I managed to lie in past my alarm. Lacking the time (and, once again, hot water) to shave has left me looking like Grizzly Adam. I make my way to the front desk to sign out and deposited yet another postcard of Durham. As I wait for my train, a sense of panic starts to dawn over me - I haven't really checked the airport train timetimes and have assumed 20 minutes from the Ryokan to Tokyo eki. As I reach the Yamanote line after 20 minutes I realise it'll be another 20 minutes from here...En route I decide on the Keisei line Skyliner. I arrive at Nippori station and head upstairs as fast as possible. By some miracle I manage to get a ticket and get onto the waiting train within 2 minutes - my sense of panic evaporates immediately - the timing will now be just about perfect so I settle down to enjoy the ride out of Tokyo. The Lost in Translation OST blares out of my iPod and eventually we pull into the basement of Narita. Immediately there is a security check - this is one of the few places in Japan where they take no chances over security. They are not worried about international terrorism, but from attacks from their own citizens - many were opposed to the forcible evictions in the area due to construction of the airport and many violent conflicts delayed the building of the airport by several years. The protesters then built towers to obstruct the approach of planes from the north. The second runway was only recently completed and in order to avoid a repeat of the conflict, the government had to shorten the runway to a length which left it unable to cope with 747s - which seems pretty useless. Plans for a shinkansen line to the airport were also scrapped.
A series of elevators lead upto the 4th floor check in area. My tactics of looking vaguely smart (well, trousers and my "presenting" jacket) did nothing to get me upgraded to first class for the simple reason that KLM don't actually have a first class... After picking up some last minute o-miyage I passed through passport control and left Japanese soil. Unfortunately I ended up spending more time on international soil than planned. As I arrived at the gate, the queues that had formed for boarding dissipated and we were told that due to "technical reasons" we would be delayed for 2 hours. Outside the rain was still coming down and watching planes take off was an interesting sight. As soon as they got up to speed on the runway, vapour trails formed at the wing tips and as they rotated to takeoff, huge waves of water could be seen rushing over the leading edge of the wing.
The cloud was so low that departing planes vanished from sight a few hundred feet from the ground. Landing planes kicked up an impressive amount of spay as soon as reverse thrust was applied. After a while we were informed that we'd be given a complementary lunch. This turned out to be a 100yen (50p) bottle of water...
Eventually we boarded and once the doors were locked the captain informed us that the reason for the delay was because the plane had received a lightning strike on it's journey into Narita and needed extras safety checks. Too late to escape. Eventually we left 2 hours late. By this time the weather had become very pleasant and the tarmac was almost dry. We took off and headed south over the coast before turning around and flying north to Sapporo and heading out over the sea of Japan towards Siberia. 
The food was exactly the same as on the way out - and we didn't get nearly enough. By 9pm Japanese time we were offered the choice of a small tub of ice cream or a pot noodle - hardly a substantial dinner. The 11 hour flight flew by (sorry) and before I knew it we were flying over southern Scandinavia and descending toward Schiphol. Once again, despite drinking copious amounts of fluids and spending 12 hours on board, I had again avoided my pet hate of going to the toilet on a plane. Of course, the 2 hour delay meant that I had missed my connection to Newcastle, but thankfully there was another flight at 9pm. The short haul European flights are really bad after the experience of an intercontinental long haul flight. The planes are tiny, the seats don't recline at all and the sound of hungover Geordies swearing fills the plane. After one of the worst landings I can remember we are back in the UK. Amazingly my luggage has also made the complete return journey and I set about heading to the Metro to get into Newcastle. Within 5 minutes of setting off we are told that the brakes are failing and the train must be removed from service. A proper welcome back to England. I eventually arrive back at central station at 10pm and there are no trains. Not just no trains to Durham, but no trains anywhere. This really is like some kind of bad joke; 10pm isn't that late at all and there aren't even any local trains to Doncaster or Sunderland. I give in and just get a taxi. As I get back to Durham at 11pm my phone's alarm goes off to indicate 24 hours since I woke up in that small Ryokan in a small southern Tokyo suburb. This has actually been the longest day of my life - 32 hours long, but I've managed to make it until night time in England so hopefully the jet lag should have been beaten... My room looks like a bomb site as I go to bed at 1.30am BST, but I don't really care.
Saturday 27th May
I once again woke to the pitter-patter of rain at the window. For my last full day in Tokyo I decided to try see a bit more of the city so I got the train out to Shibuya. This held several fascinations for me. First off, it's probably best known for having purportedly the world's busiest pedestrian crossing outside the station and the world's busiest Starbucks overlooking it. 
My main reason for visiting though is not this. Viewers of Matt Groening's space-age comedy Futurama should be familiar with the episode Jurassic Bark. The story was influenced by the story of Hachi-ko a dog who met his master's train at the same time every day. When his master died at work one day in 1925, Hachi-ko kept on returning to Shibuya station at the same time every day until his death in 1935. He had become such a celebrity that a statue was erected outside the station. Being a massive Futurama fan (it pisses over The Simpsons) this was too good an opportunity to miss out on. In fact, the station exit is even named the Hachi-ko entrance. The crossing itself is indeed pretty busy, but the area is actually much smaller than you'd think. A mile up the road is Yoyogi Park where I stopped for some yaki-soba from a road-side vendor. A large number of people were passing by and the sound of music could be heard. Firstly I thought it could be to do with the MTV Japan music awards taking place later that night at the adjacent national stadium, but then a fellow tourist informed me that the many flags around the area were those of the Japanese communist party. 
Further up the road is the Meiji Jingo Shrine - home of the largest wooden Torii of it's kind in Japan. Despite the fact that the shrine was open to the public, there was a traditional Japanese wedding in progress. As I walked back to Shibuya I decided to abandon the few moral values I have and go into Starbucks for the classic view of the Shibuya crossing. I very much doubt that it is the busiest store in the word as it's literally the size of a potting shed as it's tacked onto the side of a music/film shop. The highest customer:volume ratio, however, I would accept. I wait at the top of the stairs, but everyone is extremely reluctant to move. The place is worryingly full of Americans sitting studying Japanese kanji. Eventually a table becomes free and as I sit and as I drink my reassuringly expensive cocoa I watch the crossing. 
It's only a couple of minutes between pedestrians being allowed to cross, but every time the pavements are filled with waiting people. The entire scene is reminiscent of that from the Laughing Man incident in Stand Alone Complex (although that was set in Kobe) and the scene plays out in Lost in Translation too (in this case, they filmed illegally from Starbucks). As I reach the bottom of my ever-increasingly dense cocoa, I start to doubt that this place even has a high customer:volume ratio as people sit transfixed, their drinks long since finished, staring out at the crossing and 5 storey high video screens. Eventually I brave the crossing again and take the long way around the Yamanote line to the central Tokyo station to visit the Imperial Palace and gardens. First I pass the international convention centre - not as large as the Grand Cube, put very futuristic none the less. Another large Bic Camera store attracts me in, the large screen LCD displays showing off the HD broadcasts that are transmitted in Japan. Again, the mere mention of GPS confuses all the sales reps. I continue on to the Imperial Palace and the weather continues to deteriorate and by the time I arrive, visibility is down to a few hundred metres. 
Walking through the gardens I spot the Tokyo Tower in the distance and make the foolish decision to walk to it. Forty five minutes later and it seems as far away as it was when I started. Finally I reach it. It certainly is tall and a single ground level photograph is the only thing I take away from the encounter. Thankfully, the density of stations means that I don't have to repeat the walk back to Tokyo eki. I arrive back at the Ryokan just as the heavens open. Now seems to be the perfect time for a Japanese style bath. The weather rules-out the open air bath so I head across the complex to the indoor bath. The etiquette is simple, the bath tub is designed for soaking and relaxing, so around the large bath are lots of taps and showers. The idea is that you go in and soap your self up all over and then wash all the dirt and suds off so that when you finally enter the bath you are already clean. As I enter there already several people in the bath. I strip off and sit in the corner scrubbing for a good five minutes before I finally feel ready to enter the bath. I'm not sure how the water is kept hot, but it's an absolutely perfect temperature. I relax into it alongside the other bath-goer. After 5 minutes, he's had enough and departs leaving me alone. I'd read that it's good to get out and repeat the washing phase which I do. Once again, getting into the bath is an amazing experience and my mind completely clears. 15 minutes or so pass before I decide I'm relaxed (and wrinkly) enough and dress in my yukata and return to my room. 
By this time it's too late to get into a restaurant so I head to the local conbini and stock up on some interesting looking food for the princely sum of about £5. One of the items was a pack of chicken yakitori. First up was the standard yotsumi (chicken), next was torikawa (chicken skin) and finally what appeared to be nankotsu (balls of chicken containing cartilage). The last of these was too much as the crunch of cartilage just is not pleasant no matter which way you look at it. I settled down to cram all my clothes and o-miyage into my bags whilst wasting time on YouTube and GoogleVideo. I still wasn't sure how I was going to get to the airport - £15 on the JR line or £8 on the Keisei line...
Friday 26th May
The early morning waking had now completely worn off. As I came back from the shower room I discovered that all the taps in my building were refusing to dispense hot water so shaving wasn't an option. Today was my first day to get a really good look around Tokyo. The city is simply a collection of smaller towns that happen to be near each other. I took the circular Yamanote line back to Shinjuku. My Wikitravel guide had tipped me off to the presence of the viewing platforms on the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building. 
It may not be the tallest building in the city, but free certainly beets the 1500 yen asked at other high spots. Thankfully, there was an underground walkway that lead from one of the station's many exists straight to the building itself. The express elevator took me upto the platform which combined several tacky souvenir shops and an overpriced cafe with the views. The views were fantastic although the haze on the horizon obscured the view of Fuji-san once again. The south tower also had a viewing gallery, this time with a view over the east of the city. From here I was able to look down onto the advert-plastered Shinjuku, the minuscule-by-comparison Tokyo Tower and out to the harbour. I walked back the post office to change some more money. The post office adopts a similar system to the Norwegian equivalent - ticket-based service with lots of chairs to wait in - none of the British-style queuing in lines. 
From here I walked all the way through Shinjuku. Tokyo doesn't crowd you as much as I was expecting. Places like London make you feel small, crowded and insignificant - often fighting for space with the other pedestrians. Tokyo on the other hand offers wide pavements, lots of greenery; parks, hedgerows on the roadside and frequent wooded shrines. With the very low crime rate (petty crime that is, organised crime is still rampant), you feel perfectly safe wandering around looking like the kind of lost tourist that appears at the start of Batman. From the far end of electric street I walked back through one of the many park/bird sanctuaries. After some lunch I caught the Chou line across town to Akihabara. 
Known throughout the world as the best place to buy any kind of electronic equipment, the truth however is that with the advent of stores like Bic Camera at many other towns in Tokyo, Akihabara isn't quite the same force it once was. In fact, browsing around, the prices aren't even as competitive as I was expecting - the main things I was after were impossible to find in the right circumstances. My search for a new small camera ended in frustration as I found all the models were essentially the same price as the UK (or even more expensive!), the Nintendo DS Lite was still in short supply 2 months after launch so those few stores that stocked them were charging full rrp - add in the cost of a stepdown charger and there's no reason not to get a cheaper model from Australia and my quest for a bluetooth GPS unit met with blank responses from all the staff I asked. The real change in Akihabara has been towards manga. And by manga I mean hentai/porn. Even the electronic stores had basement sections offering DVDs & Manga with suggestive posters plastered over the walls (and some beyond suggestive). After a while I headed back towards the city centre to a musical instrument zone. There is a high concentration of guitar shops that quickly attracted my attention. Given the high number of Japanese guitar maestros on the internet (look here and here for examples) I was expecting these place to be rammed with ridiculous guitars and people trying them out. To my disappointment they all seemed to stock budget brands I've never heard of and the standard Fenders and Ibenez models. The potential buyers trying out the wares are also lacking a bit in the talent department. I'm not saying I'm much better, but most of my guitar shop experience revolves around Musical Exchanges/Sound Control in Birmingham where some amazing player go to try out guitars. I walk back to Akiba and have another walk around as the sun goes down and the neon switches on. As the sun sets completely I head back to Shinjuku to get a night time view over the city from the Government Tower. From the 45th floor, the lights seem to go on forever and the city stretches out into the distance. The restaurant has now turned into a high priced bar complete with pianist to accompany the views. 
I decide to take a different path back to the station which turns out to be a mistake as I wander through busy streets for half an hour, eventually ending back at the massive Bic Camera store. This is the Tokyo from films - the bright neon and massive crowds of people. What isn't seen though is that this never feels overwhelming and the crowds aren't out for a big night (well, some businessmen are out for dinner and a night of drinking and karaoke) but they are simply coming home from work and doing some shopping (shops don't close until 8pm).
Thursday 25th May
Back in the late 1980s, ITV showed an animated film one December Saturday morning. I watched it and was enthralled as it differed from the formulaic stuff Disney churned out. I didn't realise it until 2002, but it had been my first experience of a Studio Ghibli film. The entire reason I'd extended my stay in Japan to include Tokyo was so I could visit the Ghibli museum in the suburb of Mitaka. 
The weather was set perfectly after the storm the night before and I was soon strolling down the canal from Mitaka station towards to exclusive museum. So exclusive is it that foreigners need to apply for tickets in advance specifying the day and passport numbers of those attending and if these don't match reality, entry is denied. Needless to say I'd booked my tickets months before. Upon arrival I was greeted by Totoro in a faux ticket office. Around the corner at the real ticket counter my advance ticket is swapped for my actual museum ticket, consisting of three frames from an actual reel of a Ghibli film. Mine came from 2002 release The Cat Returns. Walking down the stairs and I'm in the world of Miyazaki. The supplied leaflet declares - there are no paths, let's get lost together. None of the displays are in English, but it doesn't matter. The first room is devoted to how animation works - from how introducing a strobe can create the illusion of movement in several Ghibli themed examples, to how a film projector converts single images into a 24fps film. Moving upstairs leads to a recreation of Miyazaki and Takahata's work areas. The walls are plastered with sketches and watercolours from all of Ghibli's films and the desks are strewn with all the influences and tools the animation masters need - from photos of locations, books and cards from American colleagues at Pixar and a seemingly lifetime supply of paint and pencils. 
Moving though, we are presented with complete storyboards for all the Ghibli films for us to flick through. Along the hall way is the rotating exhibition. Until the week before this had been devoted to Pixar, but at the moment has been turned over to UK world-beaters Aardman Animation, creators of Wallce and Gromit and loads of other characters you'd never realise. Aardman's Curse of the Were-Rabbit beat Howl's Moving Castle to the 2006 Oscar. The 2 room exhibition has been put together largely showing off Wallace and Gromit, but with honourable mentions for Creature Comforts, Angry kid and the many adverts and music videos the studio have worked on. Props and models from the films and shorts are on display along with many screens showing interviews and clips. Another staircase leads up to the top floor where a giant Catbus is being clambered over by a large number of Japanese children, their parents relaxing on the sofas provided. Squeezing past this room takes you out onto the roof and a spiral staircase up to the only photo opportunity (inside the museum photos aren't allowed) - a lifesize replica of a Laputian robot. The queue to have your photograph with it leads up the stairs and its at this point when the trouble of being a lone tourist crops up. Finally I have to turn and smile to the family behind me, offering them my camera, I offer up ii desu ka (is it ok?). Thankfully, they are more than happy to help me out and I continue on my way around the roof garden to the next Laputian artefact - a model of the central cube. Heading back into the museum and downstairs to the Saturn Cinema for of the most exciting part of the tour - a screening of one of the many museum-exclusive shorts. These 15 minutes films have never been seen outside of ths building and are an excellent reason for repeat visits (should such a reason be needed). Of course, the films are in Nihongo and have no subtitles, but by and large, they're not needed. The film was entitled Hoshi wo Katta Hi (The day I harvested a star) and the story is about a small boy who lives on a rural farm. This is a universe of technology where the urban areas closely resemble those of Coruscant in the Star Wars films. The rural areas are lacking in most of this technology. Our protagonist is delivering a crop of giant size turnips when his bike breaks down. Wind-in-the-Willows-inspired toad and Rat-like creatures happen to be nearby and, in exchange for a turnip to eat offer the boy a gem. Once planted the gem sprouts a small ball of mineral that floats above the flowerpot it was sown in. Over time, the mineral slowly evolves into a planet. The short was directed by Miyazaki himself and is based on Iblard by Inoue Naohisa.
Finally come the 2 gift shops (one for books and one for o-miyage). I plump for the museum book (a pricey £15, but then when am I ever going to come back?) and plush Totoro. I was interested in some Laputa stuff but all the robot models are very expensive. Indeed, the shop is full of expensive items; from hand drawn cells to a Breitling watch modelled on the one worn by Poroco Rosso and costing cool 525,000Yen (£2.5k). Finally, all that is left to do is head outside to the cafe to grab some food before bidding farewell to the museum. The building is set in parkland and it's a pleasent walk through the park to an earlier station. 
On the way back I decide to stop off at Shinjuku - one of the well known districts and grab a look around. The station links a lot of lines and is practically an encased city in it's own right. In fact it's known as the world's busiest station handling 2 million passengers a day. I pick an exit at random and happen to emerge on electic street. A large branch of Bic Camera looms large offering almost every kind of electric gizmo. I continue around the block taking in the large advertising hoardings atop the buildings and eventually arrive back at a completely different entrance to the massive JR station. At Gotanda (the station linking the JR lines to the small private railway my ryokan is based on) I spot a Mos Burger. I've heard a lot of good things about Japanese fast food so I decided to try it out. Fast food is pushing it a bit, because once you order, your food is cooked especially for you and delivered to your table. The quality is so far above the standard of Western fast food that it appears to be a meal that just happens to be in a toasted bun. I plump for a teriyaki burger and it is duly excellent. 
Wednesday 24th May
After packing up and presenting the Ryokan owner with a postcard of Durham , I headed for the station to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo. The Shinkansen are even more amazing than the regular train network. Not only do they also run exactly to time, but the station staff perform amusing little pointing rituals as trains arrive and depart. The trains themselves run every 10 minutes (itself pretty amazing) and have been specifically as an extension to the rail network. As such, they have exclusive lines (a different gauge from the rest of the network) ensuring that they don't get stuck behind slower local trains like the Virgin tilting trains have to put up with. Normally on trains, you always get the impression you aren't travelling very fast when you take a mid-range look outside the window - you have to look at the ground near the train to get a appreciation of speed. On the shinkansen you know ou're travelling fast. The trip from Kyoto to Tokyo takes less than 2 and a half hours and before I know what's happening we're pulling into Tokyo central station (right on time). I set about taking the local lines until it feels like I'm out in the sticks - a tiny little suburb. My Ryokan's map claims a 1 minute walk from the station to the Ryokan and I was doubtful - but no the area is tiny (yet still packs in 3 conbinis, postbox and multiple restaurants). This rokan is set back from the road and is essentially a series of accommodation blocks around a small Japanese garden. I'm shown to my room and just as I decide to head out I hear a rumble. Up until now, the weather has been sweltering...perhaps too sweltering. Or it could just be the nearby trainline. I hold back and utilise my in-room network connection to sort out some details and then the storm starts. Very slowly it moves directly overhead and stays nearby until 10pm. With any hope of exploring gone, I finalise the plans or the next day and go to bed. It's at this point I'm starting to regret opting for the Japanese-style room. After yesterday I've noticed two things: I really like beds and I seem to be losing weight as my jeans are now in dire need of a belt.
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