ME :)

Sun 26/07/2009

The bus from Shinjuku to Tokyo Narita airport takes about 1-1.5 hours on the bus. The train I believe takes just as long and I would guess be a bit more expensive. The bus costs 3000 yen one way and since there are two/three terminals at the airport, they categorize your bag with different colored tags so you know when to get off. I thought it was a great system.

It is a bit sad to leave Tokyo and even more depressing knowing that you’ll be back into London in 12 hours, eat dinner, sleep and be at your office desk the next day.

smiles

Sat 25/07/2009

Today was the busiest day in Tokyo, I wanted to do so many things before leaving Tokyo and luckily the weather today was perfect; hot and sunny.

First stop was back to Roppongi to visit the Sky Deck. I had actually called them in the morning to confirm it was opened otherwise I wouldn’t have been. The view from the Sky Deck of Tokyo is amazing, it is so DENSE! It seems like there is no room left to build anything whatsoever.

On the way to Yoyogi Park, my friend suggested I visit Meiji Shrine. This park/shrine is a welcome sight from all the apartments, skyscrapers and people crammed in Tokyo. It is particularly nice on a hot day like today to walk amongst the trees and shade. At Meiji Shrine I witnessed a marriage but it felt like a funeral procession, cheer up people!

I wanted to check out the freaks or should I say the EMO’s at Yoyogi Park dressed in their Manga attire. I know Sundays are usually when they’re out and about but I was hoping some would appear on Saturdays. Sadly, they’re only out on Sundays as I couldn’t find anyone around dressed up.

Instead I witnessed a show involving skaters and bike riders in a game of reverse limbo whereby the skater/biker would jump the pole and slowly the height would increase until everyone who participated was eliminated. This was all on a stage, with a DJ spinning the decks in the background. I don’t think it was an organized event; it was like these guys rocked up, set up some decks on a stage sitting in the middle of nowhere and began to draw the crowd including skaters and bikers.

It was an entertaining event nonetheless with the BMX easily clearing the bar and eliminating his opponents. I’m not sure what he won in the end, probably a sushi set.

Next up was the shopping district mecca of Harajaku and also Shibuya. I have never seen so much people in my life just wandering up and down the streets in the same vicinity. I thought London was congested, this area and Tokyo in general was like a global gathering.

Here I did see some girls dressed up in Manga costumes but it seemed to me like they were there to make money, i.e. take a picture with me and pay me X amount of yen but I could be wrong as I didn’t approach them. I couldn’t help but do some shopping myself so I entered this cool T-shirt store and bought about 3 T-shirts just to fit into the crowd (I’m joking).

I’m waiting to see how the Oxford Street / Regent Street crossing is like when it becomes transformed into a street crossing like in Tokyo. I want to see if it gets as busy as Shibuya. Somehow I don’t think it can compete to the sheer number of people crossing the road in 20 different directions dodging each other in the process. It would have to be the longest wait in front of the traffic lights for someone driving a vehicle.

That night I headed to Daiba, where the Fuji TV station is situation and also Rainbow Bridge. I was here mainly to take some night photos of the bridge and as much of the Tokyo city skyline as possible which was dependent on which buildings had their lights or rather neon lights on.

Daiba is on an island that is connected to Tokyo via the Rainbow Bridge. It’s quite a nice place to chill out by the water on a summer night and relatively easy to get to on the Tokyo Metro trains.

smiles

Fri 24/07/2009

I was out of the hotel door at 5am and headed to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market to explore the premises, examine the seafood that was on offer and see what the fuss is all about in regards to the Tuna auctions. It is quite busy at the seafood market with funny looking and operated vehicles dashing up and down the aisles filling orders for the businesses.

I can’t believe how much fresh seafood was here, it was definitely seafood heaven and it was by far the freshest seafood I’ve ever seen in the world so far at a market apart from the frozen tuna. Fish were still swimming around in their containers; it was like they’d just been thrown in a box straight from the sea. I really can’t say if the produce is expensive or inexpensive as I didn’t take notice of the price. I was too busy taking photos of the seafood being sold and admiring the size of the scallops – gigantic!

I didn’t find the tuna auction interesting at all. It was just a bloke standing in the center of the room taking bids and offers. He was surrounded by a large group of blokes raising their hands and that was pretty much it. The tuna was all frozen and once sold would just be loaded onto a wooden cart and wheeled away to one of the many seafood businesses selling this on to their customers. Some stores would sell the tuna whole, others would saw it in half literally, while others chopped and filleted their pieces of tuna to manageable and consumable sizes.
On the outskirts of the market are restaurants that serve ramen noodles as well sushi and all things seafood. I couldn’t stomach sushi so early in the morning so after eyeing where I wanted to go for lunch, I headed back to the hotel for a nap.

I returned later to a restaurant called Sushizanmai and got a plate full of sushi with different types of fish. Most sushi items I knew what they were but there were some I had no idea but I still ate it anyway. There was raw tuna, snapper, eel, crab, fish roe and many others.

This place is by far the best place I’ve ever had Sushi and everything I ate was so soft and delicious. The fish were delicate and the wasabi just right burning through my nostril. The best thing was that it only cost me around £13 and I was completely satisfied, it touched the spot (my stomach) nicely.

Roppongi was my next destination. Roppongi is the city or suburb where all the international shops and restaurants are located. I wasn’t interested in those particular places but instead I was looking to go up to the Sky Deck to see Tokyo from above. Unfortunately due to the weather that day, the Sky Deck was closed but you could go to the observation deck. Well to me that was pointless, if I can’t go to the top floor/terrace and have non obstructed views then there was no point going up there!

smiles

Thu 23/07/2009

I went back to Akihabara to pick up some camera gear specifically filters that I’d broken in Norway as well as missing hoods and caps I’d lost in Chicago. I thought the prices were quite cheap compared to what they sell elsewhere and best of all I could try out different lenses and cameras they had.

Now stocked up with the camera goods I made my way to the Imperial Palace and entered its premises. Yesterday I got as far as the foot bridge but today I got to go inside and the best thing, entry was free. The Imperial Palace is not that great of a place to visit as there wasn’t much to see inside; it was quite baron to be honest. There is a park inside the palace that sort of overlooks the city but you can’t see over the skyscrapers. The Imperial Palace sits just on the outskirts of the main CBD where all the finance buildings are located so you only have a good view of this.

The plan tonight was to do some night photography so I packed the bag with the tripod and camera gear. Due to the adverse weather conditions (i.e. rain) I decided only to go as far as Shinjuku’s food court. I stocked up on dumplings, a box of inari-sushi and some fried prawns. I headed back to the hotel, watched the Mummy 3 and cleaned out the food that I purchased.

smiles

Wed 22/07/2009

In the morning it was time to leave Lake Kawaguchiko and head back into Tokyo to explore the city. I thought coming back into the city was going to take twice the amount of time because the traffic would be really congested even though the bus is driving on the elevated highway. I arrived in Tokyo at around midday and headed for the hotel in Shinjuku. Unfortunately they didn’t let me check in yet so I just dropped off my bags and decided to come back later in the evening.

I didn’t have any sort of guide books with me or have any idea what to do in Tokyo so the first stop was the Tokyo Metropolitan Office. You probably don’t walk from the underground train to the Metro Office but most likely from street level. From the underground station to the Metro Office there are a large number of homeless people sleeping around near the entrances to Metro Offices. These homeless people set up mini cardboard camps that are separated about 3 meters from each other. I am surprised that these homeless people sleep here in the confines of government/metropolitan offices.

I didn’t want to spend at the Metropolitan Office so when I got inside, I just grabbed 20 brochures and left the premises in order to meet my friend on time at Shinjuku. I got lost at the labyrinth that is of Shinjuku Station. While trying to find the Central East exit to meet my friend, I found a great food court selling some amazing food (sushi, dumplings, fried goodies) and took note of it to come back later and buy dinner or lunch.

The afternoon was spent around Electric Town aka Akihabara, checking out the Manga stores and electronic shops. We then headed to the Imperial Palace when it started to rain and by the time we got there it was about to close so we made our way back to Shinjuku for dinner.

We chose a random restaurant in Shinjuku just because it looked good from the menu. It was difficult to communicate with the waiter as he spoke little English. Then out of nowhere a Bangladeshi came out from the kitchen to our table and explained some of the dishes to us. What we ordered was mainly pork in its different sauces as well as some very odd entrée servings of raw octopus, fish guts (or cuttlefish) and picked prawns. Steer clear of the first two delicacies as they were horrible.

smiles