After an 11hr 20min flight followed immediately by a 1hr 30min train journey we finally arrived in Tokyo and got lost the very second we set foot out of the train station. While trying to find our hotel the ‘Sunroute plaza’ we came across a map, unfortunately it was all in Japanese, luckily a policeman spotted us looking bewildered and offered to help, seconds later a passer by stopped and offered his help and we soon found the hotel and checked in. This was the first of many occasions when complete strangers would go out of their way to help us, something which we are not accustomed to back home.
After a quick rest at the hotel we began to explore the Shinjuku district, we hadn’t slept at all on the plane journey but we could not allow ourselves to sleep as in Tokyo it was still early in the morning. Staying awake wasn’t all that hard in the end as we soon discovered that Tokyo is one of the most vibrant, busy, colourful, and energetic not to mention fun places to be in the world, there was so much to do and see we didn’t know where to start! As with most cities there were huge chain stores lining the streets but take a turn down one of the side roads and you could find all sorts of obscure little shops and bars. Every street had a vending machine lurking somewhere so getting a drink wasn't difficult, some of the juice drinks were really nice, the cold green tea was one of the most vile things we had ever tasted! I was surprised to see that all of these machines were in immaculate condition, no vandalism whatsoever. It was soon time to get our first meal, we went to ‘First kitchen’ which turned out to be a Japanese fast food joint, like typical brits abroad we spotted something we liked the look of on the menu and rather than attempt to use some of the Japanese we had been learning we pointed at the picture and just said ’That one please!’, this approach actually worked a treat and it would not be the only time that we had to resort to it. We took our food upstairs and found that we were the only people in the entire place that weren’t Japanese, sat down took a bite of the lovely chicken burgers we had selected and….. “What the hell! This isn’t chicken, urgh…. It’s a prawn burger!!!” We were too hungry to be fussy though so we finished them off and went back to the hotel where we soon fell asleep at around 5pm Tokyo time.
Because we went to bed so early the night before, we woke up very early the next day, we tried to get back to sleep but it just wasn’t going to happen so we went for an early breakfast at the hotel restaurant / bar ‘Villazza’. The first thing we did was get on the train to Harajuku to explore and hopefully find some of the districts gothic lolita's and cosplayers, unfortunately the train map was all in Japanese, we must have looked confused because suddenly a fellow Englishman appeared and offered to help, we gratefully accepted his offer and he showed us how to order the tickets, explained which line to get on and even walked us to the platform, thanks to him we were soon extremely confident when it came to getting on and off the trains and were soon travelling all over Tokyo exploring new places.
So we arrived in Harajuku and after checking out some of the smaller more obscure shops selling all kinds of alternative clothing, jewellery and accessories we came across the chain stores and ‘Kiddyland’, five floors of Japanese toys! We must have spent a good hour in there looking at all the strange things before we set off down the road to Yoyogi park. At the entrance to the park some men were preparing some giant samurai figures for a festival, after taking some pictures we entered the beautiful park and found our way to the ancient Meiji shrine, although we were enjoying exploring the city it was nice to get away for a couple of hours and explore a more relaxed and peaceful area, we took plenty of photos and spent some time observing the locals as they prayed at the shrine, people of all ages and backgrounds entered, clapped their hands together, bowed and threw coins to a large wooden tray. On our way out of the park we were stopped by a man dressed in the most unusual attire, he asked where we were from and when I replied that we were from England he seemed very excited “Oh! Great! English people are really friendly! Great football teams!” well, I guess he was right about one thing there, our new friend asked us all about our travels and then walked us over to a big pile of beautiful paintings that he had made on a silk like material, I guess I should have known there was a reason he was being so nice but as a musician I have a certain respect for fellow artists trying to make a living from doing what they love most so I bought a painting from him to send home as a gift, not before he tried his best to sell me two paintings and told me “It will be very lucky for you!”. 
Next we were back on the train and on our way to Shibuya and soon found ourselves at its famous road crossing amongst hundreds of people, flashing lights and neon signs and hundreds upon hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants, it was as if they had tried to cram as many different things into the district as possible, needless to say we spent a lot of time here and visited it’s enormous HMV store, a very bizarre underground sex shop, a pet shop and many more, however the most fun we had there was when we decided to try one of japans favourite pastimes ‘Karaoke’.
After finding the courage to enter we discovered that the karaoke joint was set up rather like a hotel, we entered a lobby, checked in, got our room number and took the lift, you could even get room service! We had the room to ourselves for an hour but must have wasted 15 minutes working out how to operate the karaoke system as all the writing on the screen was in Japanese, once we finally changed it to English we began to look through the song catalogue, pretty much any song you could think of was in there, everything from Elvis to Pantera or Beyonce to Sonata Arctica, I sang songs by Elvis, Roy Orbison and Weezer, me and Amy did Elton John and Kiki Dees duet ‘Don’t go breaking my heart’ which was disastrous yet hilarious + Amy gave me a stunning rendition of Lady Gaga’s bad romance. I really wish we took karaoke as seriously as the Japanese, it would be loads of fun filling a room with good friends, getting drunk and singing cheesy songs!
Next we headed back to Shinjuku and had a meal at ‘Sizzler’ before going to the top of the Metropolitan government building to see the view from the observatory, Tokyo at night from such a height really is spectacular with so many lights as far as the eye can see.
The next morning we got on the train to ‘Ikebukuro’ we wandered around the streets but couldn’t find much to do there so decided to grab a bite to eat at ‘Café Jr: Italian Tomato’ we ordered a pizza, just a plain cheese and tomato one, or so we thought, it arrived with a lovely dollop of mozzarella cheese on top, lovely, I cut straight into it with my knife and fork and… what the hell is this!?! It’s… an egg? A poached egg? On a pizza? Why!? And cold too! It was a weird combo that I won’t be trying again but it didn’t stop us finishing it as we were hungry due to missing breakfast.
Next we headed to Ueno to visit it’s zoo and saw a wide variety of animals, all the usual suspects were there as well as some more bizarre creatures in the nocturnal area + vivarium, it was nice way to spend the last day but the real highlight was visiting the Park Hyatt hotel and restaurant which was featured in the movie ‘Lost in translation’ starring Bill Murray, which is why, to Amys amusement I referred to it throughout the visit as the ‘Bill Murray hotel’, I really think they should consider renaming it. The restaurant ‘The New York Grill’ was on the 52nd floor of the building and it was incredibly posh, I was glad I had put a shirt on and smartened myself up a bit! We hadn’t booked in advance and I was little worried that we might not get a table as it is a very popular place, I had not heard a bad thing about it, critics raved about the place and its world renowned reputation for high quality grub. We managed to get a table right next to the window with the most incredible view I have ever seen, a photo would not do it justice, even while having a conversation with Amy I couldn’t help but gawp out of the window in awe.
The waiters here were something else, we chose a bottle of champagne and the bottle was presented for our approval, then he said ‘May I open?’ and poured a little into my glass so I could taste it and once again give him my approval, not the kind of treatment I’m used to but I wasn’t complaining! After a starter full of unidentified food, some form of pate, raw meat and dips we got started on the main course, mine was the most tender, beautiful steak I’ve ever had, rare enough that it was still bleeding on my plate and covered in red wine sauce with duck fat fries on the side, Amy had the ‘Wisconsin duck’, we were incredibly full after that but couldn’t miss the opportunity to try the cheesecake and ice cream which was just fantastic.
We were sad to be leaving Tokyo the next day and were already talking about returning one day, we made the most of the morning playing strange arcade games, buying gifts for people, exploring some shops we missed the first time round, had a quick go at Pachinko, another very popular Japanese pastime but didn’t have clue how to play and soon gave up… soon it was time to make our way to Narita airport and set off for Auckland, New Zealand.
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