The day had finally arrived and even a very early start (5:30am) couldn’t dampen my excitement as we began the journey to Tokyo.

The drive to the airport, in the comfort of a taxi, was uneventful. After arriving at the airport we had to find immigration and get a single re-entry stamp before checking in. The immigration office was busy; but having researched on the Internet I was prepared and had all the necessary documents, including payment, to hand. Unusually for these things immigration went without a hitch and I was very happily surprised to find that as I was British citizen the re-entry stamp, supposed to cost 30,000 won (about 20GBP), was free. Nice!

We arrived in Japan and for the fist time ever there was no one to meet us from the airport, it was down to us to find our own way to a youth hostel in the middle of Tokyo with just some directions printed from the Internet as a guide. Luckily everything in the airport was very well signposted and we were soon on the train heading into Tokyo.

Sitting on the train it was clear that Japan, despite its close proximity to Korea, was very different. The suburbs had fewer high rise buildings. Although there were many three or four story blocks, they looked a lot like surf shacks or Spanish holiday apartments rather than massive apartment blocks. I also saw what looked like proper houses for the first time in four months. There was brilliant sunshine outside and most of the apartments had clothes racks hanging outside in contrast to the Koreans whose clothes racks all hang on the inside of their apartments. A small detail, but something that made Japan feel a lot more fresh. Everything appeared much cleaner, and no one stared at us on the train. It was nice not to feel like a freak for once!

It took about an hour to reach Ueno station where we needed to get the subway to our hostel. By the time we arrived we were desperate for the toilet and in need of a subway map. We found tourist information who were very helpful and spoke very good English. They directed us to a toilet outside the station, but with rucksack on my back I was alarmed to find a whole in the floor. Crouching to pee with a 12kg rucksack on your back is definitely a feet, and when trying to return to an upright position I realised how long it had been since I had ventured near a leg press!

The train journey from Ueno was fairly short. Whilst on the train a very tall Nigerian man came and sat beside me. He introduced himself and told me that in Japan no one talks on the trains but in Nigeria it is normal to strike up a conversation with a stranger. He had been in Japan for 18 months studying Japanese history. He said that the Japanese were a very quiet race and didn’t like to talk much about their history so much of the records are from other sources. He felt it was best to get the story “from the horses mouth”. He told me that the Japanese were very friendly and gave us the email address of a woman who could show us around. As it happened we didn’t have a spare moment and so never used the email address.

We arrived at the hostel around 3:15pm only to find it was closed until 4pm. We stood for while deciding what to do during which time four helpful Japanese people informed us that it was closed. So with rucksacks on our backs we headed off in search of a restaurant. Whilst walking to the hostel we had been struck by how deserted everywhere was. Almost everything appeared to be closed. It was a far cry from the bustling Tokyo we were expecting. The area looked like a quiet Spanish town in the middle of winter!  We stopped and asked a few people who pointed us in the direction of somewhere to eat only for us to find the place closed. We later found out this was probably because it was the first day of the New Year holiday.

Whilst searching food we stopped and stood on a street corner wondering where to go next. To my amazement a REAL Mini stopped at the lights beside us. I was so excited – it was the first ‘proper’ car I’d seen in four months – I immediately reached for my camera.

Eventually, with the help of two gentlemen, who couldn’t speak any English, we found a noodle bar and went to get some dinner.  From across the road it had looked closed due to the curtain in front the door. Seeing this it occurred to us we had probably walked past many open places that just looked closed because of the curtain! The curtain across the door is called a noren curtain. According to a Japanese furnishing website…..

The word noren usually refers to split curtains hung in front of a shop. It was used to keep out the sun and dust but now since it often has the shop’s name written on it, it serves as the shop’s sign as well.

Not knowing any Japanese we clumsily walked into the tiny bar struggling with our massive back packs and asked for ‘one’ hoping what we got would be edible. We were pleasantly surprised when three identical bowls of noodles turned up that actually tasted pretty good.

Once we had finished eating it was time to go back to the hostel and check in.

Back at the hostel it transpired that we had to pay for each night of our stay using a machine! This could either be done one night at a time or all in one go. We decided to pay for all five nights at the same time and started putting our money into the machine. After Emily had put in as much money as the machine would take she pressed the button and her first ticket came out. She pressed the button again and her second ticket came out. Then the machine had a funny five minutes and decided to eject all her remaining money. The machine clanked away as ejecting 50,000 yen in 100 yen coins, it sounded like she had won jackpot on a fruit machine! Emily stood wide eye staring at the machine as Kat and I collapsed in fits of giggles behind her, with everyone in the reception of the hostel turning to see what the commotion was about!

Once Emily had returned each of the 100 yen coins to the machine and got her five tickets we collected our bed sheets and found our way to the room. The room was basic but clean. The beds were very hard, not a problem for me (I slept on a futon for years) but not so comfortable for the other two, with pillows made of what looked like small pieces of plastic tube! Not comfortable. Sleeping on them was like making a pillow on sand. You can mold it around your head to make it a little comfortable but it is still hard!

Once we had dumped our bags we freshened up and headed off on our first adventure in Tokyo.

* Posted by j150vsc on 09/01/2007.