Konnichiwa kids!

Day 156 -Monday 16 June 2008

Here I am Sally! And well done the Vanster - the best use of a Crackberry is checking out your mate's blog from court side - forget that work my friend - loving your style - and sorry everyone but there'll be 'pictures speak a thousand words' at a later date!

It's an amazing thing how the thrill of a new city can easily overcome any feelings of sleep deprivation - I pulled another all nighter to arrive here in Tokyo from Sydney getting the sum total of 53 minutes sleep thanks to an Armenian kid behind me coughing his lungs up all night to the point of hurling at least twice - nice - I always seem to attract the crack pots on planes - in fact I also sat next to a member of the Australian frisbee golf team who was heading to Tokyo for their latest grand slam event - I mean please - hello - geek alert - it's fun for the afternoon but what's wrong with the real thing!

But it all seems like light years away because Tokyo and Japan are proving incredible and I've been living in a real life Disneyland this past week

Tokyo has got everything I expected and way more - it's a pure cacophony of sights, sounds, smells and other stimuli - all wrapped up in a city so big it's daunting to comprehend - I've been to the top of many viewing platforms on this trip in some of the world's biggest cities - but this is the first one where the urban sprawl 200m below you goes to the horizon in every single direction without a break in it's connectivity - I'll jump into the middle of the week and immediately tell you I went to the top of the Mori Tower in chic Roppongi Hills for dusk on a cloudless, hot and sunny day - now this was the first viewing platform I've been to that's outside and I slowly but surely watched the sun set and the lights/neon come on in Tokyo - all the while enjoying the cool of night creep up on me and relax my tired explorers body - it was a feeling I'll always remember and one of the highlights of this trip - seeing the video screens in Shinjuku and the striking Kanji script everywhere put me right in the middle of real life Blade Runner - though sadly there were no replicants to seek out ... (bloody good job 'cos you'd never find them in a place this big!)

Not sure why I'm looking quite so weird in this picture ...















Maybe it's because this view was just blowing my mind ...
















My early days in Tokyo were spent getting stuck into the culture of this city and country (while soaking up the shock of sipping green tea and slurping noodle soup) then enjoying the manic 21st Century iconography of modern Tokyo - namely Akihabara and the electronics/manga district

Akihabara is a boys toys pleasure ground - I easily lost a day wandering from enormous video games store to manga comic store (where there's a surprising amount of open-ness about sukebe - look it up if you're not easily offended) to acrylic toy store - and this is the very first time when I really feel that I wish this was an in and out travel job - I now understand how you got such a huge collection over the years Rich - I could easily have filled a suitcase with all of the above (maybe not so much sukebe!) and traipsed it back to GB - but that's not why I'm travelling - though I have to confess to attaining an Indiana Jones action figure mascot and a sexy female train attendant figure (I know - I'm not sure why either - but that's what Tokyo does to you!)

I'm also really loving the sense of history here having been to two relatively new countries (well sort of 'cos the aborigines are just about the world's oldest at 5000 years but I didn't see tons of them) - I checked out the Tokyo National Museum which awesomely presents the history of this fine country in separate sections according to items - the samurai warrior's section grabbed my attention and their armour is unbelievably intricate and shows off the finest attention to detail that is present all around modern day Japan - the samurai were a warrior class who served to protect the shogunate who were a martial government from 1192 until they were overthrown in 1868 - this overthrow came to a head at Ueno-koen which is a hill/public park I wandered and easily pictured the samurai fighting to the death amidst the seclusion of the trees - they even hid in the Buddhist temple - it's also got a great statue of one such samurai who is just out of a shot I'll post taken by a random schoolkid and his mates after they practised their English on me - genius - and when you see it you need to know that the Japanese love the v sign for peace made so famous in GB by Sir Winston Churchill - though the Japanese put it the other way around!











For the first time since I left London it's Summer on my travels and what a joy that's it not dark at 1730! I'm making the most of the opportunity to hang out later and seem to be visiting either Buddhist temples of Shinto shrines at dusk (when I'm not atop tall buildings!) - by the way - many Japanese believe in both religions using the former for their afterlife and the latter for their current life - a weird concept to us westerners huh?!

Senso-Ji in Askakusa is big, red, urban and Buddhist so all good in my book - I practised the complete ritual of washing my hands and mouth, making an offering, clapping my hands, saying a prayer and getting (then tieing to the temple) a fortune (that was full of strange and random things to cover all bases - so it seems like Russell Grant's not the only one at it!)

But Meiji-Jingu in Harajuku is stunning - I've been there twice (the second time to see their Treasure Museum) - it's Shinto and built to commemorate the life of Emperor Meiji who was　the Emperor put back into power when　the imperialists out-fought　the shogunate - and he's a proper legend in Japan - it's an enormous dark wood structure set in the middle of a big forest that provides peace and tranquility in this huge city - I also got one of my best shots yet of this trip (I'm definitely getting better) so be patient - when I went at dusk it was a sunny evening after a day of heavy rain (it is rainy season here although it's Summer) and it was eerily deserted - and special because of it - my second trip was a sunny Sunday and horribly busy!




















Now this is real 'out there' travel because everything is so different - but it's OK - at least in Tokyo - not that many people speak English but my Japanese phrasebook has enabled me to buy a baseball ticket and a train ticket in Japanese and romanji (one of Japan's 4 scripts enabling them to access the influences from the west) - again - I'm enjoying being out of my comfort zone although my last shop purchase went so smoothly I feel now like I'll always survive and my comfort zone is totally different

Yesterday and today have been classic Lonely Planet Tokyo experiences - yesterday was Yoyogi -koen where all the young 18 year old kids come out to play - literally their instruments - they pour out of the Tokyo School of Music and do sound clashes all along one side of the park - the kids from Fame in Japanese - some where very, very good - and some were deluded - now that may sound harsh but some teachers in that school need to be more honest with them - Simon Cowell would set them straight - mind you - great, quirky, Japanese fun - for free - by the way Japan's not half as expensive as you'd think - there's a ton of stuff for free here in Tokyo (like there seems to be in all top cities and this may just be my fave of them all!) - and museum entries are typically 500 yen (2 quid!)













And to get right up to date today was the crazy Tsujiki Fish Market - this is the biggest fish market in the world and feels like it - the best time to visit is at 0500 for the auction straight out of　the back of the trawlers - but I wasn't into it that much - I rocked up at 0830 and was met with a tumultuous crescendo of people buzzing around and getting the fish out to the masses - they were either cutting up enoooormous tuna, pickling octopus legs, icing eels, having a fag or scooting around in motorised vehicles like they'd just taken a wrong turn on the Star Wars set - it all generally conspires to make you feel like you want to run away 'cos you're in someone else's world and you don't belong - but a few deep breaths and some acclimatisation time later it's all just wondrous - and left me feeling like maybe I should have got out of bed a bit earlier - although if I did I wouldn't have had the energy to swing a baseball bat this afternoon in what can only be described as a driving range for baseball batters - all green bays of astroturf, a home plate and kids (plus Jez) swinging sweatily (it's 28 degrees C today) at balls being wanged at you by a mechanical arm - England and the world needs these - they're ace!

Just a few very sharp and long knives then ...




















Batter up ...

But that's Tokyo - for now at least - I'm off to Kyoto tomorrow for my first bullet train experience - the capital of Japan has been just incredible and I have the Yakult Swallows match to anticipate in early July when I head back here having looped around Japan (or Honshu at least) - I also have to try and track down a capsule hotel that's not tooooo seedy - I'm off to another ryokan that are comfortably my fave type of accommodation in the whole world - if life goes as I'd like in the next couple of years my house will be decked out like one - just check them out ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_(Japanese_inn)

And here's a few more Tokyo sights that just can't be missed off the blog!

The Japanese adore their brollies and Metal Gear Solid that came out on Playstation 3 when I was in Tokyo and is the huuuge image on the right of this building in Shibuya (the famous crossroads were the most people you will ever see in one place surge forwards when the lights change!)














A classic piece of Tokyo neon in Ikebukuro where I stayed when I arrived














And I'll leave this blog with the future of mobile/cell phones fresh from the Sony Building in Ginza, Tokyo - get ready to carry around your phone, 5MP camera, top MP3 player and now TV (can you spot the aerial?!) in the one device you'll need in your pocket - oh - and don't worry - you'll be able to get it in pink Nev!