Apparently Tokyo is the biggest city in the world (in terms of population anyway). We (err Rob) always thought it was Dublin because its size keeps Dublin and Dublin and Dublin… Oh dear!.
Rapidly moving on, we decided to save the biggest to last in Japan - Tokyo. The home to millions of people, full of neon light madness and electronic gadget overload.
After speeding along the tracks on another very fast and enjoyable bullet train we arrived at Tokyo station and hit the streets to see what its all about. First impressions - there were a lot of people, but apart from the odd place it didn't feel as overcrowded as we thought it might. It was also far more westernised than the other cities in terms of what the people wore, the types of shops and the sort of food available (we still found Japanese noodle bars, our favourite Lawsons or FamilyMart convenience stores and other things, but there were plenty more McDonalds, Starbucks and those types of places that we'd quite enjoyed not seeing). Another thing we noticed which to our surprise we hadn't seen much of elsewhere was the use of mobile phones. They loved them here and pretty much anywhere you looked (especially when on the metro) there were loads of Japanese faces firmly planted in their smartphones - reminded us of home!
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| Bullet train |
Anyway, we ended up being here quite a while and did quite a bit:
- paid a visit or two to Akihabara, the self-proclaimed Electric Town of the world. There are shops that do literally sell every sort of gizmo or gadget you could probably think of. There are also plenty of shops that sell things you would never want as I think there are laws against some of the stuff in the UK. The Japanese (and Lisa) also seem to like their gambling and there were loads of Pachinko slot machine places dotted around - we didn't fancy those as they reeked of smoke, but Lisa did get her fix when she "won" a small cat toy in one of those hand grabber machine thingies (you know what I mean!). She was very pleased with her efforts!!
- checked out the Imperial Palace gardens as it was cherry blossom season. It was a pretty time of the year to visit, but unfortunately the weather gods had been a bit rude and decided to give us the earliest cherry blossom season ever so we'd missed some of the best stuff.
- speaking of cherry blossom we checked out a few spots. The Chidorigafuchi boating lake area was nice for a relaxing stroll. Shinjuku Gyoen gardens had some later blooming cherry trees. We also took a trip to the Ueno Park which was busy, but it was great watching the families have lunches on blankets in the gardens and all ages really celebrating the cherry blossom season. Whilst there we also tried one of the local delicacies - Monja. It was a strange concoction of batter, meat, vegetables, egg, dried fish, special sauce and mayonnaise, a bit stodgy and a bit weird - not something we'd have again, but you have to try these things.
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| Chidorigafuchi boating lake |
- took a trip or two to Asakusa (one of the older parts of Tokyo) to see the quaint little shops and visit the Sensoji Temple which is probably the best in Tokyo.
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| Sensoji Temple |
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| Sensoji Pagoda |
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| Rob with a giant moccasin at Sensoji Temple |
- had a chat with the locals at one of the popular Tokyo Skytree photography spots. The mainly older gentlemen here were so friendly - they gave us tips on how to take some of the photos and get reflections in things like stone pillars! There was a lot of miming and pointing going on as their English was limited and our Japanese very limited ("hello", "goodbye" and "thank you very much" is about all we know!). One of the locals even bought us each a can of warm coffee from the vending machine as it was a chilly night - a genuinely kind act that you wouldn't expect in most countries. We didn't realise the vending machines had hot drinks - couldn't stop Lisa after that!
- visited the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills for views over Tokyo. Pretty cool, especially at night.
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| Rob on his helipad! |
- took a look at the Shibuya crossing, allegedly the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world and yep it was busy. Every time the green man flashed it seemed thousands of people appeared from nowhere (and of course they would as the vast majority of the population are ninjas) and crossed in all directions - amazing just to stand and watch.
- tried sushi for the first time in our lives. We started with the shrimp and the mackerel - quite enjoyed those (beginners luck). Then it was time for the scallop and it was just vile - the texture was awful (presumably what a slightly fishy slug would be like) and that finished Rob off! I continued for a couple more but the really soft, squishy prawn got the better of me. I think we entertained the chef though as he was having to tell us what to do with the plates, tea and wasabi.... So uneducated in sushi eating, I think that'll be the first and last time though.
- went to the Harajuku area where some people dress in some rather funky and interesting attire. We spotted a few walking around, but the main reason for us going was souvenir hunting at the Oriental Bazaar - a cool shop that had a load of authentic Japanese bits and bobs. Rob was also happy as he had the chance to pretend to be a samurai!!
- took the rubber wheeled train (imagine Superoute 66 bus lanes in Kesgrave that actually work) over Tokyo Bay to the man-made island of Odaiba. Now we weren't sure we would like this place much as it sounded a bit cheesy, but turned out to be quite a nice way to spend a few hours. The best thing about the place (from Rob's perspective anyway) was the massive (to scale) Gundam that stood outside one of the shopping centres. Had never heard of Gundams before visiting a toy shop in Japan, but imagine something similar to Transformers and you wouldn't be far wrong. Suffice it to say that Rob was so impressed with the gigantic robot that he just had to buy a souvenir toy to take home - big kid!
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Statue of Liberty replica at Odaiba and the bridge we walked
across from Tokyo city centre |
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| The funky Fuji TV building at Odaiba |
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| Rob and the gigantic Gundam |
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| Rob with his toy Gundam - big kid! |
- Visited a few of the other tourist attractions such as Tokyo tower (which we could see from our hotel window) and spent some time in Ginza - the upmarket shopping area.
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| Tokyo Tower and me! |
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| Rob falling asleep at the Tokyo Tower! |
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| Ginza |
So thats it, our time in Japan is up, but are we keen to move on? Not really, I think we'll quite miss it to be honest. Sounds a little cliched but the people really make the place. Sure there are some amazing things to see and do, but the people are great - very genuine, welcoming, respectful and helpful. When Rob asked someone on a bicycle for directions he dismounted and walked about 15 minutes out of his way with Rob to guide him to the place - and it wasn't a scam or anything, he was just genuinely helpful! Would that happen in London or Ipswich? Think not.
On top of this, everywhere we went we felt really safe, everywhere was so clean (even the public transport) and it's such a well ordered society where they all seem to take pride in their country and themselves, which really shines through.
The customer service everywhere in Japan was also second to none - they say the USA is the land of great customer service, but believe us they could learn sooooo much from the Japanese. For instance, at the train station ticket desk the assistant who served me stood behind her chair when we were done, bobbed her head and said goodbye - this was then followed by all the other assistants saying goodbye (even though they were looking after other customers). She stood behind her chair until I had exited the store - couldn't believe it!
Japan has probably been the most fascinating country we have visited on this trip (maybe ever) and the language barrier didn't really have an impact. It turns out that knowing a handful of Japanese words coupled with lots of pointing, smiling and nodding your head is an astonishingly effective way of communicating! This experience has definitely got us thinking about new places to visit in the future that we may not have considered in the past.
When I think about how we both felt whilst sitting at the airport hotel room contemplating what we were going to do and how we would do any of it when we didn't even know the basics of the language, we've truly have had an amazing time and Japan is a place we'd happily go back to some time.
Onwards .... Flying to Los Angeles to complete the USA tour that we postponed in November when we flew home to say goodbye to my nan x
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