On 15th of April 2013 we hit the road (or sky) to begin our epic gap year of travel, first stop: Tokyo.

Though merely a stop-over and an excuse to break up the long flight from Brisbane to London, Tokyo turned out to be a bit of an eye-opener! We had done little to no research on what we were going to do during these 4 days, so we just made it up as we went along (I've got a feeling that will become a continuing theme in this blog). The only thing we did book was this cute little traditional Japanese hotel called Kimi Roykan in Ikebukaro.

By day Tokyo is grey: the buildings, the permanently overcast sky, the clothes and even the parks which were all made of concrete.. there is no grass anywhere to be found! (Well except near the Imperial Palace, which was a welcome sight). The houses are on top of each other and nobody talks, it's eerily silent, but at night all that changes when everything lights up, the clothes become a clash of patterns and there's a real buzz about the place especially in Shinjuku and Shibuya.

But rather than bore you with our itinerary, here are just a few of the things that made Tokyo stand out for us;

- The shouting welcome you get when you enter nearly every restaurant

- Heated seats on state-of-the-art Robotoilets

- Wacky train platform music

- Ridiculous over-abundance of mind-melting advertising

- No bins or public seating… anywhere and I mean, anywhere!

- People wearing surgical masks.. all the time, we even saw one guy pull it down to have a cigarette

- And Darren's favourite.. green tea ice cream: a tasty treat that can't be beat… except by any other food in the world!

If you really want to know some of the specifics, a few of the things we did do included strolling up the Nakamise St Markets to get to the sensational (and very not tranquil) Sensoji Temple, exploring the wacky department store 'Tokyo Hands' (8 levels of retail madness, filled with everything you never thought you needed) and visiting the Imperial Palace.. though we weren't allowed in. Oh, and we also got hopelessly lost in one of Tokyo's less impressive suburbs.

All in all, a good little stop-over.

Daz & CG