Sheila had prebooked - and paid for - our train tickets from Narita Airport to a district of Tokyo called Ueno and it was straightforward to find the appropriate desk at the Airport and swap the printout for the tickets (which told you what seats were reserved and in which coach) and then get to the right platform. There were lots of signs in English and the staff we spoke to could all speak English. The train was quiet, clean and very fast but it is a measure of how far out Narita airport is (and how massive Tokyo is, with 35 million people) that it still took 40 minutes to get to Ueno.
The hotel was close to the station (which is why Sheila chose it) but despite having a map we still got slightly lost as the streets have no name but as we were standing there looking around a little old lady came up and offered help. She wandered off to look, and then two more ladies also offered help, but the first lady found the place (100 yards away just round the corner) and came back for us. This was the first of what looked likely to be many times when local people go out of their way to be helpful.
Our room on the top (twelfth) floor of the Sardonyx Hotel was tiny but had everything we need, including a high-tech lav which washes your bum with warm water. It took a while to get the TV on to BBC news (to find out that Scotland had voted no - thank God - to independence) but we did find a lot of porn channels which - we think - required a special card from the machine down the corridor at ¥1000 (about £6).
We found the room via Bookings.com and we thought it was pretty reasonable for a Tokyo city centre hotel - about £50 including breakfast. Though we thought breakfast was a tad bizarre - hot dog or pancakes and soup. We were to eat stranger things for our breakfast later on.
Our tiny hotel room
Octopus balls
yakitori and mushrooms
Once settled in our room we headed outside and were delighted to find a vibrant street market area with all the shops open, lots of open-air restaurants and millions of people. It was dark by about 6pm which added to the atmosphere so we just wandered and stopped for occasional snacks - four octopus balls for about 80p (bits of octopus in a doughy ball which is griddled and red-hot), then some yakitori (small grilled things on a stick - meat and mushroom) and beer for ¥1800 (about £11), then some more wandering, then some more yakitori and beer. This last one had a splendid English version of the menu which would put off all but the most hardened diner. It didn’t put us off.
Asahi brewery building Tokyo
The following day we took the Ginza Line on the metro to Asakusa (clean, cheap and some English signage) and then walked across the river to the Tokyo SkyTree - the world’s tallest freestanding communications tower at 634m. We paid ¥2000 (£12) each to get to the first viewing platform at 350m, via a fearsomely fast lift which made your ears pop. The views over Tokyo from this platform were wonderful. We then paid another ¥1000 (£6) to go to the next platform at 450m - via an even more scary lift which had open-air views as you soared skywards - where it looked like you were looking down on a toy town. One of us got a bit nauseous, but recovered. Until he heard the announcement about what to do in the event of an earthquake.
It was stunning from the top platform - you were looking down vertically. And there was even a scary glass-floored bit where you could look down to the ground.
optical illusion at the Sky Tree
The whole operation was incredibly Japanese, i.e. well-organised, well-manned, fast and efficient. There were lots of young men and ladies to direct you to the places you paid, or to lifts, and to bow and thank you for using their services. This is a place where you can’t help being well-mannered back. But we were glad we got there early - when we returned top the ground floor the queue was half-an-hour long.
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As we returned to the ground floor we discovered a huge food emporium with lots of fresh fish (being butchered on the spot), sushi and sashimi, evil-looking mushrooms, fruit & veg, ice-cream and a million other edibles. It made us realise we were peckish so we headed back the way we had come (after some difficulty because we had come out on a different side of the building) and into another maze of small streets en route to the Sensoji Temple. We wandered around until we found a noodle place (if you can’t read the words then you have to depend on the pictures - or the plastic representations of the dishes) and had a fine bowl of miso with pork (Sheila) and pork with vegetables (me) plus a couple of beers for ¥2760 (about £16), we subsequently established that it's the beers that substantially add to the bill.
some tourists more exotically dressed than others
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On our second day we took a walk and we ended up in Akihabara - “Electric City” where most of the shops are devoted to consumer electronics and the smaller arcade shops are for more specialised things that you have never seen before, and for bits to make electric things. There were even the sort of valves that used to go into 1950’s televisions.
This was an interesting area with huge ads on the multi-storey buildings, traders standing on the pavements trying to encourage the shoppers into the stores, the new iPhone 6 had just been released and was a big attraction.
On our way back the six-lane main highway was closed to traffic and it was great to be able to walk down the middle of the road. The sun was out and some of the modern buildings provided excellent reflections of their neighbours. But behind some of the gloss, the electricity connections in the street looked a touch third world.
This was an interesting area with huge ads on the multi-storey buildings, traders standing on the pavements trying to encourage the shoppers into the stores, the new iPhone 6 had just been released and was a big attraction.
On our way back the six-lane main highway was closed to traffic and it was great to be able to walk down the middle of the road. The sun was out and some of the modern buildings provided excellent reflections of their neighbours. But behind some of the gloss, the electricity connections in the street looked a touch third world.
As it was lunchtime we decided to indulge in one of the more peculiar components of Japanese culture - a “Maidreamin” restaurant where the waitresses dress in knee socks, short skirts showing frilly knickers and make you do little child-like rituals before you get the food and drink. No photographs were allowed inside the restaurant but this girl advertising them in the street gives you a flavour. Quite often all of the girls - about a dozen - would make an announcement about a particular set of customers and there would be loud cheering and applause. Not sure what the customers had done to deserve this but we think it was largely a matter of money.
One of the girls - slightly older than the rest - mimed a very noisy Japanese little-girly pop song and did the sort of dancing little girls like to do when they “put on a show”. Plus lots of winsome bits like a finger under he chin or against the cheek.
One of the girls - slightly older than the rest - mimed a very noisy Japanese little-girly pop song and did the sort of dancing little girls like to do when they “put on a show”. Plus lots of winsome bits like a finger under he chin or against the cheek.
Gilroy says given the recent scandals in Britain about the abuse of under-age girls this all made him feel rather uncomfortable, like he should have brought his dirty mac rather than his wife, but there were plenty of other (Japanese and European) couples there and Sheila pointed out that it was like the modern equivalent of Geishas. Perhaps so, because one of the girls came to our table and - despite the language problems - chatted about our visit to Japan. And a similar sort of restaurant - based on a cat theme but involving similarly dressed girls and activities - was recently on the Hairy BikersTV show about a road trip to Japan so we presume it is respectable. And the rules - in English - were pointed out before we went in, which included no touching the girls.
The food was OK (curry and rice, with chicken nuggets) and we got our photos taken with two of the girls. Not a bargain, but an interesting element of everyday Japanese life. We saw lots of other similar restaurants in the area.
Mount Fuji & the lakes
We were agreed that we could not visit Japan without seeing Mt Fuji but this proved quite difficult as the weather was generally overcast.
There are five lakes in the area, probably good walking in good weather which it wasn't.
There are five lakes in the area, probably good walking in good weather which it wasn't.
Arty shot of Lake Shoji
Click on one of these links to go to another page:
Japan Introduction
Our vehicle
Overnight stops
Food
Ito Peninsula
Central Honshū
Western Honshū
Kyoto
Shrines & temples
Japan Introduction
Our vehicle
Overnight stops
Food
Ito Peninsula
Central Honshū
Western Honshū
Kyoto
Shrines & temples
