New Years in the Capital. (that’s Tokyo btw...)

Bear with me, this is going to be a long one......

So I really need to put this trip down on paper before I forget everything – trust me, there is a lot to remember! 

 

Ok, so as you’ve probably guessed, for New Year this year, myself and a couple of my friends decided to head to Tokyo for a few days. And what a few days they were. It all started at 21:50 on the 29^th when we boarded our overnight bus headed for Tokyo. The journey would take around 10 hours, and I have to be honest, I was really dreading this part of the trip. On a bus for 10 hours, to then have to spend the whole day walking around Tokyo before being able to check in at 3 the next afternoon!? Arrrrghhh. But once I got on the bus all of my worries vanished, this was no ordinary bus, this was a ‘dream’ bus, consisting of rows with 3 seats in each with a small aisle in between them. Add in a seat that can recline to almost horizontal, a foot rest that pops down and a leg rest that pops up, plus a free blanket and slippers, well you can’t go wrong really can you. Luckily for me as well there was no one sat behind me for the whole journey so I could make the most out of all these features without feel bad for the person stuck behind me.

Anyway, so far so good, I managed to sleep most of the way to Tokyo and got off the bus at Shinjuku station fairly awake, if not a little disorientated. So cue the first day of Tokyo. As we got off the bus at Shinjuku, we decided to stay in the area to explore a bit, stashing our luggage in lockers at the station, we went for a wander. The best thing about Tokyo? You don’t have to have any specific plans when you go for a walk, but you will always be entertained by the sights surrounding you. Tokyo is a pretty impressive city. I won’t go into too much about this walk, as to be perfectly honest I don’t really remember much of it myself! Basically there was a lot of walking to do, things to see, and gaming shops to wander around. We then grabbed a lunch of curry udon (a traditional noodle dish) and then got our luggage and entered the subway headed towards our hostel. I’m not going to talk about our hostel either, let’s be fair, a hostel is a hostel pretty much wherever you go. You are either horribly shocked, indifferent or pleasantly surprised. Our hostel was a bit grotty, but nothing to write home about. Anyway, after a quick nap we were soon back out on the streets, this time exploring the area of Asakusa where our hostel was. In Asakusa there is quite a large temple, and the entrance to this temple has a rather larger lantern hanging outside. I say rather large, this thing is huge! Definitely a tourist spot, so we didn’t waste too much time trying to get a photo with just us and the lantern, that was simply impossible, we simply took our photos of the Thunder lantern as it’s called and headed for a wander around the market next to the temple. 

 Next up we were heading to our first dinner in Tokyo, the destination?? An Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant, where all the waitresses were dressed in Alice costumes, one table was inside a giant teapot, and the walls were covered in passages from the books. The food was quite pricey but the experience more than made up for it. I mean, where else can you go where you get a pop-up cocktail menu?! I have put up a few of the photos from the night, but to be perfectly honest they really don’t do the restaurant justice at all. All I will say is that if you are ever in Tokyo, I would highly recommend heading to this place. And this was only the beginning of our themed restaurant experience as after this we decided to hit up the Vampire restaurant that was just around the corner. However, once we got there we all kind of chickened out as we weren’t sure whether we could just go for a drink or whether we would be forced to pay a lot of money to sit down for food again, which we certainly didn’t need. Therefore, once the elevator doors opened into the restaurant, we decided just to have sneaky look around the entrance, maybe take a few photos, before sneaking back into the elevator. This was succinctly put by Broc saying “If we’re really quiet, they won’t realise we’re here”, which he just managed to get out before a blood-curdling scream sounded. Yup, we had been discovered as Broc had accidently set off the ‘doorbell’ that was next to the entrance. Oh god, it was a case of ‘press the button and let’s get out of here before they see us’ though we didn’t quite make it as a scary looking, yet probably horribly bemused waitress came round the corner. Needless to say we apologised and then backed into the elevator heading down to the street below and fresh air. A good end to our first day.

Ok day 2 – and potentially my favourite day of the trip. Setting the alarm for 7, we groggily made our way out of bed and to the train station. Apart from discussing what trains we were getting, there was not a great deal of talking this morning. Both Broc and I had our kindles and Dani was reading a book on her phone. Conversation started to pick up where we found a shop to get a bit of breakfast and as we slowly began to properly wake up. However, all the sleep from our bodies quickly left us as we reached our desired destination. The place? Tokyo Disney!!!! Oh Disney. Actually in Japan’s Disney area they actually have 2 different parts – Disneyland and DisneySea. Myself and my friends figured that we could go to DisneyLand in quite a few different countries, but we had never heard of a DisneySea, so this was the park we decided to spend our day in. For those who have been to a Disney park, this park was a mixture of DisneyLand and Universal Studios – A bit kiddy and keeping the cutesy Disney themes and different areas, but there were some more intense rides that can be found in Universal Studios – for example, The Tower of Terror (and yes, we did pose for the on-ride photo!). Anyway, we did spend all day at the park and actually managed to get on quite a few rides. Before coming to the park we were worried it was going to be rammed, being New Years Eve and everything, however we were pleasantly surprised to find that the park wasn’t that crowded at all and the most we had to wait for a ride was an hour! It could definitely have been worse. There was only one ride we didn’t get to go on which we wanted to, and one ride that we had queued for which we wished we hadn’t, but we also got to go on the Tower of Terror twice, and try chocolate popcorn and cranberry popcorn, so we definitely weren’t disappointed with our day. Actually, one of the biggest highlight of the day?? The double decker carousel! Who knew they existed?! But they do, and we were by far the most excited people on the ride! We also got to watch a Little Mermaid show, which was (you have to hand it to the Japanese) a feast for the eyes with most of the action happening on high-wires above our heads. This was the last thing we did in the park, though as we headed for the entrance, we were tempted to stay and watch the main Mickey Mouse show held out in the middle of a massive lake. However, as Dani so eloquently put it, ‘I’m sure it would be a wonderful experience, but it’s New Years Eve, and we have a jail cell to eat in!’. Confused?? I told you the Alice restaurant was only the beginning on our themed restaurant experience. Next stop for a New Years Eve dinner?! – An Alcatraz hospital themed restaurant! 

After having to push a button to input our blood  type, we were allowed into the grotesque environment that we were going to be eating in that evening. Our waiters... a deranged looking doctor and his slutty nurse assistant. We were promptly led to our jail cell which was rather cramped for the 5 of us, (after being joined by our friend Daniel and his friend from home) also since our cell was actually joined to one next to us, and only separated by a black curtain. So we were given the menu – not pop-up this time, but still as fun and began to choose our food.  We had a pretty fun evening trying the different (actually normal) dishes served up to us in a variety of kidney bowls and other hospital equipment, including beer that was served up in measuring tubes. However, the evening was not to go as uneventful as we first thought. After getting through our meal in one piece, and with most of the other guests already gone, we ordered our bill. A few minutes later (at 10o’clock) the music suddenly stopped and all the lights went out. Oh. At this point I did start to worry slightly. I was sat, in the middle of Tokyo, in a shut jail cell, in the dark. However, us foreigners don’t let anything spook us, and we were in fact a bit annoyed that they had chosen that moment to turn the lights off – didn’t they know we were trying to sort out how much peopled owed?! So, undaunted, we took out our phones and used the torch function to see the bill. That was when the screaming started. Although being slightly disturbing, we weren’t too worried. They staff we clearly scaring the Japanese people, they wouldn’t dare try it on a group of foreigners. Well that’s what we thought anyway. I was sat at the back of the cell, watching Broc at the front with the bill, and while he was intently look I happened to see an orange light flash above his head – then I saw the person behind the head... “Oh my god!” was all I was able to stammer before the rest of the group looked up and saw the tall white clad person, with long black hair and a mask on. Then we started to panic! The ‘woman’ came back 2 more times, and each time was just as disturbing as the last. The first time she simply slammed something against the bars (which I screamed at) and then ran away. The second time, after being put on edge, all we could hear was the slapping of bare feet running towards our cell (dear God I was glad I wasn’t near the door). That sound is surprising deeply disturbing when put into that situation. Do you remember when I mentioned our cell was actually joined to another separated by only a curtain? Well we certainly didn’t forget, and after the first incident, Broc promptly leant back and shut the other cell door. Aha! Let her try and sneak up on us now! Unfortunately she did! We don’t know how, but one moment we are sorting out the bill, the next Broc is swearing as this woman crawls (why is it always made creepier by the crawling?!) through the curtain and practically on his lap! Cue screaming by me and Dani as the turns and begins crawling towards us! Luckily, after shoving her had away from me, she disappears out of the cell and the lights come back on! Phew. Ok, so the whole experience was absolutely terrifying, but at the same time it was a great way to end the evening! We were absolutely buzzing when we left the restaurant, and all of us think that without the last scary bit, the whole experience might have been a bit flat. Awesome. Actually the rest of the evening was a bit flat after that. We had a drink at the nearby Irish pub (god it felt like home!) and then headed to Tokyo Tower for the countdown. Unfortunately we left it a little late and missed the train that would get us there on time, so we actually ended up spending the final minutes of 2011 on a subway train. How Japanese.

We eventually came out of the subway to see Tokyo Tower gleaming with lights, but then realised it was too crowded for our taste so left, stopped off at a combini to get a bottle of champagne, celebrated the new year outside a 7/11 and then headed on the subway back towards the vampire restaurant (take two). This time was even more of a fail than the first time. First thing we notice when we exit the subway? Ginza (the area the restaurant was in) was definitely not the place to be on New Years Eve. In fact, to put in bluntly, the place was deserted. Oh well, we thought, onto the cafe. Unfortunately the deserted streets we apparently echoed in the deserted restaurant. It was almost creepier than the Alcatraz experience earlier in that the place was open, but completely deserted. It was like one of those horror films/end of the world thing. It looked like people had just upped and left – half drunken drinks were still on the tables. Needless to say we left the place pretty quickly. It was just too bizarre to stay there! By this point, my feet hurt and I was tired (it had been a long day after all) and I think everyone else felt the same. So we went our separate ways on the train and headed back to the hostel for a well deserved sleep.

Ok. Day three!: Not wanting to waste the opportunity, we decided to meet up again with Daniel and James and a couple of other friends we saw the night before and head out to lunch together (I’m not saying much about the morning as by the time we had met up with everyone it was already the afternoon). Our chosen Mexican meal was decidedly illusive and so we ended up at an all you can eat curry house! Yummy. After fully stuffing myself, I was about ready to head back to sleep, however we dragged ourselves out of the restaurant and headed over the electronic capital of Akihabara. Here we swiftly made our way towards the shop called ‘Super Potato’, an absolutely brilliant retro-game shop, stocking games and consoles as early as Nintendo’s first console! I don’t know how long we spent there, but I know it was a very long time before we ventured outside again as there were 4 floors of pure gaming geeky bliss. Another notable event that happened whilst we were browsing the shop was the rather large earthquake that we experienced. At first (by being no way used to these things) I thought it was someone the other side of the shelf I was browsing through shaking the shelf, then it occurred to me that the floor was also moving and the person opposite couldn’t control that. After looking at my friends and seeing that the also had a bemused look on their faces, it clicked that this was actually an earthquake. It was a really strange experience. The force (a 6.8 on the Richter scale) was enough to shake a couple of games off the shelves and the shaking carried on for around a minute, but looking at the Japanese patrons, this was clearly nothing to worry about, so after the initial confusion we carried on as if nothing was happening. The weirdest thing about the whole earthquake was when she shaking had finally stopped – my body couldn’t seem to adjust very well, and I forever felt like I was falling over – I think it might have rattled my brain a little!! (Ok, so I know that’s not really the case, but that is what it felt like). Ok, so out from Super Potato we realise it’s about 5 o’clock (doesn’t time fly when you don’t really do anything), we’re far too tired to do our epic shopping day that we were planning (plus the day is pretty much over anyway) but we did decided to end our day doing a bit of exploring in Harajuku. What a brilliant street!

Filled with quirky shops with strange names such as ‘Store my Duck’ and ‘Good Day House’, it was really fun discovering the different styles and trends of the ‘cool kids’ in Japan, and I even got myself a very warm and fluffy poncho! The highlight of the street though came in the form on the numerous crepe stands littering the street, with the options of crepes I could never dream of. For example, I was sorely tempted by the ‘chocolate cheesecake crepe’, though ended up with the delicious ‘double chocolate ice cream, banana and cream crepe’. Fantastic. After this we dragged our tired feel back to the station and onwards towards our stop. Here we managed a traditional meal at an izakaya (every dish is 170yen) before heading back for an early night... after all, we were up late the night before.

Ok, last day: At 10 o’clock we finally manage to drag ourselves downstairs to check out of our hostel. We had T minus 9 hours before we have to be back at Tokyo station for our bus ride home, and to be honest, I could do with less! Too much walking and activity for one as lazy as myself. Anyway, after taking our bags to stash them in a locker at the station, we head to a National Museum of Nature and Science for a bit of culture. For any of you thinking of heading to Tokyo in the future, I would seriously recommend heading to this museum in Ueno, it was brilliant. I guess it might be to do with how differently the English and Japanese feel about things, but this museum was one of the most interesting I’ve ever been to, and I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the displays. Mainly, there wasn’t much reading. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of things that you could read if that’s your thing, but if it’s not (like it isn’t with me) you can still spend a good couple of hours just looking at the exhibitions! They had bones of dinosaurs and animals that I have never seen before. One floor held just a glass box full with different mammals – again, some of which I’ve never even heard of, let alone seen. It was really exciting to just be able to see these different animals (regardless of whether they were real or not) to really appreciate the size of them, and what they actually look like, after all you can only get so much from a photo. For example, in one exhibit, they had a stuffed platypus. I’ve never seen a platypus before! They also had bones of giant sea animals hanging from the ceiling, which was both awe-inspiring and intimidating to see that something that large actually exists/existed.  There was also a floor with hands-on science experiments, and the special exhibition was on Alfred Nobel. All in all, the whole morning was highly enjoyable and informative. After the museum, we headed to Shibuya to do some last minute shopping before the bus home. Unfortunately we happened to go shopping on the first day of the January sales and it was manic! We entered into Shibuya 109 – a massive department store – and we promptly ushered back out of the shop, down some stairs, into the subway, around the subway, back up some stairs and back into the shop, all of this which was seen over by police officers! Crazy. And it was no less crazy inside as we were ushered around and up each floor, only really able to get a brief glimpse of each store as we were push past them. Needless to say, we didn’t stay long in the store, only venturing up 5 floors until the look on Broc’s face told us that it was time to leave. Then off for a bit more shopping before back to the station to pick up some omiyage (souvenirs for work) before we got back on the bus for the long journey home. 

This was after we had peeled off the tape! Oh Japan!

What an absolutely brilliant trip. However, I class the next morning as part of the experience of the trip as well. After our however many hour bus journey, then the 10 minute train journey, then the 15 minute walk, we finally made it back to Broc’s. Only to discover that my car had been taped! That is, apparently I parked somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, but instead of giving me a ticket, they had simply printed off a sign say something along the lines of ‘You can’t park here’. Ok, I understand. What I didn’t understand was why they felt the need to attach the sign with tape stuck all the way around my car, over the windows and on the roof!!! Cue an hour and a half of using boiling water and a lot of man power to scrape/melt of the  tape around my car! I’m glad I have good friends out here or it would have taken me hours on my own. Oh Japan, you strange, strange place.