My preconceived perception of Tokyo was, hectic, crazy & how will we relax. I decided that we would take the trains to Asakusa the traditional old part of Tokyo. The train staff at Narita spoke English and they give you little forms that they fill out in English and Japanese to get you to the stop that you need to get to for your hotel.    On Sunday evening I thought we had a direct train to Asakusa but we have to change!! Scary for Kiwi’s after seeing cram packed
trains on documentaries on TV.   It was easy to navigate your way through the network of trains even after a 10 hour flight it did appear m mind boggling when looking at the maps – one hour later we popped up out of the subway like penguins.  We had fantastic directions from our traditional Ryokan Hotel that were faultless and we arrived without any problems – one question on the street to a young Japanese man and he actually walked us to the hotel and took us inside!! - something that rarely would happen in New Zealand.

So...... 2 nights in Tokyo and only one day – we decided just to embrace the area we had chosen to stay in Asakusa – the old area of Tokyo. It is wonderful, traditional old restaurants, bars, apartments with gardens, incredibly clean. No knowing whether we wanted to eat, have a drink, a sleep the usual unbalanced feeling you get after coming off a long flight having been awake for numerous hours we decided on a shower and lets go for a walk. ...... the walk turned into a Sake Bar, oysters - fat juicy and delicious yumo!!   Time zones – I woke at 3am Tokyo time, 6am NZ time so that was my lot, we had a wonderful breakfast, language is a real barrier here and English is not spoken widely, young ones are more likely although its limited. Ordering – eating out – menus are all in Japanese unless stated there is an English menu. Some places have picture menus. We experienced a sushi cafe where you just chose off a picture menue ohlalalal it was the best sushi I have ever eaten!!!

We tried to hire bikes down by the river, passports are mandatory and we had left ours behind.

Tokyo didn’t disappoint it was a wonderful cultural experience, the Japanese are polite, helpful, thankful if you shop with them – wanting to give you exceptional service. There is great coffee, its a foodies paradise, shoppers delight, full of history – it has created more intrigue than before and I would like to return one day to visit other regions and see the real Japan.