After a long flight with Etihad, we arrived at Tokyo Narita. In the basement of the airport we validated our JR Pass for the railways and then took the Narita Express train to Shinjuku, which took about an hour 20 mins.

Arriving at the busy Shinjuku Station, we eventually found our way out and felicitously we right by a taxi rank. The taxi took us to our inn, a small establishment in Yotsuya. We had a traditional Japanese room with futon. Luckily the roon had air-conditioning as it was 28 degrees Celcius and very humid!

As we hadn't slept on the plane, and were tired so went to the nearest restaurant, Ristorante Salvatore Cuomo, just on the main street. We ate pasta whilst watching a typhoon hit the city. People were riding bicycles on the pavement holding umbrellas.

We both slept well and after breakfast walked towards the Imperial Palace. Being Monday it was closed but we walked around the outer walls and moats. We saw a group of Japanese tourists having a group photo, like the ones Joan was in when she lived here.

For lunch we headed in to Ginza, Tokyo's upmarket shopping area. Being in Japan, all the menus were in Japanese so we struggled to find somwhere to eat that was veggie. Kevin spotted restaurant Aoki that boasted "Sushi and vege Japanese cuisine." We went in and were shown to a private booth. In a mish-mash of English and Japanese we ordered vegetable sushi, miso soup and beer. The sushi was esoteric to say the least. Wew had five pieces each which were topped with raw vegables: maize, lotus root,pumpkin, okra and possibly grass. Still it was tasty and we tackled it with chopsticks. Some of the other dishes there were interested: smoked tuna guts, boiled squid legs and pig giblets.

Another restaurant claimed to do British style food. The dish of the day was fillet of horse mackerel, spaghetti, salad and cheesecake!

We saw several strange signs which made no sense. (see photos) One said "Shelter for people who can not go back home." We were not sure if this was for homeless people, people who had missed the last train or just Salarimen who had fallen out with their wives.

On the way back we walked around the rest of the Palace walls. There were lots of joggers exercising in the humid heat. People were wearing business suits even in the heat. There was a huge tortoise roaming loose next to a statue of a Samurai. There were some huge crows ominously lurking by people eating their lunches and was saw a beautiful red flower.

Back at the inn we have successfuly negotitaed the LAN network so we can write this.