Blogs from Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 235

So I left Pearson in Toronto this morning at around 8:00. And close to 18 hours later I am at the Tokyo international aiport waiting for my connection flight to Bangkok. There really isn't anything exciting to write about yet as all I really have done is sit on a plane. The 12.5 hour flight from Chicago definitely was killer, I think I watched 4 full movies. It's finally setting in that I am actually doing this. When I first took off from Toronto I had this odd panic/excitment, it just kind of hit me that I am actually doing this. So I catch a flight in about 3 hours which lands in Bangkok at around midnight. From there I have to make my way 35 KM south to Backpackers lane and find a place to ... read more

This past weekend, Eve and new Australian friends Donna and Lauren (who also live in Fukushima) went to Tokyo for Saturday night. Eve and I headed over to the Harajuku area of Western Tokyo for some shopping in the boutiques. In our 20 minutes travelling there on the subway, it had started pouring rain, so by the time we came above ground in Harajuku, there were wet tourists and umbrellas everywhere. We decided to huddle under our umbrellas and press on through the streets. Harajuku is famous for its “Harajuku girls” who dress up in Halloween-type costumes and hang out on the streets and in the near-by Yoyogi Park. Being a Harajuku kid is all about standing out and being different. There are groups that dress up as Rockabilly’s, Goth club kids, and those who just ... read more

A short one... Today is my last full day in Tokyo and I haven't even seen one tenth of what I wanted to see. There's so much to experience and transportation between the different places is such a time consumer! On todays program we have Tokyo, the actual city...the imperial grounds...and Harajuku, which mean big time and trendy shopping among Japanese youngsters dying to stand out. Until now I've mostly tried to find my way around the western parts of metropolitan Tokyo, around Shinjuku and Shibuya. I guess I'd need a month here to really get a hold of it all... I went music hunting the other day trying to find some good Japanese stuff, but I must say the quality is kind of crappy...at least when I listened around at Tower Records. Ok, big store ... read more

Very small update this time. I've had a rather unpleasant month, spending 2 weeks with a fever, then one week with tonsillitis, followed by a week nursing an allergic reaction to the tonsillitis medication (apparently my body doesn't like penicillin anymore). I've basically spent the month in bed; reading, taking medicine, and eating yogurt. I think I screwed up that punctuation. Japanese doesn't really have punctuation, which can be nice sometimes. But i guess it has similar things. I'm not really sure what I'm saying, so I'll move on. I ate many litres of yogurt, and am continuing to do so. The Aloe variety is very popular here, and contains small clear chunks of aloe inside, which are quite delicious. After my fever seemed to be gone, and before noticing that I had tonsillitis, I had ... read more

My second day in Tokyo... It's a crazy city...or more urban area since you don't really have just one city centre but several. Yesterday I mostly went around Shinjuku, a hip business and entertainment area in western Tokyo. I got lost in the station complex a couple of times which is like a maze with several levels above and below ground as well as shopping centres and terminals for a number of different train lines and companies. It's not easy to find your way out, and when you do you don't exactly end up where you had planned. And all the time people...everywhere... Though I still haven't experienced the real rush hour with people crammed into the train carts like sardines in tin cans. Word has it that when such a train arrives at the platform, ... read more