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Published: December 7th 2006
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Shamefully we've let the blog slip again but now that we're not having to take out a mortgage to scratch an hour on the internet we thought we'd try and remember our week in Japan to tell you all about it.
Well, actually that shouldn't be too hard as we spent a very memorable week in the hospitally of Tokyo, Katie's brother Darren, his friend Deirdre (another irish student in Tokyo who can be very convincing when it comes to an all night drinking sesh!) and all the surrounding salarymen so bear with me if this goes on. You will probably hear subtly different accounts of Tokyo but all should have the main theme of culture running throughout. For your average 'gaijin' coming to Tokyo (and the rest of Japan as far as we could tell), the biggest culture shock is not one of the fabled stereotypically short people or their struggling grasp of English sentence construction but actually how very cultured, polite, well-mannered (they form queues for the subway!) and clean the people are. In my opinion this isn't given enough press. Of course we wouldn't be naive enough to think that the pleasantries spouted at you as you
enter any retail establishment (yes McDonald's included!) are indeed sincere or that the bowing isn't more that habit but as someone who doesn't understand a word of Japanese or the complex culture of the place it was more than enough to impress us and make me more glad than I was to be out of Bangkok.
Luckily we had a friendly face to greet us at the airport (thanks again Darren!) who helped us navigate our way through what we perceived as Tokyo's only down-fall, the slightly too complex subway system of lines owned by different private companies. Arriving at the aptly named Jimbocho station we were tired and ready for our beds, our very Japan-style bunk-beds with accompanying Kimonos for the trip to the immaculately kept bathrooms. Best accomodation we've had so far!
I quickly came to the conclusion that the Japanese obviously got very good at making things as we all know but even cleverer than that they've made even better versions of things and kept them for themsleves! Silent airconditioning, taxi doors that open and close themselves, musical toilets and 100s more things that I can't even remember but go there you'll see for yourself.
Ginza crossroads
Downtown Tokyo. Think Picadilly Circus only much quieter. Gravitating, as we did, towards Ginza we soon found ourselves amongst the finest department stores (Mitsukoshi et al.) and having made full use of the sampling in the confectionery dept. (!) we started our week-long experience there. (Katie was loving the sparkly department stores!) The die-hard consumers of high-fashion that they are, the Japanese even make their stores a work of high-design and the Dior building was no exception. The first day was kicked off proper with a bowl of Cha-sui ramen and as ever Darren was on hand to get us down with the locals. (i think he was a little surprised that we knew exactly what we wanted to eat but as some of you will know Okawari is great training!)Heading out to Odaiba we took in the wonderful sights of the dusk-shrouded Tokyo skyline from in front of the Sony Plaza before heading back into town to Shibuya to round the day off with a plate of chips and a pint of Boddingtons from the 'Aldgate' pub!
And so our days continued walking around (lots of walking around) soaking up the sights and barely audible sounds of Tokyo. Strolled through the beautiful park at Kudanshita
between the office lunch-breakers with their bento boxes on the crisp autumnal day. It was great be out of the heat and noise of S.E. Aisa. Needless to say we quickly found ourselves drawn back to Ginza but heading for sushi this time. A stack of plates and some gorgeous medium belly-tuna later we were heading to the suburb where Darren is staying. Think, the Richmond of Tokyo. Snapping up the chance to make some food for ourselves for a change we tucked into a hearty Spag Bol and got ready for a night (and subsequently a morning) on the tiles. It was nice to be in a homely apartment and having a meal with family!
So we found out that its not uncommon for salarymen to miss the last train after an evening out on the Kirins and to sleep on the steps of Shinjuku station waiting for the first train home. The alternative is to just stay up and frequent the many establishments that stay open all night. Suffice it to say we took the second option. A round or two in the Dubliners pub led us randomly into a Trocadero style arcade full of more games
and Japanese style photo booths than you could shake a stick at (yes there was dance mat too!). Katie and Deirdre forced us all into a booth for minature photos! A couple of blinding camera flashes and we came out with our first souvenir of the evening. Bursting for the loo I leapt across lanes of traffic to find a toilet in a near-by bar. A quick Tequila as penance for only going in to use the loo we were back on the trail and soon found ourselves walking into what I was convinced was a pharmacy that sold nothing but cigarettes; a contradiciton I know but it was bizzarley white but stacked full of the things! Anyway turns out this was an all night Karaoke box place that was soon to be our entertainment for the next 3 hours and we paid our entry and sang (ok shouted and wailed) our way through the greats. (There are videos to prove it but Darren has censored those!) A couple of trips to McDonald's, a Japanese restaurant, a quick run around Shinjuku for a very drunken crazy Katie and a nap in some other Irish pub we were ready to make
Looking out over Tokyo from Odaiba
Is my hair 'fro-ing out of control again?! the dawn ride home to sleep for the rest of the day. Waking in time to get a Subway foot-long into us we headed back out to Darren's only to find ourselves running across town trying to make the last train home!!
Heading a bit further out of Tokyo we took a couple of day trips, of course taking the chance to get tangled in the web of underground, overground, funicular and mountain climbing lines. First up we went out to Kamakura to soak up some Buddhist culture at the site of several temples and one giant sitting Buddah. Unique in that it is both huge and resides outside after supposedly the building encasing it met its end from reasons I can't quite remember. We ended the afternoon in awe both of the temples and giant stone carvings but also at how it can rain so hard for so flippin long without even being in Manchester! Too wet to enjoy Yokohama we let our Chicken Katsu go down in front of 'World Trade Center' at the elusive cinema that took us 45 mins and a cab ride to find.
Our plans to head to Hakone the next day
were completely rained out so a closer-to-home trip to the Akihabara electronics disctrict in search of a Nano cover filled the morning.
So, with a last full day in Japan we thought we'd give our JR Railpasses a good use and took the bullet train out to Hakone where were advised that we could see Mount Fuji and take a ride up into the mountains. Well, we rode up to the mountains! A mountain railway, funicular railway, cable-car ride and boat cruise later we had not seen even a glimpse of the snow-peaked beauty. Something about low-cloud or something(!). Still a good day out in the mountains and I especially enjoyed the 2 hour, standing room only bus-ride back down through traffic-jammed mountain road(!)
Squeezing the last drops out of the place we headed down Otemosando to Harajuku where we lined our stomachs with the finest burger Wendy had to offer and met Darren and Deidre for some goodbye jars. Harajuku is the crazy shopping district where all the Gwen Stefani style "harajuku girls" hang out! Katie was in her element with all the shops. Got to go the Imperial Palace on the final morning and contemplated the
next continent ahead of us before heading out to the airport. Had a coffee with Darren before saying sayonara! it was tough to leave - best week of our trip so far!Thanks to Darren and Deirdre for making it that way for us!
Over the equator, we were now headed to the land 'down-under'!
James
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Jo
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IA Update!
Hi James, Katie, Glad to see that you two are picking up local customs (cheesy grins and victory signs in every photo taken!) and sampling the local delicacies (Subway, Wendy's, Maccy D's)!!!! ;) Still sounding like a blast - although shame you guys got rained out! I must say, that your blog is giving me itchy feet - must try and convince Greg it's time for another holiday!!! Office update: We've got our usual advent calendar - I've yet to get a chocolate! :( Bartek is leaving us for Halifax/Bank of Scotland. Stupid IA joke of the moment - Mark is getting married to a Russian mail-order bride (apparently called svetlana) Alkesh and Ed have been let loose on school kids (Young Enterprise) - poor kids... We're skittling (i.e. playing skittles) for our xmas do. Should be a laff! Christos is leaving IA for a data/analysis role in dh just to spite me... (I honestly did not verbally abuse him, not once!!!) Have fun down under! Take care, and travel safely. Jo