Japan - Day Two

Day Two in Japan was a rather eventful day that took place in Tokyo. After managing to sleep in a quasi-restful state until around 6am, I went down to have some breakfast in the hotel buffet. They mostly just had Western style breakfast items like bacon and eggs, but they did have some bizarre Japanese food items too. There was some grilled fish chunks, different pickled vegetables of some description, and little pickled bean things which might have been soy beans. Their breakfast items didn't look half as appealing as most the other Japanese style food here, so apart from the Soybean (which tasted incredibly bad) I refrained from having that kind of stuff for breakfast.

After this at around 9.00am we met a couple of Breanna's friends from her class who are also doing Praticticum's here, Alex and Daryl, who were nice enough to tour us around Japan for the next fourteen hours. We headed down to the subway to start with which was quite busy, and saw just how many subway lines they have. There are multiple lines and multiple trains that scurry back and forwards all across Tokyo, using running in a really large loop to take commuters almost every different location. Most the time while taking the train you have to stand up, but there's lots of hooks to hold on to. Sometimes the trains were insanely packed, filling up almost to the limit, but because the Japanese are fairly polite it was never much of a problem getting either on or off.

We tracked through some random areas of town before going to a large temple area where they had some massive markets. Its Golden Week here, which is a public holiday so most places where really busy, the market being no exception. There were quite a few foreigners around the temple and market areas which was interesting to see. The market had all imaginable knick-knack type material, basically anything under the sun. I got a couple of Shuriken, throwing stars, and some little Sake cups. Its kind of overwhelming the sheer amount of stuff they are selling, most of it really different from what I'm used to, so I didn't really get much there.


The temple was fairly interesting, they had an incense well where the smoke is meant to heal, plus dragon water fountains where you can drink the water or wash your hands for a blessing. The Japanese seem to be very religious and superstitious people, with many visiting the temple for blessings and to pray. There where many large stone statues of different deities and buddhas.

After this we took a couple of big ferries down the river instead of the train for a change, so we got to see all the riverside attractions. We stopped in another area that had a huge Statue of Liberty replica. Not quite as big as the actual one, but the statue was fairly large and well detailed. It was kind of bizarre that they would have such a thing. After this we went to the Fuji Television station where they were giving away lots of free items, mostly food. We got some eskimo pies and golden kiwifruit from New Zealand. They had a band playing and lots of random competitions and things to do. We entered into a loudness competition to get a free beer, where they measure you shouting out a slogan for the beer in decibels, with the winner receiving a full six-pack. Turns out me and Alex where no match for the Japanese, but at least we got a free can. The Television Station was fairly interesting, they had some bizarre stuff to do like a greenscreen photo where they superimpose these alien costumes onto you, so all in all it was pretty fun.

After some dinner we hit the night life in Japan. It was busy, with lots of bright lights everywhere so it was an interesting experience. We also went to a questionable establishment which quite possibly has scarred me for life, but I'd rather refrain from the details. By the end of the night I was extremely tired, almost falling asleep on my feet. I guess a mixture of jet lag and walking around for close to eighteen hours will do that to you.

The day after day two would be another day spent in Tokyo, before heading to Hakone later on, but I'll give details of that for next time.