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Day 2 – Feet and folly [5th April 2009]

John Noel — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:23:20 +0000

I opened my eyes around six in the morning and made the mistake of going to the toilet and fetching something to drink which meant I was fully awake rather than just bleary eyed and partially comatose. After getting showered and dressed, I tried to drill some Japanese into my brain (mostly to do with ordering food and asking for a table) then wandered down to the hotel restaurant around seven. Even at such an uncivilised hour the place was packed, including a group of noisy, middle-aged women sitting opposite me. Using a breakfast voucher obtained from the front desk, I munched on some sort of fish (potentially salmon though it could have been anything), broth and a pair of very neatly fried eggs. After eating and helping myself to some odd tasting fruit juice, I sauntered back up to my room – unsure as to the etiquette of leaving when I didn’t have to pay. The hotel lobby sported a couple of Dell Vostro 1000 laptops which let me post an update to Facebook and also bash out a blog post; part of the way through writing the post I managed to switch the keyboard into Japanese mode which took and embarrassing amount of jiggery pokery to switch off. Handy hint: aim for the key that has purely Japanese writing on it and is in a position you don’t recognise.

The plan for the day involved heading to Akihabara and visiting an authentic video-game arcade and then heading into Harajuku to spot some interestingly dressed youths. I had made the mistake in my previous trip to Japan of using the metro to visit Akiba and not being able to locate the main strip – using the overland train more or less puts you at ground zero for the interesting shops. Aware of this, I used my ever faithful (and ever weighty) Lonely Planet guide book to see how far from Akihabara subway stop the main drag is, and set off with high hopes.

A quick change of line and a short walk later and my hopes were dampened somewhat with the realisation it was only just after nine in the morning on a Sunday and few, if any shops were open. Making the best of the deserted streets, I located the Taito arcade and made a mental note of other interesting stores without the hassle of the crowds of people sure to flock here later. Spotting a secluded coffee shop, I purchased a potent cup of coffee and people watched out of the large shop window – mostly of a small group of smokers outside in the chilly morning air who all carried their own belt holstered ash trays.

Waiting until five minutes past ten so that I didn’t look like an arcade junkie, I slipped into the red building and ascended to the fourth floor. Each floor was easy to get the measure of with crane games (UFO catchers) on the first and photo / sticker machines on the second and third, this just left the fourth floor for actual video game machines. Being so early meant not only was the acrid smell of cigarettes just a nuisance rather than overbearing, but many of the machines were unoccupied including my target machine: Blaz Blue. Decked out with a beautifully clear, high definition screen, I spent a good half to three quarters of an hour fiddling and button mashing my way through the game. Mostly playing as Litchi I attempted to figure out the fighting system and was thankful that no one was watching me flummox about. After my time with BlazBlue I spent a short spell on a Street Fighter IV machine as Chun-Li, getting thoroughly hammered by the computer. Emasculated, I exited from the Taito arcade and visited the nearby Club Sega which was similar in layout but far more pungent. After a short time on a Guilty Gear XX (which flavour I’m not entirely sure) I made the mistake of visiting the nearby toilet which was less than pristine. On the same floor was a huge, multi-machine Gundam game which was seeing a lot of usage and subsequently a lot of cigarettes being smoked.

Tiring of the constant noise of the arcades, I scoped out some of the stores which were now beginning to see more intense patronage. I was determined not to purchase anything given I would have to lug it all around Japan with me, however after visiting Animate, AsoBitCity, Sofmap and Gamers, it was becoming more difficult to hold back. One also has to watch for signs of the more adult sections of these stores; a suffusion of flesh tones is usually a good indicator, more than once I found myself wondering “Is she…? Oh right.” and heading swiftly for the next floor.

The only set of shoes I had brought to Japan were a pair of go-with-everything leather ones I had purchased a week prior. I attempted to wear both them and my feet in with little success, which meant now my heels were blistering and pain while walking was beginning. Happy that I had soaked in enough of Akihabara for now, I made my way back to the subway and towards Harajuku.

My only previous experience with Harajuku was a brief side-swipe on the way to the nearby Meiji-jingu, it was surprising to find a whole shopping area only one street over. Still determined to visit restaurants solo, I went to a fourth floor Pizza Express for lunch and ordered some overpriced but very fulfilling pasta. Looking down onto the main shopping street I spotted a number of familiar brands including a sizable Top Shop opposite. Post lunch I wandered the streets, eventually finding Takeshita-dori with its plethora of smaller, crazier stores. With names like “The Mighty Soxer” and “One for herb” it was hard not be enthralled, especially when some of the hats on display had phrases like “Unicorns are awesome” and “Trucker mesh hat” on them. Towards the end of the street where it joined Omotesando, the crowds became locked and for a few minutes I moved very little, yet still people around me were courteous and thankfully refrained from elbow barging through. My right foot by now felt about two sizes too big for my leg so I made for the subway station and headed back to the hotel.

Still early in the afternoon, I munched on some Pocky and deliberated on what to do for the rest of the day. My foot throbbed from the angry looking blisters on the heel, but after some ice and rest was applied, it began to look a little more flesh coloured. After much scrutinising of maps I decided to visit Hie-jinja; fresh blister plaster applied and, in a moment of inspiration, a square of padding from my camera case slipped into my sock, I was heading back to the now familiar subway station. With better planning in the morning I could have avoided the pang of guilt I felt taking yet another subway journey, especially as the station to visit the shrine (Tameike-sanno) was on the Ginza line – the same one the hotel is on; however this was only of minor concern.

Arriving just after four in the afternoon, the area outside the station was strangely deserted, and after a short walk I was standing on an outdoor escalator heading towards the shrine. Nearby was, bizarrely enough, a Swiss Airlines building replete with a bright red and white sign and silent fountains. The shrine itself was incredibly peaceful with shrine maidens (miko) shuffling wordlessly about and restrained cherry blossoms set against tall skyscrapers. In the main courtyard were a set of stone seats covered in red padding, one of them completely taken up by a gentleman snoozing and occasionally snoring; next to him was a drinks bottle encased in a green camouflage holder. As I was studying this, a woman I hadn’t noticed before reached brazenly over the man and nabbed the drinks bottle, holder and all, and headed off out of the shrine! I pontificated waking the man up and telling him (or trying to) but when he woke up a few minutes later, he seemed nonplussed about the location of his drink. Inwardly I figured the woman must have been someone he knew, crime was rare enough in Japan and this act seemed innocuous enough.

Once I had my quota of photos, I once again headed back to the hotel, spotting a group of western looking tourists on the subway back. While writing in my journal I watched television which consisted mostly of adverts, most of which had some sort of jingle to accompany the corporate logo. The most prominent of these was Kirin, a conglomerate drinks company whose adverts mostly consisted of beer – certainly odd seeing adverts for alcohol with them being rare enough in the UK. It was the first night of the tour proper which meant a meal and meeting up in the lobby. Arriving early, I chatted with some of the other members, my instant reaction was that they were older than I had expected. Tom arrived with some odd seaweed based sweets and talked us through some basics of the tour including tidbits about himself – my respect for him rocketed when he mentioned he had attained the highest level of Japanese language proficiency, no mean feat by any measure.

A short walk later and all fourteen of us were sitting in an izayaka, waiting for the first round of food to arrive. A large number of the group had arrived the day before like myself, Wendy and Tara; however the tiredness in everybody from the journey was palpable. Small talk was rife as everybody got the measure of each other; there was an interesting mix of English, Canadian and American members as well a Belgian and various locales in between. The food arrived in waves and included eel, raw octopus and wasabi, salad, okonomiyaki and much more, all of it varied and all of it spectacularly tasty. A couple of beers later and we all adjourned shortly after half past nine and I shot straight to bed.

Day 1 – Sleepless sashay [4th April 2009]

John Noel — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:02:59 +0000

Now on JST! I had not been furnished with headphones for the seat-back display and asking a flight attendant proved fruitless, thankfully the films were either too lengthy or heavy going to be of interest (Australia by Baz Luhrmann, Changeling by Clint Eastwood) or were kid orientated (Bolt, Madagascar 2, The Incredibles) so it wasn’t too much of a loss. Unfortunately sitting in cattle class meant the films weren’t even video-on-demand and were more “tune in half way through” which meant watching more than a couple of films was protracted at best.

The passenger seated next to me was a child I had originally assumed was Japanese given his Japanese mother (who kept “thanking me very much” when I helped her with her bag, moved to let her use the bathroom, etc.); however it seemed that he was part Japanese, part German – given that he opted to watch films in German rather than Japanese. From what I could glean he was a member of a band, with others seated behind him who flitted back and forth between English and German. I did learn a nubmer of Japanese phrases from him though, especially from his interactions with his mother. With a young child sitting nearby I felt awkward reading FHM so spent the majority of the flight playing on my Nintendo DS (Kirby Power Paintbrush and Puzzle Quest for the most part) and slowing my brain down to a level where even boredom was too much effort – fractured snoozing usually followed.

Landed in NRT shortly before 9am local time, equating to crazy time for my body as it had now shifted into that polyphasic, eat-when-you-can survival mode that so often happens to me on trips. Bearing in mind what shio had said about That Narita Smell (Smells like Narita Spirit?), I waited bleary eyed for my rucksack at the luggage carousel. Each bag that trundled by and wasn’t mine made me run through everything possible that could have gone wrong: still at Manchester, still at Copenhagen, split on the plane (my underpants!), held back for searching, lost in transit… The list went on. Running on empty, I shouldered by bag and trundled through customs with a smile and a nod at the bespectacled uniform behind the counter. Tom – the tour leader – met me in the arrivals lounge brandishing an Inside Japan Tours logo; my first impressions included how young he looked and how quiet he seemed. Met up with two other tour members – Tara and Wendy, daughter and mother – whom I tried to make small talk with despite my brain having problems correctly ordering simple words.

Wandering down to the familiar Narita transport terminal, Tom took us into a queue for the JR office to get our JR Passes for the tour. Despite the length of the line the row of attendants were smart, cordial, efficient and swift: effortlessly ordering the myriad of papers and staccato rubber stamping. Escaping the heat of the terminal we all jumped onto a Skyliner train to Ueno station which would take – according to the board – seventy one minutes to reach our destination. Seventy one minutes and much scenery watching later we disembarked and stood gormless in the throng of Ueno on a Saturday. Tom and I had chatted on the train, mostly about my previous trip to Japan with IJT and what I would be doing for the rest of the day. Bundling Wendy, Tara and myself into a taxi, Tom uttered something in fluent Japanese to the driver and bid us farewell – he needed to return to the airport to escort other tour members.

A short drive later we were at our hotel, and after a bit of passport handling by the clerks at the plush looking front desk, we were all allowed to go to our rooms despite being only shortly before midday. I felt a slight pang having been the only one of the trio to have paid for anytime check-in but the welcoming comfort of a cool, quiet room washed that instantly away. After fiddling excitedly with anything that had buttons, I showered and shaved and began to feel slightly more human despite the cotton wool growing around my senses. Pulling myself away from the inviting embrace of the bed, I headed out of the hotel and towards the main Asakusa strip that Tom had recommended to me on the train journey over. I was determined to overcome my ridiculous fear of going into a Japanese restaurant solo and made a beeline for the first one I saw: a regular Tonkatsu restaurant. While waiting for my food an elderly lady sitting next to me kept speaking to me in English, only some of which I could make out. She seemed to be eating a huge meal for someone of her size which was strangely gratifying to see. My stomach meanwhile had been having a fit since the midpoint of the plane journey, thankfully some meat, rice and orange juice quelled it for a spell. Heading back to the hotel to pick up some items, I met a couple of English speaking tourists who chatted briefly with me about their recent trip to Takayama which I knew I would be visiting soon enough.

Having not been to Ginza on my previous trip, that was my goal for the afternoon which meant navigating the Tokyo subway system again. After criss-crossing the road, I finally found an entrance to the station which, I would only find out tomorrow, was thankfully the correct one for the direction I wanted to travel. Tom had furnished group members with PASMO cards (functionally equivalent to the Oyster cards in London and likely every other major metropolitan transport network) which I dutifully stuffed up using and had to speak to a station attendant at Ginza station. Thankfully he just fiddled with my card and waved me through – a common reaction to foreigners I would find out.

Perhaps a symptom of my tiredness or just generally bad direction sense, I spent a large part of the afternoon aimlessly wandering around the part-pedestrianised Ginza area, occasionally looking at my Lonely Planet guide and trying to scry where the Sony Building was. Feeling suitably out of place amongst shops like Hermes, Prada and the like, I poked around a couple of music stores before finally finding the elusive Sony Centre. Greeted almost instantly by a bank of their high definition sets (Bravia, 40 inches and up), I realised they were the first HD televisions which had actually wowed me with their picture quality. Perhaps flattered by the source, there was none of the artifacting or smeariness I usually associate with HD TVs. Wandering the several interconnected floors and playing with various audio/visual paraphernalia, I did a couple of circuits before leaving – though not before watching a music video of YUI on one of the many large screens.

Deciding to leave Ginza and have a gander at Ueno Park, I managed to utilise the subway without incident this time only to get the the park at what was likely its busiest time. Throngs of people swarmed every square metre of the park snapping pictures of the cherry blossoms, squatting on the endless kilometers of blue tarpaulin or drinking and talking loudly. At first I didn’t think I’d stay long – crowds were certainly not high on my list of favourites, especially while jetlagged – but after a scant few minutes wandering the park, I began to understand why hanami is such a celebrated time. Despite the crowds, nobody pushes, or ploughs past, everyone courteously stays out of the way of photo takers, but most of all: everyone was having fun. The people drinking were carousing and noisy but it was all good natured, and everywhere was buzzing with music or laughter or chatter. The sky was a rain-threatening grey which lamentably washed out some of my photos even if the cherry blossoms were certainly a lot whiter than I had imagined.

Feeling thoroughly shattered, I headed back to the hotel and in my grand tradition of first nights on holiday: I got horribly lost. After readjusting the way I navigate (no longer looking for names I recognise, now looking for landmarks and colours) I nipped into a nearby convenience store (conbini) and picked up some Pocky and Pocari Sweat. I aimed to nap for a spell before tea but ended up watching a bizarre drama on TV about ghosts and birthday parties and school girls – I would come to learn that most things on Japanese TV are bizarre if you don’t know what the programme is about. Heading down to the hotel restaurant before my brain completely shut down, I had a chicken steak and was just contemplating leaving when Wendy and Tara appeared having awoken from their own nap.

The conversation was light and covered random topics like which airline they flew, what they did, and finally mentioning that they wished to go to Ueno Park while they could but were unsure of the subway system. I pontificated sleep – now past eight o’clock – but, for reasons unknown to me, I decided to go to Ueno Park again and snap some night photos. It drizzled on and off which made the walk equally refreshing and disappointing with me opting not to continually expose my camera to precipitation on the first day of the holiday. Despite only walking a short route around the park, I was co-opted by a Japanese couple to snap their photo beneath a cherry blossom and muttered at by a number of scruffy homeless people. Shortly after nine, head now devoid of useful thoughts, I wandered back with Tara and Wendy in tow. In my hotel room I managed to scrawl something vaguely intelligible in my previously blank journal and finally climbed into bed. In those fleeting moments before sleep, I realised that both Tara and Wendy had used “last night” to describe their time before their nap, despite still being “tonight”, I predicted that their jet-lag would be epic.

Wrap up

John Noel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:39:43 +0000

The missing Kyoto photos are retrieved! All things told there weren’t that many good photos on the iffy card, mostly blurry geisha photos (geisha ghosts?) and some lamentably blurry night shots – one of the great problems of my D50 screen and chimping is that slightly blurry photos tend to be missed and only visible upon more detailed examination.

I have been awake since 0330 local time which is annoying as I was asleep 2300 local time and up for lord knows how long before that, jet lag is a real pain and I don’t remember ever suffering from it to this extent beforehand. Anyways, some thoughts on travelling around Japan:

Get used to train stations: where to look for times and what to look for (rapid, limited rapid express etc.); always note which exit you use and entrance you want, they may not be one in the same and orientation is easier if you’ve done the route before; get familiar with the ticket machines as you’ll either be ticketing, SUICA’ing or PASMO’ing and they all involve adjustment machines at some point
Improve your train sleeping: this is a necessity if you are jetlagged or have a full schedule as you’ll be able to hit the town at night and still have energy for the important parts during the day, even an half an hours nap can improve things; just make sure you’re the last stop or have people around you who can wake you up if you get overzealous with the napping
Learn your landmarks: if you’re like me and can’t read Japanese fluently then navigation can be tricky so instead of recognising stores / pubs, go for colours or tall buildings or quirky objects outside, there are plenty of all three kicking about and makes exploring a hell of a lot simpler
Be prepared to be scrutinised: if you’re European or American then you will naturally stand out in most areas of Japan, Tokyo not so much but other areas you will be glanced at more often than not, a friendly smile and a nod is usually all it takes to make everyone feel at ease; there will also be a natural radius around you on trains and local transport, you can mitigate this by plonking yourself in between two current passengers but otherwise there is a general reluctance to sit next to you if it can be at all helped.
Don’t expect high technology everywhere: Tokyo is privileged in its use of wireless internet, modern transport methods and so forth but other areas of Japan can be just as rural and disconnected as your home country – downloading TV to your mobile phone is a nicety, not provided as standard
Get good shoes: or tough feet (general life advice but especially relevant)

I know have a plethora of bits of paper (receipts, ticket stubs, reservation tickets, leaflets etc.) and photos to organise. Last count for photos was just a hair under 700 and unlike my last trip there are very few duplicates and the overall quality of the photos has surprised even me – helped of course by the stellar weather that held for all but a single day. One thing I do regret is not taking my lens hood for my 18-200, with the 18-55 there’s little need for one but looking through some of the photos there was definitely a need for one (and me holding the lens cap in conspicuous positions was not a good interim solution) – here was me thinking lens hoods were just for camera pimping.

Other random thoughts include my choice of clothing – definitely took too many warmer tops although I was expecting the weather to be 6-8 degrees less than it was, unseasonable warmth indeed. No matter how much you cram into a backpack, it can always hold more with judicious application of body weight and zip moulding. Do not trust hotel bedside clocks – their alarms oscillate between weedy and useless to sonic sleep destroyers. Hotel wake up calls are surprisingly sinister at 6am.

1269426030

I was rolling down Odeo with my…

John Noel — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:36:08 +0000

Back in Tokyo! Where people have actually heard of the internet rather than having to walk 20+ minutes to the nearest ‘net cafe or in Hakone where people just scratched their heads and shrugged their shoulders.

Had some good times in Kyoto, day tripped out to Osaka and then bullet trained it to Hakone which was deep in the mountains but the weather held thankfully. Now back in Tokyo where I’ve already done some shopping and aiming to do more tomorrow. The hotel is awesome but I’ve just seen a sign that limits me to 20 minutes on this PC so better skidaddle. A few photos for you. More tomorrow likely.

Not long before I’m back to normality now!

Tokyo introspective

John Noel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:31:24 +0000

Most of my internet access has been in the brief, fleeting moments while waiting for the group to gather for the day’s activities so it’as somewhat nice to be able to have some time to actually write something that doesn’t end with the equivalent “okaygottaguybye!”.

My feet were doing (slightly) better today thanks to some loosening of shoes and no longer having any skin to lose from them although my left foot has shown some signs of trying to copy my right – not best pleased. Nikko today was awesome and showed me something that I hadn’t seen before in a temple; it was sprawling, ornate and yet quiet and reserved at the same time. I also started getting fancier with my camera, having found out yesterday that I had somehow fixed the camera on aperture priority somewhere in transit which was slightly embarrassing but I’ve been storing up some shots for panoramas and also tried a long exposure today of the bridge for some floaty water effect.

Leaving Tokyo is definitely a good thing as having been here for the past three to four days has let me become a bit jaded to it which is not what I had expected. I’ve been using a lot more of the language than I did last time (much to the amazement of one of the hotel clerks when I said good morning to him, to his credit, it was 4am so maybe that’s how he always looks) so I’ve crested the hill that is ordering food and not looking like a complete twit. I’m torn between whether I’m getting used to the language or just using what is most likely to be said next and going from there. Thankfully a lot of Japanese seem happy to ask me questions in English and for me to answer in Japanese, at least then everyone knows what is being said.

Tokyo itself is impossible to encapsulate in a single sentence or paragraph, there is now easy way of saying “City of the Future” or “Bustling metropolis” and capturing the spirit of it, even if both are true and I’ve only been in the city just over 150 hours total. You can be wandering down the street and hear a melody you recognise with words you don’t while nearly being hit by the plethora of bicycle riders and being barraged with neon advertising high above you. Eclctic doesn’t even begin to sum it up. It is a city I love though, there is no congestion to speak of, the transport is first rate and there truly is everything you can think of to do or to buy (both probably available from the local convenience store). I’ll be glad to come back to Tokyo, but just as London isn’t England, Tokyo isn’t Japan and there are hot springs and all sorts of other goodies awaiting.

Sakuragasm

John Noel — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:26:35 +0000

The big temptation for this time of year I would imagine is just snapping roll after roll (meabytes of megabytes?) of cherry blossom pictures. It’s not that they’re ugly, but there is the risk of beginning slightly pink-blind by it all. So for now, I’m trying to snap photos that contain more than just pink. Apart from that one of the branches, that’s just purty.

I made a monumentally bad coice when it came to shoes this time around as I either didn’t break these shoes in correctly or they are in fact shoes crafted by the devil himself because my left leg has some traumatic blisters on it. One on either side of the heel that means one blister plaster isn’t large enough to cover both. By now most of the skin that would have protected them has gone and they are red and angry which has spread to the rest of my leg which is slightly disturbing. I’ve taken to paddig my shoe with a bit of grey foam cribbed from my camera bag to protect them but I get the feeling that at some point in the holiday I may have to plump for new shoes or end up crippled. It’s odd how things like that can prey on your mind, especially as my jet lag still hasn’t full dissapated yet (dammit) and fevered dreams of my leg dropping off from these blisters are not uncommon.

Bit of a revisit of some locations yesterday. Senso-ji has moved its construction from the outer gate to the main building which is now ensconced in scaffolding. The good weather and cherry blossoms makes it an almost entirely different place to visit than my first time when it was raining and I had just stepped off the flight. Hama-rikyu we managed to visit the tea house which was a brilliant experience and good cake. The Sumida river taxi was packed which meant we had to go into the underbelly and a miss a lot of the view nfortunately. I came back to the hotel at Meiji-jingu now being in some pain from the evil shoes and napped for a spell. I’d also managed to catch the sun on my head a bit which is odd for April!

Off to Nikko now!

Crikey… I’m in freaking Tokyo

John Noel — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:02:03 +0000

And these keyboards are very strange to type on, I accidentally hit the Japanese key a short while ago an the level of panic I felt when I couldn’t change it back was great. I also keep missing the shift key but that’s likely because of my lack of coordination at the moment.

Won’t write a huge epic rundown of what happened so in short: journey was fine, planes delayed slightly but not by much. Manchester terminal one security is like one of the circles of hell described by Dante, an utterly dehumanising experience. SAS flights are just like every other really but I managed to sleep somewhat. Landed and met up with the tour leader and a couple of others from the group, got straight into my room so had a shower and felt slightly more human. Went over to Ginza and had a wander around (read: got lost) and then headed to Ueno park for some Hanami. The park was packed but everyone was having such a good time it was hard not to get swept up in it all. Managed to get some tea and met up with the two from before again and went to Ueno again for some night shots, shame it was raining a bit. Got to sleep at nine, slept pretty much straight through till six, no sign of my aeroplan throat this morning.

Now, to Akiba and Harajuku!

Day 10

John Noel — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:00:05 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Heading back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen took about 3 hours which meant we had the entire afternoon to do any shopping and so forth. So I took another stab at heading to Akihabara, this time using the overland trains. This was a wise move as the shops are all around the overland station rather than the subway station I got before.

Before long I’d found Gamers (let me tell you, searching for that on the tinterweb is not easy) as well as another similar store called AsoBitCity. I could have spent twice as long and three times as much in those places, however my luggage was stuffed when I came to Japan so space was an issue, suffice to say I picked up some nice swag.

The hotel we were staying it was smack bang in the middle of Shinjuku, Shinjuku station is the busiest in the world and sees around 2 million people pass through it every day so of course I went and got lost in it. Interesting station, lots to look at, but at rush hour and a bag full of purchases, I really just wanted to get back.

No sooner than I had did we head out for our last meal which was on the most unhealthy for the entire trip. Basically, you go to a counter and get a lot of stuff on wooden skewers (meat, veg, dumplings etc.). Then, at your counter-top table, you have a bowl of breadcrumbs, a bowl of batter, and a friar. Fried stuff on sticks!

After that our tour leader took a few of us to karaoke where I proceeded to slaughter some songs, after which we all wandered around Shinjuku, skirting the red light district. Let me tell you, no one does prostitutes like Japan, you have a board in front of a seedy little place, and you basically go in, point to the board at the girl you want, then go do your thing. Only Japan could organise prostitution like that.

After drinking at an “English” pub for a while, we all stumbled back to the hotel at about 2am, for which I had to be up at 6am to catch my train to Narita for my flight back.

Day 3

John Noel — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:00:08 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

The first official day of the tour and the weather was looking up. Apparently there was a typhoon battering the south of Japan which caused the rain and so forth where we were, but with that abating the sun was finally coming out.

Onto the government buildings (Tochomae) and the 45th floor observatory.

Nothing spectacular as the humidity made seeing Fuji impossible, but quite nice urban views.

On the subway down to the Harajuku area and into the Meji-jingu shrine. All of the shines and temples in Japan have one thing in common, and that’s that they’re the most peaceful places you could visit that are smack bang in the middle of the city. There’s plenty of vegetation around you, but the places just feel so serene, and everyone else around you is generally pretty respectful. So things like mobile phones are always switched off, I literally didn’t hear one mobile phone go off in my entire time in Japan.

We managed to catch the end of a Buddhist (or Shinto?) wedding ceremony there, must have been strange having a bunch of foreigners all snapping your wedding photos. The was also a huge wall of sake barrels all donated by various companies and people with their names on the front.

Lunch was in Harajuku which is like ground zero for trendy. You could literally just people watch for a week and you probably wouldn’t see the same style twice. The restaurant some of us ended up in was a facsimile of a generic British restaurant but with scruffy-hip Tokyo students waiting tables.

On from Harajuku through Shinjuku Times Square which houses a huge department store which was interesting for a bit, but essentially it’s a big department store. Moving on from there we passed through Shiodome which had the Dentsu (huge advertising company) skyscraper.

On from there we got a circle-line overland train to Hama-rikyu, but got on the wrong direction so the train journey took a while which meant we needed to book it through the gardens if we wanted to catch the last river taxi back to our hotel.

The river taxi is a working public transport route that heads up and down the Sumida river but was a brilliant way to finish off the day.

In all the journey took about an hour and a half which meant when we got back it was time for dinner. This time it was Okonomiyaki which is essentially “make your own omelette”. So you get a huge electric griddle in front of you, you order your ingredients and you make it there yourself. I had octopus and some random sea food (shrimp I think). The octopus was fine if not a little chewy, but the suction cups get stuck on your tongue pretty easily.

Places visited:

Tokyo Metropolitan Building
Meiji-jingu
Dentsu building
Hamarikyu
Sumida River

Day 2

John Noel — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:00:57 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

It was now raining significantly outside which meant my original plan to go to Akihabara was on hold. Instead I decided on the Tokyo International Museum which was all indoors. Unfortunately it was also through Ueno park which meant I had to invest in an umbrella, let me tell you, best 600 yen I spent all trip.

The museum itself was awesome, but photos not allowed in most places which I adhered to. Exhibits ranged from swords (so purty, even saw an original Murasame sword) to poetry, to woodblock prints to Ainu pottery and all sorts.

After leaving and with the rain abated, I did a bit of people watching in Ueno park. Don’t stay still in Tokyo too long, someone will come and speak to you; an older gentleman just came and sat down next to me and started eulogising to me in damn fine English. He talked at me for about 40 minutes about everything from the student population in Harajuku to how the government should be culling the crows. After a while, I decided it was time to make my apologies and head off somewhere else. Nice guy, bit crazy though.

The art museum nearby cost to get in, but the sculpture outside reminded me of the gate in Full Metal Alchemist so I snapped a photo of that.

Heading on the subway to Akihabara, it was uniquely underwhelming, and the guide of “the shops are around the station” didn’t help. I spent a bit of time in a random electronics store before heading out from all the noise and bright lights.

With the rest of the afternoon left I headed out to the Imperial Palace and gardens for a little look around.

I managed to get some really nice fountain photos (slow shutter FTW) but the grounds were under construction in places so access was even more limited than usual. The grounds were huge, evidently to hold all the people on the two days of the year when it’s open, but otherwise it was a big open space in the middle of an otherwise busy city.

Heading back, I phoned the tour leader to see whether there was a meal going on that evening which there was, so I got to meet the entire group. The meal was fantastic and was a selection of dishes chosen by the tour leader and a set of beers as everyone got to know each other. In all there were 9 of us, 10 including the tour leader.

Lisa was mid forties and had left her husband and two children at home to come to Japan. Larry and Joel were the only Americans in the party and Larry was the father while Joel was in Japan for his 21st birthday. Sam(antha) and Andy were two Brits who basically had travelled the world (glacier climbing in Chile, Tibettan mountain climbing). Pat and Tony were mid 60’s but ran marathons so were more fit than most of the group members. Gemma, another 21 year old who had been to Japan earlier in the year on another tour with her mum but had had a shitty time so came back on her own for this tour. And myself. Quite the eclectic group really.

Gemma, Joel and Larry had only just got into Japan so left early (weaklings) while the rest of us got boozed and eventually adjourned at about 11pm.

Places visited:

Tokyo International Museum
Tokyo Imperial Palace

Day 1 – Travel and tourism

John Noel — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:00:23 +0000

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

Went through passport control and customs then met up with the tour leader, James as well as another group member, Lisa. James got our JR Rail Passes there then gave us instructions for getting to the hotel in Tokyo. Essentially it’s an hour and half train journey from Narita airport to Tokyo and James had to meet others at the airport so didn’t have time to take us to the hotel personally.

Dropped my bag off at the hotel (no check-in until 4pm) then went with Lisa to Senso-ji which is a temple just round the corner from the hotel.

By this time there was a fine rain or mist around and after 14+ hours of travelling it was nice just to wander in the peacefulness and soak in some of the ambience. The story behind the temple involves 2 fisherman finding a statue of the goddess Kanon while fishing; figuring it was uber holy they built a temple up around it which became Senso-ji. The figure is not on display as it’s considered too holy for us common people to view.

After a spot of lunch (menu pointing is the only way to go) Lisa and I split up and I went off to Tokyo Tower, which – as nice and touristy as it was – didn’t really hit home in the rain and mist.

By now the subway was becoming quite familiar: it was quick, efficient, clean, easy to navigate and generally quite awesome. There is of course the concept of a “Gaijin Raidus”, whereby if other passengers can possibly help it, the seats either side and in front of you will not be filled. When you’re the only westerner in a 10+ carriage train I can kind of understand it.

Now able to check into the hotel, I came upon the glory of the Japanese toilet:

Having been awake for 28+ hours and being faced with this, it was a case of “I just want to use this thing not drive it.” So you can heat the toilet seat (apparently very useful in winter-time up in the mountains) and get front and back water streams (of which you can control the water pressure). Without putting too fine a point on it, these things have impeccable aim.

Now 5pm, I couldn’t be bothered going to scavenge for food so I went to bed and slept on and off until the next day.

Places visited:

Senso-ji
Tokyo Tower