At large in Tokyo

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Having spent the last 2 days travelling, we donned our best walking shoes and hit the streets of Tokyo. We started the day with a leisurely breakfast at Johnathan's cafe just up the road with our guide, Mako. They say that the Japanese are a reserved bunch but since meeting Mako, our extremely fun and friendly guide, it's fair to say that she is the exception to the rule! What a stroke of luck. We hit it off straight away and before long, she was whizzing us through Tokyo and showing us just what a wonderful city it is.

She first introduced us to the Senso-ji Temple in the Asakusa region, guiding us through the rituals involved and giving uis a chance to experience what it is like to worship in Japan. First you have to wash your hands using a brass ladle with water from a special fountain. Then you buy a stack of incense, light it all and chuck it in a huge incense burner. When it smoulders, you waft the smoke over you and ask for an ailment to be cured - a bargain at only 100 Yen , which is about 50p. We then went up into the great temple and offered money at the shrine before moving on to get our fortunes told. Glynn's luck was in with a big fortune, meaning he would get just about anything he wants in life - health, wealth, happiness, you name it. Mako got a medium fortune and as for me, well I wasn't so lucky - just a small fortune. Mako assured me this was good as it meant I had something to aspire to....hmmm nice try!

After all the rituals, we took a stroll down Nakamise-dori, a street full of little shops selling cakes, kimonos, chopsticks and crackers plus the usual tourist wares. It was a really interesting place and I recommend it to anyone visiting the area. The cakes were espeiclaly tasty, like spondges filled with a sweet nutty paste filling. The street ended at the Kaminarimon Gate which has a huge central lantern hanging from it and is guarded by a couple of mean looking statues.

For a complete change of scenery, we headed over to Ginza and the world-famous giant pedestrian crossing. The whole place was really packed and full of huge neon signs advertising eveything you can think of. We had fun just checking out the hustle and bustle of the area before moving on.

Next stop on our tokyo tour was Obeida district - a funky, modern and man-made part of the city. It was literally built on artificial land created just off the actual Tokyo coastline. The whole area is just a few years old and it is pretty impressive. We caught the metro over which in fact went overground and gave us fab views on the way. We crossed the Rainbow suspension bridge and got off outside the formidable Fuji TV building. This is a state of the art complex which just towers above you. Not only is it absolutely enormous but it also has a great big silver ball in the middle of it. You have to wonder whether the thing will detach one day and float off into space, kind of like Dr Evil....

Somehow Glynn and Mako next persuaded me to go on the world's biggest ferris wheel. Now I'm not so good with heights as some of you will know, so how in God's name they also talked me into going up in the see-through capsule is anyone's guess! It was worth the initial panic though as the view across the water to Tokyo are amazing. It took 16 minutes to go round and was worth every single yen to see the Tokyo skyline in all its neon glory.

Our big wheel ticket doubled as a lottery ticket so Mako took us down to the arcade to see what we might win. It turned out we won some tokens for the arcade machines - funny that - and next thing you know, we were at the penny pushers doing our best impression of a holiday in Great Yarmouth. After mooching around a bit, we found a big drum game which Glynn and I both had a go at, though I naturally kicked his ass! Then I happened to come across a walking dinosaur thingy which was probably designed for kids but seemed big enough for me. I couldn't resist and moments later I was wheeling slowly around the arcade doing my very best not to die laughing - it was so much fun!

Finally, just as we were about to leave the arcade, Mako found the sticker machines and in we went. These things take your group photo in as many stupid poses as you're prepared to pay for and then they print them out on stickers for you. Mako needed no encouragement to strike a pose alongside us, so the results were just fantastic!

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