Manhattan Hotel Chiba

... was Tanabata Day, sort of a Valentine’s Day in Japan. The Tanabata festival recounts the astrological story of two people who fall in love, but are only able to be with each other once a year when the stars align. The festival is marked by the wearing of traditional Japanese clothing, and everyone writes a wish on a piece of paper and ties it to a bamboo tree. (Apologies to all my Japanese friends for completely butchering Tanabata, but ...

... through Kaoru). Then went on to lift what I thought was a table cloth, but turned out to be a lap blanket that was attached to the table. Everyone started explaining that I should put my legs under, and I was delighted to find a sunken area below the table that was also HEATED! I think if I had a table like this for MN winters, no one would EVER leave my dinner table. They had ordered in a gorgeous spread, with sushi and soups ...

... that it also has internet, so I'm finally all caught up on my blogging. But what's truly different about this hostel are the pod-style beds. They call them cabin beds, and that's essentially what they are; each bed is a sort of stacked cubby with a sliding door to close for privacy. On the one hand, it's a bit claustrophobic, sort of like sleeping in a shelf. On the other hand, it's great for privacy. It's definitely very Japanese! Up next: Last day in Tokyo.

... to be one of the worst parts of Tokyo, but its fine, just shows how low the crime levels are here) thinking id find it easily. Now, every stop is a town quite a distance apart so after two hours and my first McDonald's, i gave up, went back to get the directions and found the hostel. Saturday day did a bit of sightseeing around ueno and at night met up with a few others including Adam from Manchester, top bloke, and Matt, Louis, Chris and Harry, all British and Kate ...

Tokyo has a winter, though it doesn't seem very wintery to me. This year saw an exceptional FOUR snowfalls (there were none at all last year), one of which even lasted a whole day and left patches of icy slush in shady spots for two or three days afterwards. It was only in November that the weather started getting chilly, that is the air was cool enough for a jacket ...

... direction. Ever generous, Hideko said that she would help him find his hostel, if he came with us to drop off my rucksack off first. He happily agreed and soon we had dropped off both bags and met Hideko's friend Subacko for lunch. He was a Chemistry teacher at a secondary school in London, and for the whole was friendly and chatty, good company. He accompanied us for the day. One of the first things I noticed about Japan was the beautiful ...

... was close by and I popped over. Think robots & lots of them. Unfortunately it was closing up as I approached the building. I got a couple pics of a large world globe made up of tonnes of tiny LCD screens that was showing (I think) real-time weather patterns across the globe. Impressive. Since I could not get in as it was closing, I headed to the next building, "Venus Fort" For a second I thought I was in Vegas. This ...

... but the floor actually moved and it didn't stop. A little scary! Richard took Mel and I too eat at the local Sushi Bar. This place is usually packed with people lining up down the street. Luckily we didn't wait too long. The sushi is amazing. It's SO FRESH. And it's so beautifully displayed. Almost didn't want to eat it. Almost. Richard took us ...

... translate! The "pet store" section of the department store was rather bizarre. Well, at least to ME it was. Instead of cute dogs, cats and pocket pets...they were selling BEETLES. Smelly, gigantic scarab beetles. YUM. Although...I did briefly consider buying a quartet and naming them Paul, John, George and Ringo. *Snicker*. One of the things that is really popular in Japan is fake food displays. Most ...

... deal with it. Cars and people were slipping all over the place and everyone in the entire city (except the two of us) was trying to fend off the flakes with an umbrella. We had lunch at a conveyer belt sushi (kaiten zushi) restaurant and spent the afternoon exploring Shibuya, a trendy area of Tokyo famous for crowds of young people and numerous shopping destinations. In the evening, we were invited to dinner by another one of Neil's classmates. Yuta ...