Japan...

Well, we made it safely to Japan. After a hearty breakfast (see below), we had the energy to jump up after the seatbelt sign went off and secure two fabulous seats with leg room (see below - note the very sexy Virgin socks we both donned for the flight!) nearer the front of the plane. Good job too as both of us were orginally touching knees with the seat in front and i - of course - was behind a seat-putter-backer.





Anyway - Japan is.... different. A great place to come if you love a big city - real real easy to navigate around - even if you've had zero sleep in the last 24 hours. After thinking we were staying way out of everything because we are paying less, the hostel is actually located very nicely in the area of Asakusa. Walking distance to a fairly impressive temple with some massive lanterns. Right next to the subway station and all that good stuff.





Found some nice toilets and thought i'd be a real tourist and take a photo - needless to say, i ran along to the end and used the disabled toilet like any normal person would.



So the first day we skipped off to the center-ish and hit the tourist place to find out how to make the most of our 9 days here. After many trips back and forth we finally decided - booked some accommodation and made plans to stay in Tokyo for one more night - which means leaving tomorrow. For the mountains, or more specifically one mountain - Mount Fuji. After getting everything sorted we headed out for the Imperial Palace to see that - though you can't really get in that far, just sort of see bits and pieces. From here we walked about a bit, saw some fountains, more touristy things etc etc.





Today we headed out late and went to Shibuya, which is one of the most bizaar things i have ever seen. Young girls dress up in weird clothes and just sit there while people take photos of them. Not for money or anything. For fun. It's just plain odd. Anyway - see this photo below - which isn't really a true depiction of the situation as the one in the middle is clearly a forty year old guy in a frilly dress. Funny though! We were also treated to some thrilling dancing of the rock and roll kind by a bunch of crazy old guys dressed up just like John Travolta was for the film Grease. With pointy shoes. And they couldn't actually dance. Not in time with the music that was being played to us anyway - i'm sure they were right in time with that crazy music playing in their heads. :)



We then headed off on a nice walk upto a temple thing with nice wooden gate things called - no sorry i can't find it in the book. All very nice and foresty and miles away from what we encountered next - which was the crazy buying world of Shinjuku where it seems on a Sunday everyone who lives in Toyko comes out to walk about. Crazy town.











For dinner we settled on dinner that you cook yourself (for those of you in England, kind of like the Charbar in Port Solent - but more poncy), lovely bits of Japanese steak, much better than the soggy noodles in some sort of fishy water soup thing we had the other day!





So tomorrow we leave our little room - very very little, one of you has to be on the bunk bed for the other to move about - having said that, it's nice and cosy and warm, and of course the big seller - cheap! We are venturing down to the Five Lake District. By bus. Tomorrow at 12.10pm. Wish us luck and i will update when i have more photos and we stay at another place with free internet.

Chrissie-out. x