My final day in Tokyo was a bit of a mish-mash, zig-zagging across the city to visit the final few places on my metaphorical checklist. I headed for The Imperial Palace, at Nijubashimae, first, and when I arrived the place was swarming with police, which at first I thought was just usual security measures for the residence of Japan's imperial family. As I got closer to the palace, however, there was also a press area and a number of locals standing and waiting behind a rope laid across the width of the pathway. So I knew something was going on and decided to join them. It was whilst I was stood amongst the others that it occurred to me just how gentle and also law-abiding the Japanese are. There were no metal gates holding them back, there was no jostling to get to the front or pushing from behind, they literally stood patiently behind a simple rope laid out along the ground, without attempting to move forward. I waited and waited (with my umbrella up, since I have given in and joined the crazy Japanese umbrella culture) until a police-escorted black limousine with Japanese flags arrived and pulled up to the gate and inside the palace grounds. I still to this day have no idea who it was or what was going on, but I feel it was important especially since everyone around me had their cameras and video cameras out and were all very excitable and so am pleased I haphazardly stumbled upon in. There was just time for the obligatory photo of Nijubushimae bridge, before I headed back to the subway and on to Tokyo station itself.

What a let down, is all I can say. There is absolutely sweet f*** all to see in the surrounding area of Tokyo station. So I hopped back on the metro and made for the financial district of Otemachi instead. After a quick wander round (after all you seen one bank, you seen them all) I went on to Kamiyacho, home to the Tokyo Tower for another sky view of the city , but this time complete with "look down window" (please try to contain your excitement). I then attempted to make my way to Tsukiji, which is famous for their fish market. I knew I had missed that since you have to be there at 5am and I just don't think I love fish enough to warrant getting up at that time, but I had heard that they had amazing seafood restaurants, and since food has been somewhat of a let down so far I was looking forward to tucking in. After a somewhat traumatic and unsuccessful (in terms of not finding any of the restaurants I was looking for) walk round ending up about three subway stations north of where I started I gave in and went back to the known territory of Shinjuku for some food. In my defence, Tokyo is notoriously hard to navigate as unlike most cities it is not based on a grid system, but on a spiral system and even taxi drivers ask for the phone number when you seek a destination so they can ring to ask where it is!!!

And so I went back to the hostel, had a quick Skype chat with the family, before re-packing my bag ready for my bullet train to Osaka (or O-saka, as they seem to say it here, which just reminds me of My Big Fat Greek Wedding when the 'pretty little blonde girls' mock a young Tula for eating mousaka by calling it "moose-ka-ka" ).

I took the Hikari shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka, and once I had located the right platform I found the right carriage and boarded the train. I made my way to my seat, which was an aisle seat and two little Japanese women had the window and middle seat. They were already settling in and taking things out of their bag and stowing their bags overhead. I waited patiently in the aisle seat for them to take their seats, but they hadn't yet seen me. When they did, they did not stop bowing in gratitude! For the first part we mostly nodded heads and smiled at one another - obviously unable to share language. The two women the other side of me also joined in on this practice. A short while in to the journey the two younger women across the aisle started tucking in to the snacks they had bought along for the journey, kindly offering me some chocolate biscuit fingers and a savoury black pepper bread stick and peanut combo. Having seen this the lady next to me, who had also tucked in to her snack bag, gave me an orange (she was clearly concerned that I got my 5-a-day). In return, I bestowed on them the wonders of the good olde English sweets Rhubarb and Custards, which they went absolutely bezerk for! Now that we had exchanged small gifts the lady next to me struck up a conversation, which was very nice and I felt very welcome/accepted. The only problem was the conversation was in Japanese and so to say it was one-sided is the biggest understatement of the century! So after some more smiling and after she gave up, I sat back in my chair, turned on my ipod and took in teh scenic Japanese views such as Mount Fuji.