We’re looking forward to the flight as Virgin Atlantic has the best service which makes all the difference when you’re stuck in a sub-sonic tin can for 13 hours.

We arrive at around 8am Japan time. Japan are 9 hours ahead of GMT, UK is currently 1 hour ahead of GMT.

I’ve never been so nonchelant about a holiday in my life. It’s not a bad thing, actually it makes travelling a lot easier. It makes it feel as though getting to where you want to go takes no effort at all.

In truth it really does take little effort. We left the house at 7:45am. Bags already packed, nothing to do but walk a few yards to the train station in Brighton and sit down for an hour or so before getting the tube to the heathrow express at paddington.

Where does the time go? You spend 2 hours getting there, time checking in, going through security, eating an overpriced sandwich, standing still on a walk way while it whisks you (very slowly) to your departure gate, ready to spend the next 11 hours sat on your behind doing nothing. No wonder i’m so tired!

The plane journey was everything i’ve come to expect from a Virgin Atlantic flight now. The service was great, the entertainment is the best i’ve ever seen (500 hours of on demand movies, TV and music). The food was undoubtably the best i’ve ever had. Dinner was a choice of 3 meals, one of which was a Japanese Bento box containing authentic japanese cuisine. Absolutely amazing compared to the old stereotype of plane food. As always in economy, sleep isn’t really an option, you either pass out from exhaustion (forgetting it’s actually 3am even though the sun is up) or you stay awake, no matter how many ear plugs and eye patches you wear. I think my economy flight days are over. I’m begining to think premier economy is worth the extra money.

Why Virgin decided it would be clever to put salt and pepper in sachets that look just like sugar ones i’ll never know. I blame them entirely for me pouring both the salt and pepper into my cup of tea. The air stewardesses got a good laugh out of it anyway. Thankfully i never tasted it. Maybe it’s a whole new style of tea just waiting to be discovered.

Touch down.. Narita airport. 8am local time. More than half an hour ahead of schedule for some reason. The excitement kicked in and i couldn’t wait to get off the plane, get our bags and jump in the deep end of Japan.

My first impression was “what a quiet place, not many people around”. The passport control area was empty, just 300 from our plane. No other plane’s passengers collecting baggage either. I was begining to wonder if we’d landed at a different Japan. (maybe there’s another one we don’t know about!)

The Narita Express train to Tokyo was pretty quiet too. All the tranquility of the scenic journey was soon to be shattered by Tokyo Station. An insanely busy bustling world of it’s own where thousands of people are all heading in completely different directions. Navigating your way through them is an event in itself.

Tokyo is well equipped for us brits. English signs everywhere making travelling around pretty easy. One thing that can’t be so easily translated is exactly how their transport system works. That you have to find out for yourself. After purshasing completely the wrong ticket (thankfull only worth 60p) we soon found the right ticket and made it easily to our hotel.

Well i say our hotel, they inconveniently put a hotel next to ours with the same name. Apart from the “Royal” prefix. Asking for directions from an english speaking japanese guy only works if he knows which hotel you actually want. We carried our heaving ruck sack bags up to the 24th floor of the wrong hotel before going back down to find our building next door and popping up to the 25th floor and checking in.

Our 3 sided hotel is amazing, the views are staggering no matter which window you look out of. After a quick shower and a snooze we headed out to Ginza, the fashion district of Tokyo to check out the neon infested streets and do some people watching from an expensive department store cafe overlook the main crossroads. Cameras were at the read to take it all in. Tokyo is a constant treat for the eyes.

Back to the hotel for a relaxing Asahi beer in the lobby listening to a live Jazz band in an acoustically amazing Atrium that stands 10 storeys tall inside the skyscraper.

Anyway that’s enough blogging for one day (or two, i forget which day it is anymore). I’m off to stare at the twinkingly red lights of tokyo and drink some green tea.

Things I noticed most are the lack of litter everywhere, why can’t we do that?  Seems so easy really.  Also in my head things were going to be hard for us here, huge language barrier, completely different way of life…but no, everything so far (well it’s only day one) has been very easy.

Hardest part for me has been trying to irradicate the word Obrigada (Portugese for thank you) from my mind and replace it with Ar i ga to (the Japanese version) will probs just have got round to finally saying it right the day we go home :)

Sitting here listening to the weirdest Japanese radio, all talk over lounge bar music, riight!  Looking forward to really exploring Tokyo by day tomorrow following a full nights kip.  Jetlag is hell but it’s worth it.

Till tmr

Up by 10 and out by 11. We are on holiday after all. We were soon in Shibuya, probably THE area of Tokyo i’ve always wanted to go to if only to see “more people than you’ve ever seen in your life” cross the main crossroads (That’s the guide book’s description anyway, they’re not wrong either!) Finding lunch was easy, Tokyo really does have everything automated. Picking your meal from a vending machine in Yoshinoya was fun in itself and the it was undoubtedly the best £1.50 I’ve ever spent on anything!

One stop further along the Yamanote subway line and we were at Yoyogi park were the quirky kids like to hang out. Tokyo has it’s own fashion and as mad as it may seem at times it really suites them. I’ve yet to see a badly dressed Japanese person, however strange they may like to dress.

Had some fun chats with Japanese people today. It’s interesting to see that English speaking nations and the Japanese have one thing in common. Curiosity for each others nations and language. Anyone you catch eye contact with (and has the time) will have a friendly chat with you. Be it Japanese students putting their English lessons into practice or waiting in a queue for toilets at a department store. They like to talk, like to find out what you think and like to be friendly. It’s refreshing and makes you realise we have more in common with these people than most of the people in our own country.

After a quick snooze (a must on in any afternoon on holiday) we headed back to Shibuya for dinner. Found a great Japanese restaurant and ordered things by looking at pictures and picking what looks nice. Mine turned out to be Octopus which was divine. Personally i think it should be made mandatory that you pick your meal in every country by pointing at pictures instead of knowing what it is. You’d probably find out you like a lot more things than you thought!

The language barrier really isn’t a problem here. They speak Japanese to us, we speak English to them, nobody knows what’s being said but somehow everything always works out. That’s the fun of Tokyo and I’m hoping the whole of japan too.

A quick stop at the Starbucks that overlooks the famous crossing in Shibuya is a must, even if you don’t like coffee (like me). It’s a great view of a mad area which makes Piccadilly circus look like a badly lit Christmas tree. Three massive video walls on buildings that every so often synchronise, all with sound systems. Tokyo keeps your eyes busy the whole time, every holiday should do that, Tokyo never disappoints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxkXiPfdZ6I

Back to our hotel to admire the amazing view form the 30th floor. The twinkling red aircraft warning lights on all the buildings make for an amazing panoramic at night. It’s a pity we have to go to bed but we have an early start tomorrow. I fear I may not have the capacity to remember everything i see. I may need to forget half of my life just to make room!

Tokyo really is your friend. The trains are easily mastered after the 4th mistake (all of which are funny), the people are friendly. You feel safe, entertained and definitely well fed!

Spent the day whizzing about everywhere on the metro.  Found the place where Gwen Stefanie befriended her Japanese girls, asked them to join her on tour and made them rich, it’s a square by Yoyogi Park where every sunday hords of young Japanese dress up in anything they fancy and just chill out taking pictures of each other and letting us tourists do the same.

Still haven’t got over the fact that everywhere here is cleaner than the Popes bedroom, really nice but in some way quite freaky, more a reflection of the state of our country than the culture of theirs, me thinks?

As it was such a lovely day we went for a chessy walk round Yoyogi Park.  Had fun but also had a hard time coping with the billion (no exageration) spiders sitting in their huge webs waiting for lunch, watching us.  Still managed to make it to the well at the end and washed my hands of the fear :)

We also thought we’d try and catch a glimps of the ever elusive Mount Fuji by going to the free observertory at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku.  Mount Fuji remained elusive as heat haze fuzzed the view that far but we did see all of Tokyo and got to buy our first souveniers woohoo!

 Was made to think today, by some University students doing a survey in Yoyogi Park, about the good points of our country.  Had to think a long time before saying “Brighton” arf.  Travelling has a funny way of making you look at your own country more than you would like sometimes and although i love it here i still love Brighton more so all is good :)

The other thing we realised is that we are more welcome as English people over here than we are in many European countries.  They want to know us and our culture and embrass it for what it is.  Bizarre but not a surprise as countries have always had more issues with those close to them than those the other side of the world.

Right better go as a class of champagne waits for me, this hotel is the best we have ( western style anyway) while here so i’m going to make the most of it.

Oh and by the way found some cider today so don’t be surprised if this is my last blog from Toyko ;)

Sayonara

After a full night’s sleep we headed straight out to Akihabara to the district known as Electric town. Imagine a Maplins warehouse that has exploded, spewing forth all manner of gadgets, gizmos, power supplies, cables, switches, LEDs and enough weird and wonderful electrical goodies to keep any Otaku (that’s Japanese for geek) busy for months.

There’s also the odd Manga store. Selling fantastic Manga figurines (rather raunchy Japanese cartoons) which I’d love to bring home but don’t have enough room in our luggage. We stumbled into an adult section (honest), they’re quite open about their adult entertainment preferences and it’s all very artistic (honest!). That would have fitted in my bag had i been allowed to buy some.

From there we headed to Asakusa where there’s a fantastic trinkets market and one of the most famous temples in Tokyo, Senso Ji. We wafted our faces with incense (supposed to help recovery from any ailments) and had our fortune told by randomly selecting a stick from a metal tin and finding the draw containing your fortune. Apparently my finances and marriage will be “good”. Marvelous!

At 13:55 we caught the most futuristic boat i have ever seen down to Odaiba, a man made island full of massive skyscrapers, to visit the Science and emerging technologies museum. An amazing place featuring sections on Nanotechnology, space, particle acceleration and my favorite bit. Robots! We met Asimo the robot who liked looking at Debs, where ever she stood. We both became a bug like robot, sitting in a 3D video simulation room and controlling a small robot that fed the video in the room from it’s camera eyes. A weird and amazing experience.

After the mandatory snooze we headed out to Yurakucho to find a small Japanese pub mentioned in our guide book. One thing you get used to in Tokyo is making mistakes, after walking in completely the wrong direction for half an hour, asking people for directions (sending us even more in the wrong direction) we found where it should have been and still couldn’t find it. We chose the place as the guide said it had English speaking owners. Ironic then that we should end up in a restaurant nearby called the “Rose and Crown“, a spitting image of a Victorian English pub, where nobody spoke to word of English.

Matt managed to crash the website today which meant we got to pop onto msn and I could find out how little kitten Bob is.  Sarah is looking after her and all is well so i can sleep better this evening.

Had a very busy day, felt funny before we got to the Temple Sensoji but the calm atmoshphere there got my chi back to normal, which was nice.

There are so many firsts for me on this holiday, one being we are having to budget quite strickly, despite being told how expensive everything will be we are well within the budget everyday (so far) so all is well there too.  Had shepherds pie for tea, so very english but sometimes when you are abroad a little taste of home can renew your hunger for something more exotic.

Really looking forward to going up to the north island on Shinkansan and Exprss trains, 11 hours of staring out the window and snoozing is always a day in heaven for me.

Debz x  

PS I got 4 bloody bites this morning. how rude!

We’ll bec catching a Shinkansen for 4 hours of the journey then another 2 different trains. Total train journey is 11 hours so we’re going to see a lot of the Japanese country side as we go.

Here’s some more on Sapporo. We’ll be there for 3 days and will definately be visting the Sapporo Beer factory (it’s free!)

Sapporo (“important river flowing through a plain” in Ainu language) is the capital of Hokkaido and Japan’s fifth largest city. Sapporo is also one of the nation’s youngest major cities. In 1857, the city’s population stood at just seven people.

In the beginning of the Meiji Period, when the development of Hokkaido was started on a large scale, Sapporo was chosen as the island’s administrative center and enlarged according to the advice of foreign specialists. Consequently, Sapporo was built based on a North American style rectangular street system.

Sapporo became world famous in 1972 when the Olympic Winter Games were held there. Today, the city is well known for its ramen, beer, and the annual snow festival held in February.

Here’s a video of our first few days in Tokyo, visiting Ginza and Shibuya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxkXiPfdZ6I

Here’s some video of our first hotel, the Park hotel, in Tokyo and also some views from the Government building observatory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8i7jQx0c2w

We left Tokyo at 8:56am on the dot. Our train, like all trains in Japan it seems, have sets of seats that can be turned round to face which ever way the train is going. On the shinkansens they are automatic. The train is always cleaned before you get on at it’s starting destination and the seats set in the right direction. They may not be the fastest trains in the world any more but boy do they shift it. You’re soon doing incredible speeds before you’ve even left the urban sprawl of Tokyo. Once you’re further out into the countryside they just keep on accellerating. It feels like a plane hurtling down the runway but never taking off. You’re waiting for that moment the wheels leave the ground but it never happens. The world outside becomes a blur.

3 hours later and it’s time to board a much slower train for another 3 or so hour journey from Hanachoe to Hakodate. Unfortunately we couldn’t reserve seats on this train as it was all booked up so we had to stand for the first few stops before jumping in some seats as soon as somebody stood up. The two second rule applies to trains in Japan it seems.

At Hakodate we changed again for yet another 3 or so hour journey that ended in Sapporo. Thankfully we had green car reservations (first class) for this leg of our mammoth journey and it was much appreciated. The service in Japan is better than any in the world. Always friendly, always helpful, even if they can’t speak a word of english, always bowing. The ladies with food trollies bow to everyone before they leave your carriage. It’s all so polite but never feels superficial. Something lacking back home, in fact lacking in most countries.

Sapporo! we made it, found our hotel easily. It seems the love of the english language doesn’t stretch quite so far up north. In fact the use of the english language in the whole of japan is quite strange. They use it as if it were a fashion statement. Often having english on adverts without japanese translations. As if all japanese have to learn some english just to get what the advert is about. On the flip side, as with our current hotel, there’s a menu for something called “Ladies special day”. Except that’s the only english on the entire page. The rest is indecipherable to us. Once again the “point and choose” technique of selecting food is put into practice and so far has yet to dissapoint.

This evening’s meal was in the hotel. A traditional 8 course meal, lots of vegetables with weird names you never even knew existed. Oh and i swear i had Dolphin or possibly Shark for lunch, although it may have been some kind of pickle. Who knows! Frankly if it tastes good, i don’t care!