Sitting in the smallest hotel room ever designed. Thankfully there is a comfy queen bed but everything else has been shrunk to accommodate it.
Arrived at Narita airport on time with Jetstar. I’m positive Jetstar have made the long haul fleet with less leg room so beware if you choose them in future. Once through customs, we had our first Japanese meals bought from a 7/11 at the terminal. Lynda had a spaghetti bolognaise and I had a sort of spaghetti marinara, but the only seafood was “pippies” that you can get back home particularly in Tassie. They microwave them for you and they were delicious!
The toilets were interesting. In the cubicles, you had a choice of the squat toilet which I avoided due to concerns around my flexibility. The last thing I needed was calling for assistance whilst lying on my back having fallen backward and cramped up! So the other choice was the more conventional dunny with the control panel similar to what an F1 driver would have. Complete with “bottom washer” and accompanying instructions I decided to give it a go. Warm water suddenly shot into my backside at a frightening velocity and I let out a very high pitched shriek that could be heard from a distance believe me! I hit the stop button, cleaned up and got out of there with whatever dignity I had left. I felt violated and need to curl up in the fetal position whilst taking a long shower.
The Japanese word for thank you is Arigato, not to be confused with Origano or Origami which is what I’ve been using. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful. Within a minute of pulling a map out and looking for directions, a local will offer help. The train ride to Tokyo from Narita takes approx. an hour and you can gradually see the regional aspect change to a concrete jungle about half way. The density of the housing is extraordinary and it looked amazing today because everyone decided that given it was a beautiful day of 13 degrees, they would wash all their big linen, like doonas, blankets etc and hang them out on their tiny balconies. It was like some bizarre flag ceremony.
The Tokyo subway station was full on and you can only imagine what peak hour would look like with a population in the city alone of 9 million. There are 38 million people in the prefecture of Tokyo to Yokahama which isn’t that far away. With that in mind, if I told you there is not ONE piece of graffiti anywhere would you believe me? Well, it’s true! Not even a random bit of genitalia done in a texta! I’ve never seen a place anywhere as clean as Tokyo. Not so much as a cigarette butt on the ground!
We got to the hotel at 2pm, showered and crashed for 2 hours. It got dark at 5pm and we headed out to walk the streets. We are in the Ginza district which is a high-end shopping area with massive shops and all the expensive brands. The people are stunning and the most fashionable I’ve ever seen so I looked like a bum with my big head and grey beard. At least I had plenty of room to move as we walked down the street. There are hundreds of tiny bars and restaurants tucked away everywhere and we chose a tiny tempura restaurant with incredible service and food. Again a local sitting next to us gave us some foodie advice with the sauces etc and all up we filled our guts for about A$16. We are determined to keep trying the local cuisine as we have been a bit soft in the past in other countries.
Initial thoughts of Tokyo:
Incredibly fast and very driven people. First impressions of Ginza was like the movie Bladerunner. You didn’t know where to look. There was so much happening in terms of colour and movement and like Bladerunner, Tokyo seems to have mysterious “Siri-like” voices that appear from nowhere advising you of this and that. It’s quite surreal.
We saw a couple of punters asleep in restaurants at the table still dressed in their work clothes. It’s Saturday and Boxing Day for God’s sake! These people are workaholics and judging by how busy the shops are, they like to spend.
The cabs here are old black Toyota Crowns with a square shape and are driven by men in suits! They look more like funeral directors in hearses! They also have automatic rear doors controlled by the driver so they don’t waste any time. Passenger gets out and bang! the door slams shut. You wanna make sure you check that you have everything before getting out of one of these, because the man in the suit has places to be!
I just can’t believe how clean it is. There are many people wearing surgical masks, presumably because of pollution but I haven’t noticed it. Lynda reckons they just don’t want to take any chances getting sick because it will mean time off work. I think the overall attitude to graffiti and cleanliness comes down to respect. The Japanese are a resilient race of people and they’ve learnt from the past. Atomic bombs and tsunamis? What else have you got! We got through that and became one of the most powerful industrialised and technologically superior nations in the world!…NEXT!
Tomorrow brings touristy stuff after a good sleep. Hope all’s well. Cheers Willow & Lynda.
