Christmas Travels Part 1

Okay, so I’m going to write about my trip to Tokyo, Nagoya and Hiroshima that I went on over the Christmas holidays. This is the first of probably four parts because I have a lot to say and the net is so slow here it's very hard to post pictures all in one. =< 

So this is 22nd - 24th! 

22^nd – 23^rd December Journey to Tokyo

Winter break started on the 22^nd December, although we had class that day. We had booked our trip to Tokyo on the night bus, with the company Willer that has a website in English that I can understand. You have to book your ticket, and then within 3 days (including the day you booked it) pay at a machine in a konbini (small convenience store) like 7/11 or Lawson. It was a bit difficult to do this because we couldn’t understand the machine very well, but with the help of Emma who speaks much better Japanese than any of us we managed it okay.

When we went to catch our bus we had a little panic, because the place that the company told us to wait was not a bus stop at all, just the corner of a normal road, and we were really afraid we had just gone to the wrong place! But thankfully, before we freaked out and ran all the way to Hakata bus station, the bus turned up. The ‘relax’ style bus was super cool, with pink reclining seats and a crazy little pull down hood to cover your face and protect you from the lights when they turned on every 2 hours for a toilet stop.

It was a long journey; we left at Fukuoka at 19:45 and arrived in Nagoya the next day at 8am. We stayed in Nagoya for nearly 5 hours in which time we ate breakfast at Denny’s and I bought some mascara and nail polish for cheap at a little drugstore. The next bus was supposed to be from 12:40 until 19:00 but ended up being an hour late because of traffic. I didn’t mind. I slept on and off, listening to music, looked out of the window and just relaxed on the comfortable seat. It was pretty pleasant considering we were travelling for more than 24 hours.

Our first arrival in Tokyo was pretty amazing – we went through Shinjuku, which is pretty exciting and brightly lit and neon. We were all so impressed, like wide eyed children looking out of the windows totally overwhelmed by how big and shiny and brilliant it was! It was an awesome moment, the realisation that we were in the city we had all dreamed about visiting for so many years. The hostel we had booked in Tokyo was in minami-senjuu, quite a way out of the city centre but reachable on the metro. Leila is really good at reading maps and figuring out directions, so she did most of the work getting us from where the bus dropped us to the hostel. We were all so tired, our bags were heavy and Japanese train stations are really not set up for small girls with big bags – there are a lot of stairs to climb! 

The hostel we stayed at is called Hotel Fukudaya and it was a little weird. For a start, Minami-senjuu is a bit of a funny, scary area with lots of homeless people and old men hanging around on the street. The hostel was down a sinister looking back street – although there are a lot of these scary-seeming streets in Japan that I think are actually pretty normal. We were greeted by a very friendly woman, however, who talked to us all about the facilities (2 showers, 1 with a hair dryer, a toilet and sinks on each floor) and warned us that the room was very narrow. And it was! There was just enough room for our suitcase, a small table, the two futon and a small set of shelves with a television on. Our neighbours included 2 young men, one with blonde hair and tattoos, and a creepy red eyed older man who smoked in the bathroom and choked up phlegm for 20 minutes every morning. It wasn’t pretty, but for 2000yen a night it was functional and good enough for our needs. The first night we pretty much passed out straight away, after eating some potato salad at a little fried chicken place that was the only restaurant left open.  

24^th December Tokyo Day 1 – Ueno, Asakusa, Shibuya, Harajuku, Tokyo Tower

Our first day in Tokyo was Christmas Eve, the 24^th. We went to meet Meike’s friend Haruna at Ueno Zoo. My stupid camera had broken, so I have no photos from the zoo at all, all of these are stolen from Leila and Meike! The zoo was super cute, and only very cheap, something like 600yen for an adult ticket. The main attraction was of course the famous Ueno Zoo Pandas, which were epic cute, one was lying on his back eating bamboo with lots of sticks of it laid out on his belly, with his feet up, so relaxed and chilled out. We also saw a beautiful tiger that paced back and forth along the lines of people, making the little kids yell in surprise when it came so close to the glass. It was a little scary to be so close, even separated by the glass. There were lots of different monkeys, and a mother and baby gorilla walking around together, arm in arm. We even went to the petting zoo, where we were allowed to hold some mice and I stroked a nice goat. 

I love seeing animals so much – the cool reptile house with a huge alligator and massive tortoise, the lovely soft eyed giraffes and elephants <3 I was so happy the whole time. I bought some adorable giraffe earrings from the gift shop.

After we finished at the zoo, we went to Asakusa. There is a big, famous shrine there that we wanted to visit, and a market full of loads of beautiful things for all the tourists to buy. It was so busy and you could smell all the different food in the air. All the stall holders were shouting to get people to come to them. It was pretty exciting! The shrine was beautiful as well, with a great big handing red lantern above the entrance and lots of statues. You had to go and fan some smoke into your head – apparently it would make you young and beautiful. Then we went and threw 15yen into the shrine, and then made a wish.  

The shrine was very beautiful, and I felt happy to have made a wish on Christmas Eve, even if I’m not religious and don’t really believe that any God would make it come true. I just felt nice to have some kind of hope for something in the year to come.

We bought some cute things from the market in Asakusa, and then took the metro again to go to Akihabara where I bought a new camera yay! Then we went on to Harajuku. This is a big shopping district in Tokyo, with lots of really expensive shops on the main street and some interesting cheap shops on some side streets. It was super busy; I was amazed at how many people there were. When the road went up a little bit on a hill and you could see ahead it was like an endless stream of people just walking and shopping. It was so impressive and exciting. Harajuku is known for its crazy people dressed in brilliant clothes, and I definitely saw some punk styles and gothic Lolita girls walking around.  

We went to H&M and then down some of the more interesting streets where we just took in the atmosphere, all the shop owners shouting out their prices and best deals. I think Harajuku is one of my favourite places in Tokyo just because of the atmosphere, it felt very different and unusual there, like the usual restrictions and stresses of Japan were a little bit lifted and people could be individuals if they wanted to.

This cute Christmas doggy was so happy <3

Then we decided to do a night time trip up Tokyo Tower! After a quick refuel in Starbucks, and meeting up with some people from Leeds Uni (it was so nice to see everyone again! Even if it was only for a little while here), we went to queue up and buy tickets (only around 800yen!). I’m really scared of lifts, unfortunately for everyone else, so we walked up all the 600 stairs to get to the viewing platform. I think my friends hated me a little bit for that, but I thought it was fun. 

Because it was Christmas Eve, which in Japan is a day a little bit like Valentine’s Day, same as Christmas, there was a big pink heart on the front of the tower. On the viewing platform there was a love seat with a big pink heart around it, and couples were queuing all the way around to have their photo taken sitting on it together, wearing rented Santa hats. It was pretty funny. The view from the top of the tower is very beautiful, especially at night, the lights of the cars and buildings all different colours. I tried out lots of different settings on my new camera to take photos. Tokyo is so huge, it just seems like it goes on forever and ever.

 

We even went to the funny wax museum inside the tower, which turned out to be a few famous figures and then a whole loads of German rock stars, most of which I didn’t recognise. Weird, but funny. After such a busy day we went home and passed out straight away, after doing a rotation of showers and hair dryers.