Not lost in translation

Mush mush from the land of the rising sun!

5 storied Pagoda in park

Tokyo,Tokyo oh Tokyo we are here.

After recuperating in Hong Kong from our endeavors in India we now find ourselves in Japan. We arrived at our hotel Kimi Ryokan which is a traditional Japanese style hotel where you enter via some stairs which led down to an entrance made deliberately low so that you bow upon entering. Here you had to remove you shoes and from there the whole place felt a little bit like a Spa, relaxing music, we were given bath robes at reception and it was all spotlessly clean with dark, mahogany wooden floors. There was a traditional Japanese bath - a hot tub where you could relax and ease those aching muscles which we took full advantage of. We could only book our room for the Thursday and Friday as it was fully booked for Saturday so the first thing we tried to the next morning was find ourselves a place to stay for the Saturday night. The first place we tried was just around the corner and as we entered you could see photographs of what the rooms looked liked, massive huge beds with sixties neon lighting (a bit like an Austin Powers love shack). At reception the lady didn`t speak much English, so after trying to say that we wanted a room for Saturday night, she called someone down who spoke a little more English. A woman came down to reception and after again explaining we wanted a room for Saturday night, the whole of Saturday night, it was explained to us, that the rooms were rented out by the hour for a bit of you know what! At least it explains the smile on the businessman`s face who entered the lift with a young lady in tow whilst we were trying to get a room!!

Another Japanes Temple

After ringing another hotel and getting a room we were then free to explore what we could of Tokyo for next 2 days. We have been to the main park where the Imperial Palce is and also saw a 5 storied Pagoda and shrine, but the main reason we came here was to sample a bit of the Tokyo nightlife so on Friday might we took ourselves of to Roppongi, Tokyo`s center of nightlife. Roppongi is full of bright lights, with tourist, strip joints and bars a plenty. After a few drinks Liz spotted a brightly lit pet shop on the other side of the road which needed further investigation. It was a pet shop selling the most delicious looking pedigree puppies and kittens (the tiny sort that are very popular over here) for a minimum of 600 quid each. Liz immediately fell in love with one that had been sold by the time we returned for our 2nd visit of the evening to coo over.

Bridge to Imperial Palace

2 bars and 4 cocktails later upon leaving a jazz bar Liz tried to exit via the coat cupboard, much to the amusement of the staff. As you can probably guess we were now just ever so slightly drunk and in someways it was good that our hotel had a curfew (yes a curfew - bizarre I know )of 1am so we caught the tube home after a great night out on the town.

On the tube on the way home Liz kept whispering into my ear hello in Japanese (Mush mush but pronounced a bit like mooosh mooosh) and how incredibly sexy it was too.

We are now in a bar near our hotel at midnight after a trip to Ginza where we went to a proper Japanese sushi bar where we had some beautiful and some not so beautiful concoctions that I could not start to describe what they actually were, hence to say I don`t think Liz will be in any hurry to try again not liking fish and all that!. (Yes, we are still trying traditional dishes)

Japanes Temple

Anyway Sayonara for now catch up with you in Thailand.

Japanese dancing in park

Rich eating noodles

Streets of Ikebukero

Streets of Roppongi