Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day Three

The first thing we did was check out of our hotel, and try to stash our luggage in a coin locker in Tokyo station, so we could pick it up before getting back on the Shinkansen. Turns out, it's ridiculously difficult to get a coin locker in Tokyo station. We literally had to loiter about until we saw someone take their stuff out, and then swoop on the empty locker.

Having done much shopping over the past two days, the third day was our Culture day. We started with a stroll through the part of the Imperial Gardens that is open to the masses. It's a very pleasant park, and also contains the remains of Edo Castle. Here's me in the remains:


There's a lot of general greenery,


and some bamboo,


and some koi,


and really awesome, BIG spiders in the bushes! Check this lady out! She's all multi-coloured and shit.


After the Imperial Gardens, we headed for Ueno Park, because that's where the Tokyo National Museum is. Ueno Park is also pleasant, and has some cool pathway lamps, with little Japanese scenes painted on them.


The museum was great. Their main display was a chronological display of Japanese art. It was really interesting to see the development from 4000 year old ceramics to the ceramics, paintings and textiles that were much more recognisably Japanese. Oh, and there were samurai helmets and armour and swords. Cooooool, but also educational! We learnt the difference between a tachi (a big sword that hangs from your waist by a chain, and has the sharp edge downwards) and a katana (a big sword that you stick through your obi, and has the sharp edge upwards).

After the museum, we had a little time to kill, so we went to Ginza and had an expensive afternoon tea. Ginza isn't all that interesting. It does have some bright lights though:


Then we headed back to Tokyo Station, got our stashed luggage, and settled into our Shinkansen seats. I snoozed at record speeds all the way back to Osaka.

Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day Two

Why, hello again!

Day two of Tokyo was uber nerdage day. We started by going to Akihabara, the well-known geek Mecca of Japan. Ta-da!


I was a little surprised to see how many tourists were there. Far be it for me to say who looks like a geek and who doesn't but... Well, there were a lot more middle-aged tourists than I expected. I guess Brain Training has made Akihabara a must-see destination now?

Speaking of DS games, Clinton and I had a massive double-win when we found an import (i.e. English) games shop down a side street. Clinton found Galactrix, the second Puzzle Quest game (funnily enough, he bought the first one in Edinburgh...), and I found the second Professor Layton game! Well, actually, Clinton found it and showed me and I bought it straight away. Much excitement. Then we realised we'd left the DS in Osaka... Well, that was probably for the best.

Akihabara is well-known for it's array of maid cafes. We didn't go to one, but we almost did... We got handed a flyer for a 'Sengoku Jidai' (warring states period) themed maid cafe. The girls were dressed in purple maid outfits with pink samurai armour over the top, and they brandished plastic katana. So very tempting, but the food looked rubbish, and we were hungreeee.

After Akihabara, we went for a quick wander through Jinbocho. This is a bookshop area, mostly second-hand bookshops. I just wanted to have a quick look because it features in the anime Read Or Die. So we looked quickly, and then went back to the hotel for a break, because we suddenly realised we were knackered.

The evening's entertainment was to be the Kotaku party in Shibuya. We headed to Shibuya early to grab dinner. Shibuya is pretty bewildering.


We wandered around for ages trying to pick a good place, getting marginally lost and somewhat distracted by shiny things. We ended up at a pretty good Italian restaurant.

After dinner, we set off to try and find the party venue. All we had to go on was the name, and a dot on a map. You'd think that'd be enough, wouldn't you? Well, it probably would have, if the party had been where we'd expected it to. When we finally found the place, it was locked up tight. We stood outside being confused with a few other guys who'd also rocked up for the party. Then someone rocked up and explained that the party had moved, and gave us directions to the new place. We had to go on a train and go somewhere else, I have no idea where.

So, we did get to the party, and we talked to random people and it was fun, but it was dark and my camera is crap, so I don't have any photos. Hideo Kojima walked past me. We met a stupid American who didn't know about the differences between US and British English. We also met a lovely German who worked on the German translation of some of the Final Fantasy games. And a woman from Iceland who'd been dragged to the party by her husband. Sucks to be her, I guess.

Clinton and I took a taxi home at 2am. It wasn't nearly as expensive as we thought it might be.


Stay tuned for day three. There are BIG spiders!



P.S. Sorry about the lack of photos. We did a lot of stuff that wasn't really photo-optimal. To make up for it, here is a statue of giant budgies that was near our hotel in Akasuka.

Sophie Hits Tokyo - Day One

Gosh, is it October already?

Well, we've been busy just keeping pace with life, but we did have a brief break recently, during Silver Week. Many of you will have heard of Golden Week, the week of serial public holidays that Japan has in about April or so. Well, this year it had a sequel, known as Silver Week, thanks to a random alignment of three public holidays in September. One of them was Respect for the Aged Day, but I don't know what the others were. We decided to head to Tokyo for a couple of nights, since I hadn't been there before (Clinton went in Golden Week).

We travelled on the Shinkansen. ZOMG, Shinkansen! I've always wanted to ride the Shinkansen, ever since I first heard about it when I was thirteen or so. I remember hearing about the train that could travel at up to 500km/hr and thinking "Wow! You could get from Launceston to Hobart in less than half an hour!". (When you grow up in Launceston, that's your benchmark for a long trip.) So, my dream finally came true, and I had a window seat on the Shinkansen. It's a very nice, comfy, smooth ride. Like being on a plane, but on the ground - so no turbulence and no bumpy take-offs or landings. Though, we did have trouble getting the snack cart girl to stop for us though. She either whizzed by too fast, or was walking backwards the other way, so we couldn't catch her eye.

So, in Tokyo, we basically went shopping all three days, because this is Japan and that's basically what you do. We started with Harajuku on the first day.Since Clinton had been there beofre, he could show me around the backstreets, where there are the best of the crazy little shops with crazy little clothes and crazy BIG prices. We ended up only buying a couple of things from some second-hand clothes shops. I scored a cute jumper, and Clinton bouth an awesome bowling shirt. But I don't have photos of those yet, so instead here is some stuff I didn't buy:


There was a cool gallery/community art space down the lanes of Harajuku, too. The front had decorative scaffolding with fake fur hanging off it. The inside had lots of interesting art in a variety of media.


Oh, and we did go to Yoyogi Park, but it was not the epicentre of wackiness we had been led to expect. There were just a few rockabilly guys dancing, but they were pretty crap dancers, actually!


Later in the day, we dabbled in a little tourism, as well, and went to seek out a view of Tokyo at night. Most people would head straight for Tokyo Tower, but I had had the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (aka Tokyo Tocho, in Japanese) observation deck recommended to me. Unlike the Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Tocho is free! So we had a crack at that. Clinton felt it was less impressive than Tokyo Tower, which has a 360 degree view, but I liked it. Oooh, shiny!


Tokyo Tower is in the vicinity of Shinjuku station, so for dinner, we went to a tempura restaurant in Shinjuku. It was light and crispy and hardly greasy at all - so tasty! We were seated in a tatami room, too, so it was super old skool Japanese style. Here's Clinton embarking on some crispy deliciousness while seated on a floor cushion:


The great thing was that the tempura came with a sheet of English instructions, explaining how to properly apply the range of condiments attached to the meal. It was very handy, because what we assumed to be tea (because it was in a teapot) turned out to be sauce!

After our traditional style dinner, we zapped forward in time and hit 8-bit Cafe. No photos, I'm afraid, but it was pretty cool. There was stuff to play with all over the place, mostly retro gaming systems but also board games and action figures. And in the (unisex) toilet, there was a sign instructing tipsy male patrons to urinate sitting down. I found this humourous.

So, that was day one. I'll tell y'all about the next day soon... Maybe even tomorrow!