Japan Travels Part 3 - Tokyo

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January 23rd 2011

Published: January 30th 2011

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Tink And Laura

Delicious ramen

Laura tucking in shortly before nosebleed number three,

Dear Blog Readers,

Here is the third part of our Japan travel blogs. This one is dedicated to Tokyo. If you haven't done so already, check out parts 1 and 2 by clicking here:

Part 1 - Korea
Part 2 - Osaka

Tokyo

Barring the mental scarring that occurred during the night, we both got a good sleep and made our way to the train station for some breakfast. The old man in front got his hotdog and Laura confused the waitress after asking for a coffee, she was asked, “Hot or cold?” to which she responded, “Black.” We also found a shop selling KitKat’s in ridiculous flavours, such as Japanese Hot Chilli, Blueberry Cheesecake and Shintsu Apple. We’re debating whether it’s worth the £7 to buy a box of them or not. We got on a nearly empty bullet train and fired our way towards Tokyo!

When we arrived in Tokyo, we got ridiculously confused by the subway system (again!) but eventually found our way to Asakusa and to our hostel. It was pretty new and perfect for catering for backpackers so we got a dorm and was sharing with an Australian guy called James who knew where Kirkbride was and

Where's Laura?

The road up to the temple. Can you spot Laura???

a typical Frenchman who wore white trousers and a purple bowler hat. We were hungry and noticed a small place across the road which was selling really cheap and very delicious ramen. We got a bowl each but before I could finish I felt my nose running. Oh no. Not again. Not now whilst I’m eating very delicious ramen! It was NC=3.

Across the road was an amazing Buddhist temple called Senso-ji which had some really beautiful buildings and temples lining the streets and surrounding area. We then got a subway to Akihabra which had both normal and completely mental shops within the vicinity of each other. We went to a cool electronics department store and checked out all the really new and advanced cameras. We then went to a few comic book stores and it was a bit odd. The aisles were lined with young, middle aged and old Japanese thumbing through comic books! There were so many comic books and they catered for every imaginable taste – including comic porno books!

We were now extremely cautious and weary of accidently going into one of these ‘dodgy’ comic book shops. Outside the shops it was even more

Senso-ji Temple

Beautiful temple about a minute away from our hostel.

bizarre. All the shops seem to be playing ‘The Battle Hymn Of The Republic’ at full volume and our brains were beginning to melt with the amount of lights and information surrounding us. Furthermore, the area is famous for having ‘maid cafes’ which are cafes and restaurants where the waitresses are dressed up as maids. The maids line the streets trying to buy your attention, and then, custom by taking you to the shop. They are made to look as young as possible and doll like. The posters on the sides of the buildings are covered in the anime characters that the maids are trying to aspire to. It really is very very odd.

We thought we ought to get back to a sense of normality so we got the subway back towards our hostel but stopped in a traditional sushi restaurant for dinner. We both realised that this was to be our first authentic sushi experience. Laura had never had it before whereas I’ve had the odd piece from a cling filmed Sainsbury’s packet. You shout out your order to the chef who is at the centre and he shouts “Hai” which means “Yes!” and rustles you up

Senso-ji Temple 2

The surrounding temples are just as impressive.

your sushi in a matter of seconds. The sushi is not only phenomenally good tasting, it is also very cheap! As we walked out the restaurant I nearly found myself saying to a Brit couple who had just sat down, “I recommend the eel or the horse mackerel.” After our sushi we headed towards a bar which was recommended by the hostel because they gave us free sake. Laura had both of ours and says it’s ricey, not too dry and better than soju. We met some foreigners there and had a good laugh before parting ways.

Saturday started with us getting predictably lost on the subway system – I can’t stress how confusing it is – and I ended up sitting next to a 40 year old man watching anime on his mobile phone. This made me more confused. We were on our way to Tsukiji Fish Market which is world renowned as being one of the best sea food markets on the planet. The fish have come straight from the sea and they specialise in tuna. They have a really exciting auction for the tuna first thing in the morning (about 5am) which normally is open for

Computer Shop

Testing out the new arrivals.

tourists but they have closed it off because the tourists keep getting in the way and taking photos instead of buying any tuna. Fair play I say. We arrived at about 11am when everything was closing up. There were still huge queues outside the sushi restaurants and they were selling the same sushi we had the day before at five times the price. We had a lot to do so we didn’t stay to find out if it was five times better. We did get to have a good look around the market area though and saw some amazing seafood including a huge tuna!

We then walked to nearby Ginza which is a really fashionable shopping street; they say it is Tokyo’s answer to New York’s 5th Avenue. As you can imagine, Laura was in heaven shopping at some really unique Japanese clothes shops which you can’t find anywhere else in the world such as H&M, Zara and Forever 21. We then visited the Sony Building which was really cool because they gave you the opportunity to see, use and experience some of their new and unreleased products. We’ve both decided that 3D is a waste of money because

Comic Book Shop

Look at the lines of people reading!!

we could only stand looking at the screen for about 25 seconds before our brains started haemorrhaging. HD, on the other hand, was phenomenal and they’re planning on bringing out SuperHD which is even higher high definition, but I guess High High Definition doesn’t quite have the ring for it.

Before getting lunch we noticed a group of people surrounding a sign post. How odd. We investigated further and the group of Japanese were taking photos of some cats that were on top of the signpost and a man picking up those that had fallen off and putting them back on top. Can you imagine how many would be taking photographs of ‘Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate’ if we kept putting a few pigeons on top of it? We went into Citi bank and had our first attempt at using our cards. Mine was successful and just as I finished, Laura started attempting to use hers on the neighbouring ATM machine. I walked over to give her a hand before hearing my machine beeping wildly. It was one of those action movie ‘Noooooo!’ moments as I watched the £250 I had just withdrawn but forgotten to actually take out of the machine was

Mushroom

Oh dear.

swallowed back inside. Damn! Luckily the customer services guy was able to tell me my money was safe and would return back into my account in 10 days.

We got back on the subway and accidently ended up in the women’s only carriage. This was OK for Laura obviously, but for me, it was distinctly awkward. The subway gets so full during rush hour that people are literally crammed in like sardines into the carriages. An unfortunate, but distinctly disturbing, aspect of this is that some Japanese men think it is OK to use this as an opportunity to grope women on the carriage. The problem is such that they have got designated women’s only carriages. After a short trip of uncomfortable stares from Japanese women we got off at Ueno.

Like Akihabra, Ueno is one of those very odd parts of Tokyo. Basically, teenage girls who get bullied during the week at school find solace in dressing up as their favourite anime characters and going shopping in Ueno on a weekend. In particular, the shops on Takeshi Street are quite cool and full of anime and Totoro stuff which I could buy for my nephew. Laura was

Time Crisis!!!

Retro gaming shop bringing back the memories...

in her element but the claustrophobic nature of cramming as many things as possible into a shop was beginning to get to me. My new technique is just to wait outside the shop, but this was particularly uncomfortable on this particular street as I found myself getting stared at by two girls dressed as Minnie Mouse and Ariel! My personal favourite shops were the 500 Yen shop being next door, and therefore, in direct competition with the 390 Yen shop.

We then walked through a beautiful park and arrived at a Shinto temple just as the sun was setting. People were throwing money into a huge box before praying which I thought was odd because all religions in Japan are free, by law, so the temple isn’t allowed to take the donations. Where does the money go!?

On our way back, we wanted to check out Shibuya Crossing. This is that famous crossing in the centre of Tokyo where hundreds of people cross the road every single time the man turns green. We tried to get a sneaky photo from the Starbucks overlooking it but got told off. It really is spectacular, and the physicist inside me convinced

Sushi

First time having sushi! Give me more eel!

myself that the equations of Brownian motion can surely be applied to the so called random crossing of people in opposite directions. We got back to the hostel and found a nearby restaurant where I ordered, accidently, friend chicken cartilage. It wasn’t too bad actually, but I wouldn’t order it again, unless it was by accident. The Grand Final for the Sumo was happening near our hostel that evening but all the tickets had sold out unfortunately. We heard sumo was really boring to watch though so I don’t think we missed too much out on it.

A rush for trains on Sunday morning was in a vain attempt to try and get to Tokyo Tower because the skies were clear and we thought we might get a chance at seeing the elusive Mount Fuji. Mt Fuji is the tallest mountain in Japan and it overlooks Tokyo from 100km away. It is elusive because it is notoriously covered in clouds so you can be a few kilometres from it and still not be able to see it! My main reason, however, for going to Tokyo Tower was because it is one of most horrendous looking buildings I’ve ever seen,

Asakusa

Asakusa by night. Horrible structure number 1 - the deformed parsnip.

and even better, it is in the same shape as the Eiffel Tower. It boasts that it is 9m taller than its French counterpart, but it is at the very least, 9 times uglier. Laura was literally repulsed by the building upon first sight. We got a ticket to the first observation deck which was sufficient to get some great views and we could see Mount Fuji really clearly! Unfortunately the zoom on our camera isn’t great so the photos probably won’t do it justice, but it was really great to actually see it. On the way down, I noticed a Japanese man in a beret and a performing monkey. I can’t decide which one I found more ridiculous or shocking.

Anyway, our short time in Tokyo was completed and it was now time to look forward to a week of snowboarding in Hakuba!

Tink and Laura

PS: Part 4 of our Japan travel blogs will be coming soon!!!

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