Peter's Japan blog

On the train from Narita Airport to Tokyo, the train just left, so there are not many people on it yet:

This is in the traditional ryokan where I slept the first 4 nights:

A Real Hachi-roku or AE86 or Toyota Corrola Sprinter Trueno Levin 1986, although it's not the exact model&color from Initial-D (which is a Trueno), it's still very nice :) :

At the Thundergate in Asakusa:

At the pagoda at the Sensoji temple in Asakusa:

At the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (where besides sports events are also many concert, like from Ayumi ;p):

Many big skyscrapers in Shinjuku Skyscraper district:

Tokyo Metropolitan Government building (the highest in Shinjuku):

At busy & famous Shibuya Crossing (and the pictures are far from peak hour):

Very busy Akihabara on Sunday (when the road is closed for traffic):

Me in front of Tokyo Tower:

Here at Odaiba at the Tokyo Big Sight conference hall (with under that a scene from Genshiken anime ;p)

more to come :)

A list of the stuff I bought:

dvd:
Ayumi Hamasaki - Arena Tour 2006 A -(miss)understood-
Ayumi Hamasaki - Countdown Live 2004-2005
Ayumi Hamasaki - Countdown Live 2005-2006

cd:
Ayumi Hamasaki - LOVEppears (album)
Ayumi Hamasaki - Memorial address [CD+DVD] (album)
Hinoi Team - Night On Fire [CD+DVD] (single)
Hinoi Team - Now And Forever [CD+DVD] (single)
Suzumiya haruhi no Tsumeawase - TV Anime Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Gekichu Kashu Single (single)

other:
Limited Bag from Suzumiya Haruhi (red) from the Entama 2006 festival (this bag included a shirt of Suzumiya Haruhi with text of Entama 2006 festival, a phonecard&cardboad stand of Suzumiya Haruhi)
2 small posters of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
T-Shirt from Neon Genesis Evangelion
T-Shirt from Hayate
Art Book of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Gachapon figures from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Gachapon figures from Ichigo Mashimaro
VIVI magazine (Dec 2006) (Ayumi Hamasaki on the cover ;p)

seems like I bought quite a lot of Suzumiya Haruhi ;p
I could have bought more, but I still had to get it in my suitcase/backpack and get it safely home.

Because I went to sleep early, I woke up at 6h, and watched the rest of my new Ayumi concert dvd ;p, and it was great! :) I took some breakfast downstairs, and after that I got going to the Shinjuku skyscraper district. There are many very big skyscrapers there. So after a lot of pictures, I went to Shibuya for a more detailed look at some of the deparment stores. Having arrived there, I first went to the main deparment store: Shibuya 109. When I got up on every rolling staircase, I saw nothing but 'ladies fashion' on the name plates... Seven stories of nothing but ladies fashion, mostly oriented at young people. So I went to another store, also with seven stories, and got to the same conclusion: seven stories full of ladies fashion. This time, more oriented to a little older young people. Then I came across Shibuya 109-2, which to my surprise, had 2 floors of mens fashion, with the other 5 floors being ladies fashion of course. I didn't bother to get a look so I walked around for a bit and got on the Yamanote to Akihabara to look for some gifts and ask if those cool japanese cell phone also worked in Europe. After going through all the anime shops (I already know my way in almost all of them ;p) I found something. So after that, I went to ask for those cell phones, but to not much surprise, they only worked in Japan... So I'm gonna have to look for other cell phones that look like them when I get home...
I am still amazed at how many people on the sidewalk are handing flyers here. And even on very busy cross walks (which tend to be quite wide), they stand on the cross walk on the street itself. Desperatly to get that little paper (or a pack of tissues) into your hands. I must say that half them, don't give anything to foreigner, as they probably already know you're not going to come to their shop as you don't even understand what's on the flyer. And no need for cell phone, as you can't use them anyway outside Japan ;p.
At Akihabara station there were the usual girls dressed as maids handing out flyers as well. This really is something that can only happen in Japan. In other countries, I'm almost certain they would be harassed, but here that's out of the question. When people are interested, they just talk to them. But still, it's an unusual but pretty sight ;).
So I took the Yamanote again to Shinjuku, but this time I got in at rush hour it seems. Which meant the train was full, and I mean full and compressed together ;p. But when we got to Ueno, all those people got out again. It seems that the peak hours are also localized to some sections of the line. Like between Shibuya & Shinjuku, Ikebukuro & Ueno. All the big stations.
After this experience I got back at the hotel, through busy Kabukicho.
Well, it was a very nice vacation & experience. Being in Japan for the first time, staying at a traditional ryokan & the busy street of Tokyo. But my feet & legs hurt from all the walking. You have the very complex subway system, but then you don't see anything, therefore you also have to walk a bit. Also a tip: in almost every shop building there are either rolling staircases or an elevator, use them! Stairs can kill your legs ;p
Now that I have an internet connection to my laptop, I will put some photos up (it's a bit late, but it's easier this way), and then take a bath. And then go to sleep, because I have to get up at 6h, for my (long) flight at 11h.
Sayonara!

Had to move to another hotel today. I actually got everything in my suitcase again, also with the stuff that I bought. The new hotel is a normal type of hotel. The Shinjuku Vintage hotel is located east of Shinjuku in the Kabuki-cho district. It's cheap, but it's got every you need: a good bed, a toilet&bath in the room, a tv, a fridge, a phone, and it's even got an internet connection ;p. But I was early because checkout was at 10h, and checkin of the new hotel was 15h, so I dropped off my luggage there first, and walked arround a bit, ate something, went to Harajuku to look for some ayu stuff, but did not find anything except for some photos, but no mobile phone straps... strange... anyway, after a quick visit to Shibuya, went back to the hotel.
At 20h, I was already falling asleep, so I went to bed really early, I had to get some sleep anyway.

Today I took everything easy, because I didn't get much sleep. I repacked all my stuff a bit in my suitcase because I had some stuff that I bought that had to fit in.
First I went to Roppongi Hills with the big Mori Tower, that also has a small shopping & dining mall at the bottom. Although these were mostly on the expensive side. After that I took a walk to Tokyo Tower, you can't miss it so it was easy to find. Went to the first observatory at 150m. As some know, I'm not very fond of heights, so I was a bit shaky at the beginning, but that started to get better after a while. Althought I could have felt the moving direction of the earth at this height, but that was probably my imagination. After having eaten something small, I went back down, and visited the Zozoji shrine, which is right next to the Tokyo Tower. Then I took a long walk to Shimbashi station, where I took the Yurikamome line to Odaiba. Odaiba is a piece of reclaimed land in the Tokyo bay, which you can reach via the rainbow bridge. This bridge has a very distinct feature, that it has a circular onramp. The monorail also goes on this circle and over the bridge to Odaiba. Odaiba was meant to be very futuristic looking. It has a big exposition center, some hotels, Panasonic building, Toyota showroom (with new, old & concept cars), a big shopping & gaming hall, and the Fuji TV Building. Here I saw an HMV store, so I went to look again if they had the new concert dvd from Ayumi already, and they did. Which is a day early ;p.
After a lot of walking on Odaiba I went back to Shibuya here in bagus internet cafe.

Too tired today to write a whole story. Went to Tokyo Dome, Asakusa, Harajuku, Yoyogi Stadium & back to Shibuya.

Edit:
And now for the whole story. As there was time I changed my schedule a little bit, also because Tokyo Dome was not far away from my hotel. Took some pictures and went on to take the subway to Asakusa. There I visited the big temple with the gate with the big red lampon. After that I went for some sushi in that neighbourhood. The thing with japanese restaurants is that they are noisy. But not because of the customers, but because of the people that work there. Every time a customer enters the restaurant, almost half of the staff yells 'irasshaimassen'. Even when I asked to pay, there were 2 waitresses behind me, and they both yelled 'arigato goizimaaaass', even though I only asked I to pay ;p.

(the rest follows later)