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November 30th 2007

Published: November 29th 2007

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Bennan

Narita Airport

the first challenge - 34kg snowboard bags on the subway

Ok, i'm starting up with this blog now .... i'll get onto posting a few photos with comments on soon and this 'blog' will predominately follow this format. I don't really want to write loads and bang-on about crap stories/ classic times/ hilarious moments etc, but until we get to Niseko and get established enough to upload a few photos i'll do a bit of writing....

We stayed in Asakusa, Tokyo for 5 nights. Hard to sum up the whole experience we had there in so few words so i'll bullet point some highlights:

* felt ill and jetlagged for about 80%!o(MISSING)f the time

* we met this Aussie girl called Sarah on the plane - she'd worked in Tokyo for a few years as a DJ and told us a few places to visit. She was dressed in a huge fur coat and spent most of the 12 hour flight talking to Nick about raving and how when she goes to the UK she never leaves East London . She did reccommend going to a few good place though:

- we went to

Senso-ji Temple

first arty shot!

the fish market at 6am one morning - crazy place, i'll put up some photos soon
- and went to this other Camden type# area which had a load of cool bars/ markets

#note we have a LDN comparison for every place we visit: Shibuya/Oxford Street, Akibura/Tottenham Court Road etc - horrible Brits.

* the toilets are amazing - firstly you sit down to a pre-heated seat > do your business > then you have a choice of three wash jets that fire up at your bum . The first is a direct hit - very powerful and a bit too intense, number two is a lighter wider jet which is really warm and pleasant, number three has a picture of a woman - I'm scared of it. Everytime you go to the toilet you come out in fits of laughter - they should export them.

* we hated hostel people from the outset. It's a pure culture of travelling one-upmanship, self-promotion and trivia knowledge bravado. Apart from the predictably annoying Australians and there are lots

Imperial Gardens

Nick and I at the Imperial Gardens

of English guys who love chatting crap. It really grates - we were perched on the hostel periphery for the most part I think it was the best decision. Although there was a few sound Irish people and a couple from Hong Kong we hung around with for the most part.

* Asakusa was cool though. It is the old centre of the city when Tokyo was called Edo so it's rich in temples and shrines

* Japanese is a struggle - we're comfortable when we are dictating the conversation, however this rarely happens and we are overusing hai . If anyone speak to us we fire back a bout of hai,hai,hai,hai's - much to their confusion.
- on that note we've had a good warm reception when we've tried to speak Japanese

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