Next Time…

Next time I visit Japan I plan to stop in Kyoto for a couple of days at least. Kyoto was formerly the imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years, before Tokyo. Over the centuries, Kyoto has been destroyed by many wars and fires, but due to its historic value, the city was dropped from the list of target cities for the atomic bomb and spared from air raids during World War II. Countless temples, shrines and other historically priceless structures survive in the city today. This is one of the main reasons I want to visit this area.

I was really disappointed that we missed the autumn season in Tokyo. Japan looks amazing in the colour season as they call it. There are many colour spots to visit. So I would definitely aim to go at this time of the year.  As one of the main sumo tournaments is in September, around the colour festival, I feel it is a must see.  

Lastly, Tokyo cannot be fully explored in just a single week, I believe that minimum 2-3 weeks would be just enough to get a real understanding of Japanese life. 

Now you can sleep… zzz

The last morning of our trip was a very early start. There wasn’t much time for toast at all. We were picked up from the Hostel by the same representative that collected us at the beginning of the week and were dropped off at Narita International airport. Then we made our return journey.

Back in Birmingham international, I was welcomed by three of my house mates and my girlfriend. They had a banner and a big bunch of flowers, this was a bit embarrassing, but I loved it.

I can’t wait to go back to japan. 

Lock me up

Monday was our last full day before we had to head back to the dreary and miserable UK. We planned to look around the national Museum and the Science museum at Ueno Park but when we got there it was closed. So we took advantage of the quiet and took some photos in the park by the fountains. We moved onto Ueno markets to have a look around the stalls and we sampled some street food. They were very hot dumplings with pork and soup inside, which were surprisingly tasty.

That evening we got all dressed up smart and visited the Sky Tree. The Sky Tree is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and is 634m high. The views were incredible, with the entire city lit up in the dark; we could make out where the hostel was.

After the Sky Tree we headed to the Lockup restaurant. This haunted prison themed restaurant was amazing. Simon got handcuffed on the way in and we were escorted to our table, where we were locked up for the duration of the meal. All the food was haunted and the drinks looked like they were cooked up in a mad scientist’s lab. When all the lights went down UV lights made all the white stand out and the drinks lit up, scary Japanese voices were heard and then followed by characters dressed up aimed to scare us, it was great fun. After the meal, we went to karaoke where Simon on good from showed off his singing talent once more. 

Temple Run

Sunday 8^th was spent in the region of Nikko. We caught the Bullet train from Ueno station which took a couple of hours to make it up into the mountains. We passed many paddy fields and towns. When we got to Nikko the temperature was considerably colder than in the city. I had to put my jumper on.  Nikko is a town at the entrance to Nikko National Park, most famous for Toshogu, Japan’s most lavishly decorated shrine and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This world heritage site had been a centre of Shinto and Buddhist mountain worship for many centuries before Toshogu was built in the 1600s. After a quick game of temple run it was off back down to see a Japanese garden and museum. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the intricate detail on all the buildings, however my feet did get a bit chilly having to take my shoes off all the time. The Shinkyo Bridge, sacred bridge, at the entrance to Nikko’s shrines and temples was out last stop before we went for dinner. It was a disappointment that we were not allowed to cross the bridge, but it is supposedly sacred.

Dinner was interesting, as we visited an Indian restaurant in japan. It didn’t feel very Indian at all; nevertheless I still went for a Japanese option. We suddenly thought we would miss our train so I downed my drink and we ran for it. Unfortunately, when we arrived there was no train, and there wouldn’t be for another 40 minutes or so. So we went for a drink. When we got back we went to the Hostel to get changed and head out for a night of Karaoke. There was a good rendition of Ice Ice Baby by Simon, which was clearly the highlight of that evenings songs.

Harajuku Girls

Saturday the 7^th was a free day, a group of us decided to visit Harajuku. Harajuku is the centre of Japan’s most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles, with Takeshita Street and its side streets lined by many trendy shops, fashion boutiques and used clothes stores. We had lunch in a food court, where we had the most incredible crepes. There was a free beauty station and internet to use, which the Japanese girls were making full use of. We went into a Kimono shop where Sophie got all dressed up and purchased one; she looked brilliant.

After Harajuku we visited a five story shopping outlet store in Shinjuku. This store had everything from designer handbags to soy sauce. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet up with the others who got taken somewhere else by their taxi man. By the time we had finished here we were hungry and decided to head back towards the hostel.

We found a nice restaurant in Asakusa near the hostel to have dinner, it had a sunken table that looked like we would be sitting on the floor but there was space under the table to have our feet down, like sitting on a chair. The food was authentic and had the best flavour; however they did not cater for vegetarians at all so Sophie was left a little hungry. 

Akihabara

Friday morning a fair few of us were looking a bit rough from the night before. But we made our way to Akihabara, the electrical district. For the most part we were just wandering around the shops and looking at what they had to offer. It wasn’t uncommon to casually come across a sex shop even if you were in a children’s toy store and walk up a flight of stairs and you were greeted with mounds of porn.

We met back up with the rest of the group for lunch. We visited Yoshinoya which is the Japanese equivalent to McDonalds, the food was ordered and in front of you in 60 seconds. The food was super tasty and cheap which is always a bonus.

Back at the hostel it was the end of year party, where we had the chance to mingle with people from all around the globe. There were lots of interesting stories and the food that was provided was very nice indeed. At the end of the food table was a man teaching people how to wrap their own sushi. By the end of the night the crown began to wind down, so a few of us decided to play poker, which later became a very intense game of poker when a German man who was staying in the hostel asked to join in. 

Where is the LOVE?

Thursday 5^th was all about the area of Shinjuku. In the morning we visited The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and went up to the observatory deck, which was situated at floor 45 and was 202 meters high. We had amazing views of Tokyo and could see The Sky Tree which was near the hostel. It was free to go up which was an added bonus. After we went to find love in Tokyo; Robert Indiana’s sculpture that is outside the I Land Tower, was basically just a photo opportunity and a chance to name as many songs that has ‘Love’ in the lyrics. After which we went for lunch at a tempura bar, I ordered the vegetarian option with udon noodled and it was amazing.

Later on that night seven of us went out for drinks in Shinjuku. However as we couldn’t read the menu we just ordered seven random drinks and hoped for the best. The only problem was when one of the drinks came; it was a cup in a dish that was filled right to the brim so you couldn’t pick it up. So instead of passing the drinks around the table, we moved around one seat at a time, and so the game of Magic Chairs was invented.

The main attraction of the night was the robot restaurant. The show consisted of bikini-clad women on stage performing battles using enormous robots and banging a lot of drums. The entertainment was very energetic and exciting, with club music, lots of flashing lights, and a panda riding a cow. If you are going for the food you are missing the point. After the show, we went to the Golden Gai bar district of Shinjuku which had hundreds of tiny little bars, so trying to fit eight of us into one bar was a bit of a squeeze. 

Men in panda suits

Wednesday morning was by far the easiest morning to get up as Tokyo is 9hours ahead most of the group were awake by 5am. Sakura hostel provided breakfast in the form of as much toast, soup and hot drinks as you like, I particularly enjoyed the blueberry jam. Ueno Park was our destination; a walk that should normally take about 15-20 minutes lasted over an hour. There were so many distractions and one was a cemetery. One major difference that the UK could benefit from is the courtesy from the general public, we saw a Japanese man drop some litter but he went back to pick it up. Everywhere in Tokyo was so clean and there were designated smoking areas on the streets that people actually used, it was astounding how their system works. Another stop along the walk was the Shitaya Shrine for business prosperities and happiness in marriage. When we finally made it to Ueno Park we had lunch and entered the zoo. Ueno zoological gardens is the oldest zoo in Japan and with it only costing around £3.50 per adult to enter it was amazing. However I was not entirely convinced that the crocodile was real, and the pandas looked like men in suits, we also saw some kangaroos getting a bit frisky and I saw the biggest hippo I have ever seen.

From Ueno Park we went to the train station to buy our Pasmo cards. These cards worked like Oyster cards but you could use them in vending machines and to pay for taxis. Looking at the map for the train network in Tokyo, is like looking a bowl of brightly coloured spaghetti that has been tipped on the floor, you can basically get anywhere on the train.  We met Simon’s friend Daniel with his wife and daughter for dinner. It was more traditional than the previous day’s meal as we were sat on the floor with low tables. It was good that we had Daniel to translate the menu for us; otherwise we wouldn’t have known what we were going to get. After the meal, about half of the group went to Shiboya to see all the neon lights at night. It was incredible with there being different businesses in every floor of the high rises there were so many signs. We came across a Xmas box which you could plug your head phones into and you could chose a Christmas song to listen too. 

Temple Time

Once landed in Tokyo it was the morning of Tuesday 3rd, we were collected from the airport by a representative and taken by coach to Asakusa. Unfortunately we were unable to check in, so our luggage was placed into storage at the Sakura Hostel. So we visited the Sensoji Buddhist temple that was a short walk from the hostel. We were asked by two japaneese students who were learning English if they could take us on a tour of the street. This was an opportunity we could not turn down. They taught us about the legend of the temple, how two brothers fished a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, out if the river and even though they put it back, it always returned to them. That is consequently why the Sensoji temple was built, for the goddess of Kannon. They told us that this is the oldest temple in Tokyo; however it has had a fair amount of restoration.  The students took us under a number of gates and up the Nakamise, which is a 200m shopping street full of stalls.

We then went for food, with the number of vegetarians in the group it was quite hard to find somewhere that would cater for them. I ordered a shabu-shabu which was very different to anything I had eaten before; essentially it was very thin strips of beef and pork that were boiled in soup. After checking in, some of us washed and went out to explore the area. We went into a half tented bar and ordered drinks that didn’t taste particularly alcoholic so we moved on. A door was found that lead down to a basement bar, where we tried Sake and had our first round of Karaoke. With the Jet lag kicking in we made our way back to the hostel and to bed.