Saturday morning started a bit earlier than I would have liked when my alarm went off at 3.30am. I don’t think I’d slept much really as I’d worried about sleeping in. I struggled out of bed, jumped in the shower and headed off on foot to Shinjuku station.
Wandering through the streets at 4am in the morning was much like doing the same in any other city – but they were soaked in neon. I came across girls crying, men passed out on the pavement – nothing new there then! I bought a bus ticket and waited for half an hour, then the bus arrived and took me to Haneda Airport where I was going to meet my little sis, Ailsa. She works in fashion (and is very fashion) so has always wanted to visit Tokyo. I thought a trip would combine perfectly with my last week in Japan.
The flight was on time, so we caught the monorail and train back to the hotel and then promptly went to sleep for a couple of hours.
On waking, we decided to splurge on a hotel breakfast. At £25 a head (and if you don’t have the buffet, coffee is £8 a cup!) I can’t say it was exactly good value for money, but it was tasty enough!
Then we walked into one of Tokyo’s main shopping districts – Shinjuku. We got a bit lost again and wandered around exploring some malls and had a spot of lunch (in the pic above).
We really spent the rest of the day just walking around in a bit of a tired daze really, nothing that interesting I’m afraid! Then we headed to Shibuya with its famous crossing (in the pic above) and went to two of my favourite shops in Tokyo – Loft and Tokyo Hands. They are both ‘lifestyle’ stores selling a massive range of stationery, cooking stuff, general and “variety” goods – i.e. wacky stuff.
We tried on a range of items (including the crab hats above), then I picked up the cooking utensils I’d wanted following my cookery class – a square pan for cooking Japanese rolled omelettes, a miso strainer, some sushi moulds and some bullet train shaped chopsticks which will no doubt come in handy!
Ailsa filled her shopping basket with several unusual items (Mum wasn’t too impressed), and then we caught a taxi back to the hotel. I wasn’t bothered about dinner, while Ailse grabbed some room service. Then, after one glass of wine in the bar, it was time to hit the sack – we were both completely shattered after having had very little sleep. So our first day in Tokyo was a bit of a non event! And tomorrow – as it would turn out – wouldn’t be that much better!