Yo Yo Tokyo!

---

I've got to say, straight away, that Japan completely blows us away. We start in Tokyo, arriving at Narita airport and being whisked into the centre of the city on a lightening fast express train. I thought hitting the Tokyo subway, tired and loaded with backpacks would be an overwhelming introduction, but it's fine...with signs in Japanese & Roman characters, and a lovely polite sounding lady announcing all stops in English, it's easy to navigate our way to our hostel, Asakusa Smile. In fact from the minute we boarded the Japan Airlines flight everything goes smoothly. There is really no comparison to our recent awful experience with American Airlines...JAL is fantastic and the flight glides by as we're pampered with good food, bloody good Bloody Mary's and more movies than we can fit into 14hrs.

A lot of effort has clearly gone into making things easy for people here; there's little touches of comfort that you never knew you missed. For example, going to the toilet has never been so good! With heated seats, in-built bidet unit complete with hot-air butt drier, 'embarassment' button which mimicks the sound of the flush to cover up any noisy moments (!), going for a wee becomes something of a spa experience!

Japan also smells great. Every shop I go into is lightly fragrent, hotels smell of freshly chopped wood, and the clean waft of green tea greets you as the doors to teahouses slide open. And that doesn't even include the smell of the incredible food coming from the countless restaurants we pass (and the few we stop at!)

We have just two and a half days to explore the city and try to pack in as much as possible, although on day 1 we don't seem to achieve very much! We try to buy tickets to the Grand Sumo Tournament, but today's allocation have already sold out and we're told to try again tomorrow before 9am. We then get lost quite a lot, but even that is a sightseeing trip in itself. If only whoever designed the subway signage had taken the contract for the street signs too! We do manage to find the peaceful Imperial Palace Gardens, and then we explore the completely contrasting, futuristic skyscraper garden that is Shinjuku. We finish the afternoon by riding a huge rollercoaster surrounded by skyscrapers at Tokyo Dome City.

Day 2 and we're up before dawn to get to the Tsukiji fish market by 6am. You used to be able to go to the pre-dawn tuna auctions and witness the sale of the huge fish, worth up to $100,000 each. Unfortunately the auctions are now closed to tourists as some idiot English-Abroad (it had to be Brits didn't it?!) had shown us all up a month previously, by turning up, clearly straight from a nightclub, absolutely wasted and proceeded to interrupt the auctions with their "hilarious" antics...joyriding the motorised trollies, pretending to shag the fish etc. Even more embarassingly, they coincided their visit with a Japanese news crew and so their disrespect (in a country where showing respect is everything) was broadcast countrywide (and worldwide, via YouTube) within hours. The whole market was closed to tourists for one month, but happily they have just re-opened it, minus the all-important tuna auction...I'm so glad they're letting us in again as it is just incredible.

It's staggeringly huge, supplying all of Tokyo's fish and seafood fresh from the boats....and that's a lot of fish. Ships from all over the world unload at the docks where the market is located, the fish are auctioned to the stallholders, who then set up their stalls for the city's restauranters to buy within hours. I watch as huge live snappers are pulled out of tanks, one chop and they stop wriggling as they're packed in ice ready for today's lunch. Tunas as big as me are sliced up on huge electric saw work benches, there are giant squid and octopus, the biggest prawns and lobsters I've ever seens... the scale is incredible and it's all so fresh that the place doesn't even smell fishy. After wandering round for an hour or so, tummies rumbling, we head to one of the sushi bars that circle the outer part of the market for the freshest, best sushi in the world. Our sushi chef is hilarious, making up every piece in front of you to order, each offered up with kung-fu sound effects. Any doubts of the suitability of sushi for breakfast are long gone, it's sublime.

We head off to get our tickets for today's Sumo and are rewarded for our early start with success this time. The action doesn't really get going till after 2pm, so we kill a bit of time by sorting out our Vietnam visas and exploring the city (ie, getting a bit lost) some more. We go to the busy shopping and business district around Shinjuku where we get eye-popping views of the city from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's free observation deck. It's a bright, clear day and we can see all the way to Mount Fuij, some 300kms away.

Then we set off for an afternoon of Sumo, which turns out to be the most fun you can get with two fat guys in thongs! We're in the cheap seats at the back of the arena, but the view is still good although Ritch is able to charm his way ringside to take some better pictures...he even meets one of the big guys and has their photo taken together. The Japanese love their Sumo, with people excitedly cheering on their favorites...men, women and children whooping with glee when their heros take the stage. It's totally infectious and far more exciting that I thought it'd be, and I find myself loudly cheering along with everyone else.

Tonight's our last night in Tokyo and we're heading out on the town. We stop for a fortifying bowl of slurpy noodles at a cheap and cheerful noodle bar. The art of eating noodle soup with chopsticks is tricky, messy work for the unpractised, but as long as you make the loudest slurping noises possible, it's easy to fit in like a pro!

We meet up with some friends from our hostel, Big Swedish Chris and English teenagers (aargh!) Grace and Lamb. Together we head off to Roppongi to join the masses drinking in bars hidden in skyscrapers. Touts try to hustle you into the lifts up to their bars the minute you get out the subway. It's all a bit neon-lit West-End really, but good fun and the neon all becomes a bit of a blur after we're served the biggest Jägermeisters I've ever seen. Drinking in Japan is notoriously expensive, but we do well (we're professionals!), ending up in a Moroccan-styled bar high up a skyscraper with super strong drinks at just 500 yen...under 4 quid. In some ways it may have been better if we'd been able to afford less cocktails as then maybe Ritchie wouldn't have tried breakdancing in a lift (ouch!), he might not have stacked it in a stairwell and perhaps our hangovers wouldn't have been so painful!

Our last day in Tokyo is a real struggle, but despite the nausea we head to the fashion district of Harajuku for some people watching and window shopping (the only type possible on our backpacker budget!) before our late afternoon bullet train to Kyoto. Harajuku is where all the bright young fashion-heads go to strut their stuff; as well as the more regular trendies (who look impossibly cool) there are the Harajuku Girls who are out and about in fancy dress. They base their looks on manga-anime characters and we see a girl rocking the goth/Edwardian look, another in a Godzilla suit (!) and a pair of 'twins' resplendent in bright pink Goldilocks outfits. Unfortunately none of them will stop for us to take their pictures, their shyness totally at odds with the out-there threads!

There is so much cool stuff for sale here; clothes, trainers, interior design stuff and gadgets...I would love to come back for a holiday loaded with shopping cash. Japan hasn't been as expensive as I'd expected...it is possible to do it on the cheap without missing out on too much, but it'd also be a great place to come and do '5 Star' too. I really love Tokyo, even at it's busiest it's still somehow serene. The people are so friendly and considerate, going out of their way to help you. It's clean, everything just works and your life is made easier at every turn...fancy a hot cup of decent tea or coffee? There's a machine for that. Snagged your tights on the way to work? Yep, machine on every corner for that too. It's a brilliant place and I really really hope we get a chance to come back again.

---

Comments

[sam]

differences
Nice. Its so funny to see the 2 different sides of the same experiences and what bits make it into each of your posts. Keep up the good work.