Mercure Hotel Ginza Tokyo Chuo

... wa. Dogs speak Japanese here too ya know, or do they? This new route took twice as long so I may stick to my well-paved, normal, and faster route from here on out. I would really love to write about everything I've seen and done, but want to have some new stories at Christmas, and need to regain some energy to last another weekday- thank goodness it's nearly friday :) 3 weeks down, 10 to go! love, Meaghan

... metropolis, but I did manage (for those who know Tokyo) to cover the Yoyogi park, with families on Sunday outings and young garage bands showing off; Shibuya, with so many people that poor little Simon got all confused (and a parade, where a guy showed off...); Omote-sando, the Frederiksberg of Tokyo; the Ginza shopping district; the imperial palace; Asakusa, with pagodas and a shrine; a river cruise and the Onshi park, with a little cute tea house in the middle of this bustling city ...

... the house for 24hours because your too hungover. To finish this babble with some practical information - Japan isn't as expensive as people think. Okay, its extortionate compared to other Asian countries, but Tokyo is cheaper than big Western European cities and the cost of food, drink, clothes, pretty much everything apart from tomato's is comparable to Leeds. I've been practicing all day and I'm off to karaoke, 'you never close your eyes anymore when I...' Inabit!

Another day in Tokyo, I went in Tokyo station to discover the place where I should take the Shinkansen ( the high speed train) the day after to Kyoto. I took the opportunity to go the Imperial Palace, the only issue was that you are not allowed to enter in the palace ( there are only 2 days per year when you can enter and it was not one of them), so I made a tour around in flip flop: quite difficult ...

... eeews" to a minimum. After we left the fish market we headed over to the Imperial Palace. This is usually the first stop for most tourists, but somehow we hadn't gotten to it yet. The Imperial Palace is the home of the imperial family, and it resides on the grounds of the former Edo Castle during the 17th and 18th centuries. The palace is situated on top of a hill, surrounded by gardens and a moat. It makes for a nice photo, but its only open to the ...

... during the regular season. OK, but back to Wednesday's festivities. ... If you've ever been to a Major League Baseball contest in the States (or Canada), you've probably seen or heard the animated antics of several fans, but you've not seen several thousand chanting the same things over and over throughout the game. This is commonplace at NPB ballgames. Example: When the Ham Fighters were batting Wednesday, several thousand (well most of them) of ...

... last one and the blimming sales assistant came over again and started screeching! I couldn't be bothered by this point and decided that after all the harassment (they treated me like a very suspicious gaijin and kept poking their head in whilst I was changing), they didn't deserve all the money I was going to spend on them so I left all the clothes in the changing room and flounced off. Plonkers. So I wandered off to the AbAb department store which has 6 floors of cool clothes and an ...