New Years
Trip Start
Jan 03, 1976
1
25
171
Trip End
Ongoing
Tokyo, Japan
Monday, December 23, 2002
There really is just so much going on in Tokyo, big and bustling city it is. Tracey had read about this Godzilla statue and one afternoon had stopped on her way back to the hostel and checked it out. Well she raved, I Had to go and see it.. so she took me. What a laugh, its the tiniest statue!
One afternoon we were wandering about and it was so cold, despite my many many layers of clothes I couldnt take it any more and hussled back to the hostel.
The Emperor will come out to the Palace Balcony with his family one day a year, we decided to skip it as there would no doubt be so many people it wouldn't be worth it. We later heard it was fine and a great view was easy to get! .
After a night of Birthday Karaoke with the other people staying in our gaijin house I lined up with the rest of Japan to see the Meiji shrine, an important place to visit in the first three days of the year. The queue was half way through the park (which the shrine is in) and took hours!!
We took a day out to go and have a look at Fuji - not climbable at this time of year. We were posing around for photos with Fuji in the background and one man insisted on taking some photos of us with some cartoon animals that were at the lookout. Don't worry about Fuji - get that cartoon rabbit in the photo!!
There was also a light up festival in Tokyo, luckily we went early enough to escape the crowds and it didn't take too long to wander about and look at the pretty lights.
Oh and we also saw a Kabuki play! Probably not something I would see again, and I have to confess we only saw a couple of acts. They have a deal where you can buy tickets cheaper to just a few acts, perfect for us!
For New Years we went to a bar that someone had seen advertised - free drinks and some nominal entry fee. A bargain on a Tokyo new years eve. We got there and they refused to let us in without us paying some exorbitant fee. The price advertised was only for Japanese. Hmm. So we went somewhere else. The place we ended up was packed, wall to wall dancing and Tracey was taking some photos. After we had left the bar and were having a look at Tokyo Tower all lit up, she realized she had left her camera. We went back and no one had seen it. They let her back in to have a look but it was gone.
