Louise: Day One

Today is the day! I'm returning to Tokyo! Although, this time I'm missing something vital - Rob. I've been volunteering in Thailand for just over two months, and I decided to round off my trip by returning to my home-away-from-home. I'm pretty nervous about heading there all by myself, but I'm certain I'll find my feet and there's nowhere I'd rather be going that Tokyo.

I fly via Taipei and almost die of thirst, because 1. it's blazing hot in Taipei and 2. nowhere in Taipei airport will accept British pounds, Thai baht or Japanese yen, and as I'm only going to be spending a few hours in Taiwan I didn't think it would be worth buying any currency. Oh, how wrong I was.

I'm also pretty annoyed, because my digital camera gave up working in Phuket, so I have absolutely no camera to take pictures with in Tokyo. GRR. Still, stay calm and carry on. Tokyo awaits!

I land in Tokyo in the evening, pass immigration quickly, withdraw some money and head out into the hot Tokyo air via the Keisei Line. I change to the Joban line in Ueno, to help me reach Minami-enju - the closest station to my hostel in Asakusa. When I arrive at the station it's really dark, and I'm wary of a heavy suitcase and a 15 minute walk to my hostel (which is Japan is considered REALLY far), so I hail a taxi. The white-gloved driver, fake flower decorations and magically open doors make me feel a bit like Batman, but sadly Batman with a cold. My head is full of gunk, so I don't manage to follow the route to the hostel (and will regret this later, when I get epically lost about five times).

I get to my hostel, (I stayed at Hostel Fukudaya - which I really, really do recommend. It's a bit ragged around the edges, but offers air conditioning, tatami floors and a really comfy futon for a really good price) and check into my room. I thrilled to be staying in a room with tatami mats and a big, fluffy futon. I feel like I'm dying of exhaustion, heat and head-goo. So I climb into my womb-like futon and fall asleep with the TV showing a terrible gameshow, the aircon quietly buzzing and the sweet smell of tatami floating in the air.

Read More

Romance Car

Image: muza-chan.net

The Romance Car (ロマンスカー, or 'Romansukā') is a luxury limited express service on the Odakyu Electric Railway south-west of Tokyo. As its name suggests, its a pleasant and relaxing way to make a journey, although that's not to say it's strictly for couples - there's no stigma about work colleagues or friends sharing the Romance Car, despite its name.

However, it is still a very nice nice journey to make with a loved one. The seats swing sideways, enabling you both to look out of the window - they also swing round when the train reaches the end of its line so you're never left facing backwards.

Image: muza-chan.net

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

Keisei Skyliner

Photo from: Japanese Lifestyle

The Keisei Skyliner (スカイライナー) is a limited express train service between major Tokyo train stations and Narita Airport. This service is slower than the N'EX however it is between 1000 and 2000JPY cheaper.

Be sure that if you are in a hurry (ie. going TO the airport) you make sure you get on the limited express service instead of the local, as the local service stops at every station along the route and can take a very long time. Louise made this mistake on her way to the airport and got really worried she was going to miss her flight! However it did offer a nice scenic route to the airport, until she became worried, hopped off the service and onto the express. Whoops!

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

Limousine Bus

The Limousine Bus is a service that runs from Narita Airport to several of Tokyo's major hotels in a number of wards.

 Picture from: Bon Voyage

To travel you pay 3000JPY at a ticket counter in the airport and wait for a bus. The buses arrive every 60-90 minutes, so there is never a very long wait.

The bus is very comfortable, the staff load and unload your bags and you get to sit back, relax and watch the nearest Tokyo has to countryside pass you by.

Read More

Train Stations

Photo from: Travel Pod

No doubt you've heard all about Tokyo train stations. The horror stories of how busy they are, how confusing the maps are, how people get pushed onto rush hour trains. Forget all of your preconceptions - Tokyo has possibly the most efficient train station in the world, and as Japanese spend a large portion of their time in the stations they can be a pretty nice place to be, with shops, restaurants and izakayas and almost always feature signs in both Japanese and English.

The most important line you need to know about is the Yamanote line - which is Tokyo's busiest commuter rail line. The Yamanote is recognisable by the green train cars, and travels in a big loop around Tokyo's most important destinations, such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Ikebukuro. The trains run every 2.5-4 minutes and are consistently on time. Once onboard you can follow the stops by means of small TV screens over every door. Each station is also announced and features its own short jingle - which seems to rouse fast asleep Japanese communters quicker than a slap in the face (not that we've tried this!).

So now you know a little bit about the trains it's time to...

Buy A Ticket

The best was to buy a train ticket (unless you are planning on riding the shinkansen, or going quite far afield) is the ticket vending machines.

 Photo from: Japan Guide

Above the ticket machines is a station map, in both Japanese and English, you need to locate your station (if you are travelling on the Yamanote line - it's the green loop) and just below the station name you can find the price. You then put in the money for your fare (don't worry - the machines give change!), pick the number of travellers (the default is one), press the button for the correct fare and your ticket/s will be spat out.

You can also visit the manned ticket counter, however as Japanese pronunciation can be difficult this can sometimes be more complicated than the machine.

After buying a ticket, you are ready to...

Go Through The Paid Gate 

Every station that I have visited in Tokyo - including some of the smaller ones - have an automatic ticket gate, with one manned cubicle. To get through the automatic gate you need to feed your ticket into the slot in the machine, at which point the gates will open, when you pass through remember to grab your ticket on the other side of the gate as you will need it to exit the train!

The Platform

Finding your gate is generally very simple as all signage is in both Japanese and English - once on the platform you can grab a drink or snack from one of Tokyo's many vending machines or platform counters. You should then take notice of the markings on the ground - which will mark the position of the doors when the train pulls into the station - once again very efficiently.

 Photo by: Travel Pod

Riding The Train

Once onboard the train take a seat - if there is one! (most Japanese trains have sideways facing seats - so watch out for napping communters who decide your shoulder looks like a comfortable place to rest!) On popular tourist lines - like the Yamanote - station announcements will be made in Japanese and English. If you are on a smaller, more local line then just keep an eye out for the station signs as these will show the station name in English.

 Photo from: Balvig

Once You Arrive

After departing the train leave the platform, make sure you know which exit you need to use - as the myth about Japanese train stations being huge is generally true! Leaving the station by the wrong gate can lead to a lot of confusion and often ends with you getting really lost. All exits are well signposted so if you know which one you want it's really not so difficult. Leave through the automatic gates by placing your ticket in the slot - just like you did to access the platform - but this time it won't be spat out. And that's it - you're out and about and free to explore the fab stalls, shops and food places in the stations.

Read More

Narita Express

The Narita Express (成田エクスプレス), often abbreviated at N'EX is a train service linking Narita Airport with major Tokyo train stations, it is faster but more expensive than the Keisei Skyliner.

 

The trains run every 30-60 minutes depending on your destination and costs 3000JPY. It takes approximately 90 minutes to reach Tokyo Station, one of Tokyo's major transport hubs.

Read More

Shinkansen

Shinkansen are a network of very high-speed trains in Japan, which connect most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. They're also known colloquially as bullet trains - and when you consider the fact that they regularly run at 186mph/300kph (which works out at 83 meters per second), you can see why.

They're a technological marvel, against which the rest of the world has been playing catch-up for the past thirty years or so. They're just about managing it now, with several countries boasting high-speed rail or heavily investing in maglev (magnetic levitation - sounds sci-fi, huh?) technology, but Japan really leads the way.

Plus, as a nice touch, they give each service its own cool name - we caught the Kodama on our way from Tokyo to Hakone which, as die-hard Ghibli fans, thrilled us to bits!

 Kodama photo by Mitsuki-2368                                                                                Kodama by Hayao Miyazaki

Read More