Konnichiwa!! (Hello!!) We made it to Japan in one piece and have nearly got through our first week. We've just been told the first week is the hardest so were veteran travellers now!J

Day1 - Ben

After saying our goodbyes we flew into the night and straight on til morning with about 3 and a half hours between sunset and sunrise, weird. We arrived in Tokyo at around 9am, midnight 'our time' and it was snowing!.

We jumped on a train in the general direction of Tokyo and after several Japanese updates on the tannoy we bottled it and decided to get off and check the signs. Turns out we were going the right way so got back on the next train. We reached Asakusa, our base for the first 3 days and set off to find our hostel. Luckily we had printed a map and got there no problem, had a quick kip to take the edge off and headed out exploring what was on our doorstep to keep us awake. Got a bit over adventurous and dived straight into the local cuisine of Takoyaki, looked like dumplings of some kind, was actually deep fried balls of octopus slime . . . opted for supernoodles from the supermarket instead (but used chopsticks to eat it!).

Day2 - Ben

Today we had loads of time due to getting up at 5am, we revisited Asakusa and browsed lots of traditional souvenir stalls, we also visited Senso-Ji Temple which has a 5 story pagoda and huge hanging red lantern.We've done a lot of walking around today and noticed a few things, people will wait all day for the green man when crossing the road but there's more lethal cyclists on the pavement than cars. Also the streets are immaculately clean but I've still not seen a bin whilst we've been here, where does it all go? There's also plenty of toilets everywhere, Debbie's never been so happy.We then visited Akihabara and were amazed at the amount of 20 year old gaming machines housed in multi-story building, floor after floor of pacman and Mario, I thought the Japanese were meant to be ahead of the game. Another interesting observation of the Japanese way of thinking is the toilet Debbie used in the SEGA building, it had a button for 'flush sound effects' with no water . . just the noise of a flushing toilet . . make of that what you will. Next up was the Imperial Palace gardens, Tokyo Tower and up to the observation deck of the Tokyo World trade centre for panoramic views of the city. We ventured out for a proper meal tonight and had chicken and rice - no raw fish

Day3 - Debbie

Feeling back on track with the time today we also got ourselves more organised with food and made cheese on toast in the hostel kitchen. The weather seemed a lot milder and so I pulled my jeans and little pumps out, Ben stuck to the craghoppers and took his shoes in his bag (if only id known what a good idea this was). We headed north today for Nikko via a 2 1/2 hour train ride, the further we went the cloudier the sky went. By the time we reached Nikko it was full on heavy snow. Little grey pumps = soggy wet feet!! However, we had a great time walking round the different shrines, which were very impressive and colourful despite the snow. After dethawing on the train ride back we went to a sushi restaurant for tea. The cucumber rolls and tuna salad rolls were great, but the salmon roe (salmons eggs - looked like bright orange frog spawn) turned out to be a big mistake. We must have looked a little lost as the Japanese guy next to us started to explain what the different dishes were and showed us the green tea powder and how to make up a drink. Ben decided the pickled ginger was the best bit.

Day4 - Debbie

Our last day in Tokyo and definitely the most walking we have done so far, the massive blister on my heel speaks for itself…..blister plasters to the rescue! We went to Shinjuku today which is a lot bigger that we realised, we got to the main streets with very fancy and impressive buildings towering above us. We also got lost for a few hours and covered many a mile, even though Ben had his trusty compass….what went wrong??:-) We also had our first Mcdonalds….not even a week in, terrible. We went to the Shinjuku National Gardens, which was very peaceful and I actually managed to sunbathe on the lawns…..what a difference from yesterday. We're moving on to Mount fuji today so got our tickets organised, collected our backpacks and caught the 10 past 6 bus to Kawaguchiko, Mt Fuji. Wasn't as easy and calm as all that though! We arrived at our hostel at 8.30pm and were really impressed with our ryokan style room.