Just a quick post to let you know we got to Kyoto safely. The internet connection only had instructions for Windows so we couldn't get the Mac up and running. We called the apartment people for help and someone came out today, rang 3 helplines and now we're connected. We'll post yesterday and today's post this evening.

Day 6 - Cosplay

Sunday in Tokyo means the day off school for the overworked teenagers of the city. As a result it also means a chance to see their crazy self-expression in the form of cosplay (costume play). We met up with Becky and headed to Yoyogi Park, Harajuku: the focal point of the cosplay culture.

Somehow though, we had forgotten to factor in the fact that teenagers are...well...teenagers, and as such rarely surface before noon on a weekend. Rather than colourful and eccentrically dressed kids, we mostly found some sun-bathing old men, a few students sleeping off the previous night's party on a bench, and a group of guys with a video camera who seemed to be a performance group looking for material. Neither of us are entirely sure what they were getting us to say on camera, but we got to look at a cool book of monsters for a few minutes while they laughed at our japanese.

After a very tasty brunch we waved goodbye to Becky and headed to the Meiji shrine, famous for its massive wooden tori (temple gateway). There was some kind f procession going through the shrine with a bright red umbrella...a wedding maybe?....but we didn't really know what was going on so took a few photos and left. We walked back through Harajuku, at a more reasonable hour it seems, and spotted a few 'Gothic Lolita' girls, with brightly coloured hair and extravagant frilled dresses.


Next we visited Akihabara, Tokyo's Electric Town, for a taste of otaku (geek) culture. The streets here are filled with shops selling every kind of technology and people with megaphones shouting about the latest offers. We saw an action figure shop, went though a building entirely filled with arcade games, and passed by a group of Power Rangers doing their shopping. We got lost in a trinket shop near the station and ended up buying some more Studio Ghibli memorabilia, before wandering into a street filled with girls dressed as maids, and one lonely looking man in a Pikachu outfit.

In the evening we left Tokyo and went to the city of Yokohama to see a fireworks festival that Becky had told us about. We had seen fireworks going off on other nights, from different areas of Tokyo, so thought that this would be a cool show for us but fairly normal for everyone else. Walking out of the station we found quite a large crowd and followed it to a carpark area where a few hundred people were sat facing the bay. We grabbed some food and sat down on a curb nearby, thinking that this was where most people were. At 7:30 the show started, and we quickly realised that our view was entirely obscured by a large building . We could see reflections in another building's windows, but that was about it.

Again, we followed the crowd and soon realised that we had vastly underestimated the scale of the show. Their were literally thousands of people stood or sat watching the show, filling every street or bridge with a view. The police had blocked off most of the big roads and people were just sat in the middle of them looking up at the sky. We walked for about 15 minutes, until we were at the centre of a crowd that stretched as far as we could see, but we were still almost a kilometre from the best views. We eventually found a peice of road to sit on and took in the show. It lasted over an hour and was full of amazing fireworks like cat faces, heart shapes and butterflies that got much laughter and applause from the crowd.



Becky had managed to catch the end of the show after she finished work, and we were meant to meet up, but somehow got stuck going over three tiny bridges in the middle of a very large but slow moving crowd. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Yokohama station where she was waiting. By that point we were exhausted and ready to go back and pack up our room.

Tomorrow we move on to Kyoto.

Day 5 - Fuji

Today was planned as a trip to the touristy area of Hakone, on a lake overlooking Mt Fuji. But, it seems, plans are made to be broken and after 4 tiring and hot days we were in need of a bit of a rest. A couple more hours in bed and we were ready to start a relatively relaxed day. We started off by buying our now customary sandwiches from the supermarket and trying to find a quicker route between the station and our apartment.

It seems that the route we had been given was designed to take us to the station exit closest to the apartment, to minimize the published walking time between station and accommodation, rather than the actual shortest or easiest route. This might not seem important, but considering the fact that the station has 4 different lines and a river running through it, it added about 12 different flights of stairs to an otherwise flat journey. It took us about 5 minutes to find a route around the corner of our street that took us straight to the JR station, which might have been good to know 4 days ago.

We made our way from Iidabashi to Tokyo to get on our first shinkansen. We thought we could try reserving seats to practice for our big journey on Monday. It turns out that 15 minutes before a train arrives is not the best time to do this and so ended up with 2 separate seats in a smoking car. We pocketed the passes and promptly entered the unreserved, non-smoking car and easily found seats. The best way to describe the bullet train is probably like an airplane, but really long and with masses more leg room.

Thankfully the trains don't have too much in common with planes, other than appearance, and Sarah made it through the journey without reaching for a sick-bag. Instead we sat in the comfy seats, enjoying cool air conditioning, eating our sandwiches and watched as Fuji passed us behind a fine layer of cloud. We got off at Shizuoka station, since it seemed like a nice looking place to wait for our train home, and wandered through the city before heading back to the station for ice-cream and the journey back to Tokyo. On the way we bought some manga and the delightfully named 'Crunky' chocolate to keep us entertained.

Back in Tokyo, we headed to the big department stores of Ikebukuro. There were of course floors of clothes and toys, but the real draw here was the food floors at the top and bottom of the building, where we planned to try a range of traditional japanese foods and nab some free samples while we were at it.

Wandering through the counters of delicious looking cakes and sweets, this seemed like an excellent plan, until Sarah was offered our first free sample. Maybe the fact that it was dripping liquid should have been a clue that this wouldn't end well, but by this point we were too enthusiastic to care. Helen, ever on fish-watch, let Sarah try first. After a nervous glance or two, Sarah put the slimey orange ball in her mouth and chewed. The server looked on expectantly as Sarah grimaced and tried to decide the most polite way to dispose of what had turned out to be very salty pickled fruit. Swallowing what she could and binning the rest, Sarah rushed to get a drink of water while Helen followed behind laughing. Not surprisingly, our sense of adventure had been lost somewhat, and we headed to the nearest pizza place for something a bit more familiar.

The day ended with laundry, and an interesting attempt to decode the instructions on the washing machine and the washing powder which came in 2 different sized and coloured sachets (the decision was to just pour both powders on the clothes, put in some money and hope for the best). Everything is drying now, so in the morning we will see how much has shrunk or melted.

Tomorrow we explore some more of Tokyo, and see what Japanese teenagers get up to on their days off.

Day 4 - Disney

Today was the day Sarah had been waiting for: the magical trip to Disney. Using our handy discounted (illegitimate) tickets, we got on the monorail bound for Disney Sea, where ocean breezes would cool us for the rest of the day.

We went on most of the big rides and, accidentally, one educational rollercoaster voiced entirely in Japanese. All seemed relatively normal and familiar from previous Disney trips. However, during one break from the tiring heat of the day, while enjoying some surprisingly good coconut popcorn, we were descended upon by some seemingly insane women. One started off by asking if Helen was in pain, then promptly deciding that we were Americans. Then the other crouched down and started making odd hand gestures around Helen's leg, while muttering to her friend in Japanese and saying the word 'power' over and over again.

We took this time to try and figure out if a) they were going to cause us any harm, or b) try to charge us money. Since neither seemed to be happening, Helen continued to sit still and nod uncomfortably whenever anything was said. After another attempt to speak to us in Japanese and failing, she seemed to be finished and Helen thanked her for whatever had just happened.

Thinking it was over, we started eating the popcorn again, but the woman had other ideas and proceeded to crouch down and do the same to one of Sarah's legs as well. After a few more minutes she again seemed satisfied and moved on to a family on another bench who, it has to be said, seemed much less confused and rather pleased after she had talked to them. Inevitably we've missed out on some great cultural experience, but at the time it was a little too bizare and we left the area as soon as possible.

We watched a fireworks show over the water in the evening and then got on the train home. Our conversation led to the purchase of a bottle of 'Pocari Sweat', for a taste of japanese soft drinks. Advertised as having properties 'close to that of human body fluid', the experience was not nearly as unpleasant (or as salty) as you might imagine, although Pepsi and orange juice are likely to remain our drinks of choice.

Tomorrow we get on our first shinkansen (bullet train) and visit Hakone.

Day 3- Ghibli

Today we went to the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka. We got the train to Mitaka station, and then caught the catbus from the Totoro bustop to the museum itself.

There was loads of really interesting things to see there, and some cool little things like a little spirally staircase and tiny doors. There were also stained glass windows all around the place of scenes and characters from the studio's most famous films, and a massive fluffy catbus and soot sprites that we weren't allowed to play with because we were too old...

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the building, and most of it was inside. the only thing that was really outside at all was the big statue of the robot from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, so Sarah and Alfie had their photo taken in front of it.

We also saw a short film while we were there which was made specially to be shown exclusively in the museum, about a spider and a pond-skater, which was also really cool.

After we left the museum, we bought some food for a mini-picnic in the park, including some mystery sandwiches, some cake, and some exceedingly cute animal biscuits. while we were having out lunch, we made friends with a pigeon named Hazard, who was very friendly, and also very protective of us when some other pigeons came to play.

We went on a wander through the park after our picnic to find the station, and wandered through a friendly neighbourhood called Kichijo-ji on the way. We then came back to the apartment for a couple of hours, before going back out again to the Hard Rock Cafe in Ueno Station, to pick up some souvenirs for Rozbeast, as well as grabbing some burgers for ourselves.

Now we're back at the apartment, about to get some rest before our day at Disney tomorrow =D

Day 2- Becky

Being the intelligent and highly organised people that we are, we decided to set an alarm on Helen's phone this morning so that we could meet up with Becky in good time. The first problem with this was when Helen's phone ran out of batteries in the middle of the night, which was OK because we just reset the alarm on Sarah's phone. The next problem was that when the alarm actually did go off, we somehow managed to go back to sleep for another hour before actually doing anything....

We met Becky at Ueno station in the morning, then went to McDonalds to get something to drink and sit down somewhere air conditioned, because Sarah still wasn't feeling too good. After that, we headed down to the Senso-Ji Temple, heading past lots of cool little shops on the way, and stopping to take a photo of our favourite fluffy traveller.

After exploring the temple, we headed for something to eat. As it turns out, all Sarah needed to cure her was chicken pizza! Yay! We were back on our way, feeling refreshed and full of energy. Next we walked down to the river where we got some tea flavoured ice-creams, which were surprisingly nice, but also very very melty.

We went to Ginza after that and into the Sony Building, where we found some magical, musical stairs...literally! When you stand on a step, a light comes on at the side and it plays a note. When you stand on the next step, the light changes colour and the note gets higher! We then saw a little robo-beastie-type-thing that played Ricky Martin and sort of break danced along with it, doing little spins and lighting up different colours. We went to a kind of little HD cinema screen at the top of the building, which was showing previews of movies and games, which was very cool, until a 25 minute long show about the treasures of Egypt started up in Japanese...we left about two minutes in...

We did a little more exploring in Ginza, including going and looking at the Nissan showroom, and an old Kabuki theatre, before heading on to Shibuya. Just outside the station there was a statue dedicated to a dog that's owner died and it continued to go to the station to wait for him until it, too, died...kinda like Fry's dog in Futurama. Then we just wandered around taking in the atmosphere, and a couple of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for sustenance, before Sarah spotted a massive Disney store, which had an entire floor dedicated to Stitch! We wandered up to the top of the store, where we found out that we could buy our Disneyland tickets, so we did to save us a job on Friday. The woman on the counter even gave us a small discount =D

We wandered around some more, and after it got dark Becky took us to her favourite bit of Tokyo: the view of Shibuya from the top of a skyscraper. There's a slight chance we were trespassing, since it was actually the top floor of a swanky hotel, but no-one said anything about it and the sight was definitely worth the risk. For the journey down we took a glass lift that let us see out over the city as we dropped to the ground.

To finish off the day we found what was supposedly an 'American' bar, and tried our first taste of real Japanese food. Becky helped us order "chicken on a stick" (yakitori), "noodle-y stuff" (yakisoba) and "umm...pancake with stodge" (okonomiyaki), which were all very tasty and will probably become our foods of choice now that we know how to order them. After a couple of hours we decided it was late and headed back to the apartment to rest after a long but very rewarding day.

Day 1-Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo today, after a relatively trouble-free journey (despite threats of a 2 hour delay at Newcastle which quickly turned into a mere 9 minute delay after all the English businessmen started grumbling at the flight attendants). Both flights took off and landed more or less on time, and our suitcases actually arrived in Narita at the same time we did!
The only bad thing really about the flight was the fact that Sarah thought it would be a brilliant idea to get massively travel-sick 4 hours before the end, as a result of having got next to no sleep at all.

We started the day by buying pretty much every single travel pass you can get at the airport and renting a phone for Helen, before getting the Narita Express into Tokyo and then trying to work out how the metro system worked and dropping our bags off at the accomodation.

Next, it was off to Ueno Zoo to see the giant panda! Hooray! Except for the fact that the zoo accidentally killed the panda back in April....oh well. They still had red pandas, llamas, monkeys, lions and tigers and bears!

We headed back to the accomodation after the zoo, grabbing some Pepsi and Coco Pops and stuff from the supermarket on the way back, before we had a very very sleepy afternoon...this is how we learned our first lesson- if you fall asleep with the air-con on, when you then walk out of the 16c room into the 34c, 80something% humid world, it feels even hotter and stickier than it did before you started- let's just hope this is as high at the temperature's going to get!