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This is the report of my very first - and exhausting - day in Tokyo.

As I said in my previous entry, the night bus dropped me and my friend Lentle off at Tokyo's Shinjuku station around 6:30AM. We decided to put our luggage away in a locker (since check-in at the hostel only started at 3PM) and walked around for a bit, mostly trying to find a 7Eleven so I could withdraw some more money. Lentle had lent me ¥10.000 some days earlier (the day we visited Kyoto) because we couldn't find a 7Eleven at that moment, so I gave that back to her, but then discovered that I could only withdraw ¥10.000 per day - so I was kinda running low on funds ...
We didn't really know where we were going so we randomly walked between Shinjuku's office buildings for about an hour, before hopping on a subway (and lost some money stupidly as we first had to pay ¥170 to get back to Shinjuku station, and then another ¥170 to get from Shinjuku to Shibuya).

In Shibuya we of course visited the famous Shibuya Crossing, one of the most crowded pedestrian crossings in the world. However, since we were there at such an early hour, it wasn't too crowded yet. The good thing about this was that we could easily get a window seat at the Starbucks that overlooks the crossing (sometimes you'll need to wait for over 30 minutes to get a place at the window there). We lingered for a while and gradually saw the crossing becoming more and more crowded.

I was very tired so I wouldn't have minded sitting at that Starbucks forever, however, after a while it was time to get moving again. We visited another well-known Shibuya landmark: the statue of Hachiko!

We continued walking through the shopping streets of Shibuya, seeing the famous shop Shibuya 109 (which hadn't opened yet when we walked by there). We also found the Shibuya Disney Store, which we did visit because Disney is awesome. I didn't buy anything though ...

Next up was a visit to Tokyo's center of everything nerdy and geeky: Akihabara (or Akiba, for shortness). I have to say, Akiba was a biiiiit overwhelming. Partly probably because I was very tired, but the large buildings with anime characters, the colours, the sounds, the girls dressed up as maids, it was all a bit too much to take in. We walked past a bunch of stores without going in, and the one store that we did go in was a total mind fuck. It was rather small, full of crooks and crannies, that were filled from the floor to the ceiling with merchandise - it was so full you couldn't even properly walk around in the store. Like one giant, overcrowded, permanent convention. And in every corner there was another theme music blasting out of the speakers. I didn't really stay inside for long, and also didn't buy anything.

We did go into a Taito Station to play a table-flipping game. Lentle said it was something I had to do. It was a fun game, though rather random (it involves hitting a table and then flipping it, and virtually throwing food all over people).

It was about time to find lunch, and I spotted a Yoshinoya! Yoshinoya is a fastfood chain that serves Japanese food. I recognized it from my game Metropolismania 2, but never knew it actually existed(just like MOS Burger which I also recognized from the game). Anyway, I wanted to try it out. The food was good, though I got close to a nervous breakdown because I was tired and there was so much noise everywhere! The traffic lights outside were noisy, the people in the restaurant were shouting ... Anyway, luckily I survived with my mental health intact, ha ha.

Lentle said that there were robot shops in Akiba, so we wanted to check some out. We didn't know where they were located though, and we walked forever before we found one! We had directions but failed to follow them correctly (first sign that tiredness was melting our brains) and walked all around the train station twice, only to discover that the robot shop was actually located at the side where we had started from ... We almost gave up, but then finally found one. Robots are so cool! Too bad I was too poor to buy one ...

We were exhausted, even though it was only 2PM, and decided to go get our luggage from Shinjuku station and head to the hostel to check-in. I was looking forward to resting so much that I didn't even take any other pictures, but some quite eventful things still went on. First of course we had to get back to Shinjuku station, and once there it took us ages to find the locker where we had put our luggage that morning! That station is so huge, and my feet were killing me, and I was tired. I was so not looking forward to the trip to our hostel (wish I knew teleportation).
Anyway, when we got our luggage we tried to find Asakusa station on the subway map, but we only saw Asakusabashi - so we figured that that would be the right one. Wrong. The internet directions told us to take exit 2A at Asakusa station and cross the blue bridge, and we did find an exit 2A, but there was no blue bridge to be seen.

I guess we must've seemed very desperate, because a man in an orange shirt who was passing by stopped and asked us if we were lost. We showed him where we needed to be, and he told us that we were at the wrong station and that it would be a 30 minute walk from there to the blue bridge. We did not like hearing that. He told us that the best option was calling a cab, but we didn't want that because it would be too expensive (we're so poor). We were just about to go back into the station to find the right train, when Oranji-Shirt-san (as we would later call him) offered to go get his car. He stayed away for about 10 minutes, and I was slightly worried about getting into a stranger's car in a city at the other side of the world. When he returned we got into his car and he started to drive around. He asked to see the directions to the hostel again, and didn't really seem to know where it was. I was grateful though to be in his car, safe from the rain and able to rest my dying feet ... It was a very fancy car as well, and a cd with classical music was playing which was comforting. Oranji-Shirt-san also spoke really good English - Ha ha, Lentle and me were thinking that he must've been quite rich if he is living in the center of Tokyo and owns such a nice car. Anyway, we arrived at the street that Google Maps showed us, but didn't find the hostel there. I was getting really worried - partly still because of being in a strange man's car, partly because of the hostel not being where the map said it should've been. Luckily Oranji-Shirt-san kept driving around, and he kept telling us not to worry. He really put in a lot of effort, getting out of his car time after time to search for the hostel in side-streets. And then finally we found the hostel! Yay! Though I really really don't think we could have done it without the help of Oranji-Shirt-san, we were very grateful to him! Oranji-Shirt-san is definitely the hero of my Japan trip!

At the hostel room (which was very small, just a bunk bed and a desk) Lentle fell asleep immediately, even though it was only 4:30PM. I woke her up around 7PM and we decided to walk to a nearby konbini to get food. We were too tired to eat out anyway. Also all my money had been used by the end of the day, and I really had to be careful with what I bought from the konbini (I had chosen sushi, and then I had only ¥110 left to spend). Back at the hostel I decided to take a shower before eating dinner. There were two showers on our floor, and even though normally shared showers in hostels aren't great, these ones weren't too bad! Getting the right temperature was a bit tricky, but I didn't complain. After a whole night on a bus and a whole day in a hot city, I felt so extremely dirty!
After dinner it was time for bed, we were exhausted! I have to say, going to Tokyo when you're really tired is not the best idea (even if you save time by traveling at night). I absolutely didn't have a good impression of Tokyo after the first day. I felt like I liked the Kansai region so much better, I thought Tokyo was too big and loud and annoying. I didn't even mind that I'd have to leave again after three days. But I can say now, that that was all just the effect of being tired and unwashed and in a foul mood. As soon as we left the hostel on the morning of our second day, I realized that Tokyo is awesome - and I totally love the city now. So yeah, just a thing for future reference: if you arrive in Tokyo when you're tired, you are going to hate it, no worries, it'll get better once you've rested.

Another thing for future reference (for myself and for others interested in visiting Tokyo): the Khaosan Tokyo Samurai hostel is great value for money. Located in the center of Asakusa, it's close to a lot of interesting sights (and close to a subway station that'll take you to other interesting sights) and it's quite cheap especially if you share a room with more people (I think as cheap as €20 a night if you take a 4-person room).

So that's it for day 1 in Tokyo. On day 2 I visited Asakusa and neighbouring Sumida, as well as the Tokyo Tower. More about that in a next entry ...

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Photos

Shibuya
At the Starbucks overlooking Shibuya crossing

Shibuya
Shibuya crossing in action

Shibuya
Statue of Hachiko

Shibuya
Disney is awesome

Shibuya
Tokyo trains, with the famous Yamanote circle line in the middle

Akihabara
Lunch at Yoshinoya

Akihabara
View of Akihabara

Akihabara
Finally found a robot shop!

Akihabara
Girls in maid costume on every corner ...