Week 3, On to Japan, on my own!

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Again just a quick one.....
Flew in to Tokyo for Week 3 and immediately found myself at Narita airport with no japanese currency and no atms in sight. What´s the deal with the japanese and atms? Luckily met a dude from nyc on the flight who filled me in on the essential data before landing. With help of credit card made it into town and got lost trying to find my hostel. Even the taxi driver could not find it. Another black art: finding a place in tokyo based on the actual written address.
After settling into my 3 triple-bunk dorm (v nice but a little cramped) in Azabu, which is a ovely neigbourhood next to Roppongi (gai-jin ville), check out the town and fell in love with it. Tokyo is super cool, evrythiong is so interesting, they have the best motorbike/scooters I have ever seen and the people are great. Met some nice kids at the hostel and hung out and on my first night we were enjoying complementary drinks in one of the restaurants at the Grand Hyatt Roppongi, due to one of my new best friends having a cousin who managed the restaurant. Over next days spent doing tourist stuff and walking around taking everything in, its super safe so you can walk anywhere if you want. The night before I went to Kyoto, did an all nighter in a lot of crazy bars culminating in a walk around the Tsukilji Fish Market at 7am. On to Kyoto on the Shinkansen (bullet train) felling rather odd. The shinkansen is probably the most amazing sight from the exterior but dissappointingly dreary from inside, but it is fast which is the point.
Kyoto was different but equally fascanating. Lots of temples, old buildings, no highrises, and some of the longest shopping arcades I have ever seen. The schoolgirls dress like hookers and the hookers like schoolgirls. Did not do too many temples but had a good sleep in the park surrounding the imperial palace, my idea of having ´done´a town.
Back to Tokyo for a last drunken night out and some fabulous sushi and then off to Hawaii  the next day.
again no pics, had not been digitalised at this point (cameras are not that cheap in Japan)

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Comments

[Savage]

Heeeyyyy!!
Indrin! I didn't know you'd wound up on here... sorry I missed your entries! Let me know how the travels are going, or if you're back in England now. I was going to come back in England, but have settled on a cross country trip in the States instead... something I've always wanted to do. Hope you're doing well.