Tokyo - day four

Before we start, Japan will use Hello Kitty to get any and every message across, however inappropriate.

Anyway..we got up and started the day with a nice walk around Ueno park...like New York, the parks are amazing here, and are really peaceful given their proximity to the bustle of the city. We walked out after an hour and headed for electric city again (as Jane hadn't seen it). First stop was the manga district, which was always going to throw up surprises.

The giant electronics megastores are surrounded by burrows of independent traders selling literally everything with a circuit board in. It's all a bit overwhelming.

So we went for coffee.

It was a proper coffee shop so:

a) it tasted amazing.

b) it took ages to prepare.

c) Jane didnt like it.

I don't know why, but sections of the city are dominated by a particular type of shop. We moved from manga shops to electronics, then onto the guitars, golf, and the ski and snowboard sections of the city. Why you need more than one of any of those next to each other is a mystery.

With a purchase (Xmas present), at the golf store, I was told that I could have as many tees as I could get in one hand. The store clerk was horrified by the 100 or so tees I got, and also how I refused to let go of them when my hand was stuck in the container. But I won.

Looking for a change, we headed for the business district and headed up to the 42nd floor of the government municipal building. Rather than paying a huge fee for the Skytree across town, it was free to head up and had no queue. Was great to see the city from above, and would definitely recommend it!

We left and metroed back to Shinjuku for some drinks and dinner... And our current addiction, Bananagrams. It's sort of like a fast paced version of scrabble, and it's constantly with us incase of any spare 10 minute down times. I usually win.

A 'few' drinks later we moved on to a pub called 'the Aldgate', though at £7 a pint, it was more expensive than the London namesake we live in, so we denied it our patronage. Instead we went for some karaoke.... Again, I think I won.

For £16 an hour, we got a private karaoke room and unlimited drinks. We had to check that they really were free, but once established we took full advantage and sung our little hearts out. I'm pretty 'good' at Hanson's 'Um Bop', and Jane attempted everything with an incredible belief that she knew all the words.

After a good night, and plenty of drinks, I was sure it was time to finally try the local isotonic drink. I'm not sure what a pocari is, and although it's sweat is disgusting, I didn't have a hangover in the morning.

Chris

 

Tokyo - day three

We got up super early at 3am to get over to Tsukiji fish market. It's where all Tokyo's fish passes through each morning and it's MASSIVE. It's hard to believe there are more fish in the sea after a morning here.

The highlight of the trip was the tuna auctions.... Massive frozen fish being prodded and probed by the buyers, before a quick and hectic auction takes place, and then being loaded onto a cart and whisked away to be cut up and distributed.

Outside the auction is a hive of activity, and an mountain of polystyrene fish boxes!

And we got to eat some REALLY fresh sashimi. Best I've ever tasted, though as we chomped through the expensive breakfast, Jane mentioned she prefers tinned tuna over fresh. 

We had a well deserved nap back at our hotel, and then set off for Shibuya and Harajuku to see the shops. Harajuku is sung about by Lady Gaga apparently, and is the centre of alternative, over the top fashion.

Shopping in Japan is one of the best experiences; it's first world shopping, and in many ways similar to London or New York, but there are subtle differences that suprise. For example, a shop selling solely ladies pink clothes, with the shop attendants being girls in their 20s and wearing little more than pink underwear and a pink tutu... Sexuality is used as a potent sales practice here, and it's hardly a shock given it's a society geared for permenantly adolescent men.

Ready for for lunch, we found a vending machine shop! You press the button for what you want, put in the appropriate cash, and go inside with your ticket. When it's ready, your food is brought straight over!  And it's really cheap and tasty! Perfect. 

(Its started to rain, so the rain macs are back out!)

As a side note, Starbucks in Japan is in full Christmas mode. I'm not sure if it's the same in the UK, but their campaign is '30 years of Bright'. I'm expecting a royalties check soon.

Everything can be found for sale in Tokyo, and pretty much for any price. Here's a kitten for sale. It's incredibly cute, and if you prefer puppies, they also have those.

This cat's price tag is ¥800,000.

That's £4331. For a kitten. 

Moving onto more serious shopping, we went to KiddyLand. I got transfixed by some of the models to build, and after an hour of deliberation (and despair from Jane), I triumphantly purchased one.

It had been a long day of sightseeing the shops, with only a handful of small presents and my model bought, but we/I felt it was worth it.

Chris

Tokyo - day two

Jane had an interview and a couple of important calls to prepare for today, so I set out on a 'Chris Day of Fun' alone.... 

I headed to the Edo Tokyo museum which charted the history of the city, and was actually really cool. Moving from feudal Japan and the importance of the region, to the progression of society with western influence, the major earthquakes, and then the effect of WW2. And I got to sit in a palanquin.

Also, I found that there used to be an important ceremony involving floats and thousands of people, with this giant chicken structure being one of them.... I need helpers to recreate this at Nottinghill next year.

After a couple of hours of exhibits and being shoved by dozens children on school trips, I left and set off for Akihabara. And I wasn't disappointed... At the station there was a model company's stall showing how interesting it was to build their new models. It was interesting.

I carried on into 'electric city', an area crammed full of pachinko halls, slot machines (which pay out token coins, which you still swap for prizes... So it's definately not gambling then..ahem...), and arcade machines. The last of these sections were the most interesting, not least because at 2pm on a weekday, they were rammed full of 20-something guys playing floor after floor of arcade game. Most of these games I hadn't ever seen, and involved arriving with a pack of collectible cards and placing them on a special surface. The surface then scanned and recognised them, and you could move your football players, armies, or whatever else the cards represented, around depending on the game type. A lot of these guys were in suits so I guess they had somewhere they were supposed to be.

Having wasted time and money on another pachinko session (never again), and some cool arcade games, I had a look around the manga district. I wandered around one six storey building for 10 minutes before being told it was a women's comic store; men's was the 8 storey building next door. Despite this neither had anything in English, which was a shame.

I got back on the shrine tour and finished by seeing the Confusious temple. What stuck me was how the surrounding buildings fitted around the temples, but didn't obstruct or stifle them; each could have been in Koyo or Nara, but it was an island of peace in Tokyo.

I bought a 7 eleven lunch and was looking for somewhere to sit when I found this view, halfway across a road bridge. It was its own world and reminded me of someone's giant model train set. I stood, ate my lunch, and watched this miniature world for fifteen minutes.

Further on my wander I found what looked like a military equipment store, but while the scopes, helmets, clothes where all real, the guns were fake (bb-guns). And the shop model was a horse.

I finished my wander as it was getting dark, but I was ready for another day of Tokyo discovery!

Chris

Tokyo - day one

We had finally arrived in Tokyo! We checked into our ryokan for the night, and found it was a really nice mix of old and new; concrete floors, wifi, a jacuzzi on the top floor, great use of hidden space, and then traditional mats for the bedrooms. Here's our room. 

We were only staying here for one night, so we set off to explore the local area, Asakusa. And to our joy, the main attraction was a five storey pagoda! 

There was also this temple there, which was pretty cool though. We had our fortunes told by picking sticks from a tin, and then going to the appropriate draw to get our fortune on paper. Mine was neither negative nor positive...the "carry on with what you're doing, you're awesome" stick. Jane's told her that misfortune was around the corner, and not to make any major life decisions with regards to job, love, or property. Stupid stick.

We left that area and found ourselves in a tourist market (or as I now call them, 'tat market', as we found in India that the same 'unique' stuff is sold at each for vastly varying prices). This one had a dog hat stall though, which I have to admit is actually fairly unique.

We moved on again and tracked down 'kitchen alley', a road that's dominated by every conceivable kitchenware, appliance, cutlery set, or ice cube tray imaginable. Just wandering through the shops is incredible, and you come out with some great ideas! 

My favourite bits were: 

   - dinosaur ice cube tray.

   - bento box Tupperware.

   - all the sake sets.

   - a shop only selling chopsticks (the only thing we bought here).

   - the earthenware cups.

   - the coffee machine shop that had giant coffee cup balconies down the side (see below).

   

Next we headed to Akihabara for the world famous 'Robot Restaurant'. Akihabara is a neon metropolis, where it seems you can get 24hr roadside fancy dress!

 To see the Robot Restaurant, you decend through some of the craziest stairways and corridors I've ever seen, but it still doesn't prepare you.

I can't really explain what the Robot Restaurant is, other than there were robots, girls, drums, girls riding giant robot spiders and our first introduction to sake in jam jars....the last of which definitely helped.

All in all, a great first day in Tokyo!

Chris