The last of Tokyo

Dawn broke on our last full day in Japan. The Daily Yomiuri arrived with news of HD-DVD's demise and we headed down, once again, to the Kiwk-e-mart for breakfast. Before setting out, we managed to check in for out flights – Japan seems completely topsy turvy with regards to internet access – in room wifi was free, but the communal PCs charged £1 for 10 minutes which is the exact opposite of Western hotels. Of course, with no wifi devices, we ended up racing through websites at break-neck speed trying to find the best seats and finish checking in before our credit ran out. We finally set out to the museum in Ueno – apparently the only museum in Tokyo worth visiting according to the Lonely Planet. We walked through a large cherry tree-filled arena to the museum. Amazingly, with money running low, we were gifted a pair of entrance tickets to not only the museum, but also the special exhibit from a couple who hadn't had time to go into the exhibit. After getting confused and buying some superfluous entry tickets, being told we'd bought superfluous tickets and getting a refund for said superfluous tickets we finally got into the museum. We wandered through halls of Japanese artefacts and tales of the past we ventured into the special exhibit. It's a very good job we didn't pay for it as the entire thing was a display of Japanese literature and other manuscripts – entirely in kanji with no English descriptors.



Eventually we had seen it all and headed back via Mos Burger to get packing. We had agreed to meet James in Shibuya for a big night, so being packed for the early departure was essential. We met up outside the station and wandered into Shibuya. Once again we found a restaurant on an upper floor with no obvious (ie English) sign it was there. This time we picked out a Korean all you can eat BBQ. Once again we went for the all-you-can-consume option - £15 for food and only £5 for all your can drink for 2 hours! Needless to say we totally cleaned up. These restaurants have no equivalent in the UK and it's not hard to see why. Within half an hour, we had completely incinerated most of the food to the point where our chopsticks caught fire. The entire atmosphere was smoky with the charring of other people meals. On the floors above and below the situation was no doubt being repeated and in Nanny State UK it's several steps beyond feasible. After the 2 hours had expired we were absolutely stuffed. We had definitely come out winners in the value for money game. James lead us to a nearby gaijin bar that was full of foreigners. Set out like an American bar, Japanese girls wandered around taking orders and when I said full it was very full. It was the most offensive place I've seen in ages: typically loud Americans dressed like gangstas. James reminisced about frequenting places like this before finding them equally offensive. After debating getting the last train home (especially for James who had some stupidly small amount of money to live on for 2 weeks) we decided to find an izhkaya. We settled down to a quiet beer and snacks. Or so we thought... The couple at the next table – or more specifically, the guy – cottoned on to us as English speakers and decided to practice his English on us much to the embarrassment of his girlfriend. His English was extremely broken and he ended up talking to James in Japanese before trying with us again. For some reason, in his inebriated state he decided I was the spitting image of a Japanese cheesy celebrity. After getting me to repeat his catchphrase for the next hour or so we decided to bail. As we left, James reassured me that I did in fact look nothing like the celebrity... For all it's advances over the West, Tokyo still suffers from a train network that shuts down at midnight. Spending the night in a karaoke booth was looking like the best option when we decided a taxi would be the best option as we definitely had a sofa that James could crash on for the night. We found a taxi but it appeared to be sans driver. It would have been better if he hadn't appeared, as when he did he was clearly half cut. He stumbled into the car to find the button to open the door. Eventually we were driving through Tokyo back to Ikebukuro. After a final visit to the Kwik-e-mart, we retired to the hotel. We then realised that the sofa we definitely had was in fact in the Sapporo hotel an the Tokyo Metropolitan only had an armchair. No doubt this is what comes from about 5 hours constant drinking. After passing out we woke up early and finished packing before heading out to Nippori to catch the Skyliner to the airport. Getting off at Nippori we heard the platform melodies for the last time. The current Skyliner trains were designed in the 80s and it shows – very boxy and lots of plastic. An hour later we pulled back into the underground station at Narita airport. We'd had to wait longer than we'd anticipated at Nippori and time before our flights was getting short. Unfortunately, the station is in the sub-basement and departures is on the upper levels which meant a lot of slow escalator rides as time ticked away. Further joy awaited me as we reached the check in floor – my flight had actually been allocated an earlier departure time – just 35 minutes away. James ran off to the BA desk as I traversed the concourse eventually finding the Air France desk at the far end. The staff looked confused when I started to put my stuff through the x-ray machine. They looked even more confused when I explained I was on the flight leaving in half an hour. Thankfully as I'd already checked in online there weren't any problems (maybe they were just confused in general) and soon we had been relieved of our suitcases and were heading downstairs to join the back of a massive queue (a BA 747, AF 777 and KLM 777 were all due to leave within 15 minutes of each other) to get through passport control. Time ticked on and just as we were next to be seen, they announced that our flights were being fast tracked. Even so I made time to go to the toilet. I said goodbye to James and boarded the 777-200. After all the rush we ended up being late pushing back anyway. After push back the captain applied forward thrust to the engines and from my window I saw a load of smoke shoot out of the back. Even James saw it from his plane. Not the most inspiring start to a journey. The AF inflight entertainment system is behind that of KLM's AVOD system so I only had a handful of films to keep me entertained. Pretty soon were over France and slowing down (these planes slow down pretty quickly which always makes me feel it's about to stall) on approach to Paris. Even though the return flight is against the winds I had once again managed to avoid the need to use the toilet. Score! Charles De Gaulle is a pretty bland airport and the less said about the plane back to Newcastle the better. I was soon back in Durham – thankfully I'd again hardcore'd the trip and beat the jet lag! Yes!

More of Tokyo

After an early night we got up at the obscene time of 5 am to head across town to the Tsukiji fish market. Somehow, despite the hour, there were a lot of people around and they weren't pissed salarymen coming home from karaoke! We caught a train to Shinjuku at 5.30 and then got the subway across to Tsukiji.



Thankfully, we weren't exposed to the horror of Tokyo rush hour and we got there at about 6.15. After coming out of the station we smelled the fish straight away and followed someone carrying a large bag and wearing large wellingtons. He lead us to the outskirts of the markets. Swarming around were a fleet of speeding carts – essentially Segway scooters with trailers for driving around fish at high speeds. After avoiding death and navigating through the lorry bays we were amongst the fish. The narrow pathways were filled with people going about their business. The smell wasn't as strong as you might expect as all the fish was exceedingly fresh. We carried on deeper into the market and after playing real life Frogger with another lane of carts we found the tuna auctions. The floor was covered with frozen tunas, just in from the boats. Potential buyers were swarming around hacking at the tails to inspect the colour of the meat. A single auctioneer stood on a box conducting the auctions at breakneck speed. Needless to say we had no idea what was going on. Luckily for us this was before the recent clampdowns on tourists.




One by one the tunas were dragged away and loaded onto carts. With each tuna costing the same as a small car, there was clearly a large amount of money flying around. We wandered away and on our subsequent wanderings saw what became of the tunas – some people took hatchets to them, some used band saws and some just attacked them with very sharp knives.




The range of seafood on display was amazing – a lot of it was still alive in tanks. The entire market was full of activity and the small passageways between stalls frequently became blocked by people eager to examine the wares on offer. As we left, the motorised carts became less frequent and we began to stop worrying about being run down by boxes of fish. Most of the sushi joints in the market were rammed, but the lonely planet guided us to a restaurant a few hundred metres away that was almost empty. We ordered the platter which came with a wide selection from the common through to the unusual. we set about it until only 2 were left: crab paste and salmon roe. We decided to take one each... In hindsight, we shouldn't have left these until last.



We emerged to find it was still only 7 am. We got the subway back to Shinjuku – again without any sign of a Tokyo rush hour. As with the rest of East Asia, nothing really opens until around 10 am so we wandered around Shinjuku's red light district taking some of the back roads walking through the seedy areas complete with strip clubs and back alley bars. In the early hours of daylight, the streets were peaceful and uneventful.



I am a big fan of the classic Jrock band X Japan. They are the latest band to hop on the reunion bandwagon despite the death of lead guitarist Hide. The reason I mention this is that I'm fairly sure we nearly got run down by their tour bus (a big black bus with X Japan decorations all over it) just outside Bic Camera. We meandered back to the Government building to get a daytime view. Thanks to the crisp cool February weather we got some great views of Fuji San. We had a look around the nearest multi-storey Bic Camera store marvelling at all the gadgets. Surprisingly, there was a lot of xbox360 stuff despite it selling less that 3000 units per week. More expected was the whole host of BluRay equipment and not so much HD-DVD. Eventually we took the train out to Mitaka and, after stopping at the kwik-e-mart to get some more biscuits, walked down the small river to the Studio Ghibli museum. James had never seen a film from the Studio before, but the museum is very inspirational – even though it's all in Japanese. It's a shame that the film we saw, the whale hunt wasn't as good as the day I harvested a star, but the museum is still an excellent introduction to the animation basics and production. We walked back through Inokahira Park before getting lunch in one of the many French-style bakeries.
That evening, we met up with James' friend James (confusing?) and his girlfriend. James did 2 years on JET before going back to the UK and working for Accenture where he met James. He's now back in Japan doing an MBA (in Japanese!) We met up at Shinjuku and then went for shabu shabu – the traditional Mongolian self-cooking style at one of the many restaurants hidden away on the upper floor of the buildings. These are the places that foreigners never find. We set about an all you can eat/drink in 90 minutes deal getting through more than our fair share of beers and plates of meat. Afterwards we went for karaoke before catching the last train back to Ikebukuro. I haven't improved at karaoke since the last time.

Due to our very early start and late finish, we had a late start on Friday. We got our brunch from the kwik-e-mart before heading out to Tokyo station to wander around the Imperial Palace gardens. The temperature had picked up so we walked to our next destination: the Tokyo stock exchange. The exchange was computerised in the 1990s so visitors can wander around – the only people there were the computer security staff there to ensure no one hacked in and the news teams who report the financial news from the exchange historically. As seems to be the style of the time, the stock market lost ground whilst we were there.




We caught the subway to Ginza to look around the Sony building. As someone who works with OLEDs I was interested to see if they had the X-EL1 on display. The centre featured a LOT of large LCDs playing the Spiderman 3 trailer on endless replay. The X-EL1 was indeed on display. The picture quality was amazing – the clarity and “realness” of the picture was only let down by the small size (11”) and low resolution (960x540) compared to the cost (200,000yen), but once the cost comes down, they are definitely the future.

From here we decided to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine where recent Japanese prime ministers have drawn condemnation from Japan's neighbours for visiting. Various war criminals are enshrined there, but never ones to shirk away from controversy we went anyway.



The shrine appeared like most others. The Yūshūkan museum was adjacent, where the exhibits claim the Pacific War was fought in self-defence and hosts many war relics alongside a memorial to Radhabinod Pal – a justice who, the memorial claimed, rallied against the war crimes trials following the war. As the shrine closed we walked away from the setting sun and walked toward Akiba. On the way we stopped at another vending machine restaurant for our first taste of katsu kare – a dish almost entirely unlike curry. We carried on our way through the musical instrument district before hitting Akiba just as the last light from the day vanished, playing up the neon and overwhelming noise even more.



We browsed around the various shops – electrical, manga and toys/collectables half looking at the items on sale, half looking at the clientèle buying the goods. Not the otaku we were maybe expecting, but tired looking salarymen on their way home from work, browsing through the rows of scantily clad manga statuettes as if it were the most normal thing in the world: and in this city, it is.

Tokyo days one and two

We landed at Haneda and retrieved our luggage. In Japan they actually check you have taken the right suitcase – I've often wondered if you could just take any bag you liked from the carousels. After finding where to buy a Suica card (The information people pronounced it say-ka and didn't understand us when we asked for a su-we-ka card. We took the monorail into the centre of Tokyo and then the Yamanote line to Ikebukuro where our hotel is. Anyone who's been to Tokyo will know that some of the stations are mini cities and Ikebukuro is no different. There are 2 department stores – Tobu and Seibu which used to be the biggest in the world. We found our hotel – the 4* Metropolitan – just a few yards from the station exit. It was a very fancy hotel and our room was big and had a nice LCD tv and a fantastic view out towards Shinjuku.



Thanks to BA we were paying £58/night for a room which should have been £150! After dumping our stuff, we headed out for some food and travelled the few stops to Shinjuku and took in the vast amounts of neon. We walked out to the government building and looked down on Tokyo by night – the gentle pulsating of the red aeroplane warning lights on all the buildings is ubiquitous and very soothing. Only one tower was open so we walked back into Shinjuku to get some food. We settled on an anonymous vending machine cafe – you buy a ticket from a vending machines (complete with pictures of the food), give it to a waiter and then wait for your food to arrive.



We both went for the steak option and settled back over an Asahi to watch the tired salarymen traipse in on their way home from the office. In fact, as we walked through Shinjuku station we came across a middle aged salaryman sprawled on the stairs at about 8pm – clearly hammered with a look of shear confusion on his face as he tried to understand why his legs wouldn't work.

We woke up the next morning to find a copy of the Daily Yomiuri outside our room. This paper, would come to sum up our time here – today there was a feature on how the Sapporo sculptures had been torn down with jcbs to prevent them weakening and falling on passers by – maybe we should have sacked off the beer museum... We set out to tour the west of the city and started by getting the train to Shibuya. We walked past Hachiko and across the scramble crossing and down the street to Tower Records – it's gone bust in the rest of the world but noone seems to have told the Japanese – this time around the Jpop floor made a lot more sense to me, even if the prices are still shocking. We carried on toward Harajuku and walked through Yoyogi park and to the Meiji shrine. Afterwards we walked through Harajuku and found a small cafe for lunch.



In the afternoon we caught the automatic railway across Tokyo Bay to the feminine-sounding Venus Fort shopping centre. Out here was the Toyota Web showcase where Toyota show off their range of cars and a range of attractions for people of all ages. We took a ride on the Gran Turismo driving simulator, walked through some F1 exhibitions and then walked past the giant ferris wheel to the Toyota technology centre. Here there was an exhibition about how various aspects of cars had evolved, from steering wheels to gear sticks and, more amusingly, Toyota's vision of the future.




At the doorway is a robot whose only function seems to be to play a trumpet (which it wasn't doing). In the same mould as the homeless robots from Futurama, you can only guess at the reason a trumpet-playing robot was even conceived, never mind built. Also on show were a very odd personal vehicle that Toyota can see us all driving very soon. It's essentially a chair on wheels where by the wheels move apart and the chair slants the faster you go. The conceptual cgi video shows people driving these things on the motorway overtaking lorries. I don't think it's be safe going 20 mph in one of these let alone at motorway speeds. To our amazement, there was a prototype available to try out in a small area of floor. Unfortunately, you needed a Japanese driving licence. There were also a worryingly large amount of fire extinguishers lying around the edge of the driving arena which didn't inspire any confidence. Alongside was Toyota's “chair-on-legs” prototype. Looking like a cross between the powerloader from Aliens and ED-209 from Robocop, this wasn't in working form, but it doesn't look like the most comfortable ride. Just outside the museum was another arcade. We followed up our poor show in Sapporo with an equally poor show on the DJ game. Luckily, this time noone saw us.

We ventured into the Venus Fort to try to find somewhere to eat but finding a very creepy pet shop with the animals crammed into small boxes awaiting an owner. Unfortunately with most people living in very small flats themselves, they may be waiting quite a while. We eventually found an okonomiyaki restaurant and then slunk out of the very pink shopping centre.

Tokyo

Sunday 28th May
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.