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Published: February 23rd 2016
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Metro map
Not complicated at all... So for those keeping score I'm in Japan. Last week my friend Craig and I flew to Tokyo to meet another friend Conner and his bud Matt. This is the first part of our Japan, China, and North Korea trip.
Anyways, it's been 5 days in Japan now and it's very different than I had expected. Japan just doesn't feel like Asia at all. Having been to SE Asia Japan just seems soft. It's no different than any other western city except there are 37 million Japanese people in the greater Tokyo area... And that's without any exageration.
So as of now we've been doing proper tourist things. Plus consuming lots of alcohol from the 7/11, Family mart, and Lawson convenience stores - which might be a faux pas to drink on the street or trains but it's not illegal so we'll just play the stupid gaijin (foreigner) card for now. But I digress;
We visited Mt Takao where we hiked to the top of the 599 meter peak. It has a clear view of the 3700 meter Mt Fuji and has a temple on the peak as well.
The imperial palace was kind of a let
down honestly. There was only a gardens and the foundation of a castle or something to see. Even then I've seen much better gardens elsewhere. That afternoon it was pouring rain so we went bowling and visited some crazy electronic stores to escape the weather. Turns out the biggest electronics stores called Bic Camera also sell lots of liquor and cold drinks. We even found 5 liter bottles of the local whisky.
The other places we've visited have been the meiji shrine, odaiba, government building towers, asakusa neighbourhood with temples and market, and Shinjuku area. Mostly we've been just wandering around - eating and seeing what's to be seen.
Today we saw the neighbourhood of Asakusa. This has a concentration of temples, shrines, and a local market. We did the proper thing and got our fortune from one of the temples. 2 out of 3 of us were given bad fortunes and my "good fortune" still told me to quit my job and stop travelling. So not sure I'll be believing that one. Asakusa is also a short walk from the Tokyo skytree tower. It's a huge 635 meters tall and on a clear day gives views of
the 80km away mt fuji. Today was not one of those days but we also opted to go see the view for free from the Metropolitan Government Building instead. It offers a 360 view from the 46th floor of a building in the Shinjuku district. Still very impressive regardless.
Tomorrow we've got not much on our plates. We stumbled upon a Ramen joint just around the corner that we'll hit up for lunch and I found a sports pub which has 20 beers on tap and champions League on at a logical time. I don't even mind watching bayern vs Juve on a replay at 745 in the evening instead of 445 in the morning...
The day after tomorrow Conner will head home and Craig and I will head south to Nagoya for a day before checking out Kyoto and Osaka before flying off to Beijing.
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