Last two days in Japan

I'm leaving most of this post to John, because we spent time shopping, and lets face it - he knows his shops! However, I did remember something that I had meant to post, and thought I would share. We were reading a local bulletin in English for the Mt Fuji area, and there was an article on Motorcycle gangs, saying how they are more a nuisance than dangerous, and how much of an annoynce they are. The article finished up by saying that due to the stolen nature and the various parts of the bikes they are liable to break down. You may be lucky enough to come across a lone biker, who has been left behind because of breakdown. If this happens be sure to point and laugh.

 Meiji Shrine on a Sunday with a newly married couple (below) in the traditional Japanese wedding outfit. Clearly, the bride's dress was designed with comfort in mind- wooden cloggs and all...

 Now we have some retail- this fantastic looking building is called the Audi Forum- in an area that includes stores such as Forever 21, Levis, Prada... Certainly a brand building exercise obvious here.

 Again, another brand building exercise here with unique, high cost store buildings which could never make enough money to justify them.

 DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR!!!

 And of course it wouldn't be Prada without a building made of glass. I remember seeing pictures of this in college, but a picture really doesn't do it justice. It's a piece of art, not a store.

I would need a separate blog just to show all the pictures and have a discussion about the retail landscape in this part of Tokyo. With a huge footfall and massive rents/ real estate costs, these stores and the many, many other flagships show the power and assets of large brands.

Mount Fuji!

After being woken by some woman making a public announcement, at 7:20 am, we got up. Our traditional Japanese room wasn't overly comfortable - the beds were quite hard, and the paper shutters let in a lot of light. I was lucky enough to have an eye mask, so I think I slept better than John. 
We spent most of the day wandering around by the lake and soaking up the scenery. Even though the area is quite built up in spots, it still manages to be quite serene, and it is very beautiful - lakes surrounded by mountains. 

In the afternoon we took a bus ride around the area - down to the next lake, and we saw some ice sculpture things. Not entirely sure what they were, as it was all explained in Japanese, but they were pretty. 
In spite of the cold (around 5 degrees celcius), we still both managed to get slightly sunburnt! We also got time to spend in a gem museum. They had some massive diamonds, and some gorgeous jewellery, and loads of pretty crystals. 
We took the bus back to Tokyo (and got stuck in some traffic along the way), and wandered around the Shinjinku area to find somewhere to eat. We ended up in a really cool traditional(ish) restaurant. We had to take our shoes off going in, and each party got a private room. The seats were set into the ground, with a space under the table for your legs - this meant that you choose to sit Japanese style (Kneeling, and sitting on your feet) or Western style. Each table had a tablet with the menu on it, and you just pressed what you wanted, and it was brought to your table. I had a delicious fried noodle omelet - I didn't manage so well with the chopsticks this time, but fortunately John had gotten a spoon with his, which he gallantly handed over. 

The buttons that you find on some of the toilets here!

Fujikawaguchiko

I had the best sleep I have had here so far last night. I think I have been suffering with Jet lag, and I have been  waking up in the middle of every night, and not going back to sleep, and then come 5 or so every day I was absolutely wrecked and falling asleep. I didn't get up until after ten today! We have left the bright lights of Tokyo behind us to come and see Mount Fuji. It's a two hour bus ride outside of Tokyo, and the bus journey was very comfortable. 

We have booked into a hostel here. We opted for the traditional Japanese room, so we are sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor. No shoes allowed in here either - we are given slippers when we come in. The hostel is lovely, with a comfy sitting room (with the all important wireless connection!). Great service too - the manager, Takeshi, picked us up in a car at the bus station. That sort of service seems to the norm here - our Hotel in Narita operates a free shuttle bus to and from the airport, and also to and from the local train station. They also have a bar attached, and Takeshi made a point of telling us that they serve Guiness!  

We arrived late enough, so we only had a little time to walk around before dark. (Well not too late, it just gets dark early enough here) The area is beautiful. More built up than I expected, but not too much. We are staying quite close to a lake, and we have a lovely view of Mt Fuji from there. We had hoped to go up a cable car tomorrow, but they are closed for maintenance. However we will spend some time exploring the area. 

Our room for tonight. 

The troll with Mt Fuji.

Japanese Lanterns. 

Another vending machine pic - the drink on the right is called Cola Shock,  and as you can see contains vodka. Just in case you can't see it the drink beside it is "Cocktail Partner, mistery box. Something alcohol drink. Try it. You are the man" 

Disneyland Tokyo!

 You just know putting Disney and Tokyo together must be asking for trouble. Its like putting a mad brush into a room full of crazy cats... But it works. It was brilliant. Similar in many ways to Disney in Florida, but so very different. The main difference being the characters shouting in Japanese. I loved it! We went on Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Railroad. 

 Piglet couldn't believe we came all the way to Tokyo to see her/him/it. Michelle got a a big hug and a kiss; the little girl was amazed to see us too. Piglet really was happy to see us!

 Konnichiwa

 Minnie mouse tried to escape the parade, but the little horses couldn't lift her and the carriage. Then we asked some Japanese people if they knew the rubber bandits song about a horse outside. They didn't - they all have Nissans. 

 LOOK OUT! Theres a giant octopus behind you- YUM YUM! HAI!

I love the bubble skirts!

 Minnie's gone off with a transformer???

 I tend to be photographed outside castles with my wife quite often these days. It's true. I think he has a mild obsession. 

 Heres one for all the Indians- Curry flavour popcorn. NO PHOTOSHOPPING HERE, just Japanese taste. We had chocolate popcorn. Which in spite of my reservations was really nice. Didn't risk the curry stuff though.

 KITTY! 

This picture took three shots - the poor troll is subject to wind conditions - he gets blown over all too easily. (I was very worried he was going to fall into the Thames)

Following on from yesterday's tea in a bottle. Meet vending machine- the perfect staff with 100% consistency in customer service and 200% satisfaction due to hot tea in a bottle for just over a euro. And they are very easy to use, they serve hot and cold drinks and I have yet to see one that has been empty. 

Also, we found two more kit kats today - a strawberry one, and a yellow one that we couldn't identify.

Tokyo again

Yep, John is holding a bottle of "milk tea". It came from one of the many many vending machines. I had a taste, and it is very sugary, but he seemed happy enough. Oh and it comes out of the vending machine warm- " truly this is a culture far superior to our own. For not only do they have heated drinks from a vending machine, but tea with sugar and milk ready to drink on every corner".

We went into Tokyo again today. We went to see the Sensoji temple-Buddhist, which was pretty cool. It's really big and there were loads of people there. We had to walk down some small streets to get there, and there was a real local feel about the area. There were loads of small shrines all around the area too, and a Koi pond. 

One of the subway signs telling people not to use their phones. There are many different information signs, and quite a few of them are animated. There is a strange one with a panda looking very cross, because he rushed and the door closed on his foot. There are actually signs telling people not to rush. 

We also went to the Tokyo Edo museum. Edo is the old name for Tokyo, and the museum is dedicated to showing the way of life of this era. Most of the information was in Japanese though. This is right beside the Sumo wrestling stadium. We had to walk by here to get back to the Metro. There were loads of people queued up outside, waiting for tickets we assumed. So we just walked right passed them. I got a bit of a surprise when they started clapping and cheering at us. Turns out that there was a sumo wrestler walking right behind us. (Famous too I imagine from the cheers.)

The Tokyo Tower. 

In the afternoon we went to the Tokyo Tower. This is a TV broadcasting tower, with an observatory. We were there in time for sunset, and we got some amazing views over Tokyo. I think might have driven John a little mad trying to get as many photos as I could. There was a video that was played repeatedly - just a few pictures and some caption. One of which was "the tower makes you happy" 

After a few days of searching I have finally found some of the famed odd kit kat flavours. There is supposedly 80 different flavours available, but all we have seen so far is regular dark and milk. Found a cheese one today and this wasabi one.

We have discovered that many many ATM's here don't accept our cards. Never mind not accepting them, they don't even read them. We just stick them in the machine and absolutely nothing happens! However, when we did find one that will give us money, I was quite relieved. Even better, when it does give us the cash it makes a noise like we have won a prize!