Japan

The blog is again up and running. Having arrived last night in New York City, the slow process of overcoming jetlag has given us some time, which otherwise would be spent sleeping, to reflect on our couple of days spent in Tokyo.

So on the 26th of November, Jess and I left Perth en route to Tokyo, Japan. Originally our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00 pm but for some reason this flight had been cancelled and we were unknowingly put onto another flight leaving at 1:15 pm which was via Sydney. The scary thought is that we only found out about this is because we got a call from Qantas on the 25th saying that (due to the recent problem with the A380's) Qantas were overbooked for one leg of the flight. A flight we didn't even know we were on! The good news was that they were willing to fly us another route via Singapore instead of which the Perth-Singapore flight would be business class. What we chose goes without saying.

Crystal Dump at Changi

We got into Tokyo early the next day pretty exhausted and hoping (for a miracle) that the staff at the Hotel Horidome Villa would let us check in at 8:00 am. They didn't. They did, however, hold our bags so that, even in a sleep deprived state we could browse a part of the city. For the sake of this blog lets call each part of Tokyo a city and Tokyo as a whole, a megacity because we feel its an appropriate representation coming from Perth.

Lots of Space

The hotel room was compact. I understand the space is a premium in Tokyo but for what we paid I think we both expected more. That said, everything worked fine and the LAN internet was a bonus. Staff were excellent. As for the Japanese people, they were amazing. Given that we've checked off a few Asian countries, we were expecting (and i guess reliant on) people speaking English. Many of them we saw knew very little and there really isn't much need. Chris summed it well when he said it was a homogeneous society. Japanese people don't need to be able to speak English to be successful. While not in terms of language, there is a large Western presence there though. Take fashion for instance. Young Japanese woman dress up for everything! Pointless.

You're probably thinking that ordering food was an issue, and in most instances it was. Pictures and plastic food was heavily relied upon. In Akihabara, which is people call Electric Town, we ordered from a vending machine.

In Control

Basically everything is available from a vending machine. We didn't really have a bad meal and bar a few meals we ate completely Japanese. Gyudon from Yoshinoya, Gyoza and Kare Raisu were popular dishes in our eyes. For Jess' birthday, we ate at Coucagno, a Michelin starred restaurant in the heart of Shibuya. It was on the 40th floor of a tower so the views (which went forever) and the French-themed food were brilliant. It was expensive, but like Trav says, "It's only money".

We visited a few parks, we found both the Yoyogi and Hama Rikyu parks to be amazing. Hopefully the pictures tell the whole story.

We probably didn't have the best mindset for shopping since we're in New York now, but shops were aplenty. We feel Harajuku offered the best shopping with Omotesando-dori having all of the boutiques and Takeshita-dori catering for the younger population. The 100 yen store was a waste of our time, Mum!

Nakamise Dori

It was common for black guys to try and hustle tourists along Takeshita-dori. Of course, that wasn't going to work on experienced travellers like us! Most of the stuff we bought we actually got from Ameyoko Arcade which had a Chinatown fake designer brands feel. In short, we saw most features on the tourist trial. We would have loved an extra day or two but we're blessed to have had the chance to stopover in Tokyo. It was an unique experience, unlike any other parts of Asia and we'll definitely be back.

Bye for now,

Aaron and Jess.