Tokyo - Part 1

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Konnichiwa, having arrived tired and flattened from the non-event that was Hong Kong, we were glad to find that our hostel was really nice in Tokyo. It was slightly strange in that the bunk beds were lower than normal with the bottom bunk being at floor level, and in bigger dorms they have three tiers! We asked at reception for a recommendation for somewhere to eat local food and they sent us to "Jonathons", an upmarket version of McDonalds with little in the way of Japanese food, when we told our Japanese friend that we had been she laughed out loud. We are booked to stay in the same hostel on our return from Kyoto and so we left our major baggage in storage there for a small fee and packed enough to last for the week into a small backpack.
Our first stop was to Ueno Park where we could join in with "hanami", the viewing of Cherry Blossom. We had managed to strike it particularly lucky with our timing of being in Japan since the trees only blossom for a short period of time. They look really beautiful and there were thousands of people in the park, both foreigners and locals, since it is the most popular place to see them. Many people bring along picnics and sit under the trees for hours, since we had pretty limited time we wandered along with the throngs of people admiring the sight before us, it was particularly impressive when the wind picked up a little and blew a flurry of petals from the trees. We had some noodles from a street stall in the park which were tasty. We then managed to decipher the underground map and caught the train to Harajuku where we were to meet with AiAi, our Japanese friend that we met back in Vancouver on the Rocky Mountain tour, and her boyfriend. We walked down Takeshita street, the main shopping strip of the area. It was extremely busy and we spotted the odd teenager dressed up in their costume, although there weren't as many as we had expected there to be. We had a look in a shopping mall where we got to try out a new gadget It was a set of headphones with an attached eyepiece that you could play movies through It was quite strange since it only went over one eye and it felt like the image was being projected onto the surrounding world! We got back on the underground and headed out to Shinjuku and the Metropolitan Government Offices, it may seem strange to be going there but they have an observation deck on the 45th floor that is free to get into. The view was very impressive and made us realise that Tokyo covers a huge expanse, but it wasn't as tall as I had thought it was going to be. After grabbing coffee at a local cafe we went to see the infamous traffic light junction in central tokyo where you can head up stairs in the shopping mall and look down as the green man appears and literally thousands of workers flood across the road, it was amazing to see and I took a video.
We then headed for some food and our hosts suggested that we could go for sushi. Since we were slightly scared to try it alone, the restaurants only rarely have english menus, we took them up on their offer. The first dish I tried was a steamed prawn and it was very good, if a little warm because of the wasabi. It was then onto the proper sushi with some salmon. I tried with all my might to eat it but just couldn't make myself. All the years of making sure that fish was cooked properly conspired against me and ,my head said no, so I had some more prawns, Stephanie faired a little better, managing to eat her piece but choosing not to go for another helping! Our friends were laughing at my attempt, but then couldn't believe it when Stephanie tried the natto dish, a fermented bean, and liked it - most foreigners don't. We headed for a couple of beers before heading to AiAi's friend's house where we were to stay for the night, we spent the rest of the evening drinking some really good japanese red wine and eating cake.
We got up fairly early and after a japanese sesame coffee we headed to Asakusa where we saw a large temple complex and a smaller shrine. It was very busy here so we walked to the river where there were more "sakura" (cherry blossoms) but these were in a much quieter setting than yesterday. We went for a traditional Tokyo lunch in a small restaurant where they cook on a hot plate set into the centre of the table. The first thing we had was similar to a crepe and contained cabbage, fish, ginger, mayo and egg seasoned with soy sauce and worcester sauce. It was very tasty. This was followed by a helping of "monja-yaki", a pizza/omelette style food that is fairly specific to tokyo. This contained some squid as well as cabbage, egg and possibly crab meat. We liked it! The final food was a noodle dish similar to that which we had in the park the day before. It was a good lunch! We particularly liked seeing the food being cooked by the chef who came and knelt at the side of the table with us (we were seated on the floor).
We then caught a train out to AiAi's house in Tokorozawa where we were going to stay tonight (I'm sat there now typing this). When we got there we were met by her Mum who was very sweet but didn't speak English, although saying that she spoke more english than we speak Japanese. We headed out to the old part of town that was full of old buildings dating back at least 100 years. It was nice to have a wander around what most tourists wouldn't get to see. There were loads of little shops there that sold all sorts of things from sweets to traditional products. We got back in the car and drove to the shops where we experienced a Japanese photo machine. When AiAi was telling us about it we thought it would be similar to the ones in the UK which print out the little photo stickers, but oh no! Here they provided costumes that you could dress up in (we didn't) and then provide you with a stylus pen that you can draw or write on your pictures with as well as numerous effects that you can apply to them before they are printed. Apparently the ones in the UK are about 10 years out of date compared to these, its so popular to do here! We headed back to the house were AiAi's mum had prepared us dinner of Sukiyaki. We were slightly dubious of the idea when we were told of it but gave it a go! The meal started with a plate of asparagus, tomato and cress with 2 pieces of raw bream We both managed to eat one piece! It was actually very tasty, it was mainly the idea that we shouldn't eat raw meat in our heads that prevented us from eating the second piece! It was then onto the main meal, thin slices of meat are boiled on a hob in the centre of the table with mushrooms, leeks, cabbage, sweetened soy sauce and rice wine. Once the meat is cooked you then dip it into a beaten raw egg and eat it. It tasted amazing, we had thought that the egg would make it a bit odd but the heat managed to cook it slightly on the food and the main thing was that it tasted good!!
Tomorrow we will head back into Tokyo for the day before catching a bus at midnight to Kyoto...

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