Arrival

We've arrived at the Shinjuku Washington finally after something like 21 hours of travel. Dave has gone to bed as he's a bit cranky having not slept the night before we set off or on the plane. I was slightly concerned that they might have quarantined him in Narita Airport if he looked too grim but they didn't seem to have noticed. He'll be fine once he has a wee nap and some food.

The Japanese TV in the hotel room is odd. All the shows seem to be based on some kind of chat/quiz show hybrid. Still, they all seem happy and I suppose that's what counts.

Day 1 - Shinjuku, Tokyo 東京

So... I finally came 'round after about 4 hours sleep to catch up on the last 48 hours where I had zero, nil, nada. Spud says that it's my own fault for being too giddy about goin' to Japan. Yeah yeah... whatever.

The hotel is quite cool, it looks really funky from the outside like... some sort of white Nintendo games console... only got a couple of night shots so far...

and here's a pretty good one from the hotel room window:

Just been out for a bite to eat. It took us aaaages before we settled on a place and even dare go in and attempt to order something. I had the Japanese ready for "please may I have some noodles" but we both ended up having Yakitori which is Japanese for fried chicken. Really wanna take some photos of the Japanese going about their daily business, especially when you see them trying to cross the road!! :o) ...but I don't wanna come across as being a saddo or upset them...

Day 2 - Sleepy in Tokyo 東京

Day 2. We packed a hell of a lot in... a hell of a lot! Absolutely wiped out. Will upload some photos and write up v.soon (hopefully).

Sleep is imminent.... zzzzz

We'll leave you with this bit of cherry blossom which I took earlier in Ueno Park after I took a ton of photos of Japanese people taking photos of other Japanese people.... - ain't it pretty?! Ha!

Day 2 - Metropolitan Government Building No.1 - Shinjuku, Tokyo 東京

First stop yesterday was the snappily named Metropolitan Building No. 1 for the view of Tokyo.

When we finally got into the place after circling it searching for the rather understated entrance (it's a public holiday so the main, obvious, entrance was closed) we had a bag search and took a direct elevator to the 45th floor. The view was pretty awesome and to be honest the pictures we got don't really do it justice as they don't convey the sheer size of the city, nor the height we were taking the pics from.

Once we were done being impressed with Tokyo it was a back down to ground level for a quick bit of posing by a sculpture, some breakfast (Dave had burgers, I had five bowls of odd Japanese food with rice which was delicious).

Then it was on to The Electric Town - Akihabara...

Day 2 - Akihabara "Electric Town" Tokyo 東京

Here's some snaps from the Electric Town, it was quite busy to say that we visited on a public holiday... must go back and explore further when we go back to Tokyo!

Day 2 - Ueno, Tokyo 東京

Seems like an age ago now but we were too tired to stand, let alone blog, last night. After the noise and lights of Akihabara we went on to Ueno Park planning to see the park and a couple of Museums. We didn't really realise it was Hanami until we got there so there were loads of people in the park taking pictures of the sakura and generally having a great time.

We walked through the park with the blossom in full bloom, around the lake where Dave managed to get a couple in a boat to give him a thumbs up and also managed to get a girl to shout at him after he took a picture of her picnicking.



When we finally got to the museums they were closed but nevertheless it was a good end to a great, but tiring, day.

Well, not quite the end. Back in Shinjuku we turned the wrong way out of the station, did a massive figure of 8 back to the station, found a hotel that was disguised as ours, and finally got back to our hotel after about an hour. It should have taken 8 minutes. The following morning we found a tunnel at the bottom of the road that leads straight to the station.

Day 3 - Harajuku, Tokyo

Harajuku - the fashion district of Tokyo. The streets were heavily populated with fashion conscious young Japanese and also strange shop names ... such as 'store my ducks'...

Day 3, Shibuya, Tokyo 東京

To be honest this blogging malarkey isn't brilliant when you're out sightseeing all day and (if you can find a bar) drinking in the evening. That's why this post is days late. Shibuya seems to be a business place. The most notable feature we found was the famous Shibuya crossing by the Hachikō exit of the train station.

After seeing the crossing and crossing the crossing we went to find some food. We found a fugu place that seemed to be closed but had some extremely ugly fish in the window. They're even worse if you scare them apparently.

In the end we went in a little bar where we opted for a dish of fried noodles topped with miscellaneous bits of vegetables and seafood. I was quite happy to see that it had little octopus tentacles in it as I'd never tried them before and they were quite tasty.

After we'd slurped down the tentacles it was back to Shinjuku for beer and bed.