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Nothing could prepare me for this. Tokyo is unbelievable. This is without doubt the most fascinating place I have ever been to. Mind you...we had a few difficulties when we arrived. In the airport we got totally lost, having no idea how to get to our accommodation (Ryoken) and we couldn't read the signs. Luckily the hot air hostess, Priscilla, who we had been getting on well with, turned up and she could speak fluent Japanese. She got speaking to 3 locals who couldn`t speak a word of English, and it turned out that they were going our way for the whole 2.5 hours. We had to transfer 3 times...so without their help there is no way we have gotten to our Ryoken that night. We were so grateful. Our Ryoken was brilliant as well.....authentic Japanese style with paper walls, low doorways...(ha ha, mind your head Chris) and kimono robes. There was also no footwear allowed within the rooms, not that Barry was caring, as he waltzed in with his dirty trainers and getting the managers knickers in a twist.
Our first day we spent in Shinjuku where every building seemed to have a neon advertising board on it or a jumbotron. We managed to find some food...baguette with juice (not very Japaneasy) and went on a tour suggested by my lonley planet book. We saw a bunch of cool things, such as a temple, right off the main street and an area of bars where each one would struggle to hold more than three people....they were tiny. By the time we finished our walk it was dark and Shinjuku had totally changed. Everthing was lit by the neon signs in the street and the noise was deafening. Every shop had somebody standing outside asking people to come in to buy something.....but they did the asking by shouting into a megaphone!! And I do mean every shop....it was mental. Even when we did go into a premises the music was blaring...we could hardly hear each other. There seemed no escape from the noise....it was fun though. This is the fashion capital of Tokyo, or at least one of them (there are 3 I think). Everybody is dressed up to the max here....needless to say we did not fit in with our old T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops.
The next day we headed up to Shibuya, which is where the famous Tokyo street crossing is. Every 4 minutes or so thousands of people pile over the road when the green man comes on...its just like the films. This is also another shoppng haven with loads of people on megaphones doing their best to hurt my eardrums. On the Sunday Haraduku Park is the only place to be. Loads of people come here to do performances, dress up or just relax. Teenagers meet here all dressed up in goth clothes or real fancy stuff and pose for pictures while street entertainers do their thing. People play sports or instruments in the park and families have their picnics here. There is even a special dog park here...where owners bring their mutts to have fun....and every dog was actually well behaved! Back home dogs just chase each other and bark all the time....here it seems dogs have better facilities than some people. Haraduku is the 3rd fashion centre....with hundreds of cool clothes shops. I had problems trying to find cool stuff though...its just a shame Japan doesn`t really cater for the more muscley man.....a'hem.
Sunday evening was spent in Roppongi, which is the place to go out for drinking Tokyo. I asked some other random honky guy if he knew where the good pubs were and we ended up drinking with him all night.....he was from Lichtenstein....far out! We ended up staying out all night....mainly because we missed our last train home...so by 4am we were trollied and wandering around the streets waiting for the trains to start again. We got home about 7am that day....good night though. Been a few months since we`ve all done that together.
The next day we went down down to the docks where the Rainbow bridge is and we chilled there on the boardwalk until after dusk. Then we made our way home again....totally knackered. The next day we checked into our capsule hotel in Asakusa....these things are well cool....plenty of room considering, and each had a tv. I went to see the oldest temple in Tokyo, which is based in Asakusa...pretty cool building, but some old boy told me Kyoto has better. After a night in the capsule it was off to see the Imperial palace in the city centre. Unfortunatley the palace is not open, so we were ony able to walk around the gardens. I also got soaked on this day....the heavens opened up and gave us all a drenching...brilliant. This was just a couple of days before a typhoon hit the country, so it was raining for days. Time to buy a brolley. After a week in Tokyo it was time to head to Kyoto...so we did it in style...on one of the Shinkansen (bullet trains)...best train ride ever (excluding the ones where beer have been involved).
Kyoto was alright, but it is famous for it's temples and shrines, which I'd already seen a fair few of in Tokyo. I think once you've seen a couple of city temples, you've seen them all. So Kyoto was pretty, but I was glad when we got to Hiroshima. This city is a place all people should visit on a trip to Japan. It was the first city to be hit by the Atomic Bomb and it has a beautiful park, almost directly under the blast zone. The peace museum here is incedible....extremely moving, showing photos and stories of survivors from the bomb only hours after the blast. On a par with the Civil Rights museum in Memphis. We spent 3 hours inside reading, but could have spent a lot longer. The park outside has various monuments in rememberance of those who died, noteably the childrens memorial which was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki. This girl was two at the time of the bomb and 10 years later she developed Leukemia. She was admitted to hospital where she began folding paper cranes, some so small she needed a needle to fold them. According to Japanese legend if she folded 1000 cranes she would be granted a wish. Sadako continued to fold cranes even after she completed her target, but died nevertheless. Her schoolfriends were so inspired by her courage and strength they published a book of her letters. They were also responsible for the childrens memorial statue which stands in the park with Sadako on top holding a large golden crane. The children also made a wish which is inscribed at the bottom of the statue and reads "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the World". 50 years later and hundreds of thousands of folded paper cranes are sent to the museum from all over the world by people supporting the idea of world peace. All are displayed in glass casings around the childrens monument. It's hard to read that story in the museum, and some of the others, with dry eyes.
Anyways....after a few days in Hiroshima we made our way to Fukuoka (Hakata to the locals) where we were due to take the ferry to South Korea. My best memory from here would be the Maro Yoshi food stall which we found ourselves at. There are various stalls on the busy streets...like minature restaurants. We took a chance and sat at one of the 'Yatai' where two lovley Japanese people, Maro and his wife Yoshi, served us the local delicacy of Hakata Ramden, a noddle and pork soup - delicious...even Barry enjoyed it! Me and Chris also tried the cow ankles...yum yum. The language barrier was a problem, but everybody had fun trying to work out what we were saying to each other.
The next day I left the boys and made my way to S. Korea on the ferry having arranged to meet Joanne, the girl I met in Canada. She is currently teaching English in a town caled Hogae about 1 hour away from the port of Busan...and she is heaps better looking than Chris and Baz!
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