Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Odaiba, Odaiba, two plus two equals Odaiba

Published on November 6, 2009 in travel. Closed Tags: , , , , .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Odaiba_Statue_of_Liberty.jpg

Yesterday was our day trip to Odaiba. Odaiba is a man made island sitting in the middle of Tokyo Harbour. Building started around 1985 and went full steam ahead, spending $10 Billion USD, until 1991 when the housing bubble colapsed. Nothing much happened on Odaiba until it was rezoned for commercial and residential, and now there’s a few crazy buildings and a little bit of empty space.

That about sums up the Wikipedia entry on Odaiba. We took the Sobu local line to Akihabara, and then caught the Yamanote line to Shinbashi. Little did we know that the Asakusa Subway line also happens to go from Asakusabashi directly to Shinbashi. Either way, from Shinbashi you can connect to the Yurikamome, which is the New Transit Waterfront Line.

The Yurikamome is a driverless train, and is pretty much fully automatic. The train pops up to the station, the station doors open, the train doors open, and you pop inside, and then they all close, and all so politely, and then it’s off to the next station. I did wonder why the monorail at Ueno Zoo wasn’t fully automatic, considering it just goes back and forth over 300 meters – what’s the driver have to do? We still on the rail – check. Are we moving – continue to end. Are we at the end – start moving.

Anyways, we took the Rainbow Bridge over to Odaiba. The views of the harbour are really awesome, well worth the 300 yen or so to catch the Yurikamome. The train line crosses below the bridge and does a 270 degree turn before going on the bridge, showing you most of the harbour. Everything looked big and constructed, and felt like man was dominating over nature very much. The water in the harbour looked a little rough – floating scum and all.

Finally we made it to Daiba station. After existing, to your left is a little Statue of Liberty. Pretty much like the one in New York, but about 3m tall.

After that, we walked to the Fuji TV Broadcasting building. For 500 yen you can catch an elevator to the top of the building (25 floors) or you could just catch the free elevator to the 24th floor…

The view was much the same as the view from the train – but a little taller. The Japanese have really just domainated the landscape, they’ve terraformed the land, to the point where they’re creating land where they wasn’t any before.

There’s a whole bunch of pretty tacky gifts and things you can buy, and there’s a free green screen where you can read a Japanese story and appear on a television. About my only regret on the trip is not doing this, but alas, I’ll come back.

After the Fuji TV building, we then headed to Venus Fort. Venus Fort is a large most woman-only shopping center in the middle of Odaiba. The entire second floor is dedicated to woman’s stores, Zara, Burbery, Lego. Well, the Lego store was pretty cool for guys as well, but the rest of it was just for women. We did head up to the third floor for an Italian Lunch Set meal – a light pizza for Kathryn, and a Shrimp Spaghetti for myself, two coffees and a salad for 2700 yen. Not too bad.

After that we headed to the History Garage where you can see a pretty impressive free car museum. What it’s doing in the middle of a woman’s mall I don’t know – it’s probably the place where husbands and boyfriends go to hang out. I didn’t see any women in it. Anyways, if you’re a fan of old Japanese or American cars, like the original Skyline GT-R, or Ford Mustangs, then you’ll get a kick out of this place. One of my highlights had to be the VW Kombi Van, and also the Treuno from the Initial D Movie.

The bottom floor of Venus Fort was pretty good, with shops for both men and women, and dogs. Weirdly, dogs are allowed in the bottom floor of Venus Fort, but all the dogs I saw were about 30cm or smaller, so not to worry. I headed into the Second Hand Clothing store, where everything was 735 yen. While I did pass on the sweet Dennis Rodman naked t-shirt, I did find myself an old school vintage Adidas sweat shirt. I think it’s sweet, and Kathryn hates it.

Meanwhile, Kathryn was hanging out in the Games store – much like Timezone, except say 10 times bigger. One of the games was like pinball but without bumpers, and was similar to Pachinko. Kathryn not knowing what to do managed to win 22 coins, which was pretty impressive, all from 100 yen. I managed to lose about 400 yen doing nothing. I even lost 200 yen while waiting for a drink by doing one of those crappy lift a panda out of a box thing. It didn’t work.

That was it for Venus Fort. The next port of call was the Toyota Showroom. There is truckloads to see and do in here, if you like cars. I did, so we went in. Probably the highlight was E-Com, which for 200 yen each is an electronic commuter car that drives itself. We jumped it, pressed the Start-o button, and then headed around the building. Well fun, and good to see a car that doesn’t require steering. It was a little disconcerning when it stopped for no aparent reason, but it started back up again without problems. Also in the Toyota Showroom was a driving simulator showing what it would be like to drive a car with and without Toyota’s safety technologies. I was rubbish and managed to crash heaps of times, and also get stuck up a hill. It was awesome, and free.

Between the two Toyota buildings is a big ferris wheel. It used to be the biggest in the world until recently, with the Millenium Eye overtaking it in size, but it’s still awfully impressive. Then entrance fee was 600 yen, and you can choose between a normal gondola, or a transparent one. We picked a transparent one, and waited the four minutes it takes for one to come along. After getting in, we started freaking out on our way up. It gets pretty tall, and being able to see up, down, left, and right means a lot of information going to your brain saying this may not pan out so well. However, the views from the wheel were amazing, you really got to see most of the city from the point of view of Odaiba. The new bridges being built, the thousands of trucks at the port, just the general bustle of Tokyo.

We then headed into the Design building. This showcases how the design of cars happens. I didn’t know that the engineers specifically made sure that engines make different sounds depending on the type of car – it’s no accident that sports cars sound different to luxury sedans. Chairs that adjust in 8 different places, radar bumpers that sense people, and dashboards specifically designed so 70 year old people can see them, a lot more goes into the design of a car than I thought. If you have an international drivers license and are wearing closed shoes, you can take any of the latest Toyota cars for a test drive here for free.

After that, we walked towards the Tokyo Big Sight, which is a famous convention center in Odaiba. It looks like four upside down pyramids, and the architecture (like most of the buildings on Odaiba) is simply beyond belief. Very impressive. We walked past a wedding venue place, which is like an old romantic village, specifically designed to have weddings in – but built right in the middle of the city. I can just imagine the cost of having your white wedding in a place that appears to be rural, when in New Zealand having your wedding in a rural setting seems to be something of the norm.

Finally we caught another Yurikimome back to Shimbashi Station, then back to Anne Hostel for the night.

We did however finally eat something that was remotely Japanese – Yakitori. Yaki means sauce, and Tori chicken, so Saucy Chicken Kebabs. For the records, Teriyaki means Glaze Sauce. Anyways, we went to a little Yakitori bar about five minutes walk from our house. The place only has about eight seats, but the Yakitori was good (for 190 yen each). All the food and beer names and prices were in Katakana, but thankfully my poor Japanese managed to get us through asking for roku-yakitori, and ni-gohan – six yakitoris, and two bowls of rice. They did sell beer here as well, a bottle of Corona going for about 500 yen. A weird beer to see is the clear beers, brewed to be transparent. Why, I don’t even know.

Culture Day at Asakusa, and Ueno Zoo

Published on November 4, 2009 in travel. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

Yesterday, the 3rd of November, is Culture Day in Japan and is a Japanese holiday. And so, we decided to head to Asakusa, to go to the Sensoji Shrine, and check out the White Heron Parade.

Asakusa is three stops on the Asakusa line funnily enough from Asakusabashi. Just go from A16 to A19, and you’ll be alright. When you’re in the subway station, you’ll see A1 and A2 and stuff like that, which refers to subway exits, i.e. how to get out of the subway building, so don’t be too concerned that you’re at A3 at the A16 station.

160 yen and about 5 minutes later, we were in Asakusa. Right by the subway exit is the first gate of the Sensoji, a big giant Tori (gate) with a lantern. You’ll see the reverse swastika everywhere, but in this instance it’s a buddist symbol. Continue to walk past the Tori, and you’ll go down a lane selling gifts to foreigners, so if you get a gift from me, this is probably where I bought it.

Past the lane, is the Sensoji Temple. Alas, it’s being renovated at the moment, so it’s all wrapped in white sheeting, but the inside is still simply amazing. Just past the area where you throw your coins and pray (and I thought a good way to get rid of those 1 yen coins), is the most decorative, fancy, opulent, worship place I have ever seen, easily exceeding the Destiny’s Church. Gold is literally everywhere.

From the masses of people heading to Sensoji, just to the left of the building is the temple grounds and garden. I can understand why Japanese people really enjoy parks and greenery – it’s because they don’t personally have any, so any they see, they really relish. I mean in New Zealand, we’re lucky to see so much greenery, it’s coming out of our eyes, and hence we don’t really care about it, and are more excited about going to The Base. But here in Tokyo where everywhere is The Base, to see a stream or a waterfall, or some Koi Carp in a pond is truely relaxing and peaceful and a welcome respite from everything else going on all around.

We found out from the Tourist place the the parade didn’t happen until 1.30pm, so from here we headed to Ueno. Ueno is about three stops away from Asakusa on the Ginza line, but do note that the Asakusa Lines and Ginza Lines are run by two different companies, so it’s not as easy as just transferring.

Ueno is a wonderful part of Tokyo, with wide open spaces, and of course, Ueno Park. Probably smaller in size than Hamilton Gardens (including the zoo part), Ueno Park once again is that sliver of green you miss in a sea of concrete and neon. A quick stroll through the natural though perfectly manicured gardens, and you’ll be at the Ueno Zoo entrance. 600 yen later and you’re in. There’s really enough to see and do for a whole day at Ueno Zoo, which is pretty good considering how small the grounds physically are. We saw sun bears, brown bears, and polar bears, which were hanging out in a pretty sad exhibit, but at least they’re not cages anymore.

Then we waited in line for about 10 minutes and 150 yen to catch to Tokyo Zoo Hanging Monorail! This monorail goes 350 meters, and takes 1.30 minutes for the trip. 350 meters for a monorail! It hardly seemed worth it to build it – but they did, and we rode it.

One great thing about the Zoo is the food places. I don’t know why, but there is another food place within 300 meters from any other food place in the whole zoo. From one end of the zoo to the other, we must have hit at least five, and the zoo size is less than Lake Rotoroa, in the middle of Hamilton. 800 yen was a bit expensive for a Chicken box, and 230 yen for a Sizzler on a stick seemed a little pricy, but overall, the zoo is excellent value for money, especially compared to Tokyo Disneyland. The Australian guys I was with last night headed to Disneyland and was stuck for two hours a pop waiting for rides, meaning a whole day would only get 4 rides.

Anyways, by this time it was time to head back to Asakusa and check out the White Heron Parade. Pretty much the same as the Taumarunui Christmas Parade, but with more fancier costumes, and instead of taking about 20 minutes, takes about two hours. After about 4 of the guys walking past, we’d had enough. If we had had good seats, it would have been different, but since you’ve been walking for pretty much three days straight now, it turns out your feet start to hate you, and make it well known.

So instead we caught the Subway back to Asakusabashi, had a rest, and then headed to Akihabara.

Akihabara really is a Otaku, or Geek’s paradise. Imagine the complete opposite of Ueno Park, and that’s Akihabara. It’s no surprise that it’s called Electric Town.

We weren’t really feeling great, more tired and sore, so we didn’t spend much time in Akihabara, but some of the stuff we saw was delightful, and others not so much.

We ended up stumbling into a book shop, that had thousands and thousands of Hentai, or Japanese Drawn Pornography. Turns out that in Hentai, anything can be drawn, including girls and boys younger than 18, in fact, I’m sure some were younger than 10. This would obviously be considered to be Child Pornography back home, and would be frowned upon quite seriously. I think here there’s just an understanding that a drawing is a drawing, and so perhaps isn’t harmful. I don’t know if this is reflected in the amount of sexual abuse on small children here, but it’s certainly not something that you’d be expecting to see. Kathryn dutifully noted that she was the only woman on the floor, and so decided to wait outside. I noticed that all the woman on the covers (since most of the books were sealed) all had some sort of fluid depicted on them.

And so we went to another floor, and this time it was full of figurines. This is serious business over here, and it shows. No longer just limited to the Toy Section of the Warehouse, figurines cost hundreds of dollars, and are very intricate. From maids who have fallen over in awkward sexual poses, to beasts of the underworld, and futuristic overlords, everything plastic and shaped roughly human-like can be found here.

Even the model cars were fantastic, including a hyper-detailed bus. It wouldn’t surprise me if a little button would make the bus lower itself so wheelchair people could enter. And of course, these things would exceed 10,000 yen pretty regularly.

But what I was really interested in was consumer electronics. I did see quite a bit of them actually, but the prices weren’t that sharp, such as an Iphone 3Gs for 109,000 yen. To convert into dollars, remove two zeros, and add half. So 1090 + 545 = 1635 dollars roughly. That seems a little expensive really. On the plus side, you can be certain that what you’re buying is original and not fake, but if you’re expecting prices cheaper than back home, you might be surprised.

After a quick look around, our feet were killing us, and we had no energy left, so we headed back to Asakusabashi for an early night, and ready to head to Odaiba tomorrow.

A trip to the beach – Enoshima

Published on November 4, 2009 in travel. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

We’re still running on New Zealand time here, so even though it feels like 12.26pm, it’s actually 8.26am. Which is kind of good because you’re all ready for the next day, showered and clean by about 6am.

Enoshima was our big trip out of Tokyo, and is roughly an hour’s train ride from Tokyo Station. We managed to leave in the middle of rush hour in the morning, to about the third busiest train station in the world – Akihabara. From there we transferred on the Yamanote line (which carries the population of New Zealand every day) to Tokyo station, and finally we caught a Tokaido Line train (Green-Orange line) to Ofuna. As always, pay the minimum fare at your first station, and use the fare adjustment machine at the other end. Of course, this only works for trains from the same company, i.e. JR trains.

You can catch a JR train directly to Kamakura Station (the Blue line), but a more fun way is to catch the train to Ofuna Station, and then transfer onto the Shonan Monorail, for 300 yen. This is a hanging monorail, and was built in the 1970’s. The monorail goes pretty quickly, and travels right through the middle of the suburbs – literally about a couple of meters away from people’s houses. It climbs up over the hills and then stops in Enoshima – the California of Japan.

Once you get to Enoshima, whether it be the Monorail Station, or the Enoshin Tram Station, turn left. Left will take you to the sea. Kathryn and I turned right. And then we walked. Walked and walked, for about half an hour, and then thought, we’re not really getting any closer to the sea. And that’s because we turned right and instead was walking back up the hill towards Ofuna. Thankfully, I asked a Japanese woman “Enoshima Aquarium where”, and her English directions pointed us the right way. Another half an hour later and we were next to the Monorail Station again. We then walked the 10 minutes towards the sea.

At the corner of the bridge to Enoshima Island is a First Kitchen. First Kitchen is pretty much a McDonalds, but Japanese. If you like Coffee, just learn the phrase “kaf-fei raatei” which is a Cafe Latte. It’ll be made by a machine and may not even resemble a Flat White, but it’s the closest you’re going to get here. One of the downsides to my Japanese is my general lack of understanding – coupled with how difficult it is to read Katakana. It’s like being 6 again. I have to translate each character into the sound it makes, and then aggregate all those sounds into a word, and then translate that word into English. And so, I ended up ordering Basil Potato. Basil Potato is pretty much french fries coated in Basil Salt. Turns out they were out of Cheese flavour. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

Finally we could see Enoshima Aquarium, which is a massive sandstone looking building juttling out right on Enoshima Beach. 2000 yen later, we had entered. The aquarium is quite impressive, with one of the main attractions being the massive deap sea tank featuring three sting rays, a shark, and shoals of fish. There’s some English present talking about the animals you’re viewing, but nothing to write home about. One thing that was impressive was an Electric Eel in a tank hooked up to a Christmas Tree, powering the Christmas Lights. Well done Japan, well done.

As we had arrived at 12pm, we got to see one of the main shows, which was a woman diving into said big tank and playing with the three sting rays. She treated them like they were show dogs, and they responded in kind. It was pretty impressive, and drove the 100+ kindergarden children wild. With an orgy like that, what could possibly beat it?

The Jellyfish tank. Well not really, but it was pretty impressive if you like Jellyfish. Turns out there’s truck loads of different types, and they’ll all kill you. They’re like the Kinder Surprise of the sea, jump in, and possibly die.

After the Jellyfisk tank, we headed on to the Dolphin enclosure to watch Splash! Included in the 2000 yen is a free dolphin show. Featuring about 6 dolphins and a seal, it was pretty impressive considering the size they had to play with. I think your local primary school pool was bigger than the enclosure, but still there was much jumping of dolphins, and shaking of seals hands, more than enough to leave you smiling and clapping along.

It was raining now (600 yen gets you an umbrella at 7-11), but it’s a pretty quick walk back past First Kitchen to Enoshima Station. From here we took the Enoshin Tram to Hase, or Western Kamakura. In Hase is Daibutsu, or the Big Brass Budda. It’s pretty true to the name, and costs 200 yen to enter. For 20 yen more, you can go inside, which as you’d expect, is much like the inside of a statue – not really as nice as the outside, but for 3 cents, you can’t really complain.

By this time, it was time to return home, with a race on to get back to the hostel before the rush hour crowd started. A quick walk to Hase station past all the tacky/wonderful gift shops, and then thinking about the quickest way to get home. Thankfully, you can purchase transfer tickets between different companies, so even though we were using the Enoshin, we bought tickets from Hase to Kamakura, and also from Kamakura to Tokyo (1080 yen). The rest of the journey home was pretty uneventful, the only gotcha being the train we caught to Tokyo doesn’t actually go to Tokyo Station, but does stop at a couple of stations on the Yamanote Line (like Shinjuku), so you can get off there, and then use the Yamanote line to get to wherever you’re based in Tokyo.

Beating the commuter crowd, we finally returned to Anne Hostel, Asakusabashi. Kathryn retired for an early night, and I ended up watching TV in the lounge. It was the news, and a Japanese kid was missing up the side of a mountain. After that news segment, the next news segment was on how delicious this Noodle Place and Bread place was. I kid you not. It was about 6.30pm and there was a 15 minute news article on this Ramen place and how it made the most delicious Ramen, including showing the cooking techniques of Ramen, and making the chicken stock base. If that wasn’t enough proof, they would then show people queing up outside the building to show that if the place is this popular, then it must be good. Having said this, one shot only had about six people queing up outside, which really isn’t that impressive for Tokyo. Of course the presenter tried some of the Ramen and she literally blew her load, describing it as the most delicious flavoursome thing she’s ever tried. Then it was on to the bakery, and how great that was. Awesome shots of bread just cooked being broken apart and steam and flavour just seaping out of it, followed by how white and soft the bread was. And for those people who like raisin bread but just want something more, they showed vege bread with carrots and peas and kumara all baked into the bread, so when cut had like a cross section of a kumara in it. Fantastic.

And then, it was time for the sport section.

Anne Hostel for better or worse has a vending machine inside it, selling nothing but beer. Kirin, Asahi, and Asahi Lemon Flavour. After grabing me one of the regular sized cans for 250 yen, I had a quiet beer in the lounge. This all changed when a group of very funny Australians turned up. Before long we were drinking the 500ml Asahi cans for 350 yen, and playing circle of death. With rules such as:

  • No teasing;
  • No saying the word “you”;
  • No pointing;
  • No saying skol;
  • No looking at snake eyes;
  • No swearing;
  • No being loud.

Pretty much if you could be quiet, and politely behaved, you would have done well. About 2L of beer later, we were all feeling a little worse for wear. When I broke the circle of death and had to drink half a cup of Yagermeister, that was it, I was done, and the drunkest I’d ever been in the last five years. It was great.

Tokyo Travel Blog – Getting to Asakusabashi

Published on November 2, 2009 in travel. 1 Comment

It may be 9am in the old country, but it’s 5am here in the city of the future.

We’ve been away from New Zealand for nearly two days now, and it’s been long and tiring. I don’t think it matters how much you plan for it, you can never really get away from Jetlag.

Our trip like all good trips starts at Auckland Airport. I enjoyed the friendly banter between myself and the Immigration Officer as we debated the relative merits of leaving New Zealand for Japan for only 8 days, and whether this seemed reasonable, or infact I was trying to smuggle Mangos back to New Zealand on my return. After then going into detail about how the leave scheme at Hamilton City Council works, and my recent arrival there, he seemed to lose interest and we were through… to wait.

Be early. Always be early when travelling. When you’re early your biggest stress is waiting. When you’re late, your biggest stress is not flying. However, being five hours early means extra prepared. If there was a crash on the motorway, we would have had enough time for that. If there was a bicycle race for toddlers, we’d have enough time to watch it and still be able to travel. Earlyness is next to godliness.

So we waited in Auckland Aiport for our flight to Sydney. There’s always the temptation to purchase stuff there at Duty Free before flying. Don’t do it. Mainly because you have the whole rest of your holiday to buy stuff, it seems a little rash to buy stuff at the first chance you could. Then again, there’s not really much else to do once you’ve gone through to the other side of the airport. A friendly Burger King (I did not check – but it should have been duty free I guess), a Whitcoulls with all the prices increased by 12.5% and then GST removed at the counter (I could be making this up), and a whole bunch of Tongan Rugby Teams who’s flights were delayed for four hours. Luckily, they had time up their sleeve.

The flight to Sydney from Auckland was relatively un-eventful. I’m including the meal in this. Ever had the McCains Cheesey Potato things you cook in the microwave from frozen? That was what the meal was, with additional chicken. Thankfully, I happen to love those things, so I was in heaven. Kathryn however, not so impressed.

Sydney Airport was where we had another 5 hour wait. Prepared. If you’re in transit you don’t pass through customs, but you do have to pass through security. Which is why I have no belt. Either here or Auckland, I was asked to take off my belt to stop said alarm machine making an alarm. Afterwards, it was not seen again. Advice – always remember when something leaves your body, and make sure it comes back. Except for you know whats. Kathryn got frisked here, just a gentle pat on the breasts from a kind Australian, and I thought wow, she didn’t even buy her a drink first. Australians, so direct.

For someone who’s never been to Australia apart from the airports, it’s like a distant cousin of New Zealand. It’s all familiar, but just a little different. All the chip brands are the same, Twisties, Burger Rings, but their designs are straight from the 80’s. Same with Just Juice. White Sans Serif Arial Font on black background, which the New Zealand Just Juice looks positively like a party in comparision. The people seem the same, just less helpful. I ask the guy if there’s a Westpac ATM in the airport, he says no. Didn’t mention the ANZ ATM just across from him. I guess he didn’t want to disapoint me. Purchase a bottle of Deep Spring Orange and Mango (different design again) from the lady at the Newsagent, and no hello, how are you, just a demand for money, and change promptly received – that’s efficient. All those plesentries = money down the toilet.

One thing I saw at Sydney Airport I haven’t seen at Hamilton Airport (apart from people) was the Airbus A380. A fully double decker plane. Amazing, simply amazing. I mean the plane has 500+ people on board. That’s more than the population at Taumarunui High School, including Teachers. Wow.

Anyhoo, after watching Mike Myers in The Cat In The Hat (worst thing on TV ever), and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos (I stand corrected), it was time to board the plane. The plane was set to leave around 10pm Australian Time, and get to Japan at 6am Japan time. I figured we could sleep on the plane, and boom, we’d be ready to hit the town first thing. But alas, it just didn’t pan out.

After about a day of travel, even the best Rexona Sensitive for Men gives up. I would too. And hence a pleasent aroma of home brew replaced it instead. And thankfully, this wouldn’t go away, but would just increase in pleasentness over time. So that’s one thing against instant travel. And the other is you can’t fight jetlag, you can’t even trick it. Weirdly we were just supremely tired at 5pm in Sydney, delerious by 10pm, and wide awake by 4am Japanese time, to be tired again at 10am.

The flight was also uneventful. I did see a Japanese woman try and eat milk using a fork. I thought you’re doing it wrong – should have used chopsticks instead. I also saw another woman spread butter on the outside of the fruit scone (without fruit) instead of the inside. I thought wow, that’s efficiency.

Finally, we arrived at Narita Airport. Unless Hamilton, City of the Future (year 3000), Narita is City of the Future (year 1980). It’s what the future looks like, if you were in the 1960s, and trying to think forward. Like those old VCRs, everything was black, grey, and full of technology. Hey, why walk, when you can use a flat escalator that talks. I did. Don’t feel ashamed, it goes for like 300m. I guess in New Zealand we just use concrete instead.

After picking up our matching bags (travel tip – use matching bags with pretty coloured ribbons, you’ll feel full of life), it was on to Immigration and Customs. Unlike New Zealand, Japan was a breeze. Just finger prints, smile for the camera, and you’re done. The camera even talks to you and counts down. I didn’t see if there was the option to add words like Hello Kitty Loves You on the photo. Otherwise, all done. No questions, hardly a word. Customs likewise. Not even a blink.

And so we were through to Narita Arrivals Hall. After carefully researching at home all the options for trains and buses leaving Narita (and I mean carefully, like two or three hours), in Narita I just picked the next train. Take that research. 1,280 yen later, we were on the Rapid Express Train to Tokyo Station. The first four carriages were only going as far as a random town, leading me to consider – were we on these first four carriages. Thankfully, my fifth form Japanese kicked in, and finding the only people willing to set next to the foreigners, Japanese Schoolgirls, I asked if they were going to Tokyo station, no, train, go station, this train, station, go tokyo? And so, they left the train.

Thankfully we arrived at Tokyo Station. Not too thankful though, since it only has like a hundred exits. When all is lost, catch the next train on the Yamanote line. It’s the light green line, and goes around in circles. Since it was Sunday, the train wasn’t packed, so this advice might not work for you on a weekday. Being in Tokyo Station at 8.25am, and with checkin at Anne Hostel at 4pm, we only had a cool 9.5 hours to wait. Prepared.

Like any geek would, we headed to Akihabara, if only because we had to go somewhere. One cool thing about the trains is, you pay for a ticket when you get on, hold onto the ticket, and then use that ticket to leave the station at the other end. If there is a difference in fares between what you paid when you got on, and where you departed, fare adjustment machines will take your old ticket and money, and turn it into a new ticket that will let you off. Turns out there’s no difference between Tokyo Station and Akihabara Station when coming from Narita. But good to check.

When in Akihabara, why not do what the french do, and go to a faux-French cafe. We did. There’s always certain rituals you need to do in other countries, and here it’s no different. It’s easy to figure out though, just follow others. Some pastries, a sandwich, a coffee, and 1000 yen later, we were having breakfast. My home brand aroma was getting to me though – I had to do something. Off to the toilet where I had a shower for my armpits. A little soap, a lot of water, and they were smelling nude again. a bit of Mitchem would ensure all day I’d feel light and refreshed.

After Akihabara, back on the Yamanote line for Harajuku. Remember, always buy the lowest fare (130 yen) and pay the difference at a fare adjustment station. At Harajuku we looked for the Gothic Lolita girls at the bridge to Yoyogi Park, but we found hardly any. Instead, we found a massive tori. I started to do my first Five Minute Travel episode, and Kathryn the cameraperson chased me backwards into a Japanese person. Great. I should have just said I was Australian, he would have understood.

Carrying around travel cases, no matter how small, is a pain. Coin lockers fix this. However, they’re inside the train station barriers. So I purchase a ticket (130 yen), get to the coin locker, and pay 400 yen, for a space. How long you say? Forever I think, then again, being mostly in Japanese, how would I know. After getting rid of the bags, something dawned on me. I did not grab the ticket to get out of the station. I should have remembered, anything that leaves the person, should come back to the person. No to worry though, I head to the manned booth and then just speak the fastest English with hand movements coupled with the odd Japanese word, and then really slow English words, to explain my predicament. Thankfully, he let me through due to a lack of understanding.

No matter where you are, and Harajuku is a shopper’s paradise, if you feel tired and smelly, you just want to have a shower and nap. That describes our experience in Harajuku. So we headed back after a couple of hours to Asakusabashi, where we are staying, to just wait two hours before we could check in. After waiting in a shrine for an hour, we moved on to McDonalds. Ordering isn’t too hard, but my tip is either to not care what you eat or learn Katakana. One chi-ku-en-fu-re-to later, we had a burger, and for an extra 60 yen you can upsize that to family size – we had enough chips to sponsor an African kid. I also through the magic of my Japanese ordered a ma-ku-fu-ra-rii-o-re-o. A McFlurry Oreo. That’s right, still here. Only 12,000 km away, but I had a McFlurry. No KFC Krusher from Grey Street for me.

Thankfully, it was now time to check in. We did, paid, and promptly fell asleep. And then it was 5am and I started typing this, and now it’s 6am, and I’ve finished typing this.