Soaked in Tokyo

Tokyo let us down on the weather front yesterday, it rained all day so we still didn't get to any parks. We did however meet some amazing locals who helped us find our hotel.

We got off the train with very detailed directions to the hotel in hand, our still rather large bags, in the pouring rain. We were doing well and knew that we were within a block of our hotel when we made a wrong turn, just as the rain got a little heavier. We were stood at a road intersection doing that lost tourist thing of peering at a map then a road sign, then turning the map round and staring some more.

A young couple came over to us and asked where we were going, we told them the name of our hotel and they looked a bit puzzled, they whipped out an iPhone got up a map and started to lead us off in what I guessed was the wrong direction. I think the woman thought it was the wrong direction as well as she kept trying to show the phone to the guy but he dashed off and started speaking to an older lady who happened to be walking past. After 5 minutes of chatting and checking of the iPhone the older lady started to lead all of us along a side road back to an intersection that we had past 20 minutes earlier, at which point I realised where we had gone wrong and realised where the hotel was. I couldn't explain this in Japanese so we waved goodbye to the old lady and carried on following the young couple. 5 minutes later we found the back door to the hotel which had a handy map showing us the way to the front entrance, after a chorus of Arigato's we parted from our guides and were soon in the dry.

We spent the rest of the day running in and out of shops and coffee shops around Ueno, Shibuya and Harajuku.

In half an hour we are back on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima.

Kichijoji to Kyoto

We spent our last day in Tokyo wandering around the park in Kichijoji a suburb of Tokyo. The weather was so much better and there were lots of people out enjoying the park, walking their dog and browsing in the quirky shops, so we did the same (except for the dog part obviously).

There was a ceremony happening in the shrine so drum sounds drifted through the park.

The pond was a full of huge Koi Carp who had it in for the ducks. The ducks didn't seem to notice who was biting them.

It was even warm enough for painting in the park

Kichijoji is a little way out of central Tokyo so by the time we had stopped off for some food it was time to find our over night bus to Kyoto. We only had a vague idea where we were supposed to catch it from so we headed over early, this was a good idea as we had to be directed buy a brilliant JR rail employee who spoke no english with the use of our map that has no street names on it! We still made it to the stop a little early so we stopped by 7eleven for the heating (it seems so long ago that 7's were islands of aircon) and a hot lemon tea from a vending machine. On a side note hot drinks in cans from vending machines on street corners are the most brilliant things ever when waiting for a bus and should be imported to the UK by next winter, I am not sure how we live without them.

We were not sure what to expect from our night bus experience as it was cheap and the stop was at a normal bus stop rather than at a bus station. No need to worry, with typical Japanese efficiency the bus company attendant appeared from nowhere 15 minutes before the bus was due to depart, 10 minutes from departure the bus arrived, then bang on departure time we were off. The bus stopped for three toilet breaks in the night at exact 2 hour intervals and we arrived in Kyoto 20 minutes early at 0550.

This was a bit early to check into the hostel so we stopped and had a bowl of Ramen. After dropping our bags at the hostel we spent the day wandering the palace gardens and bumping into places that I recognised from the last time I came here.

The palace gardens are beautiful and look suspiciously like someone did a painting of them before actually laying out the gardens.

I always smile when I see the trees with crutches

There is not much blossom about yet but a few buds are breaking through

Kyoto is so full of beautiful, peaceful spaces it is very different from Tokyo. There is a lot of history to see here as well (there are 17 world heritage sites here!), but we are just enjoying wondering the parks and quiet streets full of surprising buildings.

Art and arctic winds

I am not sure whether we have gone soft after all this time in the heat or it is just bitterly cold here but yesterday was very cold again, I don't think February is Tokyo's best month.

So we decided to do an art gallery,  we had a brisk wander through the palace parks again to the Momat, one of Tokyo's many modern art galleries. We had spotted a poster which seemed to suggest that there was a big Jackson Pollock show on and were rather pleased to find it open. The Pollock exhibition was really good and very inspirational, if you want to know my opinion on what Pollock's work is about ask me when we get back as I found it educational walking though his work from art school through to his final pieces. The signage in the Pollock show was not in English but in the permanent collection the signage was good and we had an interesting time looking at 20th century Japanese art. The we enjoyed hot chocolate from a can, yes enjoyed!

Gallery done we headed across town to Shinjuku to the Tokyo Government towers to get a free bird's eye view of the city.

Tokyo doesn't really have a skyline as it is too big and has several centres so it makes for an different landscape than New York or Hong Kong.

The towers obviously had a gift shop like all good tourist attractions so we had a quick look around before we headed off to get food.

Amy is Excellent Beautiful

Matt is Truth Capital

I really wanted a Lightsaber Umbrella

Last night in Tokyo so we are off to brave the cold then Jump on an overnight bus to Kyoto.

Miraikan

Quick bit of background, Aimee and I love space stuff, Aimee has never been to a planetarium, so we have tried on a couple of occasions to get to one, we failed again but it was a good day out.

Yesterday the weather was really rubbish here, very cold, windy and raining so rather than trudge about in the cold we opted for a museum day. We found out about the miraikan (and its supposed planetarium) in our guide book and navigated 3 trains to get there.

The experience was a slight disappointment to start with as the planetarium show was fully booked and instead we had to pick a 3D film about world heritage sites at the end of the day. While we waited we went to check out the rest of the exhibits. We go to a lot of science museums and it has to be said the the exhibits here are some of the best that we have seen, almost all of the signage is bilingual, nothing was out of order and there was a wide range of hands on stuff. There was also a lot of exhibits on cutting edge science which was really cool, like a holographic mirror (although I did guess how it was done which amused the guy working the exhibit).

A simple fish, no he is a descendant of the first fish bred in space!

Talking of cutting edge I couldn't believe it when we spotted there was a live demo of Asimo, the little robot chap that you see on the telly from time to time when they have managed to get him to do something new.

Geek out! It's Asimo!

I can't really say a lot about this as it blew my geeky mind check out the video.

Genuinely still can't believe we have seen him.

We rounded out the day with the 3D show which was good, there was some really nice helicopter shots in New Zealand, but I was still thinking about how to get my hands on my own Asimo.

We finished off the day in the Akihabara, Electric town, with a meat free meal.

Off out now as it is not raining.

Sunny with a chance of a meaty encounter

Thought I would fire off another blog post while Aimee scrubs her teeth.

Tokyo is huge fun, we are cold and often confused but the sun is out and we are grinning all day.

Yesterday we checked out some Palace gardens, the shops in Ginza and the lights of Ropponggi.

Aimee doing what she is told

Trees often look like art in Japanese parks

I might be too excited to see the sun in this picture

I love Tokyo central business district it is not always pretty and not showy but the streets are wide and the buildings functional

We might see spring after all ... there were the odd buds blossoming

No we are not in Paris, Yes it really is painted orange

Tokyo tower from Ropponggi

The tower from Ropponggi hills ... not real hills but a sort of city in the city concept, all very futuristic

So we love Japanese food but ... it is very hard to order because often the menu looks like this ...

Food lotto

If you are a none fussy eater this is no issue but with our veggie ways this is a bit tricky and my digestive system payed the price yesterday for a bit too much rich meaty gravy I think. Oh well, we got someone to help us with the pronunciation of 'we don't eat meat' yesterday so lets hope breakfast is free of our meaty friends.

ps: There is no chance that either of us will be going back to eating meat we are definitely not having cravings after tasting the fleshy broths.

Shibuya and Harajuku

Err so we woke up a bit late, I sort of forgot to set the alarm, it was cold, it was really raining but we finally got to the local JR line stop at about 11.30. We are on the eastern edge of Tokyo, well sort of the edge of the middle really, Tokyo is so massive that it is really hard to describe where you are in it at any point in time. Like London and LA, Tokyo has a lot of centres and even more sprawl, it seems to never end, no wonder the public transport system is a bit confusing. We are starting to get the hang of the transport here now and have never actually got lost but it has been a bit 'jump on the train and hope' a couple of times. There are about 8 different maps to the Tokyo rail system each with different line colours, a different layout and sometimes even different spellings.

Those noodles are cold and get dipped in a bowl of soy and wasabi. It is really good.

The rain stopped some time while we were eating brunch so we were able to enjoy wandering around Shibuya discovering why Tokyo is one of the worlds fashion capitals. When we tired of looking at clothes we can't fit into our back pack we stopped for a coffee to people watch ... at Shibuya crossing, if you don't know it by name you will have seen it in a movie.

Every 4 minutes or so

It was difficult to move ourselves from that view but we had more to see.

Aimee waiting to cross at Shibuya

Hachiko. The meeting spot, a bit like Birmingham's Bull

The street vendors in Tokyo are a little different

We always find the Disney store

Although this one was a bit different, can you see the hidden Mickey's?

After checking out Shibuya we walked a couple of blocks to Harajuku and even more mad shops. Harajuku has a really odd mix between Teen-pop culture, Hip hop Tokyo style and High fashion shops.

The shop sold pretty girly clothes!

Getting a bit chilly, better find some food

Then on the way home we spotted this giant snow ball, how very odd. We are going to try and get an early start again tomorrow lets see how it goes.

コんにちわ

コんいちわ Konichiwa.

Check me finding how to switch to Japanese on my keyboard!

We are very much in Japan, the airport played us lovely soothing music as we left the plane and also apologised for the 5 minutes we had to wait for the shuttle across the airport.

For me this is a return to Japan, I was lucky enough to get here on my previous trip to Asia 8 years ago and as many people will attest have been harping on about it ever since. I am so excited to be back I just wanted to post a couple of photos:

First, a mountain poking its head above the clouds as we started our decent into Tokyo, I am going to believe it is Fuji San even if I am provided with evidence to the contrary.

It's Fuji to me!

Next me in our hotel issued "evening wear".

Evening wear!

Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow, not actually sure where we are in Tokyo. The confusing thing about Japan is that everything seems really normal until you actually try to do something. We are still a little surprised that we made it to the hotel so fast, we were following directions provided by the hotel but they made no sense and were even more confusing as we tried to apply them to the actual Tokyo rail system... but then all of a sudden we were at the hotel in our tiny, comfy room. Weird.

Sleep needed now, while we have this amazingly fast Tokyo internet access I will try and post again tomorrow with our reaction to our first day.