself entertained!!! I decided to go to the zoo! I got off at about 10am, and it took just over half an hour to get the Subway to Ueno. I came out in Ueno Park, and I am soooooo taking Fran back there!!! It is huge and had so many things to do... the zoo, an amusement park, and museums I think, and the park itself was beautiful!!!


So I stayed there the whole day which was alot of walking, and I saw EVERYTHING!!!! Never done that before!!!! It cost me ¥1120 to get there and back and cost only ¥600 admission!!! Very cheap!!!
I got sooooooo many photos and I can't put them all up on the blog so please please please check out them out by clicking here. So here are a few of my fave with a few of my thoughts about the zoo

So there was only 1 tiger in here... to be honest there were a few of the animals which I felt bad for... there always are at any zoo ... like a hand full of animals looked bored and sad and there were others that looked like they were having so much fun so I just though, well I am using this as experience for my photography... and I'm here, so I better make the most of it!!!!!!

There were so many birds here that I'd never seen before!!! Like this one!!! How great is he?!?

The Meerkats were totally cute!!! honestly they looked like they were having so much fun!!!

The Emperor Penguins looked pretty sad, the zoo were in the process of building them a brand new environment so they were in a small plastic room encloser with not much light and really not much room!!! :-( It made me sad that I had wanted to see them so much (I'd never seen them before today!) and then they were coped up. This has definitely made me want to go see them in the wild in their own habitat... I don't know how or when... but I really really want to do it!!!

The beautiful view over the west side of the zoo, looking out over Ueno Park and Ueno!!!

Cutie little Japanese bird! Ok ok, I've posted too many photos, there are so many more I like but I'll only post 1 more I promise!!!! Really pleased with this one...

Also, very quickly, I was very sad that there were no Giant Pandas there like I had hoped... Ling Ling (their last Giant Panda) passed away in April 2010. :-( so Ueno Zoo have NO Giant Pandas :-( :-( :-(