First day and night in Tokyo

Our trip from Osaka to Tokyo sure was an adventure.

Firstly, we headed off to find some breakfast, and came to this alleyway near the hotel that sold udon - super cheap (< 300 yen per bowl) but kinda super lacking in meat (i.e. I got the Tempura Don and the tempura consisted of one bit of prawn tale and a lot of tempura batter).

Then the train trip. We got on the JR at Shin-something or other and got the Osaka Loop line, then had to change trains to get to Shin-Osaka to get the Shinkansen, then proceeded to board the Shinkansen in the wrong class and having to walk something like 8 carriages before we got seats for the four of us. I thought I had lost my camera too, but it was in my pocket the whole time. The whole trip was something like 4 hours to Tokyo. One thing I learnt on the bullet train is that Japanese squat toilets don't flush very well. You've been warned.

Having got to Tokyo, we then had to get to Asakusa. First, the JR to Ueno, which was amazingly similar to the trains in Osaka. Then the famous Tokyo Metro from Ueno to Asakusa. The hotel is very close to the station, but is on one really really dodgy alleyway... I suppose that's how it is in Tokyo.

We spent our afternoon and evening in Akihabara. The amount of electronic stuff there lives up to its reputation. However, we were also in search of manga stores, and there was one particularly seedy one which had typical manga comics in the front of the first floor and then porn in the back and in each of the proceeding levels... we reached the second floor and realised that there wasn't going to be anything good in there. Man, talking about backroom operations...

There was also one particularly pretty waitress at the curry restaurant that we went to next to Akihabara station. However, I think she noticed that I was sorta ogling her and when I went up to pay the bill, she spoke so much Japanese so very quickly that I couldn't even get an arigato in there... ah well. :) The rest of my friends just teased me all the way back.

She was some looker though.

Ah well, we're heading off to the Tsukiji Fish Market tomorrow morning. At 4 am. it's 11:15 pm, I'm buggered, and I've probably written more than enough.

Well, again, until next time,

Lawrence