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Well, on Wednesday morning I had a small accident in the bathroom, tripped up and hit my head, so we’ve not done much since. I think I have mild concussion, I’m ok though, so nobody need worry! Just rested all Wednesday and Thursday we just went out for a few hours in the afternoon to Shibuya. We couldn’t find the crossing anywhere so we’re going back today more prepared with directions (picture of a random building in Shibuya below). After that we went back to the Hotel room, relaxed for a few hours and then went for a swim, located on the very top floor of the middle of the three towers of our hotel.

One thing we’ve noticed about Tokyo is it’s completely spotless, no litter in sight anywhere, despite there being hardly any bins around. The tube service was quite easy to use once you work it out. Luckily we had some Japanese guy show us what to do - we didn’t even have to ask, he must of been able to read our puzzled faces.

And finally walking back from the station after being to Shibuya a picture of our three tower hotel…

At about 6pm on Tuesday we decided to go out for a few drinks around Shinjuku, it was extremely warm all night which is always nice. No matter which bar you go into in Tokyo it seems they have hundreds of different drinks, far more than anywhere in the UK.

The first bar we went into was very small despite this there were three people behind the bar, one took your order and the other poured the drinks. We had a beer and one of their “Owners Cask” whiskeys.

First Bar in Shinjuku

After leaving the first bar and looking for a second we got waved into another small place, which appeared to be very traditional from the outside.

After this we went for some food, sausage, burger, potato wedges and vegetables, although the only picture taken was in the toilet, my I ask…. how do you flush??

The final place was good too, we met some English guy from Manchester who was doing a bit of a world tour, heading off to Thailand.

We met up with and spoke to a few of the Japanese there, their English wasn’t the best, but who were we to complain. We got by alright though, there was a girl behind the bar who translated for us when needed.

And finally on the walk home I took some pictures of Shinjuku..

After a ridiculously long flight, our driver was awaiting us in the Arrivals area. He took great pride in carrying our bags, if he saw us try to move any of them at any point, he’d run over, grab the bag whilst saying “no, no”. He was extremely helpful and any time he wanted to do anything, he asked our permission first.

After an hour and fifteen minutes drive we pulled up at the hotel. We were greeted immediately by three other members off the Park Hyatt staff who knew our names, opened doors, removed everything out of the boot and whisked us away, our luggage out of site by this point. We were shown the various places in the hotel, we were then handed over to someone else on the 41st Floor of the hotel, who shook hands and also mysteriously knew our names.

The room is amazing, and the view….well, its simply stunning, the TV was on when we arrived with peaceful music and some mountainside scene playing. In case there is a need, we have a total of three phones in the room.

click image to enlarge

View from our room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuHAPTFWRZI
(This blog script won’t let me embed the video as it messes up the code)

Well, it’s 7am UK time, I haven’t slept for 23 and a half hours, so I’m going for a bath and then sleep for a couple of hours.

Well it’s now less than 48 hours before Jon and I head off for Tokyo for what will undoubtedly be an amazing trip. Our flight is from Heathrow on Monday 4th June at 3:45pm and we land at New Tokyo International (Narita) Airport on Tuesday 5th June at 11:10am after an 11hr 25 minute direct flight.

Shortly after landing we will be getting into our Limo for a further 1hr 30 minute drive to our 5 Star Park Hyatt Hotel which has a 37″ Plasma, DVD player, High Speed Internet access (so I can update this blog), 55 square metre room, amazing views of the city (one of the best in the city I believe) and of course, as all hotels should have… a heated toilet seat!

From then on, I have no idea what order we will be doing things in, we’ll simply be taking each day as it comes. Hopefully we will get enough sleep on the plane to make the most of the first day in Tokyo.

Some of the things we plan to do…

- Go on one of the Top 10 fastest and highest roller coasters in the world which surrounds a shopping mall in Bunkyo, Tokyo.

 
click to view larger image

- Go to the Bunkyo Civic Center Observatory Lounge to see spectacular views of the city and Mount Fuji.

- Visit the national gardens at the Imperial Palace

- Wake up early and go to the biggest fish market in the world

- Visit the Roppongi Hills - According to The Rough Guide to Tokyo this is ”the city’s hippest neighbourhood”

- If possible we will go to see some Sumo Wrestling

- Visit Shibuya, sit in Starbucks and watch hundreds of people rushing across Shibuya Crossing at once.

- Go to the Air club/bar in Shibuya, as seen in Lost In Translation

And lots more!

Hopefully we will stay away from McDonalds throughout the duration of the trip, although it will be tempting as there is one on the bottom floor of the hotel.

The weather looks set to be good for most of the trip, which is great considering this is the wettest month of the year in Tokyo.

Look out for more posts in the coming week - depending on how much time we spend in the hotel. Hopefully I’ll get half an hour each morning to update on the previous days events.

Sionara!

Not much happened yesterday, we got up early to go to the fish market only to find it closed. We did however go for a walk around some nearby gardens, which was pleasant until it started throwing it down and thunder and lighting. On a positive note, at least it was still warm. Below are some of the pictures taken.

Today we first went back to the fish market, the biggest in the world, this time in hope that it was open and luckily it was. Until you are here, you won’t be able to grasp how huge it is or how frantic! We even got lost while we were there and took us 30 minutes to find how to get out again. Due to how busy it was, taking pictures really wasn’t practical, but I did manage to take a photo of the HUGE crabs. It’s hard to tell on camera and the tank was very dirty, but look at the size of the bottle in comparison.

Brief video of the fish market madness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLShHFyjeWg

Next we went to LaQua in Bunkyo. This was a large shopping center which also had a roller coaster wrapped around it.

Video of the Roller Coaster (Thunder Dolphin):
(coming soon)

Oh and while we were on the train at a station en route to Bunkyo I saw something quite strange…. people fishing in what looked like small segmented pools specially for that purpose (see picture below).

… the internet speed in our hotel is just ridiculous. From Microsoft I’m getting 3.5MB/s (28Mbps)!

Today we went off to what is classed as the “Electric Town”, which claims to be one of the biggest places to buy electronics in the world. This is where I bought my Nintendo Wii controller. Anything electrical you could ever dream of wanting can be found here, although Phones, Cameras and MP3 were the most frequently found items on sale. More buildings below, this time of Akihabara. They put cartoons on every building, check out the second image of the subway station entrance.

Next was to the “hippest” area of Tokyo, where most of the young people live and hang out. Lots of different types of shops, clubs, pubs and a Hard Rock cafe. Not to mention big fish…

Just bought a Nintendo Wii Controller both the remote and nun-chuck for £24.49 instead of the UK price of £44.99!

After our failed attempt to find the main area and crossing in Shibuya we went back for a second attempt, reading up exactly where the crossing was before we left the hotel. Below are some of the photos and a video of the crossing and some other buildings in Shibuya.

Shibuya Crossing:

Other images of Shibuya:

Video of Shibuya crossing from the ground:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZDbFcIWLBQ

Below are some of the photographs taken at the Imperial Palace, unfortunately we couldn’t go into the main park area as it seemed to be all shut off.

The Imperial Palace Grounds:

Across from the Imperial Palace:

Video of an area across from the Imperial Palace:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2rod6CRKwU

Not sure yet what we will get up to tomorrow, or tonight, still lots to do such as the large Fish Market, New York Grill bar and the roller coaster (providing my head is OK by Monday).