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I love Japan. I love Japan. I love Japan.
The Japanese are so friendly, courteous and helpful - probably the opposite of us English!! Tokyo itself was a great place with so much to see and do, but it's the memory of the people that will stay with me longest. (and the women are very hot too!)
Some examples:
Arthur left his unwanted US dollar coins next to a ticket machine in the entrance hall of the metro. We went down to the platform and were waiting for a train when one of the station staff jogged up to us, bowed and gave us back the money.
I used my phrasebook to ask a young couple in the street where the nearest internet cafe was, but they didn't know and they spoke little english. I thanked them and we carried on walking. About five minutes later they caught us up and the girl passed me her mobile phone. She had called one of her friends who spoke english and her friend gave me directions over the phone.
I asked an old lady for directions to the beer museum, but rather than just point me in the
right direction she stopped what she was doing and walked me to the door, about half a mile away.
Time permitting, I'm going to learn Japanese when I get home because I'm definitely going back there in the future. This time I want to be able to speak with the locals much more and get a better feel for their lifestyles and their culture; my biggest regret is that my very limited Japanese didn't allow me to get under the skin of the place. The 'useful phrases' in our travel guide were far from useful - there were no phrases like where is the toilet (a difficult question to ask using sign language!) and yet there were phrases like 'I'm allergic to bees'!!! That's no good to me!
So, the flight from LA was eleven and a half hours and time differences meant that the jet lag was quite harsh for the first day or two. We hadn't arranged any accommodation, although we found a flyer for a fairly cheap place in the airport and phoned them from there. The guy spoke good english and it was easy to find so we went straight there and dumped
our bags. Arf and Howie went straight to bed but I wanted to get some food so I went out on my own. I can honestly say that I've never felt so out of my depth before - at that stage I didn't know a word of Japanese and I can remember finding a noodle bar and having to point at things and nod. No forks and spoons either - I was in at the deep end! I tried a 'sake' there, a traditional drink which I think is 'rice wine', although I'd guess that it is about 20% alcohol content. There are lots of different types - I had a cold sake and I wasn't overly impressed although I forced it down as I thought it might be impolite to leave it.
The following day we were told that we had to leave our room so we took the opportunity to find a place in Shinjuku, the bright lights and all-action area of Tokyo. I'd read about capsule hotels (see photos) and was keen to stay in one, but although we had the address, we couldn't figure out the street names. So we jumped in a cab. Unfortunately
Far too complicated!
Now which button washes the clothes?our cabbie didn't know it but although it was frustrating to drive around in circles it was amusing listening to him repeat 'Ahh cariptaal hotel' to himself over and over while he tried to find it! I think our basic map that we showed him might have confused matters as we later found out that all of their maps are printed with South pointing upwards (basically upside down).
Once we'd found it, I spent the day wandering around Shinjuku which is like Soho in some places, the West End in some parts and the City of London in others. The most fun part of the day was when I stumbled upon an large indoor baseball machine. There were about ten bays with robot arms that delivered the baseball at you at different speeds and heights. Smacking baseballs into the heavens that are flying at you at 120kmh is a good feeling! I spent so long there that I had blisters on my hands for a week! That night we watched the Arse beat Manure on penalties in the FA Cup final. Lucky gooners.
The caripitaal, sorry, capsule, hotel was an interesting place with a public bath area and
areas for body and feet massages. I had a foot massage (my aching traveller's feet deserved it!) but I'm very ticklish so it turned out to be quite amusing for me (and the people watching!).
The Japanese aren't generally that tall and at six foot I was bigger than most. Unfortunately, and this wasn't an isolated incident, the bed in the capsule wasn't long enough for me so I had to sleep with my feet sticking out of the end!
We changed hotels again the next day, this time choosing to stay in a Ryokan - a traditional Japanese style room. On paper it seemed like a really good idea, but in reality a short thin mattress on the floor and a pillow that felt like it had been stuffed tight with ball bearings wasn't my idea of comfort. During the day we had been up the Sunshine 60 tower (60 floors) and to the main Toyota showroom. For me, the best part of the showroom was the Toyota F1 car. It had had some of the parts removed so as not to reveal any secrets, but it was still an impressive sight, although if someone had been
My Capsule
Not as spacious as it might look there to start it up it would have been ten times as impressive!
After the Toyota showroom we visited Harajaku, the meeting point for young Tokyoites who were keen on making fashion statements. There were some serious costumes there and the photos here don't even begin to demonstrate the diverse range of styles. Harajaku is also home to the Yoyogi-Koen park which houses the remarkable Meiji-Jingu shrine.
For dinner, we went to a sushi restaurant which had a wide range of dishes circualting on the conveyor belt. I fought the urge to shout 'Cuddly Toy' at the top of my voice, instead tucking into some lovely grub. My favourite was a tuna salad type thingy and the worst was raw salmon and squid on rice. It was just a bit too raw for me. By this stage I was getting used to chopsticks and developing a taste for green tea and I've decided that I'm always going to eat oriental food with chopsticks when I get home.
The next morning we were told (again!) that there wasn't room for us that night and it took a fair chunk out of our day finding another place. We eventually
found a nice hostel near Roppongi, which is the area where most of the bars are. Once accommodation was all sorted we went to the Imperial Palace, home to the Emporer. Lady luck wasn't smiling on us as we'd picked the only day that the inner gardens were closed to the public. Perhaps he was parading his new clothes? Instead we were forced to wander around the outer moat trying to get a glimpse of the palace, to no avail. It was at this point that I had an attack of the belly and I had to frantically try to find a toilet - an exasparating experience when you have to randomly pick a direction and hope you've guessed right. It didn't escape my attention that there wasn't a bee in sight...
Arf went on to find the Tokyo Stock Exchange (he's a merchant banker) while Howie and I got on the (very efficient) metro to Ginza. We went to the Sony Building there but it was less impressive than I'd hoped. One plus point was the Playstation room where there were loads of consoles hooked up on free play.
That night we went out drinking in Roppongi
but it was a weeknight and it was pretty dead. I didn't like the fact that there were Nigerian hawkers touting for business every five minutes. They were in your face and we'd been warned that they tried to rip you off once they got you into a club. It was the complete opposite of everything that I loved about the Japanese and I'm suprised that the authorities have not done something about it. We found a place that had an electronic darts board, a big sport in Japan, although they always shoot the bull rather than the treble twenty bed.
It was a heavy night, but I dragged myself out of bed on the final day as I wanted to go to the Tsujiki fish market. I missed the (very) early morning auctions which is a shame as it is a huge event. I forget the exact figure, but it's hundreds (maybe even thousands) of tonnes of fish that are sold there each DAY! Some of the fresh produce ends up on the market right next door so I picked an eatery there for some breakfast. The way that we ordered food in Japan was by pointing to
the plastic examples that most places have in the front window. I chose what I thought looked like seafood noodles only to find out when it came that it was eel and egg on a bed of rice!! I'm not fussy (as long as there are no mushrooms!) and it went down a treat. Now nourished, I walked the half mile to the Hama-Rikyu gardens.
The Hama-Rikyu gardens are on the bank of the River Sumida (their Thames equivalent). The gardens date back to 1654 although they have been rebuilt and modified many times since, most recently after bomb damage from WWII. It was a lovely authentic Japanese area and a very peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Tokyo. I then took a ferry from the pier next to the gardens and got a good view of Tokyo from the river. I jumped off at Asakusa and walked through the mighty Thunder Gate to the Buddhist Temple, Senso-Ji, which is surrounded by lots of smaller shrines. It was turning into a busy day as my next stop was Ebisu where I went to a parasitological museum (and started to regret eating raw fish!) and
then the Yebisu Beer Musuem. Museum 1/10 Beer tasting section 10/10.
And that was Tokyo. If you've read this far, thanks for sticking with me - now get back to work you slackers!!
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Yoshi (the dragon)
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Herro Gleenyfus
Sounds amazing mate, must send you an email soon and catch up properly.