Japan Day One: The arrival in Tokyo...

After checking into the hotel we decided to jump a train and make our way into Tokyo and get ourselves lost.

We managed to buy ourselves a ticket for the train and got on the right train. We were very impressed with our public transport skills.

We got off the train at Tokyo station and had a chioce to make. Would we go out the Yaesu exit or the Marunouchi exit. I had Marunouchi and Woo had Yaesu. We paper, scissors, rocked for it, best of three, and nearly ran into a billboard while we were playing. Woo, and the Yaesu exit won.

We exited the station and to be honest, it was not what I expected. It was kinda bland actually, but we walked further away from the train station and eventually came across some people. As we continued to walk, we found more and more people and soon we were fairly sure we'd found a happening area. We were in Ginza, whichwe would later find out is Tokyo's version of New Yorks 5th Avenue. Bvlgari, louis Vuitton and such alluded to this also. The main street was closed to vehicles and there were people everywhere.

After walking around for a while, continually turning to each other and saying "We're in Tokyo!!" Woo and I decided to grab a drink. We went into a place called "Lion beer Hall" which was a your basic beer themed restaurant. Quite pricey, and all the staff would scream everytime another customer walked in. I'm pretty sure they were yelling "welcome, pleased to meet you", but I honestly have no idea.

After that we continued on. Just walking, staring, taking occasional photos. Some of the architechture is amazing. Eventually we grabbed something to eat in a tiny little place which was basically a basement. Woo's chicken was great, my lamb was average.

We then headed back to the train station and caught a train to Shinjuku. The busiest train station in the world. And it felt like it. It was about 7pm on a Saturday night, and the place was nuts. We got out of the station, heading to the Tokyo "red light district" known as Kabukicho.
"Kubikicho" sounds like a westerner made up a name to sound Japanese, but it is really what its called. As we walked out of he train station I was hit with my first "we are in Tokyo" moment. There were people EVERYWHERE. A sea of neon and giant screens blasted our eyes and a constant stream of high pitched Japanese chatter filled our ears. Japans pedestrian crossings dont beep. They have their own little theme song. It's hard to explain, but very cool.

So we walked though Kabukicho looking for a bar. We would get accosted every 40 metres or so, usually by a Japanese dude, but also by some big black dudes. They wanted us to go into their establishment, paying 5000 yen to do so. We would apparently get all you can drink for an hour while we watch some Japanese girl take her clothes off. One dude offered us 4000 yen. 90min free drinks, shower with a girl, then massage, then sex, if we liked. Seems like a good deal. But paying for sex is not the sort of thing I am ever going to do.

Later, we found out what tends to happen in those places is you pay your money to get in, have your drinks, then when you try to leave, they charge your 10000yen to leave. Sneaky fuckers.

So, we found a nice little pub which made the weakest bourbon and cola's in the world. Stayed there for a few drinks and then headed out again. There was another hour or so of walking before we found a "Hub". The Hub's are a franchised English style pub. Not really what we wanted, but inside it was cosy and had lots of ambience and chatter. The beer wasn't ridiculously priced, and the waitress was cute, so it was all we were looking for. And frankly I was very tired of being asked if I would like to play with Japanese girls by big scary black mofos...

We left the Hub at around 11:30ish, and then headed home on the second last train. When we got off the train in Shinigawa, the last trains were coming soon, and people were running around everywhere.

Anyway, we got home fine and went to sleep.

Woo snores like a plane taking off, but apparently so do i.