We're huge in Japan... no, really!

---

We're here! in Tokyo! Konichiwa and all that! (I say 'all that' all-flippant-like as if I have tons more Japanese up my sleeve but it's a big lie. I think we have a total of four words up our collective sleeves. Which is good - not too heavy, one word per arm.)

Having had our first proper night's sleep in about 48 hours (before that had been operating on maybe 3 MEASLY hours!) we are feeling infinitely more human today.

Aisha did enjoy being continuously pummelled in the leg by the alternately hyperactive/cranky 2 year old Indian kid sitting next to him (you know how much Aisha looooves kids! ).

The sketchyness of waiting around Kuala Lumpur from what felt for our body clocks like 12 - 3 AM was pretty horrendous but the worst was yet to come. The true twilight zone began as we went straight back on the second half of the dogleg to Narita, both of us were feeling like crap but managed to steal those three hours sleep on the plane. Hitting Narita International at 7am was a brutal wakeup to the real world however. Fingerprints and ID photos at passport control were a nice Big Brother touch.

Narita was a nice train ride to Tokyo proper, through about 45 minutes of farmland and small pockets of built up area, then we arrived in the city and went on to Shinjuku. Weirdest thing was how deserted the city felt during the day. Tess got all indignant about her beloved Canberra ("See!! Look at that!! There's no one here! Ooooh...where is everyone? Spoooooky. I thought Tokyo was meant to be crazy!! This looks exactly like Canberra! Why do people give us crap when it's just the same as Tokyo?!! Canberra is great!" etc) It felt a bit like we were on the set of The Truman Show - an uber neat movie set with a tightass director who didn't fork out for quite enough extras to walk across camera to make the scene actually look like real life.

Lunch was DELICIOUS but confusing. Of course neither of us speak more than 2 words of Japanese (see above) so mayhem was inevitable. Pointing is our new best friend along with an 'arigato' to pretty much anything. While we consistently bumble through, people are very patient.

We went up to the observation deck of the 'Tocho' Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for the views....Tokyo just goes on FOREVER!
Also went to a 100 Yen shop - like Hot Dollar but 1,000,000 times better!

At night Shinjuku comes alive though. Everyone swarms out of the offices (like Canberra) and onto the streets (not like Canberra - they go home) and the neon signs light up and somehow it instantly seems like the same Japan that everyone talks about and shows in movies.

The other thing we've noticed is all the redundant jobs people have in Japan, like the lady who stands at the top of the escalator to tell every person thank you and have a nice day as they walk off, or the four officers required to usher people already standing in a nice neat line into the single lift. They all wear serious uniforms and take their jobs seriously too... it seems like some kind of strange feudal carry-over because now there's such a huge population they need all these jobs to give people something to do.

Today we are off to Nihon Minka-en, which is a little way out but looks awesome - they've transplanted all these old school houses from around Japan (as new as early 1900s but as old as many centuries ago) to make this village museum thing. Gosh I should write guidebooks, that description was INCREDIBLE.

Tomorrow - HELLO KITTY LAND!!! (guess which one of us wrote that super excited sentence.) (Aisha: additional clue for the bonus round... it wasn't me?)

Love to all - remember you can comment on the blog and even subscribe so you get a notification when we post something, or of course there's good old fashioned email.

Tess & Aisha

---

Photos

Waiting for the train
I think Tokyo's over that way...

Random Art
Outside the Bunka Fashion College

Aisha's lunch
oishii!!

Comments

[Suzie]

Wow. Sounds great. Wonderful to see you have arrived safely and are having fun. Love you lots