So very busy, why am I writing this?
I don’t know, I suppose I don’t want to lose the 44 subscribers in Google Reader..who are you mysterious people? I don’t know anyone clever enough to use Google Reader! Jokes of course.
Ok this is so gonna be fragmented and all over the place.
Tokyo is great!
Ok, that’s it.
Well o.k. some more info then.
Tokyo in December is really cold. So cold you have to steal clothes from the people putting you up. People are very friendly but will speak Japanese to you with a lovely smile on their faces even though they know. They know.
The train network is very nice especially the Yamanote line which rings through the city and it doesn’t involve descending in to the very bowels of hell to get to the train platform. Just a short escalator most times. Perfect. And the seats have heaters underneath to warm your frozen butt.
It’s very quiet on the trains there. Mostly because everyone is unconscious and dead to the world. The miracles you see at every stop when corpses you thought had no chances of resurrection suddenly spring to life and saunter out the doors.
We took to Yamanote the Shibuya; saw the lovely statue of Hachiko and proceeded to walk around Shibuya to take in the atmosphere of crazed shopping. We ate in some café above the crazy crossings that you all have seen.
We walked toward Yoyogi park looking for the Meiji Shrine and somehow didn’t find it even though it had 40 foot high gates. Luckily our friend showed us the way there a few days later. Yoyogi Park is full of harmless homeless people and crows the size of eagles.
“Nevermore”
One morning we got up early to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market. We went. And ended up at the wrong market but blissfully unaware we took it all in like morons. We were let known a few days later the brutal truth. Well there’s a video of us below of us walking around Jogai Market instead.
Make do.
Moving along we went to the Asakusa Temple which was in a delightful little area of Tokyo, the street leading down to the shrine is just rows of souvenir shops but take a few side streets and you get the real ambiance of the area. The temple is pretty cool too and we got to waft some incense and pour some water over ourselves.
We popped down to Yokohama for the day to meet a Twitter friend of mine who showed us around the shopping area and the school he worked in. The guidance was needed as we were on a mean streak of getting lost at every street corner. Yokohama seemed nice and quiet and a perfect break away from the Shibuya craziness.
Back to Tokyo we walked made our way to Sapporo Beer Museum but it was closed. We also went to the Musem of Modern Art. But it was closed. Don’t go to Tokyo over Christmas or New Year’s people. We took it in our stride though, we were enjoying ourselves. We went to the top of ummm, what was it something Hill, Roppongi Hill,that’s it! It’s not a hill though. It’s a tall shopping plaza with a view of the city up on the top. Bit of a rip off I must say; you must pay for the art exhibit as well as the scenery. The art exhibit was to do with Medicine in Art. It was very bad. You had to pay even more if you wanted to die of hypothermia up on the helipad. No dice Chicago.
We saw in the New Year at the Jojoji Temple; it was a unique and lovely experience immortalized below on YouTube just for you. That’s Tokyo Tower going light crazy to the back and right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right.
The next day was our last day there and we splashed out by going to Gordon Ramsay’s food joint in The Conrad called Cerise. We had the wine set menu which saw some lovely wines accompanying our courses. It was superb and with great views of silvery shiny building from the 26th or so floor.
Japan is great. Go there. If you’re already there then enjoy it.
This wasn’t as good as it looks. Bit too tangy. But still fine fodder. Not Gordon Ramsay’s
BONKERS IN HONKERS! 