All apologies for the lack of updates folks, some hardware difficulties right here! I'll see how much catching up we can do while things still want to work ^-^;
As someone who gets motion sick on twenty-minute journies into town, it was the most amazing experience travelling the 2x7-hour trips between Hiroshima and Tokyo without so much as a hiccup, but it happened, and our journey was safe and smooth and actually quite entertaining! We arrived into a heavily snowing Shinjuku around 7am and, realising that we couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm, we gave in for the first time to a familiar indulgence:
(L-R: tall iced vanilla latte, skinny and sugarfree +1espresso as per the mantra - tall orange latte, Japan's new seasonal special) (... not recommended)
It has to be said that Shinjuku is a truly magical area, quite the hub of Tokyo, that changes dramatically between day and night. By day we found our hotel, crashed and regrouped, by night after meeting up with a friend I was almost hopelessly lost. Grey streets and bicycles gives way to flashing signs and massive advertisments on buildings, and you're filled with the sudden suspicion that the buildings themselves actually shift around when you're not looking.
As we spent a lot of our time in Tokyo doing little daytrips it's a little tricky finding much in particular to say. It's just very disconcerting how - even despite being told that Shinjuku is a bit of a sketchy place to stay in - I've never felt so safe in the middle of a city. I felt more comfortable traversing Shinjuku by night than I ever have anywhere in England by midday. Whether this says more for Tokyo or my neuroses I'll never know.
Early in our stay we hit up the famous Tokyo Tower, checking in at 333m tall (13m taller than the Eiffel Tower!). We travelled up to 150m, just under the halfway mark, to see the city we were staying in by night.
While in Tokyo we also got to drop in on two absolutely amazing live shows by artists we've always wanted to see. Hilarity ensued - more than ever expected! - and hearing was rather damaged for two and a half days afterwards. I'm not sure if I need to go into that here and now, but just know that Japan has a very interesting way of doing shows ^-^;
- 88
As someone who gets motion sick on twenty-minute journies into town, it was the most amazing experience travelling the 2x7-hour trips between Hiroshima and Tokyo without so much as a hiccup, but it happened, and our journey was safe and smooth and actually quite entertaining! We arrived into a heavily snowing Shinjuku around 7am and, realising that we couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm, we gave in for the first time to a familiar indulgence:
(L-R: tall iced vanilla latte, skinny and sugarfree +1espresso as per the mantra - tall orange latte, Japan's new seasonal special) (... not recommended)
It has to be said that Shinjuku is a truly magical area, quite the hub of Tokyo, that changes dramatically between day and night. By day we found our hotel, crashed and regrouped, by night after meeting up with a friend I was almost hopelessly lost. Grey streets and bicycles gives way to flashing signs and massive advertisments on buildings, and you're filled with the sudden suspicion that the buildings themselves actually shift around when you're not looking.
As we spent a lot of our time in Tokyo doing little daytrips it's a little tricky finding much in particular to say. It's just very disconcerting how - even despite being told that Shinjuku is a bit of a sketchy place to stay in - I've never felt so safe in the middle of a city. I felt more comfortable traversing Shinjuku by night than I ever have anywhere in England by midday. Whether this says more for Tokyo or my neuroses I'll never know.
Early in our stay we hit up the famous Tokyo Tower, checking in at 333m tall (13m taller than the Eiffel Tower!). We travelled up to 150m, just under the halfway mark, to see the city we were staying in by night.
While in Tokyo we also got to drop in on two absolutely amazing live shows by artists we've always wanted to see. Hilarity ensued - more than ever expected! - and hearing was rather damaged for two and a half days afterwards. I'm not sure if I need to go into that here and now, but just know that Japan has a very interesting way of doing shows ^-^;
- 88
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