24hrs, 3 plane takeoff and landings, 2 inflight meals and 1 tuk tuk later we arrived in Japan very tired, cold as we were dressed for 30 degree heat and about to get very wet.

We managed to negotiate our way through the not so very difficult subway and rail stations to find our Hotel out in the suburbs. Unfortunately our 2 singles rooms weren't ready as it was 11am and people were only just leaving but in some stroke of luck there was a twin available right away that we could change to and 3 nights of being apart for the first time in 6 weeks were shattered in an instant as we felt sleep was more important. We hit the sack for a good few hours and thought at 4pm we should get up otherwise we wouldn't sleep that night. We headed off to find somewhere to eat and luckily found a restaurant with plastic food outside. Upon entering the menu was all in Japanese and so we took the waitress outside and pointed at which plastic food we wished to consume.

Wednesday was a day for checking out the Northern part of Tokyo. The thing is with Tokyo is that there is no centre but about 7 and so we visited a 5 story Pagoda and then wandered through a park feeling all romantic as we have had the good fortune of arriving in peak cherry Blossom season. We also travelled over to the Tokyo museum and whilst we were in there the heavens opened and when we left we got very wet and headed over to Gyoza Stadium. This was so surreal, it was sort of a childrens entertainment plaza with loadsa wierd areas and games going on with a small arcade and then there was an area that just sold gyozas lots of different stalls and then a big ice cream place that sold different types of ice cream again from different stalls. Our problem was that everything and I mean everything was in Japanese and this just meant we could only point at pictures to order, it hasn't been too much of a hinderance but it gets annoying after a while.

Today(thursday) we went down to Tokyo station and all we were surrounded by when we left the station was loads of skyscrapers so we left there and headed to the west side of town and grabbed some lunch. From here we marvelled at the great buildings and went up the city hall building to see the views across Tokyo, we could see the base of Mt Fuji but the top was covered with cloud and so it wasn't properly visible.

We headed over to Ginzi a bit of a posh part of the city and checked out the Sony Building that shows you all the latest gadgetry that is soon to be released and oooohhhed and ahhhhhed at the big tvs etc. We grabbed some tea and then came back to the hotel.

Tokyo is really nice, its bizarre that you walk down a main street that is full of cars and people but everything is so quiet. The underground can be kinda tricky to negotiate but we haven't really had any problems at all. Shame we can't stay much longer but Hiroshima is calling us and we head off there tomorrow.

Take care

Heather and Louise