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Now I know what real cold feels like.
For the entire Australian winter I didn't once wear a jacket, jumper or any form of long sleeves except for my work shirts, so I like to think that I have a decent tolerance for cold.
Today was cold. Very, very cold. In fact, I can't ever remember feeling as cold as I did today.
Up to now, in the last days of Autumn the weather has been fair. Some cold periods, but mostly ok. Today, we woke up in Shin-Yokohama to miserable drizzly rain. Unpleasant.
Doubly unpleasant because today we had planned to do Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/) . With all of the rain this morning, we reluctantly decided to skip Sea Paradise for today and head for Tokyo.
I now understand why Veronica dislikes Toyko. I now do too.
Today was an uninteresting day from a blog perspective because it was just too cold and wet to do anything interesting. Today was a day just exploring Ginza, and finding just enough of it to discover that we hate it.
We travelled to Tokyo via the same train route that we used yesterday to travel to Odaiba. We found the station we needed without a problem. Once we got off the train, we made our way through the station, and out into the streets of Tokyo, and into the cold. Bitterly cold, with an icy wind and rain on top of it. It was freezing.
We walked through the streets of Ginza, the most expensive real estate on earth (with land valued at US$100,000 per square metre!) taking a few wrong turns before finding our hotel, and leaving our bags before heading out again (because check-in wasn't until 2pm). We decided, rather naively, to head North to visit the Imperial Palace. We got as far as the park on the outskirts of the palace grounds before the wind, light rain and freezing temperatures forced us to turn back. In a park in the centre of Ginza that would have normally been packed with people, there was not a sole. The park was completely empty. We were the only ones stupid enough to be wandering around outside. Not for long.
It was at this point that we decided to head back to the more populated areas, and attempt to find a warmer, dryer, more pleasant place to spend some time and get some lunch. Oh how naive we were.
We found Tiffany and Co. We found Prada. We found Hugo Boss. We found Louis Vuitton. We found countless other stupidly expensive looking shops from stupidly expensive brand names, filled with the aggravating pretentious pratts that shop in these establishments, but do you think that we could find a shopping mall or food court, or coffee shop, or something resembling normality in this stupid city.
Eventually we found starbucks, which at least provided us somewhere to get in out of the bitter cold for some time.
The next mission was finding somewhere to have lunch which a) the kids would eat; and b) did't cost a fortune just for the privilege of having lunch. We eventually found a "Denny's" restaurant. After what seemed like an eternity waiting for a table, we got in, got seated and ordered our lunches. Good, without being great, it was at least warm, dry and reasonably priced, so it did the job nicely.
That soaked up enough time that we could head back to the hotel and check in. We got into our room and relaxed for a few hours. We headed out at around 5, after dark, in an attempt to find somewhere to have dinner. Some aimless wanderings through the crowds and colds eventually found us in a food court below a Porsche dealership, ironically a few blocks from our hotel. We found Katsukura, the Tonkatsu restaurant that we ate at in Kyoto station. Slightly higher prices, but the same quality and a decent enough meal for a reasonable price.
With that done, and a leisurely stroll back through the neon we arrived back at the hotel, ready for showers and bed.
Hopefully, if I can drag myself out of bed, I'll be heading to Tsukiji fish market in the morning. I'll either be by myself, or with Charlotte, depending on whether she sleeps in or not.
For the entire Australian winter I didn't once wear a jacket, jumper or any form of long sleeves except for my work shirts, so I like to think that I have a decent tolerance for cold.
Today was cold. Very, very cold. In fact, I can't ever remember feeling as cold as I did today.
Up to now, in the last days of Autumn the weather has been fair. Some cold periods, but mostly ok. Today, we woke up in Shin-Yokohama to miserable drizzly rain. Unpleasant.
Doubly unpleasant because today we had planned to do Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (http://www.seaparadise.co.jp/english/) . With all of the rain this morning, we reluctantly decided to skip Sea Paradise for today and head for Tokyo.
I now understand why Veronica dislikes Toyko. I now do too.
Today was an uninteresting day from a blog perspective because it was just too cold and wet to do anything interesting. Today was a day just exploring Ginza, and finding just enough of it to discover that we hate it.
We travelled to Tokyo via the same train route that we used yesterday to travel to Odaiba. We found the station we needed without a problem. Once we got off the train, we made our way through the station, and out into the streets of Tokyo, and into the cold. Bitterly cold, with an icy wind and rain on top of it. It was freezing.
We walked through the streets of Ginza, the most expensive real estate on earth (with land valued at US$100,000 per square metre!) taking a few wrong turns before finding our hotel, and leaving our bags before heading out again (because check-in wasn't until 2pm). We decided, rather naively, to head North to visit the Imperial Palace. We got as far as the park on the outskirts of the palace grounds before the wind, light rain and freezing temperatures forced us to turn back. In a park in the centre of Ginza that would have normally been packed with people, there was not a sole. The park was completely empty. We were the only ones stupid enough to be wandering around outside. Not for long.
It was at this point that we decided to head back to the more populated areas, and attempt to find a warmer, dryer, more pleasant place to spend some time and get some lunch. Oh how naive we were.
We found Tiffany and Co. We found Prada. We found Hugo Boss. We found Louis Vuitton. We found countless other stupidly expensive looking shops from stupidly expensive brand names, filled with the aggravating pretentious pratts that shop in these establishments, but do you think that we could find a shopping mall or food court, or coffee shop, or something resembling normality in this stupid city.
Eventually we found starbucks, which at least provided us somewhere to get in out of the bitter cold for some time.
The next mission was finding somewhere to have lunch which a) the kids would eat; and b) did't cost a fortune just for the privilege of having lunch. We eventually found a "Denny's" restaurant. After what seemed like an eternity waiting for a table, we got in, got seated and ordered our lunches. Good, without being great, it was at least warm, dry and reasonably priced, so it did the job nicely.
That soaked up enough time that we could head back to the hotel and check in. We got into our room and relaxed for a few hours. We headed out at around 5, after dark, in an attempt to find somewhere to have dinner. Some aimless wanderings through the crowds and colds eventually found us in a food court below a Porsche dealership, ironically a few blocks from our hotel. We found Katsukura, the Tonkatsu restaurant that we ate at in Kyoto station. Slightly higher prices, but the same quality and a decent enough meal for a reasonable price.
With that done, and a leisurely stroll back through the neon we arrived back at the hotel, ready for showers and bed.
Hopefully, if I can drag myself out of bed, I'll be heading to Tsukiji fish market in the morning. I'll either be by myself, or with Charlotte, depending on whether she sleeps in or not.
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