Also, once I get past the first 10 lines of a post on my phone I can't see what I'm writing therefore many words are wrong or misspelt. Apologies. I'll have to read through before I post again.
Thursday 30 April 2015
Errors
I forgot to add my quote in. The cool plaque went something along the lines of 'I wish for more pandas to mate so that they won't become extinct' with added drawings of pandas.
Panorama
From left there's skytree tower and the black building on the right with the pear shape on top is the sumo arena
Temples, shrines and crossings
Breakfast today consisted of some weird brioche bun filled with tasteless jam. It's safe to say I won't be having that again. But what do the Japanese eat for breakfast? Sushi? They don't seem to sell any fresh bread which would be an obvious choice for breakfast.
However, I managed to force this bun down (don't like to waste food) as we went on our way to the government buildings in Shinjuku to go to the observation tower (free entry!). Unfortunately, the view of the city wasn't as spectacular as it would have been if the sky was clear. Also, Tokyo doesn't really have any famous landmarks so I could only spot a few buildings and a faint outline of Mount Fuji.
Next we slowly made our way to the Meiji shrine. In the middle of this wood (mummy there were so many beautiful acers) is this beautiful temple but I think it only dates back to the early 20th century. It was quite peaceful and quiet, even with all the tourists. A few scared trees stood outside the main shrine, one with wooden plaques covered in writing from visitors, blessings and wishes. I felt quite emotional reading some of the ones wishing a loved one would recover from an illness. The best one however said '
Just before we left this shrine there was what seemed to be a wedding ceremony entering. The bride had a full white kimono with a headdress and everything. The bride must have been someone important to have been able to be married at the Meiji shrine.
Lunch today consisted of curried udon noodles. Nice but the curry sauce wasn't much different to a chip shop one. I also had to use a bib as most of my was being flung everywhere.
Next we moved in to find the famous crossing that in pretty sure everyone thinks of when they imagine Tokyo. It's exactly how I'd pictured it. There are 5 crossings creating a circle and all cars stop at the same point so all crossings are crossed at the same point. It looks like ordered chaos. Pretty amazing.
Finally, late afternoon we headed back to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji temple. It's a massive old red temple at the end of a very busy market. Quite incredible. Outside all temples is a little water fountain with cups attached in chains for you to 'cleanse' yours hands with. Or at least that's my guess. But also, the Senso-ji temple had a burner for people to waft the burning smell over themselves. Perhaps that is to rid yourself of bad odours?
Dinner tonight was salted squid on gelatine noodles (see through noodles) and I also chose a side dish of Camembert wrapped in seaweed then deep fried in tempura. The squid was over cooked and the Camembert didn't tast as good as it sounded. But it was still nice.
Wednesday 29 April 2015
Ponds, towers and sushi
Is it possible to explore Tokyo in a day? Yes. Although my feet are now throbbing from the 12 hours of walking. We started our day in the Ueno district, taking in street markets and the beautiful shrine in Ueno garden, which is also home to a giant pond and a zoo. After walking round the pond a few times (technically got a tad lost as the map shown in the garden had south as upwards) we headed south towards the imperial palace.
This is probably a good time to mention our friend we made. Pretty sure he's called Fernando (don't want to be rude and ask again) and he's from Chile but lives in New Zealand. Fernando tagged along with us all day as he's travelling alone but didn't talk too much. I think he may have been in his own little world but he seems very sweet.
We walked round the palace gardens and we walked all the way to South Tokyo to see Tokyo tower. If you don't know what it looks like just picture the Eiffel Tower but white and red instead. We saw all the touristy stuff basically. Tokyo in the day time isn't at all what I thought it would be. It's quiet and there aren't any bright lights. However, I think it was at about 5pm that the streets just became swarmed with people and as the sky got darker the lights got brighter. It was like Times Square but with Japanese signs that are impossible to read.
Enough about sights, the food was far more exciting. For lunch we found a little shop that sold ready made food in containers. I went for what I think was a deep fried pork ball with noodles, rice, potato cake and pickles. A lot of carbs. It was good though. I also decided to be adventurous and try out a fancy drink. I've named it weetabix juice. It was disgusting.
For tea we were in the shinjuku district. There was far too much choice so after about 20 minutes wandering aimlessly we chose a sushi restaurant. One with a revolving bar. I'm always apprehensive about sushi as I think of it having a hefty price tag but I had 5 plates and unlimited green tea (there was a hot water tap at the bar so you helped yourself and added the green tea powder) which all came to under £5. Bargain. Two people next to us did get through 26 plates though. That was maybe pricey. But I t was all delicious and made in front of you. The sushi was probably the highlight of my day.
Tuesday 28 April 2015
Tokyo
So after two rather long flights we made it to Tokyo. Have to say, I am impressed with Qatar airlines. They fed us lots of food, even supplied us with chopsticks for the more Asian inspired cuisine and the food was edible! I even had a sushi roll. I did notice on one of the little food boxes that it had the date of when the food was frozen; tad off putting but when it's free who would say no?
When we arrived in Doha (the stopover location) we had about 10 minutes before check in opened so after walking the length of the whole airport (it was massively futuristic and strange; Google Doha airport and look at the images, you might see a huge teddy under a reading light) we pretty much walked straight onto the plane. I would probably not advise people to visit Doha as a holiday destination. It was like the sand planet in Star Wars that Luke lives on.
We didn't arrive in Tokyo till gone 11pm so by the time we'd gone through passport control and collected our bags we'd missed the trains. I asked at an information desk as to the best way to get to Asakusa (the district the hostel is in) and so we got a monorail and then a taxi, which was very convenient as we didn't have to wander aimlessly around looking for the hostel.
First impressions of the Khaosan world Asakusa hostel are great! They didn't mind that we were late to check in, the bunk beds are really modern, each with its own locker and light, and the showers are more powerful than the one back home (I feel for you mum).
However, it's now almost 2am and I've rambled on for far too long so updates will be added tomorrow probably.
Monday 27 April 2015
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