Tokyo

Decided that it was time to activate our JR pass (which you have to purchase outside of Japan). This is a train pass that allows you to have unlimited travel on Japanese trains for either 1 week or 2 weeks, whichever you choose. We opted for the 1 week  pass which costs approximately 200Euro each. This isn't cheap but it is by far the cheapest and quickest way to get around Japan, as it allows you to travel on the "bullet (Shinkansen)" trains. They go up to 300km/hr- WOW!

Karaoke King

So we checked out of our hostel in Kyoto (after watching another epidsode of "Only Fools and Horses") and headed for the station .The train from here to Tokyo took less than 3hours - fair going so we got to Toyko at 3pm. Our hostel however was another hour subway ride away! Accomodation is hard to find here and cheap accomodation is even harder hence the 1 hour subway ride. We had some difficuly finding "Palette Takashimadeira" our hostel but eventually with the help of the local gardai we found it. As this stage we were not happy with the hostel , it was 1 hour away from the center, useless direction and he added a 5% tax onto our bill and then said he was putting is in different rooms - not good, so letting him know we weren't happy, we ended up in the same dorm together. Space in Toyko is very tight, the hostel is tiny 6 beds in a room you couldn't swing a cat in - crazy.

Mount Fuji

After a bit of a lie down with hit the town, we headed for the Roppongi area, this wasn't really what I was expecting, the Lonely planet warned us that its not like Japan and it was right. It was more like being in Times Square in New York. Everyone spoke English in the pubs, even in one pl;ace the bar tender was an Ozzy. It was a great night out, all different kinds of pubs, one place was an old train carriage, pretty cool to have this in the middle of Toyko. Lots of Karaoke bars, the Japanes love Karaoke. I think they might have even invented it. The Japanese people are very friendly here as well, wishing us well and to enjoy our time in Japan, really genuine people. We had to leave early enough though, which was a pity so we wouldn't miss our train by to the hostel.

Reminded us of Knockraha!!

Easter Sunday

We spent today sightseeing in Toyko: the capital of Japan with a population of 12million people - its a busy spot to say the least. First on our list was the Sony Center, this has floors of Sony products on display. It was pretty cool, especially the super thin/slim new TV's . We were a bit dissappointed as the floor with the video and virtual reality games was out of bounds, there was a lecture there the time we went. The Sony Building is in the Ginza area of the city, this is the shopping area. Shopping here is like nothing I've ever seen before . Department stores are packed full of people, even all the designer shops such as Louis Vuitton and Guici  are packed. Japanese peole have alot of money to spend this is a very very rich country. Everyone is walking around with a designer shopping bag (Dunnes doesn't cut it here) the streets are like cat walks, the people are dressed so well. I will have a different view on fashion and clothes when I got home (when I can afford to buy such clothes again!)

Next we did the lonely planet walking tour of Shinjuku. This was very interesting and we were here just as it started to get dark so the Neon lights were great. The tour brought us through the red light district and made for some interesting people watching There is also an area here called the "Golden Gai" which is a tiny network of alleyways devoted entirely to small pubs. There must have been about 6 small streets with about 15 pubs in each one. The pubs were tiny though, the biggest might hold 10 people. Most of the pubs though won't serve foreigners-pity. There places have character so we had to settle for a Karaoke bar instead. Kieran decided to give it a go and he was a big hit with the locals.

The next day we travelled from Toyko to Osaka. We failed to get cheap accomodation in Kobe so back to Osaka we go....