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Leaving the airport was more of a challenge than I had expected. I covered the basics with my visit to Starbucks (to get some change for the phone really!) and booking my accomodation and transport but English was far less common than I expected in such a big city. But I suppose that's just an ignorant westerners' viewpoint. Must practise some more Japanese!!! The train journey into town was an eye opener as we passed houses with ornate tiled rooftops surrounded by rice fields. Perhaps I really will see everything that is the stereotypical view of Japan in the 2 weeks that I have planned here!!

Sun and Sushi

Coffeecat
2005-12-24 19:31:47

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Leaving the airport was more of a challenge than I had expected. I covered the basics with my visit to Starbucks (to get some change for the phone really!) and booking my accomodation and transport but English was far less common than I expected in such a big city. But I suppose that's just an ignorant westerners' viewpoint. Must practise some more Japanese!!! The train journey into town was an eye opener as we passed houses with ornate tiled rooftops surrounded by rice fields. Perhaps I really will see everything that is the stereotypical view of Japan in the 2 weeks that I have planned here!!

When I stepped foot off of the metro, I was blown away by the evening heat. Perhaps I noticed it more as I was walking in circles with my pack on my back trying to find my accomodation. Luckily Tokyo has a vending machine with cold drinks on every corner. In fact they have one for every 20 people in Tokyo. As there are 12 million people in the city, I'll let you do the math-basically there are a hell of a lot of vending machines!! Anyways, I had managed to book the cheapest clean

There is a huge pile of rice underneath all the tuna...and I did actually manage to eat it all!!!
room available in the north of the city, an old factory flophouse. Folding out my mattress over the tatami matted floor, I spread out my maps and tourbook and began planning the upcoming sights. The room was of a size that I became rather lost in the sea of pamphlets that I had collected from the tourist info center.

It's usually a dream to wake up surrounded in a bed of money, for me I seem to live the dream of waking up in a bed of maps. Regardless of what I planned to do, all I managed on the first day was a trip to the post office and Ueno park. Having confirmed my map reading skills in Hong Kong were not as hot as I thought they were, I could only laugh at ...