Tokyo Crazy Times
Trip Start
Jun 23, 2009
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2
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Tokyo, Kanto, Japan
Sunday, June 28, 2009
I arrived in Tokyo on Sunday night (9pm) and had a mission trying to find Asukusa Station where the hostel was located!... I was about to ask a man sitting on what looked like a stool when i realised he was brushing his teeth and getting ready to sleep in his cardboard box to sleep in! There was a whole row of homeless people in boxes who were neatly placing there shoes outside there boxes ready for bed. It made me think that not matter how poor you get, pride can never be taken away. Beside this thought i started to seriously freak out. It was dark and I had no idea where I was and carrying 23kg on my back and arms.. Ouch. Finally I go into this noodle restuarant and attempt to find directions.
These two Australian girls eating there heard me and called at me. They were also staying at the same hostel and could show me the way! Woohooo. Finally I have access to food after the disappointing meal on the AirChina flight and promise of a bed after no sleep on the cattle-like flight.
We have a quick bite ( i had dumplings) and then we strolled over to the hostel passing this very Las Vegas looking "Love Hotel" which at 5,00 Yen/night was pretty alluring!
Finally I get to the hostel where I met a Scottish girl who I got talking to, we went to the local "Family Market" for some bare essentials and then it was wash my hair and off to bed for me...oh yes!
Monday
Just before sleeping the night before I started talking to an Canadian Girl who I later came to know as Julie. The next morning after 8hrs of blissful sleep I got up and together we decided to roam the streets of Asuksa(tokyo). We has green tea icecream and a cold green tea beverage before finding a small tradational Japanese restuarant. We sat on the floor and shared two dishes of Tempura(prawn) and Noodles. The bill came and I was starting to understand how expensive my stay in Tokyo was going to be! \
We then went on to buy some fruit at a local supermarket and go to the nearby temple that was burning white smoke... which we were breathing in for good luck/suffocation.
It was getting towards 1pm when Patrick was to arrive so we made a quick pit-stop to gather information about the local fairground and then back to the Hostel to find Patrick on the Hostel computer in the communial area. Typical! .. After trying to persuade him to come to the Fairground and moving my rucksack from the all-girl dorm to the twin room me and Julie left to go to the Fairground.
At the fairground we had enough tickets for 3 rides, one extreme (spaceshot), one mid (twirly-thing) and one baby ride (swans in water).... There we met the cutest little kid called "Kento". He looked about 1years old, cross-eyed and falling all over the place. Awwh... he still managed to laugh it off each time. Of course I got a picture of him.
Finally I return to the hostel enough time for a 1hr nap. Got up, got cash. Went to dinner. This was comedy gold. We went with Julie, and this guy called "Goldie". At the age of 38 he still didn't know some of the basic things. At first i thought it was a joke...only to realise later that he was dead serious and I was trying to hold back the laughter. Oh dear.
Anyways Bed!
Tuesday
So we decided the night before that Tuesday morning would be "Fish Market" day! So we got up at 4.30, enough time to get to the Fish market to see the live catch and big fish. Clearly we were getting in the way and being a huge nusiences to the fishermen, but hey, we played to tourist card pretty well! We were on a race to find the famous blue-fin tuna.... We wouldn't take no for an answer and regularly made a run into the restricted areas taking pictures like we were part of London Paps... I think we scared Julie a little! Perhaps too intense... Patrick was more hyped up then usual. So it was 6.30am and we quickly get to a nearby sushi restuarant selling the recent catch which was later described by Patrick as the "world's most expensive sushi". For 6 pounds per piece it was! Was really good though and had to be done. After being rushed out of the restuarant we walked around looking for somewhere to chill for a bit.... Mc Donnald's to the resue. We camped out there for a short while before taking the subway to a Temple which had some pretty cool features like a ninja watch hut... we could hear some of them training in one of the buildings. We then went back to the centre for the Asahi Newspaper tour which was a lot better than we expected.
Finally Shinkansan to Nagoya which Patrick described as being "from the 80's" which lasted around 2hrs ...Nap time!... Finally in Nagoya we had another mission finding the hotel....Unpacked... Food. Restuarant was awesome, again expensive and they shouted a welcome each time someone walked through the door! Finally sleep ready for a 7am start to Toyota City for a Toyota tour.
Wednesday
Another mission at the Train stations. As patrick described there were "Bonus" trainlines which were "his favourite". Let me decode that... there were too many extra lines to figure out which he found annoying. Amazingly we arrived in Toyota at 10.20! ...in time for the tour. The tour made the hassle of finding it soooooo worth it. It was incredible. From the light-weight concept cards ready for November 2010 Tokyo Concept Motor show to the personal vehicles(which apparently resembled the shape of a leaf). The plant was so automised! We saw "KanBan" in action , aka Japanisation. I was thinking what a pre-pre training for my role at Rolls Royce. The mechanisms were incredible. Line following robots, spray painting (just like out of the advert just multiples of robots) and crazy worm like fans... so futuristic. After the tour we got back to Nagoya ..Packed and took a train down to Kyoto.
We finally arrived in Kyoto at 5pm and made our way to the Guest house. It was beautiful .... So quaint. The first thing was to take a shower after the day workout in the most beautiful bathroom! Made some calls home and then we went to a local noodle restaurant which could probably hold 7 people and sat on the floor. Later to this very cosmopolitan looking bar which Yashi(the guesthouse owner called "Andy Bar"- a uk tourist who visited it every night from the guesthouse). We got some travel recommendations and then went to find the Geisha!
The Geisher were too beautiful, it was just like the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" come alive. I finally got a picture with a Meiko! Score! We found a beautiful Japanese garden down the road from this tradational road where the Geisha were walking through to get to their homes after their day's work. That was stunning also.
Thursday
We decided to stay an extra night in Kyoto,sleep in till 10am and forgo the first of the two nights in Hiroshima. Today we went to see the 1000 budhas. This was sooooo relaxing and well deserved after the last few days. So peace, I feel into meditation. Then to the floating place or "Golden Pavilion" which was so shiny. Patrick managed to get a picture was school group who were trying to practise their English with him. He got the ultimate to fingers up "J-pop" style photo! So jealous.
Then off to the bamboo tunnel where I got eaten alive by mosciqutos. Ouch.
Home,dinner (which include some delicious Kobe beef) and relax. Bumped into the Austrialian girls I had met in the noodle restuarant on the first night and also got talking to some Canadian travelers in the hostel bar.
I am currently in the hostels common room and there is lots of chatter around me of friendly travellers exchanging advise and socialising. I have realised this way of travel is actually really good fun. Lots of kind people willing to help and great fun to chat too. I am glad I finally decided to do this. It is developing me in ways I never knew was possible.
Anyways I am running out of time and 300 Yen down...thats 2 drinks from the street vending machine. Bonus!... Got to go. Night x
Fian
