Tokyo
22nd-23rd September 2018
How much can you fit into 24 hours in Tokyo? After setting foot in Japan, Katherine and I try to explore as much of Japan's capital city as we can, starting in Taito for our first day, staying with a friend overnight in the nearby prefecture Saitama, before returning to explore Akihabara and Ueno Park.
My first evening in Japan
After nothing but airport food for the best part of a day and a half, what better way to celebrate my arrival than a huge bowl of ramen in Ichiran - Japans take on fast food.
Secretive wooden dividers block your view of other diners, hatches covered by small wooden blinds for your meal to be passed through connect to the kitchen, a little checklist to mark your orders on to; You could almost go an entire visit without seeing another living soul, even in spite of the narrow space behind the seats where you walk to your booth.
Once our refuelling in Ichiran was done, it was time to see some familiar faces.
After a short walk through the backstreets of Tokyo, passing nightclubs, tiny shops and through a park or two, we made our way to a dessert cafe where we found some of our friends from the JET London orientation. It had been a few months since we last saw each other at this point, so it was nice to see everyone and catch up to speed with what people had been up to.
After the food...
Waffles gone, most people left to go home, but a few stayed to take a trip round Japans most chaotic chain stores. Aisles littered with products that couldn’t fit onto the shelves, randomly placed staircases, and every product under the sun, Don Quijote really is the home of chaos. It houses every kind of Japanese food, making it a rather strange place for locals to do their weekly shop.
Whole sections with what look to be the costumes worn by those inhabiting the Filthy Frank universe, paired with dubious looking ‘massagers’ hanging from the ceiling really do make it one of the most bizarre shopping centres I’ve ever been in, and a strange but fitting way to end my first day in Japan.
Tokyo in the morning
Day two in Tokyo was surprisingly relaxed for one of the most heavily populated cities on earth, starting with a walk through Akihabara, as bright during the day as it is at night, with huge unreadable signs adorning the side of every building.
It would have been amiss of us to not go into an arcade on our first visit, so after finding a very nearby arcade, it was time to explore.
It’s amazing how much noise it’s possible to fit into one space, with numerous floors and hundreds of different songs playing simultaneously it’s impossible to keep your focus on any one thing for a prolonged period of time. Various machines cover most of the floor space for each level of the building, including dance games, drumming, driving simulators and kawaii-ifying photo booths. We even tried our hand at rescuing a Snorlax backpack from a claw machine, but I guess there’s no need to explain successful that was.
After some time, we managed to find our way out of the maze, spanning the whole height of the building and discovering previously unseen areas. Following the chaos that was the arcade, maybe it would be a good idea to find somewhere a little calmer to have something to eat.
Ueno Park is the nearest large park to the main street in Akihabara, and home to a very large lily pond that somehow managed to disguise a large temple on the other side of the water. We had a little bit of time before we needed to start moving towards our next destination, so we used the opportunity for a selfie session supported by the sound of a band rehearsing Smells like teen spirit off in the distance.
One last stop
Our last stop in Tokyo before we flew out was to Tokyo skytree and the nearby Pokemon centre - which should really be at the top of anyone’s list. It’s a magical place, imagine Disney land without the rides, and pokemon instead of mickey, on top of being inside a small store and you’re about there. Sadly, I had to force myself not to buy anything at the time, which in hindsight is very fortunate, considering that during our run around Narita later that day, we discovered that we were considerably over the weight limit for our baggage, in addition to being very late for our flight.
Thankfully, a guide rushed us to the front of the queue and the excess baggage costs were much cheaper than we were expecting. We paid the fee and ran to our plane, making it on shortly before it took off, bound for our new home, Fukuoka.