Perfect Day in Tokyo

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Up early(ish) considering the jet lag and out for a full day in Tokyo. All started very well with some nice coffee and toast in the train station before heading to Shinjuku. Sarah was very keen to get up a major building to get a feel for the city so we headed straight for the metropolitan building for some pretty awesome and free views from the 42nd floor. Quite difficult to conceive of a city that is so highrise and so sprawled at the same time, we had a competition about how many people live in the area but at 6, 12 and 15 million I have the feeling that we are all undercalling it by quite a significant margin.

From the towers we headed across to Shinjuku goyen which a large park famed for its cherry blossom. We weren't to be disappointed as clearly this is one of the last week's of the blossom and the locals were determined to make the most of it. Literally thousands of Tokyo-ites of all ages sitting under the trees with some fairly sophisticated picnic hampers enjoying the sunshine and the last of the blooms. We wandered all the way through the park admiring the serenity of so many people taking in the air replete with girls dressed in cherry blossom matching colours and legions of hardcore photographers. Even the cherry blossom ice cream tasted just perfect.

From this park we crossed into Yoyogi park and walked down some very nice tree lined avenues which were being meticulously and tediously swept clean of leaves by one or two very patient individuals. In the middle of the park is a large shrine which appears to be THE place to have your wedding ceremony. Appeared to be an endless procession of extremely well turned out wedding parties taking it in turns to cross the temple courtyard with about as many tourists snapping them in their kimono's as there was relatives following behind.

From here we took the main avenue down to the bottom of the park which ends at Harijuku station. This lived up to expectations with all sorts of weird and wonderful teenagers dressed up as goths, fairies, punks etc. although it almost had the feel of a tourist attraction. The streets around the station were incredibly busy and we struggeled to make our way to what I guess would the equivalent of Camden market with all the crazy kinds of pink punk and little bo peep outfits you could want. At this stage we were all feeling the effects of much park walking but struggled to find a sushi restaurant and in the end has some very nice grilled veg with rice and miso.

Feeling suitably revived we fought our way back to Harijuku station where the ladies had seen some shoes they wanted to check out. I went back to the south of the park to find that the rockabilly crowd had arrived and managed to grab a few more pictures of oddness. We met back up and made our way down the main shopping boulevard. Much more trendy than Ginza but no less high-end its own way, lots of little alleys with trendy local brands or US boutiques. Had a quick browse but didn't find anything that I felt brave enough to check the price tag on.

Slowly made our way to the end of the shopping area and decided that was quite enough for one day of walking so headed back to the hotel and promptly all crashed out for an hour or so. Now getting ready to meet up with Sanj's friend Yorika for hopefully a locally guided night out on the town... who knows where we might end up?

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Yorika's boyfriend is an Indian expat so he chose a local south indian restaurant above the posh stores of Ginza. Interesting to talk to him about living in Tokyo, which despite being here for three years he insists he has got by without learning the language. Seems to be quite like life in Beijing with a strong expat life running somewhat parallel to the local culture. After dinner we decided to try and check out a bit of the social scene but were a bit disappointed to find that most things in the area were locking up rather than gearing up. Ended up traveling back across to Shimbuya to find a very cool chill out bar called Insomnia. All red carpets and cool lighting but our lets go with the flow approach with cocktail ordering left us with three drinks with far more cream, bean juice and other randomness than would have been desired. Stayed late discussing the merits of head vs. heart relationships and braved our first taxi ride home at about three - 3,000 yen isn't absolutely exorbitant but you wouldn't want to be doing it all the time.

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