Friday May 22, 12 midnight local time. In the comfort of our hotel room in Tokyo... among all the expensive things in this city, renting a laptop for 24 hours isn't! It's approx. 1,000 Yen, which is about $10 USD.

Konnichiwa! Greetings from Tokyo!

Before we give you the low down on Tokyo, we're going to rewind a few days, and first share a bit of our adventures in Hong Kong and Macau...

We arrived in Hong Kong on the 16th of May, and after only 2 full days in Hong Kong, and 1 full day in Macau, we managed to
see what felt like a week's worth of attractions! We were sightseeing at an intense pace of about 15 hours a day - the city NEVER sleeps - in ridiculously humid weather (we've never been saltier!), but we loved every minute of it! Being a former British colony (up until 1997), Hong Kong is a very tourist-friendly city (for English speakers, anyway) as all signs/shops/restaurants are also written in English.

The most memorable bits in Hong Kong were:

- Watching the "Symphony of Lights" show from the Star Ferry (which links Kowloon, mainland China, to Hong Kong Island). Basically, the entire city/skyscrapers light up; it's kind of cheesy, and a bit disco, but highly amusing!

- Riding the Peak Tram (allegedly the safest commuter line in the world) up towards Victoria Peak at a fairly steep incline of 27 degrees. The view from the Sky Terrace was great... it would've been even better without the ever-present, ever-looming smog "ceiling"... you'll see it in the pics; No, they're NOT clouds!

- Seeing loads of "sampans" (or fishing boats), and fish mongers in Aberdeen Fishing Village. We took a sampan to the "Jumbo Floating Restaurant" for a dim-sum lunch. Our guide book describes it perfectly..."a massive floating palatial hulk that is part Las Vegas-style casino, and part Chinese Temple." Truth be told it was tacky as sin, but we were thoroughly entertained!

- The infinite number of markets scattered throughout the city... we visited the bird, flower, goldfish, dried fish, and jade markets. As you may already know, EVERYTHING is negotiable. We managed to buy a copper Buddha, and a jade Buddha for just under $20 USD (original price quoted: $100 USD).

We also had the chance to visit lovely, oh-so-Portuguese-y Macau (formerly a Portuguese colony up until 1999). Unlike Hong Kong, things are NOT written in English, but rather in Portuguese, which was great for us (thankfully the Dutch didn't get their before the Portuguese, or it would've made it more difficult to navigate our way through the city).

Most fascinating about Macau were the glaring contrasts... everything seemed to be a dichotomy:

- The relationship between the Portuguese colonizers and the people of Macau seems to have been extremely amicable (which is VERY rarely the case). In the Macau Museum we read that these two vastly different people/cultures actually joined forces... Macau was in a very strategic/desirable location along the silk route, and the Portuguese offered to protect them in exchange for establishing a base of their own there. Furthermore, both cultures existed, flourished and grew side by side without stifling one another, and even overlapped in places creating things such as "Macanese" food.

- Beautiful colonial buildings (like those found along Largo do Senado), and monuments (such as Ruinas de Sao Paulo) sharply contrast filthy, extremely run down, crumbling "buildings"...

- This one is my favourite.... all things are indicated in Portuguese yet NO ONE speaks Portuguese!?

- Finally, the once sleepy, slightly economically backward Macau is now filling up with luxurious hotel-casinos, and is fast becoming the next Las Vegas! The government currently earns approx 50% of its revenues from gambling from the 29 casinos already in operation (including The Venetian, a Vegas replica), and I have no doubts this number will be increasing as many more plans for development/expansion are underway... watch this space!

Alright, we're going to fast-forward now to the 20th of May... we arrived in Tokyo around 2 pm (thankfully) so we had plenty of daylight hours to figure out how the heck to get to central Tokyo...Unfortunately English and Portuguese are of NO use in Japan... everything is in tattoo-like characters. I must admit that it's very pretty, but so darn frustrating at the very same time! Thank gosh for picture menus!!! Not sure how we would've ordered our meals otherwise! This has actually motivated us to learn basic Japanese "survival" phrases, LOL! So far we've mastered the word 'yes,' which is Hai... pronounced as if someone is punching you in the stomach; 'thank you', which is Arigato; And, the most useful of all, 'I don't understand,' which is Wakarimasen.

We're pleased to share that despite the steep learning curve, we've managed to see/do quite a bit already...

Our hotel is located in East Shinjuku, which is the entertainment, or more bluntly put, the red light district. During the day, the area is like any other... at night, however, watch out! Everyone looks like an animated cartoon character (or at least that seems to be the look everyone is striving to achieve)... girls wear their hair big, and barbie-like, pile on tonnes of make up (especially popular are hot pink cheeks), and wear the most bizarre costume-come-outfits I've ever seen in real life. The boys, similarly, wear their hair big and bleached-blond, and tight-fitting, eccentric clothing. It's all very "sexy Halloween", if that makes any sense....?

Moving swiftly on, we've taken two tours so far. The first was a half day tour, which took us to Senso-ji Temple (the most sacred and spectacular Buddhist Temple in Tokyo) where we saw worshippers wafting incense all over their bodies to keep them healthy; We cruised down the Sumida River under 12 bridges; Visited a pearl gallery to learn how cultured pearls are created; And, we drove through the glitzy and glamorous Ginza district (think Rodeo drive, baby!). We learned that real estate prices in Ginza are insane... 38,000,000 Yen (approx $380,000 USD) buys you 1 square meter of property!?! And we thought life was expensive in London, jeeeesh!

The second tour we took was to Mount Fuji, and the Hakone area. Sadly at 2,400 meters allowed us to see very little of the iconic Mount Fuji. To make up for it somewhat, our tour guide made each one of us an origami version of Mount Fuji ;-) The time spent in Hakone also helped make up for it... we took the Hakone Sky Gondola, which offered panoramic views of the volcanic Hakone Mountains, followed by a "Pirate" boat cruise down Lake Ashi.

One final point about Japan... the TOILETS rock! Most are fully automated offering "services" such as a warm seat, music to mask natural sounds, and our fav, bum cleaning options (bidet, spray, or shower, all at varying pressure levels!)!!! They've got toilets from the future!!!!

Anyhow, off to see more of Tokyo so sayonara for now!

Much love,
Jennifer & Daniel xo