Tokyo - the modern city

It's the summer holidays! Time to explore a little more of Japan....so we went to Tokyo for 5 days.

What can I say about it? It's modern and cleaner than its sister, Osaka. Its just bigger and better. More international too, with many tourists and expats living there. Some of us felt we didn't get stared at as much.

We stayed at a really dodgy hostel called Kowloon House. Maybe it was trying to live up to its namesake as I felt like we were in some homeless district and not in Tokyo. The dorm-style room (yep, one BIG open plan room) has 2 sets of 8 beds made of steel scaffolding. Quite uncomfortable even with a futon on the wooden 'bunk'. It had all but one toilet and shower to share amongst 14 other guests. No privacy unless you were like the "obasan" (old aunty) that has been living there for around 5 or 6 months and had made a curtain barrier around her bunk with all her clothes. She's Japanese and was quite strange, probably not much older than us. She would turn off the lights and mute the TV volume right in front of you while you were watching it! Not the most sociable personality.

This isn't the cleanest place I've ever been to...but you do get what you pay for, at 1500yen a night. That's really cheap considering Japan's reputation for expensive accommodation. So it just gave us an excuse to try to stay out as much as we could.

We visited (not in order cos my poor brain can't remember):
Shinjuku - just another shopping district. Our trip began here at Shinjuku station after almost 9 hours on a bus.

Shibuya - with its massive pedestrian crossing and neon lights. It's also home to the famous Hachiko statue (a statue of a dog), and nearby was an air-conditioned tram car where people could just sit and escape from the sweltering heat. And there was also the expensive and trendy Omotesando Hills, the "Champs Elysees" of Tokyo (where you watch the rich empty their bulging wallets). We also had fun at an izakaya with all-you-can-drink. Mind you, they were very stingy on the alcohol!

Asakusa - an overly touristy temple area with many souvenir shops and apparently a red-light district we walked pass! Last time Rich and I was here, the souvenir strip leading up to the temple was open-air, but it had been converted to an undercover shopping arcade this time. Such a pity, as it blocked the view of the temple from the entrance. All for the sake of tourism.... Another highlight was taking the water bus down the Sumida River towards central Tokyo.

Roppongi Hills- with its cool cafe/restaurant/shopping area, and a movie theatre where we saw Batman: The Dark Knight.

Tsukiji Fish market - for an early morning fishy tour (we got there around 7am) and then a scrumptious sushi breakfast after. Still can taste the melt-in-the-mouth sashimi!

Central Tokyo -
*Marunouchi - walking around the Imperial Palace gardens and trying to get into the palace only to find out it was closed...again! Rich and I don't have much luck with this place - we were faced with the same situation last time. We also headed to the Tokyo International Forum. This amazing piece of architecture looked like a massive glass ship. There was a kids convention being held there...looked like fun. Rich was quite taken with it.

*Ginza - Tokyo Tower has great views of Tokyo and yummy curry restaurant that looked like a science lab.

*Harajuku - with its massive park filled with lots of music, interesting groups (including several 50s rockabillies and one group practising bagpipes!) and great shopping for the girls! Not as many Japanese dressed in cos-play as we'd thought. It was just relaxing being surrounded by so much green.

Aoyama - we visited the Meiji Shrine and watched a traditional wedding procession. Beautiful bride in a white wedding kimono, with a rather darkly clad entourage of guests in her tow. We also bumped into another ECC teacher in the middle of the park.

Akihabara - where the boys went to a maid cafe (the waitresses were dressed in maid outfits and can feed you if you wanted like Tommy Lee Jones in a "Boss" coffee ad!) and checked out the electronics city.
Check out more photos here and here.

And of course, Rich and I went to the New York Grill & Bar in the luxurious Park Hyatt in Shinjuku, and chilled out with several cocktails, feeling lost in translation...

Before we landed ourselves with the mega task of climbing Mt Fuji...