Day 9



A mixture of sadness and excitement today


Sadness that in a week we’d barely scratched the surface of Osaka - and excitement that we were on our way to Tokyo - described as making Osaka look like a village


And we got to ride one of these beauties again


And embracing my Asian location, lunch is a salad with chopsticks - what could possibly go wrong ?


The only pain in the arse is an “American” family of 2 parents, 2 kids and a grandmother

Firstly they’d  booked seats with no oversized luggage allowance so have just wedged an enormous case over someone else’s head. Secondly they are allowing the 2 year old to wander where they want crashing into passengers and allowing these passengers to parent the kid by picking it up and seeing to it and thirdly he’s given the 8 year old some sushi to eat but just in case he makes a mess has moved him into another reserved seat that is currently empty but may well be filled at the next stop

That would be a great seat to come on to the train to

Cock

My opinion of the father didn’t improve as the elder child harassed 2 Japanese girls for the rest of the journey but we got to Tokyo on time and left them behind

The sheer number of people that greeted us was something to behold - the tube from Tokyo to Shibuya (where we are staying ) got so busy I lost sight of kieren 

As our stop approached I stood up and heard a loud voice say “hi dad there you are” and we all got off successfully 

We saw a sign that said South Exit so followed it, and followed and followed

Eventually after what seemed an eternity we got to the outside world

Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but Google maps has been awful in Japan. One second you’re on track then the next you’re miles off course

This happened again in Tokyo although it wasn’t helped by the fact we’d walked 20 minutes before we passed another entrance to the station - clearly the north exit - blast

We then walked through Shibuya






There will be better pictures to come but dragging a small suitcase was quite the distraction. Thank goodness we forwarded the big cases as I’m not sure how we’d have coped

We eventually found the hotel and although it wasn’t as plush as the first it had everything we needed with the helpful addition of a vibrant street just outside





After checking in and identifying our forwarded luggage we decided to have a beer

We tried to find this place


But just couldn’t find it

We stopped a construction worker type guy and asked and despite his efforts he couldn’t find it so we said thanks anyway and carried on looking ourselves 

Then 5 minutes later he ran up to us and said he’d found it and guided us to it - what a star - he then showed us the Vietnamese flag where he was from - he was so proud and we were so grateful

Inside we had a drink each but it was a smoky bar so we only stayed for 1

After that we went to the Bee Dining Darts bar on the 8th floor of a building 

It is everything that that name could conjure up:







It was, by the end, rammed with Japanese wanting to drink and play darts

We stayed for more drink then had some food although I did give this literal menu option a miss


The music was great and I Shazammed a particular favourite and it was by a band called Creepy Nuts

There were several others of theirs we liked and so we can now be called international super fans

Kieren did a funny thing that after being shown where the loos were, he wanted to go there on his own

He walked away and then after 15 yards he turned and saluted us - he’s turning Japanese!!

Then a bloke came in wearing what looks like a woman’s coat

The waiter shouted something in a high pitch voice that sounded like he was saying “this man’s got a woman’s coat’ and Joss couldn’t stop laughing

We then left via an arcade




And back to the hotel



It’s been quite a day!!!


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