Tokyo (finally!)

We actually arrived in Tokyo for one night before going up to Sendai and Matsushima... we spent the afternoon wandering around Ginza, Tokyo's answer to Park Avenue which was jammed with so much Armani, Gucci and Louis Vuitton it kind of made you want to get out of there as soon as possible. It was just a bit snobby for my liking, that's all. Then we chilled out in the evening cos we had an early morning at Tsukiji Fish Market, which is the largest in the world, and only a couple of subway stops away from our hotel. So we were up at 5:30/6ish (I can't remember, early mornings always seem a bit fuzzy) and there within half an hour. It's apparently open every day of the year, 24/7, but the best time to go is before 8am when it's full with people buying for their sushi restaurants and the like.

It was closed.

The sign said 'Today is a regular holiday.'

Well it wasn't a regular holiday anywhere else in Tokyo and you couldn't help thinking that they saw the tourists coming their way and all hid. Hmm.

So anyway, the rest of Tokyo had to wait until we came back down from Sendai. I'll write it in area sections cos I can't remember exactly what order it came in, besides, we revisited some places a few times...

First of all, an introduction: How's this for superlatives... Largest pendulum clock in the world. It's here. World's longest escalator. You got it. Busiest train station in the world (at last count 3.31 million people PER DAY pass through). Yep, it's Shinjuku. Largest department store in the world? Well it's in Yokohama, barely 20 minutes by train. Biggest fish market... you know it!

SHINJUKU: Shinjuku has to be seen to be believed! We went on a walking tour on our first day to get our bearings. We wandered through the mad neon chaos of camera shops, restaurants, pachinkos and God knows what else. To say it was a sensory overload would be a huge understatement! Yodobashi Camera became Ant's new best friend, along with Bic Camera, which are every photographer's fantasy and a fraction of the UK price! It was lenses this, tripods that, 'oooh I should've waited to buy stuff here' and all the rest of it... I kind of lost interest after a short while but it was nice to see Ant so obviously engrossed. I love nerds ;-) The walking tour took us through Kabuki-cho, one of the red-light districts, where we had the worst sushi EVER. Really leathery and gross. We also went to Hanazono-jinja, a small shrine that looks totally out of place here, where a couple of nights they had food stalls (Ant had okonomiyaki - he's slightly obsessed with it) and drumming and dancing. Random people were just joining in and picking up the moves as they went along. I don't know what it was for but it was good. Golden Gai was behind the shrine - it's an area of tiny, TINY bars - it's like people have made their front room into a small bar with only 2 or 3 chairs at the counter. It seems very inaccessible to non-Japanese. There are some signs in English, but also some that say they do not allow you in unless you speak fluent Japanese. Hardly the hospitality we were used to in Japan but hey. We returned a few times to Shinjuku, bought sunglasses, had some GREAT sushi, shopped, shopped, shopped and generally soaked up quintessential Tokyo. Also, cross over to the other side of Shinjuku Station (the busiest in the world remember? And, yeah, it's um, heaving all the time) to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices and there are two free observation decks, which give you a great view over the city. Apparently on a clear day you can see Mount Fuji, but we were not so lucky. We went up in the evening as well, which is even better as the city looks amazing covered in neon lights.

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET: We made it!! And yes, it was open. Phew! It was crazy busy, people had brought their small children (not a good idea) and were constantly yoinking them out of the way of speeding delivery carts that stop for no one (they give you an angry BEEEP about a second before impact). Everyone was a little bit crazy and we felt like we were always in someone's way (we usually were). There was all kinds of fish - big, small, in shells, dead, alive, suckers, turtles (no!) and worst of all... WHALE. Now this is my blog and I can say what I like, so... there's just some things that shouldn't be allowed. Anyway, we quickly vacated that section of the market and wandered outside. Tradition amongst tourists has it that you visit the fish market then have sushi for breakfast at one of the restaurants there. I'm a huge lover of sushi (sorry vegetarians) but Tsukiji had really not put me in the mood for a sushi breakfast! So we went to Jonathan's and I got some pancakes.

HARAJUKU: Trendy and mad. All the crazies congregate here! Omote-sando is a proper posh shopping street, lots of European-style cafes, Kiddy Land (a 7 floor toy shop... as much for grownups as for kids) and the place is full of trendy Tokyoites. Jingu-bashi is a bridge next to the train station. This is where the Gothic & Lolita girls hang out. They are dressed, well, kind of like Bo Peep... We have photos, but before they go online, just google Gothic & Lolita and you'll get the idea. They just hang out on the bridge with each other, posing for pictures by gawping tourists. Meiji-jingu is nearby - a well-known shrine popular at weekends, but the star of the show is Yoyogi-koen! It's a park just around the corner, complete with 'greased-back cats' (think, the Fonz - all leather pants and Danny Zuko hair) just hanging out and smoking - how cool... Also to be found are skaters (see Ant's Facebook photos for some great pictures), bands playing gigs along the paths at the weekends, people practising dance routines, stalls, food, drinks, everything. At the weekends, people all set up stalls across the road from the park and sell their old stuff, kind of like a car boot sale, but all 'cool' Tokyo clothes, bags, shoes etc.

SHIBUYA: Another huge shopping area, Shibuya didn't have the snobbiness of Ginza or the crazies of Harajuku, so it was kind of nice. There were a lot of young people, not many older than us as far as I could see. We had a good wander round - the only sights really are the Hachiko Statue and Love Hotel Hill. The statue is of a faithful dog and positioned just outside the entrance to Shibuya Station. Every evening, the dog would greet his master there when his train had come in, and even after the poor guy died, his dog was there every day, same time, for the next ten years or so till it died. The statue's a bit rubbish though, very small, but people seem to use it as a good meeting point. Love Hotel Hill is full of gaudy, cheap-looking, rent-by-the-hours. The rates are pretty good though! It feels, um, kind of seedy though so we left sharpish. There is one bad thing to note about Shibuya: we could not find Mister Donut. We know you're out there Misdo!! But where?!?!?!

IMPERIAL PALACE GARDEN: You aren't allowed in the Imperial Palace and are only actually allowed in the East Side of the Palace Gardens. The gardens are pleasant enough, nothing really special, but nice to get out of city life for a few hours.

IKEBUKURO: Ikebukuro... it has two of the world's largest department stores. We went to the longest escalator in the world... it's not the longest escalator in the world, the one in Osaka at the top of the Umeda Sky Building was longer. I Wikipediaed it and the longest one in the world is somewhere in Moscow's extremely deep underground system. That's all I have to say about Ikebukuro!

UENO: We went to Ueno on one of our last days in Tokyo. It's apparently how Tokyo used to be. It's messy and loud, full of markets and stuff. It was actually a lot like South East Asia and made me a bit more excited about going to China, cos I'm sad to leave Japan. But I like a bit of grime so this was nice! Ueno-koen is the park. It's a great spot for cherry blossom viewing in the spring, but there were no cherry trees blossoming in August! There were lots of people doing skits, juggling, tricks, singing etc. Very cool. In the afternoon, our last afternoon sightseeing (the day after was SummerSonic Festival), we decided to go back to Harajuku for a final look around. What we didn't know was that it was the afternoon of the Tokyo Pride Parade!

PRIDE PARADE: I've never been to a pride parade before but it was great fun. A huge brass band were playing, dancers, drag queens, anybody and everybody was dressed up in some way (men in bikinis anyone?!). The parade people kept appearing more and more opposite Yoyogi-koen (we don't know where they were all walking from, there were hundreds!), everyone was waving flags, singing, it was brilliant. The band were amazing, they played for ages and ages and when a few guys waving a big Brazilian flag came past as part of the parade, they suddenly launched into a rendition of Copacabana. It was absolutely wicked. What a perfect way to end our Japan leg. We were very sad to be packing that night :-(

SUMMERSONIC: A great line-up and a great last day in Japan. We were on the guest list (as guests of the Arctic Monkeys (natch! cheers Willy!!), so we arsed around for a bit, trying to get our wristbands, and gave a holla to our Japanese wristband homies. Some crazy ladies at Tokyo tourist info centre had written in Japanese that we were on the guestlist so that we weren't just stuck. It was held at a huge exhibition hall, with a nearby stadium as the main stage, so it didn't have the same festivally feeling of say Leeds or Glastonbury with tents and crusties, but, when in Rome (ain't that right, Lorenzo!)... We saw (not in this order) Kasabian, Reverend And The Makers, The Polyphonic Spree, Hot Chip, Bright Eyes, Bloc Party, Manic Street Preachers and of course the aforementioned Monkeys. Managed to meet up with friends Will and John and were ordered around in sheep pens all day. That's Japan, they like things orderly!

A final note... Japanese businessmen + sake + needing to get home at the end of the night = not a pretty picture! Imagine swaying, stood up on the subway... station after station... standing on people's feet... riding the train to the end of the line, not realising, and still being on it when it started again in the other direction... Bless their cotton socks. They sleep like babies!