After an epic 14 hour flight from New York I arrived in Tokyo quite exhausted. With the help of a very friendly Japanese business man I found my way to the hostel in Asakusa.
Jetlagg ensured that I was awake by the crack of dawn each day which created plenty of time for sightseeing. The first day I teamed up with a Norwegian bloke that I met at the hostel and together we hit the streets of Tokyo. We checked out some cool parts of town including the business district, red light district and nightclub district and had a good feed in one of the back streets. Every major intersection is as busy and a lit up with advertising as Times Square in New York, it’s crazy. In my opinion Tokyo is like a cleaner more efficient version of New York. It is ridiculously clean and the people are so friendly! The subway system is a bit of a jungle … just when I thought I had it mastered I would end up going the totally wrong way on a line or catch an express train which skipped the station I wanted.
The food is great. You’ve got all your usual sushi stuff but most restaurants serve more the rice, noodles and meat sort of meals. The Terryaki chicken was phenomenal. I ate some locusts and whale which was cool!
The remaining few days I hit the streets by myself and explored the Goth area and the electronics district which was amazing. I went to a 7 story electronics store which was awesome, so much technology! The mobile phones here are awesome, full on broadband with huge wide screens! I also went to the Sony building and checked out the latest gadgets … engineer’s paradise .. hahaha
Friday night came around and I was keen to check out the nightlife as everyone said it is a “must see”. I tried to round up a wingman at the hostel but luck wasn’t on my side so I hit the subway and did a solo mission to the night club district, Ropongi. It was always going to be a big night as the subway shuts down between midnight and 5am. I met some blokes on the street and the 3 of us went to a huge nightclub called Gas Panick. It was pretty damn awesome and the Japanese people sure do know how to party. I noticed that alot of the Western men were really sleazy with the Japanese women which wasn’t cricket! I fell asleep on the train on the way home and woke up at 8am somewhere in rural Japan … farms and cows (OOC), I was totally on the wrong line and it took me 3 hours to get back to the hostel where I had to check out (by 11am) and then make my way to the airport for the flight home! Epic times!
