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The much anticipated Japanese leg of our adventure was upon us. Although we were very much looking forward to exploring Japan, we were a little anxious about our lack of Japanese vocabulary and the need for us to navigate ourselves around the country on the famous bullet trains. We arrived quite late on Friday night after a fairly pleasant and uneventful flight. We had the address of the apartment we were due to stay in, it just looked like a load of squiggles to us, and also had directions on what we thought was the tube. We got our hands on some yen and headed for the trains, which is when it became apparent that the underground, metro, local and JR are all different types of transport systems that operate in Tokyo. Luckily our instructions helped us and we successfully navigated our way to the right stop, recognising various symbols from the map. Our flat was only a short walk from the station.
The flat was as expected, small with one room, but nice and clean and for some reason smelt like Claire's grandma. To our delight, it had a chub, and one that was much deeper than our one in New Zealand, meaning we could have a semi-bath. The top of the toilet cistern doubled as a sink and the tap to wash your hands fills the cistern, very efficient. We have now learnt that this is quite a common design in Japan.
By the time we had got to the flat, and had a brief explore, it was nearing midnight. We hadn't yet eaten dinner, so, now that we were in the 24 hour city, we headed out. We found a small, nearby, random restaurant which appeared to sell noodles according to the pictures. We parked ourselves at the counter, watching the locals to try and work out how on earth to order. We finally worked out that we had to use the vending machine in the corner, make our choice, then give the ticket it spits out to the chef. It turns out this is a kind of fast food restaurant, they were very delicious noodles though. It was the first of many odd restaurant etiquettes that we have since found to be common place in Japan, but we're not sure we'd ever get used to giving our order direct to the chef!
It was our first day in Tokyo, and also the day we celebrate putting up with each other for a whole five years. We therefore spent the day exploring the happiest place on Japanese Earth, DisneyLand (there is also DisneySea but unfortunately we did not feel we could give up two of our twelve days in Japan to the park). We were both a little concerned that the magic we had experienced at various Disney's as children would be lost in adulthood. How wrong we were, it was everything we remembered and more. We laughed, skipped and giggled our way around the park with Greg reciting any snippets of Disney he could remember and trying to name every character he saw. The park was filled with mostly Japanese visitors, each group or couple were in matching Disney outfits. Unfortunately, despite Claire's persuasion, Greg was adamant our budget would not stretch to matching Mickey jumpers (mainly because he prefers Goofy!). After a fast food lunch, when Claire devoured a chicken bun in the shape of Mickey's hand, we stumbled upon the Easter parade entering Toon Town. Although it was a while after Easter we still enjoyed the brightly coloured floats going by to Japanese versions of Disney songs. The best ride of the day had to be splash planet, pipping runaway mine train at the post due to our fellow team of 7 yr old girls that joined us in enjoying the water ride. Yes, we got high fives! We managed to get to all corners of the park before the much awaited light parade, similar to the Easter one only longer and lit up with hundred of multicoloured lights. We then went to meet the big man himself, Mr Mickey Mouse, in his house in Toon Town, just next door to Minnie's house and round the corner from Goofy's. Fortunately he took time out of his busy schedule, in between filming scenes from his next masterpiece, to meet with us. Greg towered at least a foot above him and we think he was more excited about seeing us than we were. Greg got a massive hug and Claire got a kiss! Before heading back to the apartment, we watched the light show, Disney scenes projected onto Cinderella's castle accompanied by well known songs. It was supposedly frozen themed, but to Claire's disappointment there were only two frozen songs.
We finished the day off with some delicious late night sushi in a restaurant near the flat. We had an almost personal sushi chef in front of us, cutting huge slabs of deliciously fresh fish to serve us. This is what we had been waiting for.
After our exhausting day, we decided to treat ourselves and not set an alarm. We woke up at midday, which somewhat ate into our first day of sightseeing. We made it to the Sensoji temple, teaming with locals and tourists seeking out some good fortune. People were rubbing incense smoke into themselves and shaking metal boxes, which after a little research we found out was a way of getting your fortune told. Despite being warned that there are some really awful fortunes we decided to have a go. Claire first, she shook the box, removed a wooden stick, then found the corresponding drawer and removed her fortune. 'Regular fortune' which on reading sounded actually very positive. It was then Greg's turn, he pulled out an 'excellent good fortune', no one could beat that.
We headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch, we chose somewhere that looked fairly busy and parked ourselves at one of their tables. Despite the vague English on the menu, we weren't entirely sure what we had ordered. In the meantime we were served our bottled lemonade, this was when the embarrassment began. After five minutes, an old man on a nearby table came across and told us how to open the bottles, believe us, it was not intuitive. After much instruction on the way to construct and eat our lunch, mainly consisting of gestures from the chef, we had tucked in. Claire noticed another nearby man giving one of the waitresses chopstick holding lessons, we got involved and soon decided that however we were holding them initially was actually much easier.
We then wandered to the skytower, but had been advised not to pay to go up it as there are plenty of buildings you can go up, nearly as tall, for free. Claire therefore made use of the facilities and then we grabbed some ice cream where the three girls behind the counter insisted on singing us a song. Fortunately we weren't singled out in this as every customer seemed to be subjected to their own personal tune. We got 'If you're happy and you know it' in Japanese.
We were starting to get used to the Japanese culture, everything has an order (which satisfies Claire's OCD) and no one 'jay walks', even though it's not illegal. Standing at the side of the road, with a crowd of people and no cars driving passed is a bit of a culture change from South East Asia. Claire has been making sure she tries out every electronic toilet. It's very much trial and error as the instructions tend to be in Japanese. It turns out the button with a shower diagram cleans your back bum and the one with the female diagram, well that one cleans the front bum. Greg's first experience was tarnished a little as he didn't realise he had the pressure set to 'high' and that it didn't stop automatically but kept going until you pressed the stop button. At least he got a thorough clean. Claire and Greg still haven't managed to address the dilemma of drying yet though, once one has 'showered', how does one dry? The heated toilet seat is also an area of controversy, on initial contact with the seat it takes you by surprise and is a little unnerving, but after 30 seconds, it is actually quite pleasant.
Another sushi dinner that evening before heading to the Golden Gai, a couple of back streets filled with tiny bars which seem to be run out of cupboards or people's tiny downstairs living rooms. Most charge you to sit down but we managed to find one where we could sit for free. It had only six seats, four of which were occupied. We got chatting in broken English to the two Japanese men next to Greg, one of whom was very eccentric but entertaining. We enjoyed one too many sakes with them before calling it a night, we had to be up early the next day.
The Tokyo fish market is world famous for the quality of the fish and how incredibly busy it is. There is the option of seeing the tuna auction first thing in the morning. Unfortunately it's on a first come, first serve basis and only allows 60 people in. It starts at 5am and, as we were on the other side of town, we calculated that we would have to leave the flat at 3.30am to queue up for an outside chance of being let in. We decided against this plan and instead went at 9am when the general public are allowed to wander freely around the intermediate trading floor. The variety and size of the seafood was incredible. We had heard that some of the tuna are sold at the auction for $10,000 and when you see the size of some of them it is almost believable. We were repeatedly warned by signs that this was not a tourist attraction but a place of business and we, for our own safety, should not get in the way but move in between spaces allowing the workers to get on with it. When there we understood these warnings as pallet trucks whizzed around, lorries reversed wherever necessary and huge crates and tanks of living fish were transported in every direction. It was an incredible sight, and when we were allowed in at 9am the business day for them was winding down. Peak time must be ridiculous! We ducked out of the market to enjoy a fresh sashimi breakfast from the very conveniently located sushi shops on site.
After breakfast we headed for a shopping district and witnessed the opening of a department store. Not the grand opening or anything special like that, just the daily opening of a shop. For the locals it was business as usual as the doors opened and a lady with a microphone made a speech in Japanese and then in English, thanking us for waiting and welcoming us to the store, while a number of employees stood there bowing at us. On entering the bowing continued from every employee on every floor, welcoming us and thanking us for being there. Japanese business as usual, English craziness!
On the way back to the flat for a nap we stopped off to see Tokyo Tower, a red imitation of the Eiffel Tower, but a little smaller. Again we didn't pay to go up and again Claire made use of the facilities before we headed off.
After our well earned nap we headed to the Tokyo Municipal Building where we went to the observation level (for free!) to watch the sun set over the city before heading to Shibuya (Tokyo's Time Square) to see the lights, the crazy crossroads where hundreds of people move in every direction and to grab some dinner in an underground restaurant. It's not unusual to eat underground, it's only unusual to eat on the ground floor as everything in Tokyo is a tower. You have to crane your necks up and down each building as you walk along as every floor will be a different shop or restaurant. Being in Tokyo reminded Greg of the casinos in Las Vegas, the lights were permanently at the same level so you never know what time it is and it's constantly busy, allowing time to run away very easily. While we were in Tokyo we don't think we managed to eat dinner before midnight once, not because we're super cool or anything (even though we totally are) but because unless you constantly check your watch there is genuinely no way of knowing what time it is.
After our few days of hectic Tokyo, it was time to flee for somewhere a little more relaxed.
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