Arrivederrci Tokyo...

Evening all, Cj here. I'm writing this post as I lay horizontal on a Kyoto bound night bus.  My lounger seat consists of a funky "sleeper" head screen that wouldn't look out of place in a 60's hair salon, uber amounts leg room and a recliner that takes the mick. (Soz for the invasion of privacy to the lady behind)

So that's Tokyo done. We smashed all the main hotpots in what seemed like a whistle stop tour of the city. I'm pretty shattered as we crammed 4 districts and 2 hostel changes into a 5 day week; that coupled with the heat means I'm shredding the pounds, both on the stomach and the wallet!  

Our first post mentions our Asakusa story which when looking back on it seems the quietest part of the week so far; much more traditional and less hustle and bustle. Our days around Shinkuju and Roppongi were filled with bright lights,  huge electric banners, massive crowds and high pitched Japenese tunes!

My favourite things to write home about are Shibuya's "scramble crossing". It's the crossing you see in the films with the huge advertising and 4 way zebra crossing. Carnage errupts when the lights go green and people swarm from all angles on to the road.

We visited "electric city" which must have the biggest electricty bill on the planet. Huge electronic bill boards advertising the latest craze of Sonic the Hedgehog games ran up the sides of buildings keeping the night sky at bay. On the ground huge hi-tech gaming casinos blasted out fast paced techno music keping the locals entertained. Girls dressed in a Harajuku style dresses (think Gwen Stafarni)  littered the streets selling their maid style restaurants and bars.

Away from modern day Japan we went in search of some traditional photo opportunities.  We found the Meji shrine, Tokyo's largest and walked around the Bonzi forest. That night we also checked into the much talked about Japenese sleeping capsules; basically sleeping in a coffin with hundreds of other people, however much more spacious that i first thought.

So what are my opinions of Tokyo; great city, with loads to offer. Very modern so hard to feel like your backpacking with all these 21st century comforts. Rich in culture, but you have to dig deep to find it. The people here are the nicest I've met abroad so far, always willing to help! All in all a great city to start the adventure in, the Ashi beer gets a thumbs up from me too.

The first few days in Tokyo...

So, turns out the Japanese have their own language, eating utensils, no shoes rule and a unique way of flushing the loo. 

We arrived at our first hostel Asakusa Smile a few days ago after successfully navigating our way in circles in the Japanese heat and with our heavy backpacks. 

Our room was a nice lil' shoe box. Our shared toilet was an experience for both of us. Their loos are high tech Panasonic or Toyota branded with many buttons. Neither of us wanted to get our hair wet, so FYI don't hit the blue button.

Our first morning was spent walking into what we call 'town' (just the local high street) to get some breakfast then we walked to Tokyo skytree to purchase tickets for the sky hop bus. On this open top, very touristy bus we ventured to Odaibo where we had the pleasure of seeing a famous japanese girl group, think spice girls on steroids! Actually we pretty much thought this whole area was on steroids. This place called Fuji TV and venture fort was full of over enthusiastic animations, high pitched singing, and was generally a really strange place. It was like a theme park but its an actual place with shops, restaurants, a professional TV studio and a big ferris wheel (yes we went on this).

After this experience we went to the more sophisticated, high end Ginza. This is just like Oxford street. From Ginza we then went onto the Electric town for dinner and to see this part of Tokyo lit up in the evening. This place was also very different, it was full of arcades and Japanese girls standing on the streets in tiny maid costumes promoting restaurants but actually, they looked like they were promoting Anne Summers. It felt like their red light district so we have a feeling these restaurants were not the norm inside.

And this is where this first post ends. We are writing this nearly a week into our trip so when we next have our spare hour we will post about our visit to Roppongi and pics of our new hostel (we are in cool traditional capsules).

Cj and Sam