Blondes have more fun! (apparently)

Tokyo Day 1:

I get up quite early this morning (well for me anyway) as today Phil and I are off to Tokyo for a few days.

I get ready, say my goodbyes to the room (I get kind of sentimental about things like that!) and make my way to reception to check out, hoping that the lift will play some kind of sombre music when I depart as a fitting accompaniment to this sad occasion.

No such luck.

I leave to the sounds of “I know him so well” (Come to think of it, this song does make me want to cry, but not because it’s sad, it’s just a terrible song)

I meet Phil at the hotel, and as the flight is at 9:30 we head off to the airport, hoping that the rush hour crush has calmed down a bit. We reach the airport and go through all the usual airporty stuff (before you ask, yes “airporty” is a proper word, because I said so) and I experience my third flight in five days.

Maybe it’s the getting up early, or maybe the final wave of jet lag has finally decided to kick in but it’s surprising how tired you feel when you're on a plane, even though you're just sitting on your ar*e, reading in flight magazines, drinking fruit juice (that you don’t even have to go and get yourself!) and chatting. Phew! (-_-) ZZZZZZ!

One short flight later we land at Haneda, go through a bit more airporty stuff (Go on! Admit it! “airporty” is a great word ne!?) at the other end and make our way to our hotel, The Tokyo Green Hotel Ochanomizu.

We check in (after a bit of trouble with my passport that’s stuck in a pocket with a broken zip! Thank God for bent paper clips!) Drop off our bags and head for Akihabara. (As I mentioned before, I had brought some salt and vinegar crisps for Phil, but had forgotten to take them to his flat when I dropped my case off and as I was leaving straight for the airport, I end up taking the crisps with me! These were now becoming a serious contender for some kind of world record involving well travelled potato based products)

Anyway, while I was back in the UK I bought a travel plug which claimed that it would work in Japan. Pfft! Did it a*se! It didn’t even fit into the socket! Because of this I needed to get a lead with a Japanese two point plug (pretty soonish too, as I was down to about twenty minutes battery time!) so I could recharge my camera. The best place to find this Phil suggested is the new (and frankly, huuuuge!) Yodobashi Camera. (I actually got it in a small shop on the way! Hahaha!)

After the initial urge to go into Yodobashi Camera shouting “I’ll have one of everything” while waving my credit card in the air, we head upstairs to locate the second item on my list, a new 1 GB memory card.

With the memory card located (and at half the price that it is in the UK!) and a small plastic thing for keeping the wires on earphones relatively tidy, we decide it’s time for lunch.

We stop for lunch at a place called Matsuya. The idea here is that you choose your dish, put your money in the machine and take the ticket that it gives you in return to the counter in the centre of the shop. I attempt to eat the fried egg that’s comfortably resting on the to of my pork and rice with chopsticks (which is not as difficult as I thought it would be, seeing as fried eggs are not the most sturdy of foodstuff)

After the fun of Akihabara we head off for Asakusa. Here we see the Kaminari-mon Gate and the Senso-ji Temple. We look around, take some pictures and take a leisurely stroll back down through the market place that leads up to it, where I purchase a Yellow Neo Henshin Cyborg toy, that I've been after for a while :D

Then it’s back to Ochanomizu, followed by a look around Jinbocho and it’s many bookshops. It would be quite easy to spend a whole day here just browsing but time doesn’t allow for such luxuries.

Come evening time, we’re Shinjuku bound! This is a business and shopping district in the west of Tokyo, which reminds me of Soho back in London. We walk around for a while, before stop for a drink or two at a little basement pub in Kabukicho called The Hub (the English pub!)

As we enter we notice a rather ill looking guy sitting on the stairs with his head in hands (hmmm, liquid breakfast, lunch and dinner we think!)

I’m slightly confused by the way they serve drinks here. First you go to one end of the bar to order and pay for your drinks, then shuffle no more than four feet further along to a different part of the same bar to pick them up!

Notice that the drunk guy is now sitting at the back somewhere, perching precariously on the edge of a chair, still looking very ill.

We leave the pub and go for a walk, but it’s not long before we’re stopped by someone (a Westerner, not quite sure where he was from) who asks us if we want to “come to his club, we’ve got nice blonde haired Western girls”

“Erm…No you’re alright mate. Thanks for asking” (O_o)

In the space of fifteen minutes, this same event (albeit with different guys) is played out several more times, all with the same replies from us. Some just take the hint straight away, some are more persistent (almost to the point of me wanting to garrotte them with cheese wire just to shut them up and for them to let go of my arm)

Now, if I really want to frequent establishments like that (which I don’t) why on Earth would I come all the way to Tokyo when I can stay at home? (O_O)

Fed up with getting hassled every two hundred yards, we decide to go back to the pub for another drink (or two……or is it three? Can you remember Phil!??? I can't!) and to check out the condition of the drunk guy (Phil discovers him in the toilet sitting on the cistern!)

We leave the pub in high sprits, make our way back to the station (Well, I follow Phil because I haven’t got a clue where I’m going) and head back to the hotel for the night…