Japan - Day 1

The day finally arrived. Dan Bish and I, after several months of planning, research, skype calls and preparation, were to leave for our two week holiday to Japan. Japan is a place I have always wanted to visit. I love the food, culture, the gaming, the history, architecture and the fact that it is a totally different way of life compared to what I have experienced in the UK. Additionally I'd been learning how to speak the language for the past 6 months or so and was looking forward to trying it out! This diary is a compilation of our travels, the sights we have seen, the food we ate, the mistakes we made (many) and the laughs along the way. This is a personal diary for myself to read through in later years but I hope you enjoy reading it too.

Dan and I woke at the early hour of 5am, showered and called our airport taxi who came to pick us up. We'd eaten Domino's pizza the night before, and I'd polished off the entire large pizza to myself. A big mistake. I felt groggy bloated and incredibly thirsty. Anyhow, we got in our taxi and made our way to Heathrow airport. Upon arriving we realised our gate wouldn't be open for check in for another hour and a half. Better be early than late I guess so we enjoyed a morning brew in one of the cafes and tried not to fall asleep or throw up last nights pizza. Eventually we checked in, browsed duty free etc and boarded our plane for Japan!

The flight was a cool 11 hours 20 minutes, not bad considering I thought it was going to be 13 hours. All the announcements were in Japanese and English and so it soon dawned on me that despite my best efforts to learn the language, it was going to be tough understanding the people out there. The announcements were spoken so fast that I could only pick up the odd word or two. I told myself it would be fine and I would just need to ask the Japanese to speak slowly ("yukkuri onegaishimasu") and all would be fine. Our flight went well, I slept about an hour (why can't I ever sleep the whole way?), ate aload of food and watched a couple of movies. It was not long before our pilot announced we would be landing in Tokyo Haneda Airport and I eagerly looked out of the window to catch my first glimpse of Tokyo. Unfortunately it was a cloudy morning, just my luck! I didn't care though as I was finally in a country I had always dreamed of visiting

After landing we made our through immigration and I practised some Japanese with a couple of natives who were on the same flight. It was tough but they told me I pronounced the Japanese words well. A compliment I received more than once on the trip..good times. They were probably just being polite though! Dan and I made our way to the subway to collect our JR rail passes (a ticket that enables you to travel on any JR rail owned train in Japan, including the famous Shinkansen bullet trains) and to make our first attempt at navigating the Japanese subway system to our hostel in Asakusa. I asked, "Asakusa wa doko desu ka?" meaning "where is Asakusa station?" I got a reply in English. I wasn't complaining though as this was much easier. We head down to the subway platform for our first experience of Japanese public transport.

Japanese public transport is, interesting. At every station they play bird whistling noises which I never worked out what they meant. All the announcements and boards are mainly in Japanese so we relied on the maps we picked up and did some guess work to find our way around. As our train pulled out of the station, we sailed past the back alleyways of Tokyo that lined the railway track. Japanese shops and skyscrapers were lit up with bright colours and had signs filled with Japanese characters. Tokyo was built upwards, rather than outwards so many shops, restaurants, cafes and stores are located on different floors of the same building, sometimes going up 8 floors or more. Japanese lanterns hung from shop entrances and power cables ran like spaghetti. We eventually arrived in Asakusa station and head for the exit. Now before our trip I was advised to pack light for Japan due to space on trains and to make it easier to get around. Advice that I had ignored and Dan had not. I quickly realised my mistake when I had to climb about 8 flights of stairs with my massive suitcase. Out of breath, sweaty and tired I eventually emerged out onto the streets of Tokyo to find our hostel, only to realise I had no idea how to get there. It was just after 8am and neither of us had any internet connection. Oh dear. Time to practice some more Japanese! I asked several people, but no one had heard of our hostel (Khaosan World). Luckily we eventually found a local walking past who was able to look up our hostel on his iPad using a 3G dongle and pointed us in the right direction. We still managed to get lost despite this advice and asked several more people who also had no idea.
We lugged our cases around back alleys looking everywhere (upwards too!) in hope of finding a sign for our hostel. I was in awe of the many tiny restaurants and bars that had entrances decorated in wooden beams, Kanji symbols and hanging lanterns. Instead of doors, some shops simply had cloth across the entrance to walk through. Eventually we stumble across a hostel called Khaosan hostel. This must be it! Obviously it wasn't. However the Japanese receptionist in there was incredibly friendly and pulled out a map telling us where our hostel was. After some more searching we saw the sign for Khaosan World and head there in eager of dropping my massive suitcase off and doing some real exploring of the city.

The hostel looked really qwerky. As we entered reception, bright neon lights displaying Khaosan World lit up the reception desk and we made our way there to check ourselves in. We received a guided tour of the kitchen, complete with internet PC's, free tea and coffee, vending machines etc, the bar area which also had a bed in it (something I used 30 minutes later for a power nap before heading out) and left our bags in reception as we couldn't check into our rooms until 3pm. It was time to see some of the city. But first a tactical snooze was needed so I took the opportunity in the bar to catch some shut eye. The room reeked of smoke (you can smoke

inside in Japan) but it was comforting in a way. I'd grown up loving the smell of my Grandad's pipe at his house and it reminded me of that.

After my power nap I was ready to hit the streets of Tokyo properly for our first time. As we were staying in Asakusa, it made sense to check out the famous Asakusa district first, which is known for a more ancient Tokyo than today's neon fueled skyscrapers. We first visited the Senso-ji shrine which is not hard to miss as a GIGANTIC red gateway marks the entrance. On this gateway is the biggest Japanese lantern I have ever seen. These lanterns are like an oval cylinder and are bright read with black Japanese symbols on them. We walked underneath and looked ahead. There was a long pathway up to the shrine, lined with shops and street vendors selling all kinds of crazy Japanese food such as Tako-Yaki (deep fried octopus dumplings), Taiyaki Fish shaped waffles filled with red bean paste (actually really tasty), chicken sticks (Yakitori), cucumber on a stick and many more. Basically stuff called Yaki something on sticks then. As it was a Saturday the place was booming with both tourists and natives. We walked up to the temple where a large pot spewing out smoke from burning incense stood. Here locals would catch the smoke with their hands and go to rub it on themselves as if to purify themselves before entering the shrine. They also washed there hands using a

fountain that provided long ladles for people to scoop up water with. Again I assumed this was for some kind of purification. Next came the shrine itself. Absolutely massive and again, bright red. The building was decorated with carvings of statues of gods. Around it stood statues of foxes and Buddhas. Inside people were lobbing money into the shrine and making their prayers. The sound of pennies colliding against the stone floor was deafening!

After the shrine hunger struck and I was looking forward to dining in a real Japanese restaurant. We found a cool looking place that had a small wooden porch, no doorway and a counter with 3 chefs behind it preparing food. I walked in, sat down and opened the menu... only to discover it was entirely in Japanese with no obvious tell of how much things were. I had been warned before going that some places can be very expensive.. we made an awkward exit and vowed to find somewhere else. Most restaurants in Japan actually have pictures of the food on the menus outside and even more strangely.. fake plastic dishes of the food they serve. This was literally everywhere from curries to cakes and soups. We eventually found somewhere nearby, got seated and browsed a picture menu of various dishes. I ordered a creamy noodle soup dish with pork and vegetables. Bish ordered something similar (no idea what it was). Anyhow it was pretty good! You will come to see that any dish I ate was actually awesome. The standard of quality in Japan is second to none and that includes

service. Every meal we were brought fresh hot towels, were treated well and had delicious food every time. Lunch was over and we had more plans to explore the city.

After seeing the shrine we fancied seeing something a bit more modern and so headed to Akihabara, also known as the electric district. This place is a hub of electronic stores, anime/manga libraries, gaming arcades, slot machines, pachinko parlors (see later!) maid cafes (also see later!) and neon lights. We emerged from the station and were fronted with gigantic skyscrapers lit up in bright multicolored signs, anime and video game characters all advertising restaurants, electrical goods stores, gaming arcades and more. Shops went up 8 floors or more with see through staircases that never seemed to end. The place was heaving with people. Mainly younger people all here for some gaming/anime/manga action. We explored many stores filled with gaming consoles old school and new, merchandise and more. We explored manga shops, anime stores, the lot.

It was here I walked into a Pachinko parlor for the first time.. this is essentially a crazy way of playing slots/pinball with "pachinko balls" that you have to fire in hope that one will land in a certain hole to enable you to spin the slots and win more balls. These places are ridiculously loud, the machines scream music and explosions erupt from the machines along with a constant ping like sound from the balls being fired. I immediately put my headphones in a futile attempt to protect my ears. Bish sat down to play.. but quickly realised we both had no idea what the hell was going on or what to do. We left for now and it wasn't into later in the trip that we had the "balls" to play it (sorry couldn't resist)

Hunger strikes! We decide to find somewhere to eat in Akihabara and we weren't spoiled for choice. We passed restaurants all advertising various Japanese dishes including ramen, katsu, noodles, soups, sushi and more. Unfortunately we were also being rather indecisive. It was at this moment we passed a Japanese girl in a maid outfit holding a menu.. I'd heard about this places.. maid cafes.. where you dine and are served by Japanese women wearing maid outfits. Very weird but it had to be done. The girl explained it would cost us 1000 yen each (about 6 quid) to sit at the table and about 2000 yen for our meal. Sounded great? I was keen to experience this oddity. We agreed and she let us down a back alleyway, shoved us into an old rusting elevator and pressed floor 6. Bish turned to me and said "what have you got us into here mate" and I have to admit I was pretty concerned myself. Too late now I guess! The lift opened at floor 6 and another maid greets us with smiles and giggles. She leads us to our table and surprisingly speaks very good English. The place is filled with cigarette smoke. Various groups of people of all ages are sat drinking,

smoking and dining around tables. Our server explains we can order a meal, a drink and a have a photo with the staff for 2000 Yen. Bargain. We both order the katsu curry and a melon soda along with the picture of us with the maids. It only got stranger from here.. everytime we were brought something, Bish and I had to say a Japanese rhyme, clap our hands and make cat noises. Our katsu is presented to us in the shape of a bear with ears and a smiley face. Halfway through our meal the girls get up on stage and started dancing and singing a Japanese girl band song with ridiculously high pitched voices. I am literally handed a tambourine and asked to play along to this performance. All around me are grown men singing all the words and copying the dance moves the girls are performing. After about 3 songs we'd seen enough and needed to get out. I asked for the bill and we had our photos taken and made a swift move toward the elevator. Bish reports at this stage he needs a shower after that experience and I don't blame him. The jet lag hits us so we decide to head home for the night for an early start to exploring the city tomorrow. After spending just an afternoon/evening in Tokyo, I knew we were in for two weeks of pure awesomeness.