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We arrived in Tokyo a little later than expected. It was about 10 pm by the time we landed and the last train to our hostel was due to leave at 11. If we missed the train we would have had to have stayed in the airport until the morning which would have been awful. It was quite a close call, but we made it. It took about an hour and a half to get to the hostel and we were both really tired, however we could already feel a big difference between China and Japan. It felt so much calmer, much more civilised and a lot happier in Japan. We could tell straight away that we were going to enjoy our time in Japan.
The hostel we stayed in was on the outskirts of Tokyo in a residential district with lots of restaurants and a big supermarket. Our first full day in Japan was spent wandering around the local area. Crossing the road was a very strange experience for us. Unlike the countries that we had been in for the past 4 months, we didn't feel in danger. Everyone in Japan waits for the green man before crossing. It doesn't matter if the road is clear for miles, they always wait. The cars don't accelerate when they see you crossing, and instead they slow down and let you cross in peace. It took a bit of getting use to! In the shops, the staff were always attentive and smiley. When paying for things they spoke a lot in Japanese and smiled a lot. It was lovely. We looked at the restaurants, however none of them had English menus. For most of our time in Tokyo we got food from the supermarket or from a £2 bento box shop, which suited both of us just fine. It also saved us a bit of money since the exchange rate for us was terrible. About 5 years ago the rate of exchange was around 300 yen to the pound. Now its 120 yen to the pound. It seemed to be fruit and veg that cost the most in the supermarket. To give you an example, an apple will cost you about £2.50, a small bunch of grapes costs about £5 and one carrot costs about 80p. Its absolutely crazy. The hostel also cost a lot more than we were use to, and try charged for everything extra - hiring a plug adapter cost about £1 per hour. It was a nice place though, and the manager was very nice and friendly. The hostel looked like a standard house that had been converted for hostel use. Our floor had the narrowest possible corridors, and the small rooms were divided by plywood that didn't quite reach the floor or ceiling. It was fine for us though, and it gave us a taste of the tiny living conditions so common in Tokyo (home of 25 million people.)
On the second day we decided to brave Tokyo city centre. We weren't sure exactly where to go but we spottted a station on the train map called Tokyo and set off for there. When we arrived at the station we found ourselves on the basement floor of a huge mall at a section of shops called Character Street. The shops were full of merchandise of the strangest looking crazy cartoon characters you could imagine. It was fantastic! We spent a while looking around the mall and Charlene thought all the fabulous charms, toys and accessories were brilliant. Both of us could have spent a fortune there. When we finally left the mall, we were very suprised by what we saw. It was the opposite of what we thought Tokyo would be like. Yes there were lots of skyscrapers, but there were also wide, relatively quiet roads, fountains, and a big park area with some old Japanese buildings. There was hardly anyone around. It was so peaceful. It turned out that Tokyo station was near the Imperial Palace and was the political and business centre rather than the commercial centre. We wandered around for a while, taking it all in, and stumbled across an English pub - The Rose and Crown. It was an excellent reproduction of a real English pub and it seemed very popular. The prices were crazy though. It cost nearly £5 for 3/4 of a pint of their cheapest draft beer. It also cost around £5 for a glass of coke. The food was very tasty though. Charlene had fish and chips and I had shepherds pie. Mmmmm.
The following day we checked out where to go online and decided to go to Akiba a.k.a. Electric Town. It was more like the Tokyo we had imagined. Stepping out onto the main pedestrianised street made me feel very small. We were surrounded by massive buildings and advertisement boards were everywhere. It was also very busy, but unlike China it was not manic. Everyone was behaving in an orderly fashion. Every shop along the street is either an electronics retailer, a manga (comic book) shop or a games arcade. You could buy anything electrical there, however due to exchange rates, it worked out more expensive than back home. It was interesting to see though. We went into an games arcade - 7 floors of machines. Some of those teenagers were going crazy on their games, but the queues for the machines were calm and sensible. Japan is a strange place, a bit of a contradiction. The place has crazy characters, zaniness and so much energy, yet the people enjoy it in a sensible and polite way. They really have it all worked out - a perfect balance! After Akiba we spent some time in the park, enjoying the sunshine and thinking about how nice Japan is.
The following day we headed to Shibuya. Shibuya is the part of Tokyo that gets photographed the most as it is full of malls, big buildings and neon signs. It also has a big scramble crossing where all traffic in all directions is stopped and people can cross the intersection whichever way they want. In theory it would be manic, and in China people would die, but in Japan everything is orderly and it works just fine. We looked around several malls in Shibuya. Each mall seemed to cater for a different thing. One mall had clothes for young women. Another mall for men. Another for more high end shops, and so on. Each mall was at least 7 floors high and were very busy, but it didn't feel stressful. The first mall we went into was full of very trendy shops with every style of fashion imaginable - a lot of it very outlandish. I felt very boring wandering around there in my t shirt and grey traveller trousers. Everyone in the mall had their own style. It felt like London, but multiplied by a million. Nothing seemed too crazy. It was interesting just people watching.
For our last full day in Tokyo we had booked to visit the Imperial Palace. It was free but we had to book online for security reasons. The weather was quite miserable and the rain was falling like buckets of water. We got soaked in the five minutes it took to walk from the hostel to the station. When we reached Tokyo station we walked about 15 minutes to the palace. By that stage it was getting quite windy as well, and we were wondering whether or not to bother with the tour. Since it was our last day and that we had booked, we decided to go on. When we got to the palace we were ushered into a large hall with about 150 other people (most of whom were Japanese and on an organised tour) and were shown a video. We had a headset each so we could hear what was going on in English. While the video was playing you could have heard a penny drop. All those people and not one sound. Totally different to China. We left the hall for our tour of the Palace grounds, and the Japanese tour group assembled in a long line in rows of four. No fuss. It was like the military. Our foreigner line was a shambles. Luckily while we toured the grounds the weather eased up a lot. The grounds were quite interesting to see, however most of the buildings were built in the last 50 years and so weren't that grand. The moment the tour finished the high winds started again, along with the driven rain. It was a battle getting back to the station and we had to stop at one point as the winds were too strong. Our umbrellas were useless. We headed underground at the first opportunity. After eating dinner at the station we went to the platform to go back to the hostel and there was a huge queue all the way from the platform down the stairs and across the main concourse. There were messages being read out over the public address system that said various services were suspended due to a typhoon. So that's why it was windy and rainy! We waited in the queue for two hours. We got to the platform but only because everyone else had given . No trains had arrived. We went to queue for a taxi but that queue was huge and in the hour and a half queuing there we saw only three taxis. We returned to the platform and after another half hour a train arrived. It was packed. In total, a journey that normally took 30 minutes took 5 hours. We will check the weather reports more closely in future!
We got the Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Although we had been on a slightly faster train in China from Shanghai to Beijing, this seemed a lot cooler. The train was very nice. The seats rotate so they always face the way you are heading. It was a very nice and quick journey.
Everyone we had spoken to about Japan had said how wonderful Kyoto was. I was a bit worried that it had been built up in our minds a bit too much and that it couldn't possibly live up to expectation.
After a short walk from the station we arrived at the nicest hostel we have stayed in this year. The staff were great, helpful, attentive and welcoming. The hostel was unbelievably clean (it was like an army operation every day). The toilets (like so many others in Japan) had lots of extra controls attached - a bidet button, a flush noise button, a deodouriser button - so different to the gutter toilets of China! Everything you could possibly need was provided by the hostel. The kitchen was fantastic. We couldn't fault the place.
On our first full day in Kyoto we visited Kiyomizu Temple. It was a public holiday in Japan - the Autumnal Equinox - and on that day people honour their ancestors. On our way to the shrine/temple complex we happened to walk through a cemetery and it was busy with people placing flowers and paying their respects. When we got to the temple, which was at the top of a hill, we had a great view over Kyoto. The complex was busy, but not manic, and people were enjoying themselves there either just sightseeing or carrying out religious activities. At Kiyomizu people practice Buddhism and Shintoism. Apart from looking at the buildings and statues, it was interesting to see what people were doing. We knew nothing about Shinto. From what we saw a lot of the religion seems to be based on luck and fortune. People were buying luck charms from little kiosks, and doing things like ringing bells and making wishes, throwing coins into pots for luck, and picking sticks from boxes that gave them their fortune (good and bad). If they got a bad fortune they tied the piece of paper to a rack in order to ward it off. We then went to the so called 'Love Shrine'. There were two stones placed about 15m apart and to get good fortune in love you had to walk from one to the other with your eyes closed without bumping into anything. Japanese people were laughing and having fun doing these activities, but they were also very respectful of the practices and seemed to believe them. It was certainly popular!
The next day we went on a tour of the Gion district of Kyoto - home of the Geisha. We started our tour on a busy main road, but were taken down narrow roads and alleys and we soon found ourselves in what looked like a different city - much older and traditional. We would never have found it on our own. Our guide took us to a shrine and showed and explained the rituals that are carried out. These include washing your hands and arms in a very specific way, ringing the bell twice and clapping twice. She explained that you had to make your wish at the front of the shrine to begin with, but then because the deity was old and a bit deaf you had to go around the side of the temple (closer to his ear), knock, and then repeat your wish. There was also an activity where you had to throw a coin into a netted rake head attached to the top of a gate. If you got it in, you would "rake in the money" i.e. be lucky in business. After this shrine we were taken down more backstreets and were shown some okiya. Okiya are the dormitory buildings that were the home of maiko (geisha in training). We were told that there are currently 200 geisha in Kyoto and about 60 maiko, so they are not that common a sight. In Kyoto there are plenty of women wandering around dressed as geisha and maiko, however these are mainly tourists doing a dressing up experience. We ended our tour outside what was apparently the most exclusive restaurant in Kyoto. It didn't look like much from the outside, however it costs a fortune to dine there and you can only go there if they already know you. We waited outside the restaurant for a bit as it was a good place to see real geisha who work at the restaurant. We saw a geisha go in but she moved so quickly that we couldn't get a picture in time. When we were about to leave, a taxi pulled up outside the restaurant and crowds started to gather. We wondered what was going on. Suddenly three maiko and two older women (who we joked were probably 'Mother' and 'Auntie' from Memoirs of a Geisha) came out of the restaurant and got into the taxi. People were crowded around taking photos. We felt like paparazzi! It was great to see real Geisha and Maiko. It was a great day.
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