Tokyo - Day 10 Hanging With Kosuke

15^th September Day 10 – Hanging out with my Japanese friend Kosuke.

And then Saturday rolled on in. It was a pretty relaxed slow start to the day, I had planned to meet with Kosuke at 12pm at Kaminarimon Gate.

What I didn’t realise is how far it was from Locky’s place. It took me about 1.5 hours until I met up with Kosuke, I was so very apologetic as its quite rude to make people wait in Japan (and everywhere else J)

Anyway, I wasn’t completely my fault I was told the wrong directions and got a bit lost, but never mind I still managed to get there ok.

Kosuke showed me around the gate and even took me down the very busy street and showed me the beautiful temple. I was shown the proper way to bless yourself before you enter a Buddhist temple, and the correct way to pray.

You must first clean your hands and mouth at the washing basin, then enter the temple, before you pray you are suppose to throw some Yen into a box, put your hands together to pray. It’s actually quite cool, and even though its not something I do, it was a really great experience.

It was so much fun hanging out with a Japanese dude, and Kosuke’s English was amazing so he was able to explain to me what the ‘warriors’ that guard the gates and temples. There is one warrior who has an open mouth, this resembles life, the reason being is that when you are born you are making a lot of noise aka screaming. On the other side, there is the closed mouth warrior, and obviously this resembles death.

After we walked around the main street for a while, we grabbed some beef bowl which is a Japanese dish which is basically rice and beef strips on top. Kosuke and I mixed it up a bit. We also ordered a raw egg which you dig a hole in your rice and pour the egg into the hole and mix it all up. It gives it a great feeling, and makes you want to climb some stairs and raise your hands like Rocky!!!

Kosuke was an absolute legend even though I very much offered to pay, he refused saying that ‘it’s was his country and I’m the guest’, but when he comes to Australia he is going to order a steak and make me pay!!

We were now feeling full and ready to keep checking out the surrounding areas. Kosuke showed me all the really nice restaurants and told me about all the different foods. I told him that I wanted to buy some Tobi (or Tabi) shoes. These are the 2 toed shoes that the Ninja’s (supposedly) used to wear. We found a random shop that sold them, and for the bargain price of only 1000Yen! Perfect! I picked them up! Can’t wait to wear them in Australia.

I also picked up a Japanese headband that read something along the lines of “Power & Spirit” which is pretty cool!

So it started to get late, and I still had an hour bike ride to get home and then eventually a bus to catch to Osaka so we said our goodbyes and pretty much concluded an awesome experience I had with Kosuke!

I chilled out with Locky and a German dude at Locky’s house until the unfortunate time approached where I had to catch my bus to Osaka!

My time in Tokyo was amazing! I don’t think I have enjoyed a city as much as I did in Tokyo! The place just has so much energy such an awesome city!

But next up we have Osaka, cant wait!!

Till next time!

Steve

Lovely temples!

pretty busy place!

The 'gods' of entertainment! 

We watched a special parade...

My friend Kosuke and some hot Indian chick!

Kosuke and myself!

Hanging out!

Tokyo - Day 9 Riding around Tokyo - Sony Building

14^th September Day 9 – Riding around Tokyo, checking out the Sony Building in Ginza and visiting the shopping streets in Ueno.

Friday was another early wake up as Locky as he had to go to school so I woke up early as well to leave his flat with him. Today my plan was to do some more bike riding around Tokyo! Its so much fun riding around in Tokyo, you get to see so much of the city, and because its so flat its quite an easy ride as you can push yourself as much or as little as you want.

My legs are still aching from Mt. Fuji so its nice to jump on a bike to ride away the pain and soreness. So I had already tried to visit the Sony Building once before but it was closed, so this was my second attempt, it was pretty easy to find as I have this new app for my phone that downloads offline maps to your phone and then uses the GPS built into the phone to track your location! It’s actually really handy!

So I eventually found the Sony Building that was a fair ride from Locky’s place maybe an hour away. But like I said before it’s nice riding around Tokyo.

I locked my bike up with the thinnest bike lock I had ever seen, just praying that my bike wouldn’t get nicked as I spend time checking out all the gadgets in the Sony Building.

I explored the many floors of the Sony building, everything from the gaming section to the music section to the TV’s and cameras. I touched, used and tried everything! It was so much fun, I could have spent (if I had the money) hundreds of thousands of dollars on EVERYTHING.

A couple of the big highlights for me, were trying on the headphones. So my first pair I tried on were over $200AUD which were some really nice Sony over the ear headphones and I listened to my own music. I found the bassiest track I could find a rocked out! Whilst I was rocking out (on my own) I looked over to my left and realised that there was an even more expensive pair, with an amplifier that you plug your iPhone into to increase the sound quality.

I finished the song I was listening to and tried the new setup. Ok, so the headphones themselves cost 49,800YEN ($612AUD) and then the small iPhone Amplifier is 39,800YEN ($489AUD) so the whole setup cost $1.101AUD, and it sounded awesome! I just wish I could have bought them and taken them home to listen! It was great!

After I had my head blown off by some of the most amazing audiophile equipment I have ever tried I headed up to the Camera equipment and took some photos of the little model train sets that they have located near the Camera kit. It was fun! But again I couldn’t afford any of it.

Next up was the TV and Entertainment centre. I was just walking around this building with a huge smile on my face and shaking my head in just astonishment, I got chatting with on the Japanese girls that work there and I explained to her how great this was. She pointed me upstairs to the next room that featured the latest in 3D entertainment, the Sony Headset/Goggles!

I waited in line for 15 minutes playing with the cool Sony Phones and Tablets until I was called into this room, where there were 4 stations and a really comfy leather chair next to each station. On each station there was a Sony Headset and a pair of the $612AUD headphones!

So you sit down in this chair and a Japanese girl explains to you in Japanese how to adjust the headset to fit your head, clearly myself and the other American guy in the room had no idea what was happening. We managed with a little bit of help from the ladies, put the headphone on and watched the trailer for the new Spiderman in 3D! I’ve seen the movie, but in 3D it looked AMAZING!

I came out of that room once again just giggling in excitement thinking that one day, this will be normal!

At the moment, I think the Headset was a bit to bulky and heavy, and that after 30 minutes of watching you will get a sore neck… but this is only the beginning!

After the amazing 3D experience, I went up another set of stairs and watched This Is It, the Michael Jackson movie on a huge TV with great speakers.

Once I had had enough and go to depressed to continue I went to the toilet and got my bum washed and dried using the special toilets and then headed back outside to find my bike in exactly the same place I’d left it.

I jumped back on my Pink bike a travelled to  to just check out another small suburb in Tokyo. There was lots going on, people everywhere, lots of markets it was really great. I was looking for some special Japanese 2 toe’d shoes called Tobi, I found a pair but they were 3,000Yen and I was sure I could find some cheaper.

Anyway, it was getting late, so I road my bike back to Shinjuku to meet Locky and his Japanese girlfriend so we could head back to their flat together.

It was a great evening, Locky and his Girlfriend cooked some great Okanamiyaki which filled me up and let me pass out with food sleeps! Perfect.

TL;DR – Checked out all the gadgets in the Sony Building, and had some amazing food!

The Imperial Palace in Tokyo, it was closed so i couldnt go in, instead i took this photo!

One of the many Japanese Parks!

Who would of thought there was a Hooters in Tokyo, Ginza!

The fully pimped out Amp + Headphone setup!

This little guy was awesome... its a WATCH!!!!

The shopping street in Ueno!

So much activity!

Stay Tuned! They are coming quick and fast!

xxxxx

Tokyo - Day 3 Checking Out Cosplay Girls

8^th September – Day 3 Checking out more of Shibuya then headed to Harajuku to see some Cosplay girls and visit some parks!

So the next day again, got up pretty early but still feeling the effects of jet lag which sucks big time. But in all fairness it’s a pretty big difference to fly from Helsinki to Tokyo the time difference is 5 hours! So as you can imagine its 12pm in Tokyo I wouldn't even be getting up back in Europe, but never mind, I manage.

So day 3 I spent cruising around Shibuya doing some people watching and taking photos of the surroundings. From Shibuya I caught the metro Harajuku, I swear to god, the metro in Tokyo is the most confusing metro I have ever come across, and its not just because its mostly in Japanese, but on first arrival to Tokyo it makes zero sense.

Let me give you an example. So in any other country in Europe or Australia for an example, if platform 1 travels north, then platform 2 travel’s south… Agreed?

Not in Japan, Japan has a very bizarre way of doing it, in Tokyo if Platform 1 travels north, then platform 2 also travels north, but stops at every second station or if not that then travels in a completely different direction eg: East?!

Its very weird and frustrating but after a while you just manage.

So I caught a train to Harajuku to do some more people watching and cruise around, in this area is where a lot of the Cosplay girls hang out. What is cosplay? From what I understand of it, is mostly girls dress up in costumes of maybe their favourite cartoon character or even a character of a computer game and just hang out together on a bridge just chatting and hanging out. These girls love getting their photo taken, and even though it’s weird at first to ask them, they do lots of poses and it can be quite fun. I still felt a little bit weird taking photos of them though.

The reason they do it? Well, I have read and come to the conclusion that these girls (and sometimes guys) dress up to escape their normal life, maybe they are having trouble at home or being bullied at school, for them its just an escape from reality, and if they enjoy doing it… well who cares! Good on them. I have only a few photos of the Cosplay girls, so enjoy.

Once I admired the girls on the bridge I went exploring through Meiji Jingu park. Inside this park there is a beautiful shrine and temple that you can check out for free, which I did. I also think there was a Japanese celebration going on, potentially a wedding, so I took some photos. Check them out!

After all of this, I headed back home to start my planning on Climbing Mt Fuji. It was a nice day just chilling out!

When I got back, Brad and I went out for some food and drinks, it was a nice night just pretty chilled out.
TL;DR – Headed to Shibuya, saw some cosplay girls!

Shibuya Square

Billboards and people everywhere

see the bus on the bottom right... these are everywhere playing music for advertising.

Shibuya

Now we are at Harajuku!

Meiji Jingu park!

...potential wedding?

Women in there Komodo's

So...many...people!

COSPLAY GIRLS!

Storm's a brewin...

Thanks guys...

next blog Yogi Park!

Tokyo - Day 1 Arriving to Shinjuku

17/9/12

1138 (local time)

Tokyo, Japan

Written in: Jack (couchsurfers) nice cold apartment in Osaka, Japan – after a big party with some guys that I met in Syria!

Tokyo is such an amazing city! Every day I went out it just completely blew me away! Ok so this post is going to MASSIVE as I have so much to say about the places I visited, so at the end of each major day ill write a little TL;DR which stands for Too Didn’t Read!

6^th of September - Day: 1 Arriving to Shinjuku!

So I arrived to Narita airport from a brutal 23 hours in Moscow airport, fortunately I had met an awesome Japanese dude on my flight called Kosuke but I will talk about him a bit later. So we both caught the cheapest train from the Airport to Shinjuku station which took roughly 1.5 hours and cost about $15AUD.

When I got to Shinjuku my plan was to find a place to dump my big bag and then cruise around the hustling and bustling city of Shinjuku. After about 1 hours of constant sweating I found a place to store my bag – it cost 500YEN ($6.5AUD) so expensive! But I had to do it!

So I walked around the city and my main aim was to head to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which has a great observation deck on both the east and west sides, and the best thing is… is that its FREE! Perfect! So I took the elevator up 42 floors and saw the hazy city with the storm clouds coming across.

I was absolutely knackered from hardly sleeping, but I just focused on keeping my eyes open. After I took some photos from the top, I saw a nice park near the tower that I thought I would check out. After walking for about 30 minutes I realized that it wasn’t so close.

When I eventually made it too Meiji Jingu park the weather closed in and it started to rain, which wasn’t so great. I was just trying to find stuff to do until 8pm until I met my first couch surfer in Tokyo – Brad.

8pm rolled on in, and I met Brad who is this unfit 30 something year old Aussie guy, that has been teaching English in Japan for 8 years yet has never really spent the time to learn the language.

I dumped my bags at Brad’s place then we went out to a local restaurant where I spent a lot of money on delicious traditional food and all you can drink, I wasn’t all that keen for it, but felt obliged seeing that I was staying with Brad. The night ended pretty late and I was ruined. Jet Lagged and drinking is a bad mix!
TL;DR – Made it to Shinjuku, walked around the city, went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Met Brad my Couchsurfing Host had some lovely food and drank too much.

My first proper view of Japan... somewhere in Shinjuku.

Little side streets full of neon signs!

High Buildings litter the sky!

From the observation deck!!

See the storm looming!

Blacken out the city!

"Take care not to bump into the glass" How many people would have done this to make them put a sign up!

storms are coming!

even japan does some good clouds!

This is the building where the observation deck is "Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building"

The entry of the park!

When your inside the park, you dont feel close to the city at all!

Entry to the shrine!

The Meiji Jingu Shrine

Finally Tokyo at night! Look at the neon signs!!

Next Blog Coming Soon! Tokyo Day 2 in the Electronic District!