The other side of the Pacific

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  Tokyo, Kanto, Japan
Monday, May 5, 2008

Sensible people go from West to East when they travel round the world. That way you are gifted an extra day when you cross the International Dateline. Going in this direction, you lose a day, but I didn't really have a choice on this route - doing it in reverse would have meant South America in the Winter, and flying from Spring into Autumn was disconcerting enough. Still, I've gone from GMT-8 to GMT+9 and lost a full day in the process - that's disconcerting in itself.
JAL (Japanese Airlines) flew me here. They were excellent, and a nice introduction to the country - rice crackers instead of pretzels, and the cabin crew bowing like crazy. Being told to "leflain flom using lest looms because of tulbulence" kept me amused for hours. Nine time zones in the other direction, Mary was having problems with her flight from Bristol to Tokyo via CDG, Paris. Her connecting flight was delayed because of fog, but she made it by the skin of her teeth. Hotel transfers were a doddle (everything is so well organised here), and we finally met up in our hotel at about 19:00 on Saturday Night

View from our room

.
Tokyo is a big and confusing place to find your way round, but we began to get used to it after a couple of days. London has been described as a collection of villages, but Tokyo is far worse. There is no real city centre, and it feels like a collection of cities within a city. Finding a place from its address can be a near impossibility, even for the Japanese - in Tokyo, taxi drivers stop and ask for directions. Not many streets even have names, but there are lots and lots of "You Are Here" street maps. They're actually there as Emergency Evacuation plans, but come in very handy when you've lost your way (which you will.....frequently).
We were half way over a footbridge a couple of nights ago, when a jogger ran past and made the bridge sway up and down. Slowly we realised that this was far too big a bridge for one person to make it sway. Oh, and it was still swaying 2 or 3 minutes after he'd gone. It was actually an earth tremor - our first, but it happens all the time here (I read somewhere that Japan has 10% of the world`s volcanos, and 10% of its earth tremours).
On Monday we went to the Shinjuku area of the city, starting off at Shinjuku Station. This is another big, confusing place (Tokyo is full of them). The station is used by an average of 3.5 million people every day, and is the busiest in the world. To make life a bit more challenging, the place has well over 200 exits! Somehow we found our way out of there, and went to the 45th floor of the Government buildings for a bird`s eye view of Tokyo (see photos).
Other "mini-cities" we went to included Roppongi Hills (Gotham City in the rain), and Shibuya which has to be seen to be believed, especially at night. Five storey high television screens and the neon signs of scores of advertisements, restaurants, bars and cinemas light the streets as though it was daytime

Monkey Shrine, Akasaka

. The main street leads up to Dogenzaka, one of Tokyo`s most famous Love Hotel districts, but one of the best things here is people watching, especially the throngs of people that pour off the pavements to cross the road every time the traffic lights change - the whole place is mad.
We also went to Ginza to inspect the latest electronic gadgets. The Japanese have a mania for anything electronic, and they are years ahead of anything we have in Europe. This has its downside though, as the first thing you`ll notice here is that your mobile phone doesn`t work. It may be state of the art in the UK, but in Japan it was obsolete 5 years ago.
The love of gadgetry extends to lavatories, big time. Traditional Japanese toilets are squat pads (and you still see them in some places), but they are being swept away by "washlets", Western toilets packed with electronics - and lots and lots of nozzles. Some flush when you sit down, some have heated seats, some have washhand basins incorporated into the the cistern, some play music so that nobody can hear what you are doing (but sadly not Handel`s Water Music, or better, the Volga Boat Song), some have hot air driers. One even came with built-in lights that illuminate the inside of the bowl and change colour as you poo for God`s sake. All of them have a control panel and instructions written in Japanese. Never ever press the buttons unless you know exactly what you`re doing though. You may start a jet of water that`s pointing somewhere you really don`t want, and unless you can read Japanese you won`t be able to switch it off either.............
Food for visitors can be interesting, as most restaurants don`t have English menus. Some  have pictures of the food they serve, others have windows full of plastic models of food, and it`s these that you tend to gravitate towards. Andy K would have gone a bomb on unnatural breakfasts here. Strange fish, pickled vegetables, sour cherries, soup, noodles, and tofu, as well as stuff  that we still don`t recognise. There is bacon and eggs for the nervous, but we stuck to the weird and wonderful - no Immodium required.


Tommorow we move on to Kyoto, and then Osaka - the Bullet Train awaits!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Shinjuko street scene	Tokyo Skyline	Pagoda, Shinjukogyoen	Tokyo Skyline 2
Ginza	Fox Shrine, Akasaka	Imperial Palace Gardens	Group photo
Fountain Park	Akasaka Excel Hotel at night. Where we stayed	Be afraid................	Tokyo Skyline 3
Shinjuko 2	Dressed up dogs, Shinjukogyoen	Shinjukogyoen Bridge	Pagoda 2, Shinjukogyoen
Imperial Palace moat and Tokyo high rise	View from our room 2

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