I've now been back nearly a week now from my latest holiday to Japan and as I look back at it now, it's a good opportunity to share the experience.
Those who have followed my blog will have known that although this isn't my first visit to Japan, it's the first that isn't part of a package and was organised completely between those that went on it. Three other people went, whom I'd met on the last trip and made friends with – including my girlfriend. After the last trip we were keen to go again and jumped at the opportunity.
Flights and hotels were all booked in advance. Flights were with Japan Airlines and accommodation was split between the Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku in Tokyo and the Toyoko Inn in Kyoto. The only thing we didn't have in advance was an itinerary. We did have an idea of the things we wanted to do between us and not being stuck to an itinerary meant that we were free to do things and explore at our own pace.
The flight itself is about 12 hours, but by the time I travelled to Heathrow airport (having nearly missed my coach thanks to the motorway being closed) and then from Narita airport to the hotel in Japan it works out to almost a full day of constant travelling. One needs to be well prepared and well entertained for such a long journey – or at least, able to sleep on airplanes! Watching Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone and Summer Wars helped pass the time on the flight, although I was saddened not to see more animé available.
We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon on Saturday 16th (Japan time) after catching the Narita Express to Shinjuku which was pretty much direct from the airport to near the hotel. We didn't do much that day – we were far too tired from travelling – but we did look around Shinjuku in the evening. Adjusting to the time difference was tricky, as for the first few days we ended up waking up far too early and resorting to watching TV.
On the Sunday we went to Harajuku and Yoyogi park. One of the highlights for us wasn't the outrageous fashions on display or walking around the park – it was the visit to Daiso, a large ¥100 store. It's hard to appreciate until you actually look around. There's some good quality and useful stuff there – even better when it works out to 70p an item even with the poor exchange rate. I picked up a few things including a sleeping mask, camera tripod and DSi protector.
There was more to explore of course and we also went to Kiddy Land (a large toy store) and the Volks shop, tucked out of the way. Dolfies are extremely nice but also extremely expensive – would love to have one but can't really justify the expense at the moment.
We were fortunate to have some great weather which made walking around Yoyogi park pleasant. I even managed to fulfil a lifetime ambition – doing the Hare Hare Yukai dance in Japan! And not just by myself either – with a group of Japanese otaku who I spotted practicing. I think they were slightly bemused but it was fun. I felt sorry for the poor person who came up to me enthusiastically afterwards and tried talking to me in Japanese. I wish my language ability was better!
The evening was spent eating out at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku. There's a variety of restaurants on the top floor and although we went for a more budget choice, it was still very good quality. Both the girlfriend and I had tonkatsu (pork in breadcrumbs), omlette and rice for about ¥1100 each. You'd be hard pushed to eat out for less in the UK.
I'll be covering the rest of the holiday in future articles, rather than try to cover it all in one massive article. If you want to know when a new article is uploaded, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or follow my updates on Twitter. I'll be covering our visits to the Ghibli museum, Akihabara, Odaiba, Kyoto and Osaka in future. Keep tuned!
