We're Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto.

The flight to Tokyo was boring and unlike the flight from Wellywood to Brisbane it was definitely long enough to experience The Numbing.  We said farewell to Julie and Craig before they went off to work and set about packing.  Adrienne's Aunty Jill was kind enough to drop us off at the airport where we enjoyed the last of the Brisbane heat and a final Aussie feed of Red Rooster.

It took about 8 hours to fly to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for our transfer to the flight to Japan.  We managed to update our diaries, have a beer :-) and make the most of the in-flight entertainment system.  We made our way through a few movies and TV programs, Adrienne slept for a while but Sean stayed awake to make sleeping on the next flight easier.  We were in KL for 4 hours and like most transit lounges, there wasn't much to do except wander the few stores and stare abjectly through the window... exciting.  We made it through the 6 hour flight to Tokyo, trying to sleep but finding it impossible.  We both ended up with only a couple of hours sleep before we were in Tokyo.

We were stoked to be starting our adventure and being in Asia proper but we had just flown from ~30°C and landed in 0°C.  Adrienne had chucked on jeans earlier, in anticipation of winter but Sean stuck with shorts, although he did put on a jersey as a nod to the cooler clime.  After checking our bags for illegal drugs and making sure nothing had been stolen, we headed briskly through customs without any hassles - welcome to Japan!

The first endeavour was to get to our accomodation, Taito Ryokan in Asakusa.  A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, kind of like a pension in Europe.  We had to be there by 11 am or lose our booking but we had a couple of hours and the great Japanese culture.  We were with helped buying our tickets by one guy (Y1060 from Narita Airport to Asakusa Station) and then shown the correct train by another, who helped us transfer and made sure that we knew how many stops we had to wait.  Luckily the stations are also in English because we forgot how many stops there were to go!  It's great how the Japanese are compelled to help confused looking backpackers.

Having successfully made it through the subway we got within 50 m of the ryokan but needed help of an old man because the place is a bit hidden.  It only costs Y3000 pp a night and for that price we were willing to put up with asking old men for directions.  We dropped off our bags because we couldn't actually book in until 3pm, and headed out for some food.  We wandered around the corner, and found a great noodle shop.  Ordering food here was a little different to the norm, we looked through an English menu and found the numbers related to the items we wanted, then went to a machine where we inserted money and pressed the related buttons.  It turns out we got different meals to what we were expecting, but they were good nonetheless.

The next order of business was to book tickets to South Korea on the Kampu Ferry.  The local tourist information centre was useless when the one person who spoke English didn't understand what we wanted, so we gave up.  Instead we were given a map of the area and proceeded to peruse the streets of Asakusa.  Lots of stalls and shops proudly displayed all manner of merchandise, with brightly coloured lights and signs advertising their wares.  Having no intention of buying anything, we walked towards the Senso-ji shrine.  This shrine is actively in use by the locals, and we saw many people bowing and pausing with their hands in the prayer postition in front of various statues and inside the shrine itself.  Outside the shrine was a cauldron in which people had placed lit sticks of insense and waved the smoke over their bodies to help cures any ails that might bother them.  Adrienne followed suit.  Sean's foray into the local culture was picking a stick from a can that related to a prayer (we think) which he then tied to a board.  We don't know what that means.  Hopefully it's good! 
 
We were good and tired by this point and really wanted to sit down somewhere, so after a phone call to Sean's brother Peter, we headed for a bite at McDonalds.  Sorry, we were tired but our heads were hung in shame and we admonished ourselves with each mouthfull...  We took a wander along the Sumida river and came across a small shanty town.  The dwellers were friendly enough, saying hello as we passed by.  It was getting close to our check in time, so we got lost in the back streets, a great experience as we came across many little but hidden shrines.  Although the best sight had to be the vending machine that sold beer and whisky.
 
Arriving at our home for the next two nights, we were shown around.  Our room/shoebox was small, but enough for two people.  The beds were futons which were only a few cm thick on a wood floor, with pretty solid pillows that felt like they were filled with wheat or something.  The doors were made of that kind of paper stuff you usually see on tv when something is set in Japan.  Adrienne lay down and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours, while Sean attended to emails before falling asleep himself for about an hour. By this time we had to head out for some dinner.  We had passed a supermarket earlier in the day, and decided this was the place to go to.  We only had boiling water to help us with cooking at the ryokan, so we opted for noodles, mandarins and some small fish-shaped biscuits filled with chocolates.  We got back and stuck our feet under the blanket over the table in the common room and cranked up the heater underneath.  Toastie.  We chatted with an Israeli girl for a couple of hours before hitting the sack.
 
Our sleep was 10 hours of bliss, although when we woke up it was raining. We had planned to head into town along the river on a ferry, but thought this was pointless in the rain.  So, after picking up some fruity bread rolls (delicious!) for breakfast (that we then couldn't eat on the street, it's frowned upon), we jumped on the subway to Akihabara.  To make our day easier we picked up a daily pass for the Tokyo Metro, costing only Y710.  Akihabara is the electronics district in Tokyo.  It's amazing, the bright lights and jingles make it an exciting experience to see this place.  We were in the search for mp3 player, and after much searching and some sushi for lunch, we bought a couple of 6Gb SanDisk players.  For the geeks at heart click here.
 
Akhibara had put us into a neon light induced state of euphoria, so with our purchases and renewed vigour it was off to sort out our Japan Rail passes (great value, Y28,300 for a week of unlimited travel when Tokyo to Kobe is Y14,000).  We headed off to Tokyo station where we promptly headed to a ticket office, trying to use our impossibly small map on the back of our JR exchange order.  After a polite "no" and some new directions we went to another office, only for it to be repeated again and then again.  Eventually, after 3 failed attempts, we were pointed to the travel centre and had our passes issued.  To secure our trip to Kobe, we reserved seats for the next day.
 
More of Tokyo was calling and we made our way to the Imperial Palace (actually the Gardens, because you can't enter the Palace proper).  It turns out that the Palace closes at 4:00 pm and you can guess when we arrived:  4:30 pm.  We were a bit peeved because it was the main reason for seeing Tokyo.  Still we managed to get some photos of the outside but it got boring after about 5 minutes and it was time to head towards Shinjuku and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. The Government building provided us with a great view of Tokyo, well as good as we could get in the rain and cloud.
 
It was about time to brave the wet to visit Shibuya to get a fresh shot of neon and to checkout more of modern Tokyo.  We got there in a crush of people and marvelled at the waste of electricity but more importantly listened to the grumble of our stomachs.  We found a cool little noodle place for a feed and went to find a statue of a dog (cool story:  Dog used to wait for master everyday at station, master died, dog still waited there for another 10 years until it died, the locals made a statue of it).  Note that it was bucketing down and we were tired, hence we gave up on the statue, flagged the Tokyo Tower and opted for the Ryokan and sleep.
 
Kobe was the next on our itinerary and we were up early to make sure that we were at Tokyo station to catch the Shinkansen (fast train).  In the end it was a bit of a rush, as we left the ryokan a bit later than expected.  Still, we made it to the train with 15 minutes to go before it left.  We grabbed some pastries from a bakery before we stepped into the train.  The trip took three and a quarter hours, which we filled up with writing in our diaries, looking at the Japanese countryside (although it was more like one long city) and catching a brief view of Mt Fuji.  Sean found it entertaining how the conductor and tea ladies would turn and bow to the carriage, whenever they exited it - imagine that happening in NZ!