Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Tokyo
Day 150 - 154 (1st August - 5th August)
We set of to Tokyo on our super cheap yet convoluted journey via Beijing, this made a what could have been a direct 3 hour flight into an epic all day journey which featured some particularly scary customs officials in Beijing.
We eventually arrived late in the evening and checked into our hotel in a quiet business district of Tokyo. Once in the room my tiredness turned to excitement when I went into the bathroom and set my eyes on the toilet. I'd never seen anything like it; it was like a space ship had come down and landed in the bathroom. There was an option pad attached to the toilet with a full host of options involving seat heating, odour control, posterior spray options (involving a choice of water pressure and heat), an air drying button and even a music option…..amazing!
The following day once my toilet related excitement had lessened, we headed out for a full day of sight seeing in Tokyo. Rather than heading to any specific tourist attractions we went to different areas of the city to soak up the atmosphere. We started in Shibuya, our first port of call being the much photographed Shibuya crossing. We then wandered round taking in the mixture of sights and sounds around us, particularly in the manga orientated youth culture of Harajuku. We ended the day with a visit to the large meiji jingu shrine in Yoyogi park.
Over the following days we visited the pagoda in Asakusa, checked out the Tokyo Edo museum and enjoyed some of the nightlife in the entertainment area of Shinjinku. I was particular interested into the hords of young males dressed up in suits with pointy shoes and straightened dyed light brown hair. Unfortunately for me they only approached local Japanese wonen. We also tucked into the some of the many foods on offer. We had some tasty Udon whilst in Shinjinku and went to a curry bar near our hotel to eat with the local business men. Ordering food at this curry establish movement proved to be very tricky, a self-service machine in Japanese made easier by the pictures. We also found a great little sushi place near our hotel.
Whilst in Tokyo we decided to go for a day trip to Nikko which is about 2 hours away by train. The main reason for visiting is a number of fantastic shrines built up in the mountains. The shrines were fabulous but we also really enjoyed the area around the shrines, a quiet village up in the mountains with some beautiful old buildings and a lovely atmosphere. There was also a picturesque river boosting Japan's most photographed bridge and dramatic views of the surrounding mountains.
- comments