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Published: December 19th 2007
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The Bullet train ride up from Kyoto to Tokyo was like ticking off one of the final boxes of things I wanted to do on this trip. The Nosomi express was incredible fun, with the scenery of a two and a half hour trip flashing past the windows like a video screen on fast forward. My mate Dan once said that the Dutch double-decker trains were like the Rolls-Royce of locomotives - debatable - but if thats true, then this Japanese Shinkansen is a Lambourgini Diablo. The front of it looks like a muscle-bound and ripped giant metallic projectile on rails. In saying that, Germany's ICE Train remains in first place for me. It's outside has a painjob like Face's Corvette in the A-Team while the sleek interior looks as if it's been designed and hand crafted in the Porsche factories in Stuttgart. Anyway, enough train chat...
I'd been in touch with Lucie G before arriving who has been living a fine life in Tokyo with her fella Flynn here for the last month or so and when she mentioned the metropolitan area of Shinjuku, that was good enough for me. When I arrived in Tokyo I somehow and thankfully
managed to get from the central train station to the district of Shinjuku while carrying a large rucksack on my back, a small one over my chest, holding a 3-piece suit in one hand and a bag of Christmas presents in the other, without getting lost. The underground map for Tokyo details a complicated and intricate tangle of lines with crazy names and I was very relieved to quickly pull into Shinjuku Station.
The next hour was spent wandering around Tokyo's crazy streets well and truely lost as I followed the pigeon English and inaccurate directions from the website belonging to the hotel I'd booked - if only the directions had said "behind the giant "EPSON" sign!" After asking countless folks for help, I finally stumbled on the hotel, stashed way down some little grid alleyways. On first impressions, Shinjuku appeared nothing more than a caldron of corporate skyscrapers but on wandering around in the evenings (and just a couple of minutes after all from the hotel), I found the district's neon-torched centre and this amazing image of Japan that I had wanted to encounter while visiting. If I thought Las Vegas had a lot of lightbulbs, it's definitely
got competition from Tokyo and downtown Shinjuku and Shibuya in particular - it's an incredible sight.
My five days in Tokyo were a lot of fun. With trying to get the head around coming home and detaching from this incredible six month adventure, I decided to do little more than wander around the city and absorb whatever came up instead of pro-actively handpicking things to see and do. By meeting up with Lucie and Flynn, who schedule the majority of their time to revolve around learning Aikido in the city, I had a great time. It was interesting to see these guys still thumbing their well-used copy's of Lonely Planet but it was a clout on the head of any hopes I had to get up to speed with Tokyo 'ways' within my paltry 5 days of play there.
A cool touristy thing we did do was to visit the observation decks at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Towers. From there, we were able to look down and across the concrete jungle of Tokyo and take in dusk throwing a shadowy cloak over the city's blocks as the sun disappeared behind Mt Fuji on the horizon. It
made the metropolis look really attractive and it was cool to see the street lights, neon signs and aeroplane warning blinkers gradually flicker on and off to make Japan look like one big deranged display of Christmas tree lights laid out before us. After that, I was introduced to the wonderous tastes of "Mr Donuts" - Awesome; no other flattering lexicon required...
Another stand out memory of Tokyo was visiting an Aikido class that Flynn was taking part in and looking on with Lucie as she explained what was going on as robed bodies were being directed and 'thrown' around a mat in a gym hall. Aikido appeared to be a relatively defensive and almost spiritual martial art so it was strange to see a full on offensive and vocal Karate' class going on in the adjoining mat in the hall. Quite some extremes! Once the class was finished, we were invited out for some food and beer at a traditional place around the corner which was a very friendly and welcoming gesture as the guys and girls from the class appeared fairly close-knit. In the company of so many martial arts experts I made doubly sure not to
spill anyone's pint or glass of sake' and it was a really cool experience to sit cross legged around the table eating, drinking and chatting away with the folk from the Aikido class. An apt scenario to test my now honed chop-stick skills!
On our way home during that last night in Japan and fuelled by the sake', the three of us ventured onwards to a bar for a few cheerio nightcaps of Sapporo and again, for me to try and get my head around returning home. It was a long night that was omminously concluded with whiskey in a Scottish themed bar hidden away and discovered by absolute chance in the depths of Shinjuku's side streets. A fitting place to toast to the end of an awesome trip with a glass of Islay's finest...
*************
The next day, following a 24 hour door-to-door journey starting from my hotel in Tokyo, I pulled up outside Britta's flat in a taxi, (alongside said patient girlfriend) in chilly Edinburgh. It's been six months since I left, heading in the opposite direction past The Meadows and it's been some adventure alright. In saying that, I'm taking understanding from the phrase:
Lucie and Flynn - Tokyo's Resident Mancunian's
1 month in and still on the Lonely Planet, tsk, tsk... "Theres no place like home." and in the lead up to Christmas and New Year, there's nowhere else in the World I'd rather be than in Edinburgh.
I hope this blog has kept you in touch with what I've been up to and maybe the photos and stuff have lightened a few lunch hours at the desk along the way or the long-winded anecdotes have assited any insomniacs to drift off to sleep at night.
If I havent seen you yet since I got back, or I missed you at the surprise party : ) I hope to see you very soon. If your reading this and were part of the stories and pictures, then thanks for the memories and happy travels to wherever you happen to drift on towards next.
By the way, Trung - are you still missing the Fiji Gold at all...?! I am! See you at Christmas mate, it's your round, hehehe! ; )
Cheers!
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Rich Hall
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Back in the burgh!
Hey mate - just a quick message to say this blog was awesome - loved keeping up to date with all yer adventures. I can't believe I missed you when I was in Stirling, however we'll have to get a night out in Edinburgh sorted sometime soon. Catch ya soon -Rich