Japan days 16-17 - Tokyo
Friday
Another grey drizzly day. I went back to Harajuku. There's one particular clothes shop there with some really cool stuff in it. Totally unique, but also with a reqally obvious Japanese style. I'd have loved to have bought something, but unsurprisingly it was all much to small. Things that were meant to flare at he hips did so at my bottow rib. Which was just wrong. Walked in a wooded park for a bit then had a long leisrely meal of pizza and the bigggest bowl of fries you've ever seen.
Back to Shinjuku to try some live music. The guidebook recommended a basement club, about the size of the Purple Turtle which was called ( hope ironically) The Loft. £8 entry including one drink wasn't bad. The band (three young guys with beatles haircuts andflowery shirts) were energetic and quite competent, but there were only about 40 in the audience. At 10pm it shut, I stayed in the bar next door for one more drink then decided to go back to my hostel.
Before I got to the subway I saw a sign for British Pub so decided to pop my head in. It wa quite big (again in the basement) and full to overflowing. Unlike the Irish bar in Kyoto, 95% of them were Japanese. It wasn't long before i got chatting to a couple of internet advertising sellers, who knew enough English between them to keep the conversation going for three hours. Lovely guys. So happy I got to meet some locas properly before I go home, and I've converted two new people to enjoying Strongbow!
I'd missed te last tube so decded to try some other random bars. Spoke to three Canadians in one for half an hour and a French guy for two hours. Didn't realise how much I'd been drinking til it was too late - the bars only really sold spirits and were obviously liberal measures hidden amongst the ice - s at 4am I paid £35 for a cab home. Wonderfully sociable, but very expensive, night.
Saturday
Didn't go out during the day,being a bit hungover, but at night went to meet a friend at the Decadence Bar, again in Shinjuku. Unfortunately she wasn't well and cancelled. A very small club, on the 9th floor, good music, good crowd, but I coldn't be bothered making much effort with anyone this time. The American barman was quite friendly. I calld it a night at 1am and almost completely sober decided to walk back to my hostel. It was a mild dry night, I wanted to save money, had to leave early for the airport and didn't want t risk sleeping without an alarm clock. I had maps of the beginning and end points and figured with a compass I could join up the dots in the middle. Which I did, without incident. Japn must be on of the safest countries on earth to walk at night. It took three and a quarter hours, without stopping except te occasional pedestrian crossing. Not much to see though, the only thing of interest I passed being the Tokyo Dome funfair.
So that was Japan. It would have been nice to get out into the countryside a bit more, but that wuld have taken a lot more careful planning, and basicall in Japan if it's not urban or industrial, it's a mountain.
Off to the airport in a couple of hours. Time for breakfast :)
Another grey drizzly day. I went back to Harajuku. There's one particular clothes shop there with some really cool stuff in it. Totally unique, but also with a reqally obvious Japanese style. I'd have loved to have bought something, but unsurprisingly it was all much to small. Things that were meant to flare at he hips did so at my bottow rib. Which was just wrong. Walked in a wooded park for a bit then had a long leisrely meal of pizza and the bigggest bowl of fries you've ever seen.
Back to Shinjuku to try some live music. The guidebook recommended a basement club, about the size of the Purple Turtle which was called ( hope ironically) The Loft. £8 entry including one drink wasn't bad. The band (three young guys with beatles haircuts andflowery shirts) were energetic and quite competent, but there were only about 40 in the audience. At 10pm it shut, I stayed in the bar next door for one more drink then decided to go back to my hostel.
Before I got to the subway I saw a sign for British Pub so decided to pop my head in. It wa quite big (again in the basement) and full to overflowing. Unlike the Irish bar in Kyoto, 95% of them were Japanese. It wasn't long before i got chatting to a couple of internet advertising sellers, who knew enough English between them to keep the conversation going for three hours. Lovely guys. So happy I got to meet some locas properly before I go home, and I've converted two new people to enjoying Strongbow!
I'd missed te last tube so decded to try some other random bars. Spoke to three Canadians in one for half an hour and a French guy for two hours. Didn't realise how much I'd been drinking til it was too late - the bars only really sold spirits and were obviously liberal measures hidden amongst the ice - s at 4am I paid £35 for a cab home. Wonderfully sociable, but very expensive, night.
Saturday
Didn't go out during the day,being a bit hungover, but at night went to meet a friend at the Decadence Bar, again in Shinjuku. Unfortunately she wasn't well and cancelled. A very small club, on the 9th floor, good music, good crowd, but I coldn't be bothered making much effort with anyone this time. The American barman was quite friendly. I calld it a night at 1am and almost completely sober decided to walk back to my hostel. It was a mild dry night, I wanted to save money, had to leave early for the airport and didn't want t risk sleeping without an alarm clock. I had maps of the beginning and end points and figured with a compass I could join up the dots in the middle. Which I did, without incident. Japn must be on of the safest countries on earth to walk at night. It took three and a quarter hours, without stopping except te occasional pedestrian crossing. Not much to see though, the only thing of interest I passed being the Tokyo Dome funfair.
So that was Japan. It would have been nice to get out into the countryside a bit more, but that wuld have taken a lot more careful planning, and basicall in Japan if it's not urban or industrial, it's a mountain.
Off to the airport in a couple of hours. Time for breakfast :)