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Published: December 28th 2005
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Sumo Wrestler
Walking down the street Including her adventures...
Taking time out to relax and catch up on some reading
Wandering around Roppongi and Roppongi Hills
Shopping at Electric City
Visiting the secondhand book area
Wandering through the suburbs
Checking out the Sumo Museum
Trying to get some cash from an ATM
& shopping (again!)
among others...
One advantage of being in Tokyo was the opportunity to relax in my own room, therefore being able to sleep in as long as I liked and stay up at night reading. Because of this, I took the opportunity to catch up on some of the books I'd missed due to being busy at uni and work during the year. During my time in Tokyo, I re-read the 5th Harry Potter book before making my way through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I also read the first Lemony Snicket book, and all of that led to some late nights and long sleep-ins. However, having the extra time in Tokyo rather than rushing through it in a few days meant that I had the chance to relax, while still fitting in a lot of sightseeing...
On Tuesday afternoon, I headed back to Roppongi to check out the streets
by day, and wandered in and out of some of the shops. I saw a few interesting sights along the way, including a cyber cafe that advertised "Shower Rooms" as one of its attractions... sounds a little strange to me! There's not a lot to say about Roppongi - apart from the huge amount of foreigners around and the strangeness I felt due to this, it's basically another street with shops, restaurants and bars that could be almost anywhere. I continued walking to Roppongi Hills, a new development that is meant to be a "city within a city," containing everything people need in their lives. Extremely upmarket, it includes art museums, cinemas, restaurants and stores like Gucci and Armani. I had a nice couple of hours wandering through the area and saw some nice things that I couldn't afford but had fun pretending I could. When it got dark, the whole area was lit up with hundreds of fairy lights that continually changed colour and looked really pretty reflected in the fountains and glass skyscrapers.
On Wednesday I went to see the famous electronics district of Akihabara, which is filled with multiple storey buildings containing every kind of electronic
War Memorial
Yokoamicho Park product imaginable. It was pretty interesting to wander through all of the shops, and I picked up a new cover for my iPod as well, which I am really happy with. I think spent about an hour wandering around trying, with difficulty, to follow a map to the next area I wanted to see. (I blame the quality of the map, and not my sense of direction!) I finally made it to the Kanda area, which is full of bookstores, from large, multi-storey shops containing books on every subject imaginable, to little tiny stores full of second-hand books. The second-hand stores were a lot more interesting, and had a variety of university publications on obscure topics, old, first edition novels and even some books that looked like they had been hand-bound and printed, containing various people's thoughts and instructions on various topics.
After wandering for a while, I caught the train back to Shinagawa Station, where I noticed some American tourists just outside the entrance. They spent about 5 minutes studying the map of the area, and I heard them talking about a particular hotel, so I asked if they were trying to find it. They were, so I
Japanese Punctuality
The train is due at 1:33. It´s 1:33... and there´s the train! pointed directly behind the sign to the neon lights spelling out its name on the top of a building. Steph, Ben, Emi and I then went to TGI Fridays and had a good American style feast.
On my last full day in Tokyo, I took the subway down to Ryogoku, where I wandered through the suburbs for a while on my way to the Sumo museum. I found myself in the "Former Yasuda Garden" just before lunchtime, and there were quite a few people sitting around the lake eating obentos (lunchboxes full of rice and Japanese foods), enjoying the autumn leaves and blue skies, even though it was cold. I've found while travelling that I love wandering around because I really enjoy coming across places and things that I didn't know existed. The memorial and the park were two of these unexpected surprises, things that have made me smile just to have experienced them and to know that I am doing something interesting and different. I often stop and think "Wow, I'm (here) doing (this) - how amazing!" and it truly is. I feel very lucky to have had all of the opportunities I've experienced so far, and I
Statue
Outside the Metropolitan Government buildings, Shinjuku. still have such a long way to go.
I finally made it to the Sumo Museum, which was quite disappointing, just a room with some posters and memorabilia of various overseas tours inside. However, there was also a photo of every past Grand Champion Sumo, and I found the photo of Chiyonofuji, the sumo I met when I was six years old, so that was worth the free entry! The actual Sumo stadium was in the same building as the museum as well, so after I came out I saw quite a few sumos wandering around the streets, which was pretty cool.
After buying some lunch, I realised that I was almost out of cash, so I went to an ATM to withdraw some more. However, neither of my ATM cards worked in the machine, so I set off in search of another. This led to over an hour of wandering around the area, trying various machines, having my cards rejected and asking where in the area I might find another to try. I went to convenience stores, popular tourist attractions and even a bank (!) before being told by one of the tellers that I'd have to
go to a post office to do an international ATM withdrawal. So finally, success, but it was pretty crazy to have to go to so much effort just to use a VISA card.
From there, I headed to Shinjuku on the subway. There was an exchange student on the train with a few Japanese girls, so I stood there and listened to his conversation, knowing that he wouldn't think I could understand. He was from Brisbane and on his way home in a couple of months, and the girls were hanging onto his every word. It was a little sad to remember back to when that was me and think about what seems like another life now. At Shinjuku, I went to see the Metropolitan Office buildings, which were interesting enough, but pretty much regular skyscrapers. I also walked through Shinjuku's Central Park, where I sat down to eat some onigiri (Japanese rice balls) and other convenience store food. I love Japanese convenience store food, and practically lived off of it for lunch while I was there. They have all different kinds of things neatly packaged and fairly cheap, and I retried all of my old favourites during the
Sunrise... or sunset?
On the plane from Tokyo to London. week. On the way back to the train station, I wandered through some of the department stores in the area, and that was practically the end of my time in Japan.
The next morning I woke up bright and early and said goodbye to Steph, Ben and Emi at the Meridien Hotel. A few hours later, I was on a plane watching the sky put on a magnificent display of colours reflecting through the tiny, icy snowflakes that had frozen to the windowpane. I was leaving Asia behind for Europe, the next stage of my adventure...
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starksinchina
Jon and Jenny Stark
So where are all the world travellers going to stay now that Lindsay, Steph, Ben and Emi have left Tokyo? On behalf of all the freeloaders, thanks!