Tokyo and Pearl Harbour Tokyo march 21-22Upon arriving atTokyo station, Jason Bourne was brought out of retirement yet again, and i headed off around the Yamanaote railway Loop in the wrong direction.It was not the end of the world i thought, seeing as it goes round in a circle i will get there in the end. And then i remembered when my mum, dad and nana came to visit me in sheffield and got lost going back to devon and ended up on the m25.they were heading east and thought the same until they were on it for over 2 hours.but as it happened it was only about 10 minutes longer.my hostel was in the district of "Ikkebukuru" which is really lively and full of "love hotels" where you can just book in for the hour.
Funny how i always end up in the seedy areas.I took it easy on the friday knowing i was due for a big night out on the saturday, so i went down to reception and waited my turn for the one and only computer.While i waited i grabbed Jonnie's favourite, the lonely planet guide, and got a beer out of one of the zillion vending machines and sat quietly while waiting for the Pc.and then the "Pearl Harbour" moment arrived.............the peace was shattered by a boat load of loud, whiny, and downright infuriating fat, spoilt Yanks."oh my god they havea disney here.??AWESOMEMAN, LIKETOTALLYYEAH."WHOOPWHOOPin the blood boiling ten awesome, totally like yea,minutes that followed, i was completely understanding as to why the Japs bombed them.I would have happily got an Uzi 9mm and blasted the lot of them.Anyway, rant over, my night got even better by discovering i was sharing a room with Mr Patel who absolutely stunk and kept coughing up spit like spit the dog only ten times louder.Well i managed to survive B.O. Central and spent all day saturday blasting around Tokyo trying to see as many of the sights as i could and then met a friend of my old boss who has lived here for 10 years and said he would take me out."i will take you to a wicked Sake bar" he said.Oh dear.it was like rocket fuel! next thing i know we are sat eating at 4am and i am in need of my bed. To make matters worse, B.O central had a checkout time of 10am, so i had to be up in a few hours.The underground did not run until 5am and i had a free pass, but just wanted to go to bed, so i got a taxi which cost me an arm and a leg to take me to the station near to the hostel, as i could not remember the name of the hostel.Well if you have seen the pictures you may be aware that Ikkebukuru station is actually one of the largest rail stations in the world. a sensible destination for a really drunk visitor at 4am??No.So i fell out the taxi and looked around and i did not have a clue where i was and yet as i looked at the station i recognised it.So i scratched my head and thought somehow if i wandered aimlessly up and down, it would all suddenly change. Then i started going round the blocks, but to no avail, i kept coming back to the station and it was all completely unrecognisable.You see when you grow up in small towns, everything is so small it usually has only one entrance, and that is what was fixed in my mind. What a doughnut, he had only dropped me off at the entrance on the other side.So by the time i realised this and had staggered through the station, the trains had started running, so i could have saved myself 20 quid.So back i get to B.O central, but luckily mr Patel had checked out earlier on.Anyway, have you seen those programs on the SAS where they can burst in to a room full of 6 hostages and put bullets in all the baddies but not the hostages?well i say this because the room was really cramped with 3 bunkbeds and there was no room to store anything, so people left their bags on the floor and there was hardly any room to walk.so this fat lad and a bird had checked in earlier and left their stuff near the door, but with my SAStraining i made a mental note of it for later.When you go in to the room you can not put the light on as others are sleeping, so you have to either use your mobile as a torch or just feel your way to the bed where you have a little light.Well i could hardly walk straight as it was, so staggered in to the room, manouvered around fatties bags and then headed towards my bunk in the corner..............those of you who are very shrewd will remember the fact that there were 3 bunkbeds in the room... mine plus fatties equals 2.That leaves one spare.unless of course 2 asian girls checked in after i went out.so off i head in the pitch black towards my bunk and then i tripped right over this bag that was not there earlier and hit their bunk bed and nearly went through the window.yet another carry on moment.poor things i must have scared the life out of them.So a few hours later i crawled out of bed and then headed off to mount fuji.

I got on the train and went on auto pilot to Tokyo station, which was the farthest stop and then when i got there and read my notes, i realised i should have been at the station next to where i got on. good job i have got a rail pass.what a hangover.next installment,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,carry on up the mountains.............