Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
NOTE - i have managed to upload some pics online!
-> www.flickr.com/photos/
It's a bit confusing to use (at least I found it difficult), but I've arranged *most* of the pics into 'collections' (cities) and within these collections are 'sets' (different places within that city). On the main screen if you follow that link above ^^^ you'll see the collections (cities) on the right hand side - just click each of those to see the separate picture folders :)
I'll try and add some pics to my previous posts and future ones but not sure if i can do that on my phone..
Touch down in Tokyo! First impressions of the city came from inside the airport - 3 words... Toilets With Jets.
There is nothing more baffling than trying to figure out a toilet (whilst half asleep) which has 20 buttons on it in, all of which are flashing with lights and Japanese characters. My brain was already confused enough trying to deal with the fact I'd just been given a vegetarian lasagne on the plane at 9.30am...
On the issue of loos, I'd come up with a genius idea the last couple days in china. I hated hated haaated using the public toilets in china cos they were disgusting, I'll save you from a description other than 'doorless waist height cubicles'. But by the end of my time in China i'd realised that if you were a westerner then by default you're presumed to be rich, even if you are walking around in scruffy trainers and a coat with a makeshift zipper out of plastic wiring! So i'd play up on this and if I was out and about and needed the loo I would just find the nearest posh looking hotel, walk into their lobby, use their restroom and no one batted an eyelid! Plus there'd sometimes be free perfume to use haha.
The hostel in Tokyo was called 'Toco Tokyo Heritage Hostel' and was by far the nicest hostel I'd stayed in so far. It was a traditional Japanese house converted into a hostel and was lovely. They were quite strict though and it was almost like being on a school trip or something because you couldn't use any showers or kitchen facilities after 12 and all the lights got shut off bang on midnight. Someone would stand by the shower area about 11.55pm to make sure noone tried to sneak in a last minute shower! Apart from that it was very nice though. Your first night included a Japanese breakfast which was miso soup and two rice balls, one filled with salmon (or in my case just the seaweed) and one with plum paste and cheese!
The area the hostel was in was called Ueno, and there's a lovely big park there so I went to visit that on my first day. The weather was PERFECT. Not too cold and so I could wear thinnish trousers which gave me a new piece of clothing to wear! as so far all id worn were jeans and a couple pairs leggings on rotation. However, I thought I had to pay to get into the park when in actual fact I had ended up paying for the zoo! Either way it killed a couple of hours and I got to see some pandas :) After that I headed to the national museum.
In the late afternoon I headed over to Shibuya. The main intersection crossing here is insanely busy at around rush hour, and is where some of the film Lost In Translation was shot. I found the area to be a little overwhelming, I think because it was super suuper busy and it was dark at this point which seemed to make it easier to get lost amongst it all, and I would rather explore in daylight and when I know I have plenty of time to get back. Instead I did as many guidebooks recommend - grab a coffee on the 3rd floor of the Starbucks on the corner of the square (If you can actually get a seat) as it overlooks the crossing directly. That I did, and as I was on my own I squeezed onto the single spare stool going and shot a couple pictures and videos of the square.
- comments