Hello it's Laura,

We have now left Tokyo and feel that there was so much more that we could have seen. However during the five days that we were there we crammed in as much as we possibly could!

The flights to Tokyo were not as bad as we had expected. Eleven hours in transit in KL airport is not as bad as it sounds, okay so it's not great, but we managed to occupy ourselves with food, internte and travelling back and fourth on the inter-terminal train! When we arrived at Tokyo we were exhausted and it was so nice that the Japanese could actually understand us. We managed to get to the hostel with not too much difficulty.

Our first day in Tokyo started with a much needed nap. We dragged ourselves out of bed and went in search of lunch. Without realising until the end, our first meal in Japan was actually in a Chinese restaurant! We then had a stroll around our area of Asakusa which is a more traditional part of the city. We went to a temple and got our fortunbes. A man helped us with what to do. We took a pot with different sticks in and one hole. We then shook it until a stick dropped out. This stick had a number on it which corresponded to a draw with our fortune in. Mine was 'the best fortune' (number 89). We don't talk about Lily's but the man told her to fold it up and tie it to a post with lots of other bad fortunes. That evening we decided to eat in the closest restaurant to our hostel which was small and as far as we could tell the waitress was also the chef. We had an early night.

The following day we got up early ready for a full day of site seeing. We went to a modern art gallery and a museum before heading to Ocharomaizu for some lunch of soup and dumplings in a lovely little restaurnt. We then headed to Ginza (central Tokyo) where we wondered around the Sony building to look at all the gadgets. We had a wonder around the area and looked in a few sotres. We stopped off for some coffee and cake in a really posh area and we felt quite underdressed but it was really lovely. We headed back to Asakusa for dinner and went to a sushi restaurant. We were slightly unsure so ordered tuna, prawn and salmon (very British!). Two men sat next to us ordered us saki and were getting us to try all sorts of weird sushi that we would never have had the guts to choose. Before we knew it we were eating octopus, sea urchin and shrimp head. They then picked up our entire bill which was nice.

The following day we jumped out of bed bright and early ready for a whole day at Disneyland! We got into the park by 10am and had a really great day. It was verybusy but there was always something to do to occupy our minds whilst queueing for rides. We saw the main parade from the queue for peter pans flight! One of the highlights was the dreamlights electrical parade followed by fireworks, but the whole day was alot of fun. We decided against buying mickey ears but we did buy a few items in the shop and left at 10pm after a fun-filled 12 hours.

The foolwing day was gorgeous and sunny (at last flipflop weather again). We visited an area called Kamiyacho and went up the Tokyo tower. Personally i thought it was a bit of an eyesore. It's like a red and white striped Eiffel tower. The view from the top was great thoug, especially as it was such a clear day. Apparently we could see mount Fuji on a good day but i couldn't. We then headed to Roppongi which was great. Lots of shops, bars and restaurants (we planned to come back here but never made it). We went back to Asakusa for dinner and had a traditional Japanese meal of kushiyaki, tempura and (our favourite) gyoza, in a lovely restaurant.

The follwing day (easter sunday) was our last full day in Tokyo. It was another gorgeous sunny day. We decided to walk to the nearby district of Ueno. It took us roughly two hours including a stop for lunch and for Lily to have her fringe trimmed. We had a walk around the backstreets at some of the shops and then reached Ueno park. We had an ice cream then headed to the lake where we rented a row boat. It was so much fun. We took it in turns to row but i ended up doing most of it. It's definitely trickier than it looks and we had a few collisions. Lily was directing me where to go as if i had any choice in the direction! We checked ourselves intoa capsule hotel for the last night. It was really great. We thought it might be claustrophobic but it was spacious in comparison to the beds on the Chinese trains. The hotel was actually really nica and we are glad we experienced the capsules.

The final day in Tokyo we spent in Harajuku. This is an area with two distinct sections. Firstly the Bond Street/Knightsbridge of Tokyo with every designer shop imaginable. Secondly, the Camden of Tokyo which had alot of alternative shops and was great. We had our final meal at a sushi restaurant (and stuck to prawns, tuna and salmon) before heading to the airport ready for Sydney.

Lots of love from Laura and Lily xx