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Published: November 26th 2006
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Its sooooo cold here! Same as you guys in Engalnd! What a place though, we knew no one would speak english here so we had prepared ourselves, but its not till you arrive and really experience it thats its real. You try talking to someone especially when trying to find your hotel, you get a blank expression and a response in Japanese, with both sides having no idea what the other said. Apart from that we had a brill time and got through the language with flying colours. Speaking with your hands and a bit of role play works wonders! After finallly finding the hotel and a 1 hour 30 mins train journey after a 8 hour flight, we arrived and checked in, only to find out check in was at 3.00pm, it was 8.00am in the morning. With Japan being so expensive we had to pay to be let in our room early £30 to be exact, still had to wait 2 hours for it to be made up. Once in the room, we caught up on the sleep that we missed and accidently slept alll day! One day missed, but we needed it. That night we decided to go
for dinner, being in Kiba (just outside Tokyo) we really were in a place where no engliah was spoken, so dinner was bound to be eventful. Luckily for us we eat Japanese food at home so just ordering would be the problem, we knew we would like the food, it was all in Japanese and the guy who owned it spoke no english, we pointed to what we though was noodle soup and Gyoza (pork dumplings, for those non wagamamas fans) and hey presto we had a slap up meal. Considering the high prices it was very reasonable at £4.00 a head. It became our restaurant for the time we were there!
The next day we spent the day shopping and checking out Tokyo city. God it was exceptional! Expensive but fab, only a 15 min train ride. We went to Ginza which is the big shopping place, dept stores and Gucci, Burberry etc, we plannned to do Xmas shopping but way too expensive. Great though as all the xmas decs were up with xmas music, so really got us in the mood. The only thing we will mention is the looks we got, we did not see one
tourist or caucasion person, they looked at us as if we were aliens, not in a bad way as they were all so friendly and smiles but it was clear there are not many overseas vistors and we were asked by a guy who spoke fluent english, what we came here for a holiday? The funniest were little kids, they had never seen a blonde haired girl and would stare at Amanda is amazement. In light of all that, that was what made the experience and the whole feeling of Tokyo, it was actually exhilarating to go to a country where everything was to their custom and ways and traditions. We embraced it with true enjoyment. As for the population problem, woweee, we have never seem so many people, especailly in Shibuya where all the big screens, lights etc are, it was breathtaking, but you could not move for people. We took video of this so make sure you bug as to show it to you wheen we get back,we can also send it via email. We also came accross game arcades where people of all ages, play pin ball machines . There were hundreds of buckets just layed on
the floor filed with pinballs fpr loading and you actually had to step over them The atmosphere was electric and with the bright lights this was what we came to Tokyo for! The weidest and funniest thing though, was the sheer amount of people that piled in a train, they had someone pushing them in and shutting the door! People faces prseed up against the window and they look like they had been splatted, we even missed four trains just to watch in amazement, was so funny, of course we got a picture, but the pic we took was pretty much empty, it got much worse!
The next day was what we had planned for Tokyo. Disneyland! Yes they have one, Steve has now done all of the disneys, Amanda has done LA but not Florida. Now what we were to experience this day was like nothing else, it opened at 8.00am, we got there about 9.30 and we could not move, it was jammed! Approx 60,000 people. People sat and got positions for the parade two hours before hand, it was mad, we only got on three rides, all day (one of which was a real kiddie ride)
We queued two hours for one ride, and that was short. However, as we had done it in Los Angeles we focussed more on pictures with the characters and the parade. The whole place was christmas themed so it was spectacular and the parade was immense, so good that it brings a tear to your eye, especially seeing the little kids faces. We actually thought the shows etc were better than America, but at the same time so totally different, some of it was even in Japanese which was amazing. Hope you like the pictures, it was a great day.
So guys, we have nearly come to the end, and even though we have done Dubai many times before we are going to make sure we do different things than we normally do. Watch this space!
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Hopey
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Looks Ace
Hey Guys Sorry I haven't been in contact i've been keeping up with the blog but it all looked so exciting compared to england I didn't have much to say in comparison. Glad to see Toyko has its own Northern Line. Have fun in dubai!