Sumimasen, Tokyo Green Hotel wa doko desu ka???

Tokyo Day 2:

I actually remembered to get breakfast the night before (a very nice croissant type thing with chocolate chips. Yum! :P) from the convenience store across the road, but forgot to bring any of my teabags with me to Tokyo. So after a refreshing drink of plain water (er...yum?) I get ready for the day ahead.

We head off to Koishikawa Korakuen (“Korakuen” literally meaning “garden of enjoyment afterward”) One of Tokyo’s oldest Japanese landscape Gardens, which was first laid out in 1629 (well that’s what I read…don’t blame me if it’s incorrect!) Originally covering sixty three acres, it’s now reduced to about sixteen due to city planning. Amongst the many trees and grassed areas, there’s also a rice field (planted by school children) arched bridges, stone lanterns and miniature views imitating noted Japanese and Chinese scenic spots. It’s quite difficult to explain how beautiful this place is, so you’ll just have to go and see it yourself at some point. It’s amazing to see this quiet garden with the Tokyo Dome looming in the background (sometimes the only reminder that you’re actually in the centre of one of the busiest cities on Earth!) A nice mixture of the traditional and modern and I think one of my favourite places in Tokyo.

We leave the peace of Koishikawa Korakuen and head towards the busy shopping district of Harajuku (Hey Phil, are you sure we’re fashionable enough to walk these streets!? LOL!) You may have heard of Harajuku before, the place where all the fashionable young people hang out (and get photographed by Western tourists) Well, that’s only on a Sunday. This is Tuesday, and all we see is a very sullen faced orange haired girl sitting on the floor (for about five minutes. Maybe she suddenly realised that she had the wrong day too)

We walk up the main shopping street, but before we start to do any serious parting with cash, our stomachs remind us that they haven’t seen anything solid since breakfast time.We stop off at a small coffee shop (can’t remember the name, Phil will know!) for a cup of tea and something to eat, before hitting the streets once again, me with an urge to spend lots of money on something I probably don’t really need.

Can’t remember all the places that we went into, but highlights include:

Binary, a shop located on the first floor (or is that 2nd floor? We are in Japan after all) in a side street off of the main shopping area. Spotted by (eagle eyes) Phil, this is where I bought some very nice t shirts and a towel! I could have easily bought a lot more in there, but resisted temptation (next time, I’m leaving my guilty conscious at home!)

And a toyshop…Can’t remember what it’s called, but if you know where Binary is, it’s a few shops further down! Those of you that know me, know I have a passion for Japanese toys (those that don’t, here ends the first lesson)

Amongst the things I buy here are:

A Darth Vader bear mobile phone alert (No Phil I can’t get mine to work either! LOL!)

A Space Invader…erm…um…thing. A bit hard to describe this one, but basically you stick little coloured plastic bits into a frame to make space invaders.

A remote control R2-D2! Well actually I bought two, I couldn’t make up my mind which colour to get, so I said I'll get both. Phil thought I was joking LOL!

Before I could spend anymore, Phil drags me kicking and screaming from the toyshop (not really!) and make our way to Shibuya, another busy shopping area. Easily recognisable by it’s many video screens and diagonal zebra crossings. We head for the station and take a look at the famous dog statue that stands outside (It’s a popular and easy place to meet people. That is unless everybody else has the same idea then I can imagine it being very hard to find people in the huge crowd) We take a few snapshots and people watch for a bit. We walk around for a while before our stomachs remind us that it’s time to eat again (Good timing stomach, it’s started to rain)

One Freshness egg and bacon burger, chips, onion rings, and a strawberry smoothie later (plus a bit more people watching and a bit more walking about) we head back to the hotel.

This evening, while Phil meets a friend I decide to go and do a bit more exploring. I head back up to Jinbocho to check out some of the book shops I saw the previous day before they close. I stop at McDonalds for dinner (I know, shameful isn’t it? but it was the only place that I could find that was open) and walk up to Tokyo Dome City, to see what they have to offer (Erm…mostly bright lights and lots of noise)

While out, I pass some workmen who have sectioned off a small area of pavement, one of the men kindly guides me through the path that has been set aside for pedestrians with what looks like a very small lightsaber from Star Wars, even though there is only one way that you can physically walk through. As I pass he smiles, thanks me and I go on my way. This is one thing about Japan that I really like. The politeness and respect for everyone else. You don’t see this (well, not everyday) on the streets of London, and it’s nice. I definitely could live in Japan I think to myself.

Back down to Jinbocho and off again in a different direction (Up towards a railway bridge and the brightly lit street that runs parallel) Not much here except puddles and three people dressed up and handing out leaflets (A schoolgirl, a maid and a rather large built man dressed as Pikachu)

Now, by the time I left Sapporo I was getting used to the way that the city was laid out (blocks) but Tokyo is an altogether different story. With its mismatch of styles and mixture of old and new, this is more like London (i.e. confusing)

To give me some kind of reference point when I left, I choose the Starbucks on the corner of the road that my hotel is as a marker. Unfortunately there are many Starbucks in the Ochanomizu area of Tokyo, and even more unfortunate (for me) a lot of them seem to be on positioned on corners. It also doesn’t help that a few easily recognizable shops that I notice on my way are now closed, so they look completely different. After about half an hour of trial and error, I find a street map (“Right. I’m here. Hotel there”) another half an hour and I‘m still looking at street maps (Doesn’t this place have any road signs??? Apparently no.)

I have a piece of paper that Phil had picked up at the hotel earlier with a simple map back to the hotel and this was getting wetter and wetter as it had started to rain again, quite heavily. Another twenty minutes of random wandering and I finally come across a young guy sweeping up outside a small café, getting ready to close for the night. As my Japanese is very limited, a lot of pointing at the soggy piece of pink paper that I have ensues and he directs me in the direction that he thinks I need to go (past three sets of traffic lights in that direction then left. Maybe) Five minutes later I encounter another couple who point me in the right direction! (thank you soooooo much whoever you all are! I’m eternally grateful!)

I find out afterwards that I was actually only about 10 minutes walk away from my hotel, and that I had been probably walking around in a rather large circle. Bugger.

Anyway, I find my way back to the hotel. I dry myself off, and pray that the book I bought has not been transformed in to a very expensive lump of paper mache (it was in a paper bag, which offered no protection from the rain whatsoever!)

Phil returns from his trip, and we decide to go and look for a bar, coffee place or something (Anything! Please!). We walk around vainly searching for half an hour or so but everything is now closed, we head back to the hotel (stopping once again at the convenience store across the road for breakfast, unhealthy snacks, and capsule toys)

Bah! (For the early closing, not for the breakfast, unhealthy snacks, and capsule toys)

:D