Louise: Day Two

I wake up feeling terrible - I have a super-strength mutant type of cold that's making my head gooey and my stomach turn, and it's making me feel homesick and tired. But, I'm in Tokyo, and I'm determined not to waste the day. I pluck up the courage to attempt the 15-minute walk to the train station, despite the fact it's baking hot, a confusing route and I feel mildly like I'm dying.

photo by Tradewinds

I get really lost amongst the elevated walkways and alleyways and eventually give in and use my basic Japanese language skills to ask for directions. A kind man not only gives me directions, but walks me to the station when he notices my blank, sick-looking face. I was literally about 20 steps away, but the overpasses makes everything so confusing.

I'm thrown by being lost, and feeling increasingly homesick, so I decide to head somewhere familiar and set out for Shinjuku to tread the same area that I stayed in 2008. I take the train to Ueno before joining the Yamanote line, and feel a massive lump rise in my throat when I hear the familiar station jingles. I miss Rob so much.

photo by destination360

I wander around Kabukicho, and feel comforted by the familiarity of the area, but also a little more homesick for being alone. I manage to find the 7-11 and withdraw some money from the cash machine, which plays me a friendly little tune, before presenting me with my money in a magician-like flourish.

I play in a few arcades, but the games are much harder than I remembered, and everything I do seems to remind me that Rob is many miles away, and I haven't seen him in three months. It feels wrong to be here without him. I head to the 100 Yen store in the Shinjuku Prince hotel, but being in lobby and lift of the hotel I stayed in with Rob is agony. I make a concious decision to spend lots of money to cheer myself up, and then to avoid areas that 'belong' to me and Rob.

After buying a months worth of ramune-flavoured sweets, lemon juice and Pocky, I eat dinner in a rough-and-ready counter restaurant among tired-looking businessmen. I eat greasy, but delicious gyoza and hot, salty edamame.

It's starting to get dark and my head is throbbing, and Tokyo feels like the loneliest place in the world at this moment in time. I head back to Minami-Senju station, I then get epically lost trying to find my hostel and resort to hailing a Batman-taxi again, which costs me 710JPY (about £5) on a 5 minute taxi ride. GRR.

I go to bed feeling sad and tired. Surely tomorrow will be better...

Read More

Louise & Rob: Day Four

We have a late start for the first time since arriving, eating chocolate chip bread while watching Japanese TV. We see the Mameshiba advert for the first time and quickly become bored of the irritating Curry Marche advert.

 We plan to see the temple at Asakusa today. We pour over the train and underground maps in our guide books, and decide the quickest way to get there is via Ueno. (Plus we went there yesterday – so it’ll be easy to find – right?)

We buy our tickets and walk through the gates like seasoned pros at the train station, but then become disorientated in the vastness of Shinjuku station. We eventually find our platform and we’re on our way.

Almost as soon as we arrive we’re thrown into the bustle of the shopping streets, we buy blackened roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, hot to the touch and wrapped in a small paper bag.

We become very excited about the market atmosphere of the shops, with baskets and tables piled high with goodies, and decide to buy some souvenirs for our friends and family. Louise is thrilled to find some very cheap vintage haori (small lightweight jackets – made from old kimono.) and buys a dusky pink one for herself and a pale pink one for her mum. We also browse inside and look at the exquisitely embroidered obi (kimono belt) and tiny tabi (cotton socks made to be worn with kimono). Along the way we buy colourful handkerchiefs, lacquered chopsticks, and various other trinkets and gifts.

We soon arrive at the Nakamise shopping street, and find shops peddling wooden kitchenware, garish kimono, wind-up toys, and geisha paraphernalia – such as wigs, fans and eye-wateringly expensive hair combs. There are also numerous food stalls selling sushi, udon and other snacks.

We buy sparkling water in an unusual bottle, which the vendor bangs on the table to release the marble stopper, which we later discover is a Japanese seasonal drink called ramune. We sit on the edge of a fountain and enjoy the chestnuts and water – licking the soot off our fingers.

We’re then tempted by a delicious potatoey smell, and discover a stall selling deep-fried potatoes, cut in a spiral and then rolled in seasoning. After indulging in a potato each, we move onto an archery side stall, where Rob does terribly and Louise does well – winning some theme park tickets (which we never actually get around to using). We approach Senso-Ji, walking through the various gates.

We come across a huge structure and discover that it’s a fortune-telling stand. We shake the tin and retrieve our sticks, this time getting our own fortune, by matching the stick’s symbol with ones on drawers. Louise’s is a very good one, and once again Rob’s is bad – warning him not to make any major decisions, such as moving house or getting married.

Before approaching the temple we cleanse our hands and mouths, as is the custom, and rub the healing smoke from the giant incense pot, Louise focusing on her sore feet. When we reach the temple we dodge flying yen and make wishes, before lighting remembrance candles.

On our way out and back to the station Rob buys a bracelet for Louise, it resembles the karma bead bracelets that were all the rage a few years ago, but has a tiny icon of the goddess Kannon inside one of the beads. Louise is also thrilled to spot a giant tanuki statue outside of a traditional-style restaurant.

We catch the train to Harajuku and meet a friendly business man who practices his English on us and shows us pictures of his pet dog. Harajuku is absolutely packed, but full of interesting looking shops and stalls, Louise finds a stall selling silk scarves and picks a vintage purple one with a hummingbird on, we browse the shops for awhile, and Louise falls in love with some giant plush cat paws, but upon deciding they wouldn’t fit in the suitcase purchases a Rilakuma t-shirt instead.

In the same shop we find a Chupa Chups lolly machine, where you pay 200 yen and get a ‘surprise’ amount of lollies. We discover vanilla ice-cream flavour, and know that we’ll never taste anything as good again.

We decide to search for Condomania – a shop that we have read about in our guidebook, and find it quite easily by the neon pink giant condom in the window. We browse the giant condoms, tiny condoms, glowing condoms, animal shaped condoms, you get the picture. We leave without making a purchase.

We decide to return to Harajuku a little earlier as dusk is falling and we’re getting hungry, so we head back to the hotel and drink cold Asahi beer from the vending machine, before heading to the hotel restaurant for food. Feeling refuelled we head out to play in the arcades in Kabukicho.

We have our first taste of Tekken 6, playing each other before two locals wipe the floor with us. We then find a generous grab machine that dispenses Disney lanterns, sweets, colourful soot sprites and string dolls. We win so much that the machine needs to be refilled, and we are given bags to carry out our goodies. We then head to a pachinko hall and try and master the upright pinball, and fail miserably – but have fun doing it. We play in various arcades, and find one that has a ufo catcher that’s full of curled up plush cats, we try and win one for a while, and a kind business man must have spotted us struggling as he alerted an arcade worker who came up and asked “Which one would you like? Shall I make it easier?” before moving the cat of our choice closer to the winning hatch. The business man watched us for a while, laughing at our efforts before handing over a cat he had won earlier. So eventually we emerge victorious with 3 curled cats.

 

We make our way back to the hotel, before snacking on sakura buns, bought in Shinjuku train station, and fall asleep looking forward to some actual fruit and vitamins tomorrow.

Read More

Louise & Rob: Day Three

We wake up super early again – a combination of jet lag and excitement, we’re going to Ueno Zoo today! This is one of the things we planned immediately when we decided to go to Tokyo, so we’re really looking forward to it, particularly because this will be the first time either of us have ever seen a panda. Louise starts the morning by squeezing herself into the short, but deep bathtub, and enjoy the feeling of being in a bath up to her ears, followed by flakey croissants from the konbini, washed down with matcha (a type of powdered green tea).

We try and find Shinjuku train station for the first time, and end up getting lost. Soon enough though, after following the huge train tracks (they must lead to a station eventually, right?) we happen across Shinjuku Station. How something this vast could have possibly escaped our attention is beyond us! Our first experience of Japanese rail travel is ultimately very positive, however the process was a confusing one to the uninitiated – ie. us! First, we must find our destination on a huge-giant complicated map.

 Photo from: Alien2Nrs

Then we find the corresponding fare, and insert this into an automated machine, which spits out two tickets. But what to do with them? We study the locals and see the turnstiles snatch the ticket from your hand, let you through, and zip the stamped ticket out the other end in under a second – everything here is as fast as it could be.

We then take our places on the platform (once we find it), which has clever markings on signifying where the doors will be once the train arrives. This means people get the chance to queue. And the Japanese are far better than us Brits at queuing – and that’s the one thing we’re known as being good at!

We arrive in Ueno and stroll through the park, enjoying the cooler weather and haughty looking cats weaving through our legs. The zoo is quite a walk away, so we have plenty of opportunity to view Japan at a slow, relaxed pace, which is great.

Upon arriving, we see a sign that tells us some very sad news – the zoo’s giant panda, Ling Ling, had died earlier that year. This is a shock to us, and while we’re sad we resolve not to let this ruin our day since we won’t have the chance to come back here for a long time.

Once we get a map of the zoo we see that there are still plenty of exciting animals to see. Louise is particularly excited about the Fennec fox and polar bears, and Rob can’t wait to see the gorillas and bears (his hairy cousins).

We’re really hungry so after gawping at a few monkeys and deer, and negotiating a few troops of schoolchildren, we head for the cafe. Armed with three different phrasebooks, Rob resolves to give the language a proper whirl this time. After establishing the fish and mushroom content of most of the menu items, we opt for chow mein noodle-stuffed omelettes, which are absolutely delicious, and we go back for shaved ice for dessert – partly because it looked really nice and is something Louise had always wanted to try, and partly because Rob wasn’t done experimenting with his Japanese!

After lunch, we take the monorail and head over to see some penguins, who were very diplomatically sharing their open enclosure with a visiting heron-style bird. It was probably amusing to see us more fascinated by this local creature than the actual exhibits.

We then wander off to look at a peculiar statue which, to our amazement, suddenly moves. That’s no statue, it’s a shoebill! We spend a while debating how often people must laugh at his face, and how sorry we feel for him, before deciding he’s handsome in an ugly kind of way. We are then distracted by okapis, which are among Louise’s favourite animals of all-time (half zebra, half giraffe – what’s not to love?). Next up is the vivarium, where we’re fooled for the second time of the day by an animal masquerading as an inanimate object. This time it’s the giant salamanders. Giant being the operative word – these things are huge, and appear to be made out of boulders. Here we also see arowana (our first view of these beautiful fish outside of Animal Crossing), alligators and Galapagos tortoise.

We see giraffes and rhinos on our way to the hippos – pygmy and regular. The crowds are enamoured with the normal hippos, and the poor pygmy is almost ignored even though he’s doing his best.

We start to get a little worried when we can’t find the Fennec foxes, despite following the map, before realising that they live in the small animal house which we’re standing right next to. Sadly this means no photography as they’re nocturnal, but that’s okay as we still get a really good look. Louise is amazed to find that Fennec foxes are even cuter in real life than she’d ever imagined. We’re also amazed by very bouncy kangaroo mice, a spindly-legged mouse deer and a very pink armadillo.

We take a stroll back to the East Garden to see the bears and big cats. We walk back by way of the giant anteater enclosure and we’re really amused to see the animal in a tree taking the biggest wee we have ever seen. Louise is giggling louder than the children watching.

We head for bear hill by way of the sealions and polar bears (which are bizarrely not part of bear hill). We spend a long time watching the polar bears (which Louise thinks look like puppies when they are wet) and trying to snap a good picture of them, as it’s rare to get polar bears in zoos back home. We’re pleased to see they aren’t exhibiting the same unhappy headbob as is common with captive bears.

We spend a while wandering around bear hill, before moving on to view the lions and tigers, and finally onto the gorillas, we find them particularly amusing as they adopt such human-like mannerisms. We end our day with a walk along the sun dappled woodland walk and buying Japanese sweets and panda-themed goodies from Little Trunk, the gift shop.

We catch the train back to Shinjuku, just as it begins to rain. We find the Japanese attitude to rain quite amusing, covering heads with newspapers, laptop bags, anything to hand really to keep them dry. Being British and from the North we’re fairly used to wet weather, so enjoy our walk back to the hotel, where we spend the evening with vending machine beers, crisps and more Pocky, and watch Japanese soap operas, with plenty of overwrought acting.

Read More

Louise & Rob: Day Two

We wake up jetlagged, but pleased we didn’t draw the blinds, the view is still amazing, and we can watch ant-sized Japanese people rushing to work while we feast on Milk Pocky, Koala’s March biscuits and odd textured buns masquerading as donuts, all washed down with cold coffee and grape Fanta. Lament the fact that the only fanta we get in the UK is crap and tastes of mouldy oranges,

We decide to stick around Shinjuku for the day, as we’re really tired and not feeling hugely adventurous yet. I wear my owl top, and later notice lots of Japanese girls eyeing it up enviously. Good old Topshop. We take the terribly polite lift down to reception and prepare to get lost. We spend quite a while wandering around Shinjuku aimlessly, just enjoying the sights, sounds and general atmosphere, before too long we find ourselves at a large red Torii gate guarded by a pair of stone lions, sandwiched between offices, shops and restaurants – such is the nature of Tokyo.

Without even realising it, we’ve found Hanazono Shrine. The first thing we do is find a tree surrounded by paper fortunes. We go to a nearby kiosk and hand over 200 yen. We then shake a tin full of long sticks, each with a symbol on. When we each have a stick, we hand these over to woman behind the counter, who finds the corresponding fortune for us. Mine is good, however Rob is not so lucky. We then tie our fortunes to the fences surrounding the trees, as the Japanese believe the winds blow away bad luck and seal good luck.

We have a wander around and admire the shide (paper zig zags) that adorn the shrine. We throw lucky 5 yen coins into the collection tray, clap our hands and rings the bells, as custom dictates. We find it very hard to believe that somewhere so tranquil is in the centre of bustling Shinjuku.

 We leave the shrine behind and decide to head to Shinjuku Gyoen, on the way we spot an aquaria shop with bright blue jellyfish on sale. We then stop at a European-style cafe (my stomach is still really delicate from long distance flying!) and we order German-style hot dogs and sweet milk tea, which we decide to take and eat in the park, as it’s scandalous to eat in the street in Japan.

We arrive at the park, and get a little confused by the ticket machine, as you have to pay to get into the park, but there’s not a person in sight. We soon figure it out, pay our 200 yen and enter. We find a spot on the grass, in between artists sketching the park, children playing in the park, and families with picnics. We eat our food, particularly enjoying the tea - it’s our first taste of milk tea. After we’ve basked in the sun a while we spot a kiosk selling ice cream – one of the few foods it’s acceptable to eat on the move by the looks of it. We wander through the park and find a bench in the cool wooded area – Tokyo is still very hot in October, so the shade feels lovely. As we’re eating our ice cream we become surrounded by huge black birds, cawing, hopping and scuffling. We share bits of our cone with the appreciative birds before walking on.

We soon find ourselves near a huge pond with a pagoda in the distance and uniformly spherical bushes nearby.

We discover the pond is teeming with huge shimmering koi in bright orange, white and golden shades, alongside large leathery looking turtles. After spending time poking around the different areas on the park and watching the koi and turtles, we decide to leave. I use the bathroom before we go, and accidentally push a button which emits a loud buzzing noise, I become terrified that I’ve activated an intercom and swiftly leave. (I later discover that this is a sound effect, commonly used to disguise any toilet noises).

As we’re walking back to our hotel, I almost squeak with delight as I spot a huge, giant, massive Hello Kitty statue, (which I know know is the largest in the world). I feel like I’m heaven as I browse racks and racks of Sanrio merchandise. Rob shoos me out of the shop and emerges a long time afterwards clutching a bag full of goodies, including a bunch of scented gel pens and some chopsticks. He later confesses that the reason he took so long was because his Japanese wasn’t up to scratch, and he’d tried to buy things that he shouldn’t have...

We wondered a little more, before finding a giant stationary shop – this is shaping up to be a Louise-perfect day! We browse through many, many racks of postcards, picking the most suitable ones for friends and family (and some for ourselves – well, mostly Louise), including a Russian doll-style unfolding cat postcard. Ace! We also found a trove of Moomin goodies, and got Moomin diaries for Louise and Rob’s mum – two of the biggest Moomin fans in the world. We then head back to the hotel, proudly clutching our goodies, stopping for a McDonalds on the way back. We’re still not quite feeling brave enough to risk killing Louise (who has shellfish and mushroom allergies). We’re amazed by the fact that Japanese McDonald’s sell lots of different products to British ones.

Back in the room we wolf down cheeseburgers and fries, all washed down with tangy lemon water – with bright yellow jelly balls floating all around inside. The junk food makes us sleepy, so we nap on the bed, watching bizarre Japanese game shows. It seems that to get on the telly in Japan, it helps to have a penchant for stacking things on other things – on one show, we saw someone stack ramen noodle pots higher than themselves!

After a bit of a post-adventure (and post-junk food) catnap, we awake again feeling quite invigorated. Must be a combination of timezone confusion and Tokyo excitement! Whatever the reason, we elect that the best remedy would be to go out and exhaust ourselves all over again, in the grown-up playground that is Kabukicho.

Kabukicho is full of bright lights, amusement arcades, porn shops, peepshows, brothels and bars. The area has a great atmosphere, teenagers draped over benches and railings, salarymen stumbling along with arms around each other, cheeks glowing merrily pink and brothel workers trying to entice you inside with promises of ‘nice clean Japanese girls, who want to meet you’. We spend almost all of tomorrows budget in the arcades. At home we have a weakness for seaside grab machines, constantly frustrated at the ‘ungrip’ mechanism. Here in Japan, the UFO Catchers are difficult to get used to, but fair. We roll on back to hotel arms full of toy rabbits, bears,glowing Disney lanterns and soot sprites. We fall asleep with our purchases and winnings safely tucked away on the shelf behind the bed.

Read More

Hanazono Shrine

 Hanazono Shrine (花園神社 Hanazono Jinja) is a Shinto shrine located in bustling Shinjuku.


View Larger Map

The minute you step through the highly decorative gate (torii), you're in a different world, from the silence, to the brightly coloured structures. It's a haven of peace and worship in the middle of one of the busiest districts of Tokyo.

It has all the features of other Shinto shrines, including  a water fountain to cleanse yourself, paper fortunes, and an area for prayer. It's free to enter. Remember to be on your best behaviour! It's an area of worship, not a tourist attraction.

You can view the website (Japanese only) here: http://www.hanazono-jinja.or.jp/mt/top/

Read More

Louise & Rob: Day One

 
We wake up after barely sleeping at all, Rob is anxious and excited as this is his first flight, and Louise is really nervous and excited because, well just because we’re finally going to Japan!

We checked in online yesterday (after a slight mistake of thinking we were flying a day earlier than we actually were!). Rob’s dad arrives to take us to the airport and we’re so excited we can’t stop jabbering on in the car. As we’re flying from a small airport we can’t fly direct to Narita, we have to fly via Amsterdam, We arrive on time for our flight, don’t have to wait long and we’re on our way. Rob is thrilled to like flying, enjoying clouds, sky and more clouds. Before long we’re in Amsterdam and Louise feels sick to her stomach, so Rob buys her a Happy Meal to settle her nerves, but she’s completely distraught to discover she has no toy!! Bah. So Rob buys her a penguin purse to keep her yen in.

Soon we’re on our giant plane and ready to go, we spend the long, long, long journey watching Friends, The Simpsons and Dexter’s Laboratory and listening to Goldfrapp and the Travelling Wilburys during ‘enforced sleepy times’. We also spend a lot of the time watching the flight map...and then, eventually, we’re there!

We speed through customs with no issues, despite Rob’s beard. We then find a stand for the limousine bus, and hand over 3,000 yen each and are told the bus will be outside within 5 minutes, and sure enough it is. We love the efficiency of the Japanese already.

On the bus we’re warned by a very friendly motherly sounding announcement that we should not use our mobiles, because it may annoy our neighbours, and spend the rest of the journey marvelling at the beautiful scenery that is our first glance of Japan.

As we watch the paddy fields and rustic streets turn into skyscrapers and giant zebra crossings, we realise we’re in Tokyo! After a little while we’re dropped off and given directions to our hotel, which we follow, get lost, ask for more directions, follow them, get lost...this went on for a while until someone very kindly pointed out our hotel to us.

The Shinjuku Prince is a business hotel in the heart of Shinjuku, it is surrounded by Kabukicho – a pleasure district full of peep shows, brothels, konbinis and amusement arcades and the streets are full of teenagers on dates, drunk businessmen and gaijin pimps. It’s awesome.

The hotel reception is beautiful, cream coloured marble and ikebana arrangements. After some confusion, and a slight language barrier we’re given a pair of key cards and directed to the 20th floor.

We’re tired and jetlagged, so decided just to hang around the hotel for now. The first thing Louise does is run to examine the famously high-tech toilet. She bashes the buttons and is upset when they don’t do anything, however Rob suggests that this may be due to weight sensor and presses on the seat, causing a stream of water to shoot Louise in the eye. Brilliant!

We then draw back the heavy window blind and are confronted with the hugest, sprawlingest, beautifulist view we have ever seen. Tokyo spreads as far as the eyes can see, and the skyscrapers really do scrape the sky. It’s amazing.

We’re both hungry after the arduous flight, so Rob heads down to the hotel patisserie/glass counter. Here, Rob selects a rather delicious-looking box of something called Leaf Pie, and discovers at this point that you don’t try to tip in Japan... Having hastily worked out a good 15-20%% (it’s the start of the holiday and he’s feeling generous) and leaving it in a very deliberate fashion in the money tray, he’s accosted on his way back to the lifts by the cashier, who informed him he’d left some of his change behind... silly Rob!

We nap for a while curled up like cats in each others’ arms sans covers, We wake up a little while later, as dusk is falling over the city. We watch red lights blink on the top of skyscrapers, the Epson sign outside of our room on a constant light loop, and the multi-coloured Human sign dancing in dark. We watch the office lights flick off one-by-one, leaving a few unlucky workers behind.

We freshen up and head for Kabukicho, we slip down side alleys and through pachinko parlours and past a man selling turtles by the roadside, before buying konbini snacks. We’re slightly sidetracked by the UFO catchers in the arcades, but eventually make it back to the hotel, where we eat our snacks, fill up on Pocky and fall asleep with views of the glittering city.

Read More

Kabukicho

View Larger Map


Kabukichō has many faces. By day, it's an intriguing sprawl of restaurants, arcades, pachinko parlours and konbini, set within towering Shinjuku. But by night it really comes alive.

The amusements become populated by inebriated salarymen spilling out of izakaya, the streets are lined with enterprising gaijin who're promising access to plenty of girls who want to 'meet' tourists, and the love hotels become all the more conspicuous. Not that any of this is a bad thing, of course - it's all character. Kabukichō seems to work around one central rule: if you don't care for something it has on offer, then that something will leave you alone - there will be something else here for you, guaranteed.


Kabukichō isn't about ramming things down your throat.


If you'll pardon the expression.

Read More

Shinjuku Gyoen

Shinjuku Gyoen is one of Tokyo's largest parks. It was opened to the public in 1949, after it had served as a garden for the Imperial Family since 1903.

View Larger Map

It features a range of garden styles, including English (with large rolling green lawns), French (formal and flowery) and Japanese (cloud-shaped bushes and formal Japanese structures). There is a spectacular teahouse, and a lovely lake with big, bright koi carp swimming around lazily.

It's a very lovely place to sit with an icecream or picnic lunch from a nearby coffee shop and just while away the hours.

I've visited in Autumn and Summer. In Autumn the trees were beautifully coloured yellow, orange and red, and provided a nice leafy walk in the Autumnal warmth. In Summer sitting by the lake with an iced tea is very calming and cooling.

Shinjuku Gyoen is one of the few parks in Tokyo that you have to pay to get in, however the beautiful scenery and diverse selection of new and establish trees, bushes and flowers is well worth the small price.

Information

• Open 9am-4.30pm (last admission 4pm)
• Generally closed Mondays
• Admission fee: 200 JPY

How To Get There

 

Map and directions from: Japan Guide

Shinjuku Gyoen has three gates:
Shinjuku Gate is a 10 minute walk east from the "New South Exit" of JR Shinjuku Station, while Sendagaya Gate is a 5 minute walk from JR Sendagaya Station on the local Chuo/Sobu Line. Shinjukugyoenmae Station on the Marunouchi Subway Line, at last, is a short walk from either the Okido or Shinjuku Gate.

You can read about Louise & Rob's day in Shinkuku Gyoen here.

Read More

Shinjuku

View Larger Map

Shinjuku (新宿区) is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo.

It is a major shopping, business and entertainment centre and houses the busiest train station in the world, the Metropolitan Government Office and Shinjuku Gyoen. It is broken down into different areas including red-light district and entertainment area Kabukicho.,

Read More