Tokyo, Japan

---

For the love of Tokyo...

Tokyo is one of the best cities in the world. We arrived on the bus (after passing Mount Fuji on the way) and was soon part of the hussle of Tokyo. Coffees will set you back $12 and beers cost a fortune, but somehow all is forgiven here.

Shinjuku area is covered with neon lights, tall buildings and hundreds of people walking round. We headed out for our first night out and picked up some Aussies along the way. We headed for a sushi train dinner and had the best sushi in all of Tokyo and for only 100Y a piece. A mixture of raw fish and eggs (Oz!) and we were ready to start drinking. Luckily for us, one of the Australian girls spoke fluent Japanese so we were pretty sorted. We headed straight for the red light district and found many hosts who were more then happy to point us to a karaoke bar. After doing some wheeling and dealing, we scored a cool little room with unlimited cocktails for two hours. Within this two hours, we managed to sing (murder) dozens of songs, drink copious amounts of booze and danced on the chairs. Stumbling out all tipsy, we posed with the hosts, wrestled a toy tiger in the street and headed for the famous Japanese arcades. We all managed to get into a photo booth and took some photos, and walked around playing games along the way. The arcades are a major attraction here and some of the games are just plain weird. The best game we saw was a typing game, where you had to type the words as fast as you can otherwise you would be gunned down by monsters. You just can't make this stuff up!

After many hours of pure randomness on the streets of Tokyo, we managed to make it back to our hostel within 10 minutes of being locked out, and headed for our capsules. Instead of beds, we have capsules which are basically wooden coffins (with a curtain thank you very much) that you sleep in. I think there are 28 people to a room, with little ladders connecting the capsules.

The next day, we were pretty hung over but went to see the sites, including the Kabaki-Za theatre, which is a beautiful japanese theatre, the Tokyo Metro Building which has views of the whole of Tokyo, the senso-ji temple and we also went to see the "famous" pedetrian crossing. This crossing is basically like a 6 way crossing where hundreds of people all cross the road in everywhich direction all at once. I have a video of this and it is quite impressive to be in the middle of it.

---