Decided to have a quiet day in Shinjuku today, looking round the shops and generally having a bit of a mooch. Started off with the camera shops and then had a look around some department stores. After a quick bit of lunch we headed for one of the many 0101 stores where there is loads of gothic lolita stuff. We had a great look round and there was some really nice clothes but they're really expensive (like £200ish for a skirt).
We then went to an everything store that literally sells everything, with one of the strangest things being adult sized character suits, like a frog or a bear. They also sold everything from luggage to tights, lightbulbs to jewelery and dvd players to sex toys! Craig managed to get some sly pics so hopefully they'll be up later.
Sounds like it's been a quiet day but we've been doing loads of walking and people watching so rather tired now. Just waiting for things to quieten down a bit outside (not that it ever really does round here) then we'll be going out complete with tripod to do some more pics.
Not sure if we'll manage to get any pictures online tonight, if not we'll try and do them tomorrow.
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Monday 30 March 2009
Ahh Mr Bond, I've been expecting you!
Started this morning with a breakfast roll - sausage in a bun that's pre-packaged like that but strangely not chilled - and a jelly drink. The breakfast roll was surprisingly tasty, the jelly drink on the other hand was like broken up jelly in a slightly sparkly, sugary drink. Had to be tried once!
First stop today was at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which has a free viewing platform on the top floor. The building is described as looking like something out of Gotham City and they're not wrong. Unfortunately, Craig managed to delete all the pics he took so we might be swinging back that way tomorrow.
Next we headed back to Shinjuku Park which was even busier than it was on Friday when we first went. Craig managed to get some 360's done, will have to wait and see how they come out.
After lunch we managed to navigate the train system (with some help from a very nice man at Osaki Station) to get to Odaiba, which is built on re-claimed land. The reason for going was to see the rainbow bridge but before that lit up we had a walk along the beach/waterfront. Incidentally the station we got off at was called Tokyo Teleport, which seemed rather apt as we found ourselves coming across the Statue of Liberty - see the pics, I've not got sun stroke!
After some more food, we waited for it to get dark and for the lights to come on on the rainbow bridge. Didn't quite live up to it's name but still looked fairly stunning and again Craig got lots of pics.
And just in case you were wondering about the Bond reference, as you'll see below, Dr Kno has put his lottery win to good use....!!
First stop today was at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which has a free viewing platform on the top floor. The building is described as looking like something out of Gotham City and they're not wrong. Unfortunately, Craig managed to delete all the pics he took so we might be swinging back that way tomorrow.
Next we headed back to Shinjuku Park which was even busier than it was on Friday when we first went. Craig managed to get some 360's done, will have to wait and see how they come out.
After lunch we managed to navigate the train system (with some help from a very nice man at Osaki Station) to get to Odaiba, which is built on re-claimed land. The reason for going was to see the rainbow bridge but before that lit up we had a walk along the beach/waterfront. Incidentally the station we got off at was called Tokyo Teleport, which seemed rather apt as we found ourselves coming across the Statue of Liberty - see the pics, I've not got sun stroke!
After some more food, we waited for it to get dark and for the lights to come on on the rainbow bridge. Didn't quite live up to it's name but still looked fairly stunning and again Craig got lots of pics.
And just in case you were wondering about the Bond reference, as you'll see below, Dr Kno has put his lottery win to good use....!!
Sunday 29 March 2009
Phil been moonlighting??
photo
Originally uploaded by carolinetheengineer
We didnt know Phil had a career making crispy snacks in japan!! :P
Aint nothin but a hound dog!
Ok so we reckon we are going out a bit to early to catch the crazy kids in their costumes and funky outfits..! We went out again today at about 11 to Shibuya and did a walk out of the guide book that was aimed at people watching. Despite it having supposedly the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world, Shibuya was pretty dead with no funky kids in sight. We went into a department store caller 109 which was just madness and we had to leave before we both went crazy!
Seeing as the walk took us to Yoyogi park again we figured we'd head there and try our luck in Harajuku again. Sunday is supposed to be the day everyone comes out to play anyway.
Got to the park and was surprised how different this part was compared to the bit by Harajuku station. All open grass with blossom trees dotted around.
It was pretty crazy, every blossom tree had a bunch of people under, chilling out, drinking booze and generally having a laugh, looked like some kind of festival but i get the feeling its like that most weekends.
We had a mill round this bit amazed at the number of people there, one tree seemed to have nothing but people in suits under it, but we still didnt see any people in costume or funky garb.
So after a bit of chilling on the benches laughing at the difference in size of dog people have we went off towards the Harajuku entrance.
This is were it started to get interesting.
We saw a bunch of people with wooden katana doing choreographed fights the most interesting were 4 guys dressed in some sort of traditional dress, but with hats on!!
A street performer doing a few juggling acts, one of which involved large knives and an apple. He also burst a surgical glove he'd put over his head!!
Mental guy singing obviously his own songs, rather badly
Woman with 4 dogs all of the same breed, all wearing coats and sunglasses! with one being special and wearing a doggy wheelchair as it had no back legs awww!!
Three groups of rock-a-billys seemingly influenced by Grease as two were biker gang looking and one (which had women in!!) looked like they were outa the japanesse happydays, only they were all (except the women!!) middle aged.
We walked past them after we got lunch in the park and they were dancing away, the happy days bunch were in fact doing routines to music from Grease.
And of course goth kids, in seemingly cosplay, normal and gothloli varieties..
there weren't that many to be honest, one group was having their photo taken by some guy who i thought might of been the dude who did the Fruits books!!! middle aged and pretty normal looking!?!?!?! and some scattered around on a bridge by the park entrance.
I didnt ask any of the kids to pose, maybe should have but there were so many tourists snapping away at them without asking i figured they were harassed enough so just went with the tourist flow...
We then ventured off into Harajuku, partly to escape the hordes filling up the park and partly to go to a shop called Kiddy Land. Basically a toy store chain. It was rather impressive, about 6 floors dedicated to different genres like a Snoopy floor and a Disney floor etc. But no Hello Kitty floor...... because everyfloor seemed to have Hello Kitty on!!! Were some impressive toys, bought a nice cheap Gundam figure and a something for a certain someone!!!!
back at the hotel now after a relatively pleasent train journey. Off to try the jap take on a burger tonight i think!!! not from McD's!!!
Some Pics below, check the Flickr page for all of todays pick. Thinking I'm not taking enough snaps so will try and rectify that for you tomorrow.
Seeing as the walk took us to Yoyogi park again we figured we'd head there and try our luck in Harajuku again. Sunday is supposed to be the day everyone comes out to play anyway.
Got to the park and was surprised how different this part was compared to the bit by Harajuku station. All open grass with blossom trees dotted around.
It was pretty crazy, every blossom tree had a bunch of people under, chilling out, drinking booze and generally having a laugh, looked like some kind of festival but i get the feeling its like that most weekends.
We had a mill round this bit amazed at the number of people there, one tree seemed to have nothing but people in suits under it, but we still didnt see any people in costume or funky garb.
So after a bit of chilling on the benches laughing at the difference in size of dog people have we went off towards the Harajuku entrance.
This is were it started to get interesting.
We saw a bunch of people with wooden katana doing choreographed fights the most interesting were 4 guys dressed in some sort of traditional dress, but with hats on!!
A street performer doing a few juggling acts, one of which involved large knives and an apple. He also burst a surgical glove he'd put over his head!!
Mental guy singing obviously his own songs, rather badly
Woman with 4 dogs all of the same breed, all wearing coats and sunglasses! with one being special and wearing a doggy wheelchair as it had no back legs awww!!
Three groups of rock-a-billys seemingly influenced by Grease as two were biker gang looking and one (which had women in!!) looked like they were outa the japanesse happydays, only they were all (except the women!!) middle aged.
We walked past them after we got lunch in the park and they were dancing away, the happy days bunch were in fact doing routines to music from Grease.
And of course goth kids, in seemingly cosplay, normal and gothloli varieties..
there weren't that many to be honest, one group was having their photo taken by some guy who i thought might of been the dude who did the Fruits books!!! middle aged and pretty normal looking!?!?!?! and some scattered around on a bridge by the park entrance.
I didnt ask any of the kids to pose, maybe should have but there were so many tourists snapping away at them without asking i figured they were harassed enough so just went with the tourist flow...
We then ventured off into Harajuku, partly to escape the hordes filling up the park and partly to go to a shop called Kiddy Land. Basically a toy store chain. It was rather impressive, about 6 floors dedicated to different genres like a Snoopy floor and a Disney floor etc. But no Hello Kitty floor...... because everyfloor seemed to have Hello Kitty on!!! Were some impressive toys, bought a nice cheap Gundam figure and a something for a certain someone!!!!
back at the hotel now after a relatively pleasent train journey. Off to try the jap take on a burger tonight i think!!! not from McD's!!!
Some Pics below, check the Flickr page for all of todays pick. Thinking I'm not taking enough snaps so will try and rectify that for you tomorrow.
Something i'm sure certain friends will appreciate >>
Saturday 28 March 2009
Sat 28th, Harajuku Madness
Well, where to start with today? Had a really long sleep and feel much better for it. We left the hotel this morning and headed for Harajuku as planned. Took the Tokyo subway which was like trying to get onto the London Underground at rush hour.
When we got to Harajuku we went straight down Takeshita Dori which is the main little shopping street (see pic). It's really narrow and just full of people, little shops and (rather randomly) crepe stands. It was insane and was like nothing we could have expected although Mr Magees description from yesterday comes close.
Next we headed up the road to a rather insane posh shopping centre. It was basically a spiral with shops on one side so you just kept walking anti-clockwise and ended up at the top!
By now it was lunch time and we both needed a sit down so we managed to order some snadwiches from a coffee shop using the pointing at the picture on the menu technique (something we're getting rather proficient at!) and took them to the park to eat.
Whilst in the park we visited the Meiji Shrine, which has the largest Tori Gate of it's style in the country, standing at about 11 or 12m high. Was like we expected but we had the added bonus of seeing a bride all done up in traditional dress.
After some more people watching and another scrum up Takeshita Dori we headed back to the hotel for a rest before undertaking another Sushi mission.
After Sushi Mr Magee wanted to look in some more camera shops (yawn) and then we went looking for the random rainbow building we can see from the hotel - it's about 8 floors tall and each one is lit in a different colour. Yes very random but we are in the middle of a neon city. On our way there we stumbled across the sleezy area, with all the strip clubs and what appeared to be gigolos working the streets! They all dress in tight black jeans with leather jackets and big hair. Can't say I was tempted although I did have a good laugh.
Found a random frozen delight, really small blob of ice-cream surrounded in a gelatinous paste. Strangely morish. Now sitting watching Japanese TV and drinking lemon beer (Kirin Chi-Hi) which is far too drinkable and dangerously comes as either 6% or 8%
Planning on going to Shibuya tomorrow to do some people watching and visit some mad shop where sex toys sit next to shoes apparently.
When we got to Harajuku we went straight down Takeshita Dori which is the main little shopping street (see pic). It's really narrow and just full of people, little shops and (rather randomly) crepe stands. It was insane and was like nothing we could have expected although Mr Magees description from yesterday comes close.
Next we headed up the road to a rather insane posh shopping centre. It was basically a spiral with shops on one side so you just kept walking anti-clockwise and ended up at the top!
By now it was lunch time and we both needed a sit down so we managed to order some snadwiches from a coffee shop using the pointing at the picture on the menu technique (something we're getting rather proficient at!) and took them to the park to eat.
Whilst in the park we visited the Meiji Shrine, which has the largest Tori Gate of it's style in the country, standing at about 11 or 12m high. Was like we expected but we had the added bonus of seeing a bride all done up in traditional dress.
After some more people watching and another scrum up Takeshita Dori we headed back to the hotel for a rest before undertaking another Sushi mission.
After Sushi Mr Magee wanted to look in some more camera shops (yawn) and then we went looking for the random rainbow building we can see from the hotel - it's about 8 floors tall and each one is lit in a different colour. Yes very random but we are in the middle of a neon city. On our way there we stumbled across the sleezy area, with all the strip clubs and what appeared to be gigolos working the streets! They all dress in tight black jeans with leather jackets and big hair. Can't say I was tempted although I did have a good laugh.
Found a random frozen delight, really small blob of ice-cream surrounded in a gelatinous paste. Strangely morish. Now sitting watching Japanese TV and drinking lemon beer (Kirin Chi-Hi) which is far too drinkable and dangerously comes as either 6% or 8%
Planning on going to Shibuya tomorrow to do some people watching and visit some mad shop where sex toys sit next to shoes apparently.
Friday 27 March 2009
Operation Sushi a success.
After having a quick search on google for a decent but not to expensive sushi place we found one called Kitazawa Club Ikkan which was right by Yodabashi Camera.
Little place but friendly staff, decent prices and lovely sushi.
Had a little bit of a walk round that area again and now back to hotel as Caz is feeling a bit funny still, think the jet-lag is getting to her a little and the beer aint helping.
Currently drinking Asahi Cool Draft beer that a scary dude advertises on the TV accompanied by the Rocky fight scene music!! Almost as good as the normal Asahi Super Dry which they advertise with Queen as the soundtrack.. its gotta be good if they advertise it using queen!!
No plans for tomorrow, maybe people watching in Harajuku. See if its how i expect it to be, like camden on crack and then multiplied by a factor of ten.
Little place but friendly staff, decent prices and lovely sushi.
Had a little bit of a walk round that area again and now back to hotel as Caz is feeling a bit funny still, think the jet-lag is getting to her a little and the beer aint helping.
Currently drinking Asahi Cool Draft beer that a scary dude advertises on the TV accompanied by the Rocky fight scene music!! Almost as good as the normal Asahi Super Dry which they advertise with Queen as the soundtrack.. its gotta be good if they advertise it using queen!!
No plans for tomorrow, maybe people watching in Harajuku. See if its how i expect it to be, like camden on crack and then multiplied by a factor of ten.
First day awake!!
So after managing to sleep properly last night we got up around 8am without any jet-lag it seems, lay in bed a bit and watched crazy Japanese morning television, devouring a box of Poky chocolate biscuit things.
Finally got up and sorted, and packed the bags up as the hotel were going to move us to a non-smoking room so would be moving the bags for us. Thankfully they managed to get one sorted and we're still on the 23rd floor just down the other other end of the hotel.
So today we've been out to Shinjuku Gyoen (pics at bottom! Maybe!) which is a big park down the road. Apparently it has something like 1500 cherry blossom trees, i think we're a bit early as most of them weren't in bloom, so the ones that where had small hordes of locals round them taking pics... Had to pay to get in, but was well worth it as the place was spotless with out a bit of dog shit in sight.
We then went to find japans take on the Empire State Building, which you can see in a couple of pics, which was next to Takashimaya Times Square, a shoping centre home on one side to seemingly japans answer to Ikea, only 300x better, and on the other side all the usual expensive designer brands like D&G
Stopped for lunch about half two and went to a pretty funky noodle place just down the road. Food was nice, but the waitress was a pretty unhelpful, and it didnt help that they had some mad lunchtime offer on that we didnt understand!
Next up was a trip to Yodabashi Camera.. holly crap irs insane, think Rapid Hardware but good, full of tech, and all in japanese! We walked into the multimedia shop first which is basically were they sell everything that isn't a camera, and got completely confused. Finally figured out were the camera shop bit was (across the road!) and had a good mooch in there. Some interesting stuff, and was good to be able to pick things up and tinker with them, not just look at them behind glass.
We then went to Map camera which is a used camera store a few blocks down, caz was fading at this point so made it a quick visit. Some interesting stuff in there that i've never seen in the flesh. Best bit was the Leica/Hasselblad/everything else medium format and rangefinder floor. Never before have i seen so much Leica kit, there was so much exotic stuff in there, that all looked in top condition. Fav has to be the gold plated leicas worth something like £7000 before you even buy a lens!!!!
Back in the hotel now and caz is having a bath and hopefully not drowning in it as its rather deep... Annoyingly the room has sod all clothing storage so we're gonna be living out of the cases for a few days, lovely room though apart from that.
Tea time approaching and the mission is to find a sushi place..
Finally got up and sorted, and packed the bags up as the hotel were going to move us to a non-smoking room so would be moving the bags for us. Thankfully they managed to get one sorted and we're still on the 23rd floor just down the other other end of the hotel.
So today we've been out to Shinjuku Gyoen (pics at bottom! Maybe!) which is a big park down the road. Apparently it has something like 1500 cherry blossom trees, i think we're a bit early as most of them weren't in bloom, so the ones that where had small hordes of locals round them taking pics... Had to pay to get in, but was well worth it as the place was spotless with out a bit of dog shit in sight.
We then went to find japans take on the Empire State Building, which you can see in a couple of pics, which was next to Takashimaya Times Square, a shoping centre home on one side to seemingly japans answer to Ikea, only 300x better, and on the other side all the usual expensive designer brands like D&G
Stopped for lunch about half two and went to a pretty funky noodle place just down the road. Food was nice, but the waitress was a pretty unhelpful, and it didnt help that they had some mad lunchtime offer on that we didnt understand!
Next up was a trip to Yodabashi Camera.. holly crap irs insane, think Rapid Hardware but good, full of tech, and all in japanese! We walked into the multimedia shop first which is basically were they sell everything that isn't a camera, and got completely confused. Finally figured out were the camera shop bit was (across the road!) and had a good mooch in there. Some interesting stuff, and was good to be able to pick things up and tinker with them, not just look at them behind glass.
We then went to Map camera which is a used camera store a few blocks down, caz was fading at this point so made it a quick visit. Some interesting stuff in there that i've never seen in the flesh. Best bit was the Leica/Hasselblad/everything else medium format and rangefinder floor. Never before have i seen so much Leica kit, there was so much exotic stuff in there, that all looked in top condition. Fav has to be the gold plated leicas worth something like £7000 before you even buy a lens!!!!
Back in the hotel now and caz is having a bath and hopefully not drowning in it as its rather deep... Annoyingly the room has sod all clothing storage so we're gonna be living out of the cases for a few days, lovely room though apart from that.
Tea time approaching and the mission is to find a sushi place..
Thursday 26 March 2009
We're in Tokyo!
We made it! The flight was long and neither of us slept very much. It was really quick and easy to get out of the airport and onto the train which stopped at the station just near the hotel we're staying in in Shinjuku. We've been out for a walk and some lunch and then came back to the hotel where our room was ready. The plan was to have a rest and then maybe head out again but we both fell asleep! It's now 8:30pm, we've been up again for a couple of hours and are planning a really quiet night.
The room we're in tonight is on the 23rd floor and has an amazing view across Shinjuku and Tokyo. Unfortunately, it's a smoking room as they'd run out of non-smoking ones so we're moving tomorrow. Craig will probably be up half the night taking photos as we don't know what floor we'll be on tomorrow!
That's it for now, much sleep needed... XX
The room we're in tonight is on the 23rd floor and has an amazing view across Shinjuku and Tokyo. Unfortunately, it's a smoking room as they'd run out of non-smoking ones so we're moving tomorrow. Craig will probably be up half the night taking photos as we don't know what floor we'll be on tomorrow!
That's it for now, much sleep needed... XX
Sunday 22 March 2009
Nearly time to fly East
Just 2 1/2 days until we fly out to Japan. Due to arrive in Tokyo 9:30 local time on Thursday, so that's just after midnight for those of you in the UK! Keep tuned for regular updates.
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