Day One

Manchester - Heathrow - Tokyo

Sitting around watching all the characters getting ready to board for Tokyo. We have been wondering what brings each person on the same flight as us - are they on business, going to see relatives or looking to start the journey of a life time like ourselves!

After the 12 hour flight which was decent so top marks for good old British Airways we arrived at Narita Airport. Feeling extremely sick, shattered & with flu like symptoms plus being awake for 35 hours we were over whelmed by the whole experience!

The airport procedure seemed fairly normal to what were used to. The entry queues for all the foreign passports was a nightmare, long & time consuming. After photos, fingerprints & a quick quiz we were in!!! Quick toilet stop first though - this was going to be tricky! 3 choices - hole in ground and squat, a toilet with a sky plus remote attached or a normal one everyday toilet! I know which one I used...

Time to tackle the train system! After buying our train tickets and then buying another ticket in the space of 2 mins after I lost mine somehow (Andy standing around at this point fuming at my clumsiness) we got on to the platform & was faced with the confusing train routes.

After a quick snap decision to get on the strange looking train it appeared we were on the right track only 30 trains stations to our next train change over. Whilst tackling the trains for 2 hours we learnt many things, one being that the Japanese are really helpful, they find us as strange as we do them, the places we passed through are similar to those on the tv & that any chance they get the b*****s love to sleep - when I mean sleep, I mean sleep! At one point & to our hysteria on the 1st train a lady nearly fell off her seat sleeping, to which she then proceeded to nod off again only slouching my way to rest her head on my shoulder.

We arrived at our hostel Kawase Tokyo and Capsule which from the outside & in looks scruffy & old but it's clean, tidy & somewhat comfortable. After dropping our bags in our separate dorms we went out to explore the neighbourhood! Where to start?

We went for a walk about & was amazed at the amount of places to eat, it appears that most people eat out for all their meals in Tokyo. We stumbled across the amazing temples including the Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa area. They were stunning & bustling with people, surprisingly most of it's visitors are Japanese & are they come to the temples for worship, blessings & for thanks. Fascinating to see mass amounts of people rubbing smoke from a giant incense burner on their skin in order for them to get good health.

Further walking around we came to realise that the Japanese love to gamble - we entered one of the many slot machines places. There are rows & rows (hundreds) of slot machines with crazy animations all over them, rather confusing to a foreigner to say the least - we had no idea how they are played & nobody could explain.

After a short sleep to re-charge our batteries we headed out in to the night to search for a place to eat. Whilst walking around we was amazed at how many homeless there is around Tokyo. The homeless are not troublesome, they don't beg or ask for money, they simply just sit quietly on the side or lie in cardboard makeshift homes. Surprisingly they look clean & tidy compared to our tramps.

After tramp gazing for a while we entered a little tiny cafe like restaurant. I must admit that we looked rather stupid trying to figure out what to order & how to order. Using chop sticks to eat soup is somewhat of a challenge but we managed. I think it's KFC tomorrow for tea.

Back to the hostel for us................