Observation deck at Haneda

A proper one where you can actually go outside and see planes

Christmas lights in Asakasa

Shibuya crossing

As made famous in various films

Believe it or not

This is tea
Matcha to be precise
It tasted green

Giant robots

Enough said

Lasers

Nope, still no idea what's going on

This has got to be the creepiest thing i have seen

Still at robot restaurant

Beer helps

Robot dinosaurs that have laser eyes.
Beer helps with context

I have no words

The pre show bar

Tonight's entertainment

So many colours

Tea time

Fish

Make your own dinner

So we have this in front of us
Apparently it is dinner.
It doesn't come with instructions
Fun :)

A map of a cow

So you know exactly which bit you are eating

A banana vending machine

Because.....why not

Fish!

Asakusa

Tokyo tower at night

Rappongi

Giant crab

It moves
It is disturbing

Kyoto at night

Shopping time!

A man with a rabbit on his shoulder

Out for a walk

Kyoto

Someone put a castle at the end of the high street

Himeji castle

Travelling in style

Fast, comfortable and efficient.
The Hikari shinkansen from Tokyo to Himeji in 3hrs 40 min

Shinkansen

On our way to Hameji

Tokyo station at rush hour

Fun fun fun

Did the earth move for you?

Well yes it did actually
4.5 on the Richter scale to be exact
Which really is a little more than a wobble.

It is a reminder that this is normal here and the entire country is geared up for it.

From the school children's backpacks which are reinforced to protect against falling debris, to the balcony above us having an escape hatch and ladder leading down.

And no one bats an eyelid at trucks like this parked outside an office building during an emergency drill

The problem with Japanese karaoke

These are not the lyrics to the "immigrant song" by Led Zeppelin

NOT
EVEN
CLOSE!

On our way to the Imperial palace

So how much is the paper?

We're in a swan

On a lake.
Ramming speed ahoy!

Ramen

Lunch under Tokyo station

This is $1 Sake

You can* buy it at the 7-11.
Yes it comes in a carton, with a straw.

What does it taste like ? I hear you ask

It's dollar sake

In a juice box

With a straw

What do you think it tastes like?

* I say "can" that doesn't by any stretch of the imagination mean you should!

Our local neighborhood at night

Nakano

Fruit .... Not cheap

Apples are $6 a piece. The grapes an eye watering $90.

Wow!

Asimo says hello

More robots

It wouldn't be Japan

Without giant robots
This one appeared to be friendly

Confused as to where I am

View from Odaiba beach

First Impressions

Tokyo is not a pretty city. In fact you could probably call it ugly and people wouldn't put up too much of  a fight. It doesn't have a majestic shoreline or rows of massive skyscrapers sporting stunning architecture.

That doesn't mean it is run down or dirty or otherwise charmless though, Tokyo just...... is.

It is the epitome of function over form. Tokyo may not be beautiful to look at but it can be beautiful to live in. Everything just seems to work. You look at everyday objects and think "that's such a good idea". From the parking lots that stack cars one on top of each other, to the traffic lights that tell you how long you have until they change in your favour. The metro trains which flash up a map showing you exactly where the various exits from the station will be in relation to your carriage. Everything is designed to make life easier.

But while in some ways Tokyo can be a paradise of common sense, I can't shake the vague uneasy feeling that I am staying in some kind of Dystopian video game.

Everything here talks to you, the escalators jabber something at you as you get on and off, the Metro announcements appear to be voiced by Glados from Portal. Which makes me wonder if they are describing the next stop or cheerfully describing your imminent demise. Police cars blare out voices as well as Sirens and I have no idea what they are saying, they could be announcing the end of the world or looking for directions to the nearest donut shop.

And yet at the same time it also reminds me of a Fisher Price city set. Everyone wears a uniform, from the street sweepers up and sports the ubiquitous white gloves. Construction workers don blue jumpsuits and white hard hats. Cars, vans and delivery trucks are designed to fit narrow streets, the width of which haven't changed since the days of horses and carts. Vehicles are snub nosed shrunken versions of their North American and European cousins. There is a slightly surreal feeling that you are witnessing a child's toy set.

I'm not sure what I was expecting Tokyo to be, but at the moment it certainly has my interest.

More soon

Arachnaphobes look away now

Rappongi Hills

Lunch

Yum yum !

Addition

RTH reminded me to add that the previous picture of a vending machine was taken just outside a large shrine.

They really are everywhere

These are everywhere

They do hot and cold drinks. As well as beer and sake

Arrival

Blogging is going to be a bit sporadic and pretty unsophisticated as I'm pretty much relying on mobile devices, so there will likely be a scattering of random photos with a short caption and then slightly longer posts like this one. Neither of which will have much in the way of fancy formatting.

So we arrived, obviously. With a minimum of fuss really. The flight was long but uneventful with not much in the way of turbulence or anything. The food was typical airline food, I mean they try but your taste buds just aren't designed to function at those altitudes. The slightly weird thing about the food was the scheduling. We started off with dinner , followed by lunch and ended with breakfast just before landing.

Now I don't deal with the concept of time zones particularly well, I deal with the concept of the date line even less. I knew that Tokyo was 13 hours out and somehow the day was different. I tried but I couldn't figure out if Tokyo time is ahead, behind or what, let alone what meal my body should have been expecting. Basically I turned up at the airport and knew that I was going to get on a plane and it would take me to Tokyo, sometime, some day.

And it did, thankfully.

Once we had made it off the plane we navigated immigration and customs with zero hassle. Our bags were amongst the last to arrive, naturally! Now to try and make it to our apartment. We headed towards the Monorail where a nice lady was obviously on the lookout for dumb foreigners and kindly pressed the appropriate buttons on the machine and gave us our tickets.

That was the easy part. The next stage involved a taxi, shouldn't be too big a problem I hear you say.

Well yes and no. Finding a taxi is easy, finding the address not so much.

Japanese addresses are, well, weird! Buildings are numbered in the order they are built. So number 73 might be next to number 9. RTH with his awesome language skills managed to get us to the right general area but then it would seem the taxi driver gave up and we found ourselves having to walk the final 10 minutes or so, uphill and dragging large cases.

Hot, tired and sweaty we located the building and met the airBnB owner. Thoughtfully he had arrived with a bag of groceries to do us through the night; milk, bread, eggs and being and Aussie, beer!

The apartment was exactly as described on the site, small by Toronto standards, roomy and spacious by Japanese. A little creative re-arranging and our stuff was stowed safely away and we settled in for our first night.

They have really tall cars !

I just want to throw away my boarding pass

Think your garbage disposal is complicated?
You've got nothing on the Japanese!

Holy f#%k I'm in Tokyo

We arrived. Flight was uneventful. Body clock completely screwed up.

Let the blogging commence

45 minutes

Apparently when you leave yourself 4 hours to check in and get sexually molested , I mean go through security. It only takes 45 minutes to get from your door to the departure gate.

On the plus side  Pearson airport seems to have finally got the 21st century.
A few years ago they didn't even have free WiFi, now pretty much every seat has an iPad and a charging point.

Hopefully next post will be from Tokyo!

Well I'm leaving on an aeroplane.....

....don't know when I'll be back again.

As the song goes.

Actually that's a lie, I know exactly when I shall return but let us rewind a little here.

I'm going to Japan. For a month. Just me and RTH (that's Ridiculously Talented Husband*)
I'm both unbelievably excited and scared witless by the thought of this. So this blog was created to chart the last minute run up to and my day to day activities during this epic trip of a lifetime.






* you need to check out my other blog so see how he got this name