I arrived incredibly early at Narita Airport, about 70km outside of Tokyo city centre. After catching the train into the city I met dave at a local station in Shinjuku, it was actually a bit weird at how neither of us had changed and we carried on the friendship as if we had seen each other the day before. Once we got to the hostel, I was immediately in trouble within seconds of walking in, I hadn't taken my shoes off, a terrible sin in Japan. After being sent back to the door to take my shoes off and put the tiny white slippers on that they provided, we dumped our stuff in the bedroom, had a shower and went to explore.
Firstly, we took a walk around Shinjuku, and the first thing we came across was a huge screen advertising Rod Stewart who was playing in tokyo that night. Although we did consider going, we thought against it. Dave, acting as my tour guide for the weekend, thought it best to head to one of Tokyo's most famous shrines, the Sensoji Temple.
Most of Tokyo's shrines have been rebuilt since the war, I have been relialble informed, although reconstructed to just how they were beforehand. This place was amazing and clearly many of the locals found us fairly amazing too. As we arrived at the shrine a few school trips were there and it was obvious they don't see many westerners where they come from, as we instantly became famous. They were waving and shouting hello at us, however, we did stick a bit, considering I am 6'5 and dave is 6'2. After blessing ourselves in a big smokey thing, that too me just seemed like a big bucket of insense, we left and headed to what dave referred to as future town! I don't think it really was future town, but it was certainly where all the technology shops were, and some other shops of great interest.
Now if you don't want to know about Japans seedy side, best to skip down a bit to the next part. Dave was adament that we had to go into a shop on the main street. The picture of the building at the bottom of the post shows what it looked like from the outside and each picture apparently represents each floor in the shop. Although, one floor looks like it represents a strip club, Dave was certain that it didn't, however, I was a little unsure. As we went into the shop it was just a big CD shop, all selling CD's from one girl band, AK48. This band has 48 members all female and all mental!!! They realise albums as a group, as smaller groups or as soloists. I had to question why dave wanted to take me in here, but he then suggested we head up to the 2nd floor. This is where all the weird Hentia cartoon stuff started, the 2nd floor was just normal, lots of DVD's and dolls of the characters that are famous on daytime TV over there. The 3rd floor started to get weird though, it basically took their cartoon characters and made them slightly saucy. Then the 4th floor was basically cartoon porn. It was weird, but what was really weird was the people in there with their kids and also men of all ages buying stuff. There were DVDs and characters all in sexual positions for sale. The next floor just turned into real porn and the floor above that was, let's just say slightly more serious porn and then the top floor was all the memorbilia that the porn stars had signed and left when they had visited the store. After dinner and a few drinks that night my jet lag started to set in and we decided to call it a night and make the most of the next day.
We got up fairly earlyish the next day and walked to one of the most famous sites in Tokyo, Shibuya crossing. I have to be honest though, it is fairly disappointing, it is one of the busiest crossings in the world but, it is just that, a crossing! We left and headed through Shibuya to the Meifi Shrine which was in the middle of a park. Although, I did have the police shout at me for J-walking on the way. As we arrived at the shrine a traditional Japanese wedding was going on. We took a walk around the shrine and then learned a bit about Saki and all the important people that had influenced Japanese culture and history. We then decided to get some traditional Japanese food at a burger joint, but that was only after we walked part the smallest shop in the Tokyo, Condomania! I'll let you guess what it was selling.
After an afternoon of shopping and then going to a beer museum and sampling lots of the local brew. We headed to a restaurant Dave had been planning to go to as it was based on the area of Japan he was staying in, Akita. The food was amazing as was the local Saki from Akita, apart from the pregnant fish that I bit into without knowing it was pregnant, and all these little yellow balls fell out. I was almost sick! But what was particularly fun was the Namahage monster that came out and shouted at us and everyone else in the restaurant.
We tried to stay out to watch the Scotland v England game but considering it was a 2am kick off and I had to be up to get to the Airport at 5:45am. We decided at about 1am to call it a night, and that was it for my Japanese adventure.
I was up early said my goodbyes to Dave and was away to the airport for a 12 and half hour flight to heathrow, where the fun really began, but that is for another post on another day. For now, here are some pics of Tokyo. And I just want to say thanks to Dave for being my guide for the weekend, even though we did get lost a couple of times and almost arrested. It was a great weekend and was great to catch up again. Your turn to come to Sydney now!
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