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Arrived in Tokyo around 7:30pm after a pleasant 7h flight in jetstar business class. After realizing that my rail map omitted numerous stations I settled into the 90min train ride interchanging once without getting particularly lost.
When I got out of the station it was a quick walk to the hostel albeit in the rain. I checked in at around 9:30 into my capsule bed (20 in a room) which I was a bit disappointed in as they were rickety and load everytime you moved on the bed. Nevertheless a good idea.
I then went to the common room to check emails and met 3 texans. I headed out for some random dinner dish around the corner then we headed for the pub/club area knowing that we would be stranded until 5am when the trains ran again.
We went into one dodgy club for a drink then the guys said they were keen to get to a pub to watch Manchester play Barcelona. The game was pretty good (what I saw between falling asleep at the table) but the boys were disappointed as manchester lost. On the upside the bar did have coopers at 950yen a bottle. Anyway an hour later we stumbled into the hostel and crashed out at 7am.
I woke the next day around 10:30am, had an awesome shower and tried the Japanese toilet for the first time (very interesting).
I then jumped on a series of metros and made my way to the imperial palace gardens without getting overly lost. The gardens are beautiful but the rain had not let up all day and I'm glad I actually brought a travel umbrella with me. I then trained to the electronics and manga region and wandered around for a while. The manga appeal in the games arcades is pretty crazy.
I dropped into a sushi train place for a late lunch and became confused when I couldn't find any wasabi. Opening all the containers in front of me, I found one that contained a green powder. Thinking that maybe some places in Japan use wasabi powder, I proceeded to sprinkle some on my sashu. A nearby business man who didn't speak English shook his head, reached over and grabbed the powder container and tipped a bit of the powder into a cup and filled it with hot water for me. He is probably telling the same story about a stupid tourist who put green tea powder on sushi.
I then reboarded the metro and went to akususa (old part of town) and wandered around the streets for a couple of hours and looked at the old temple. While there two early 20s girls came up asking if I could take a photo, which really meant posing with each of them in front of the temple. Kinda cool and different.
Soaked, I then made my way back to the hostel where I met Jordan and Cameron again (the texans). We decided to head out with Conrad (from San fran) and fleur (Canada) to do sober karaoke, which took a while to find one that was open.
Anyway we booked an hour in a sweatbox (we couldn't work out how to use the aircon) and had a good time despite the no alcohol (I sang to land downunder, what's my age again and wonderwall; all pretty badly).
Unable to find an open bar nearby, we headed back to the hostel and eventually crashed out.
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