Hey Guys,
welcome to the first part of my travel experience of Japan. I am still not sure how I want to do this. So I will decide on the go. First I want to say a little bit about Tokyo in general. Everything else will follow. I think there will follow a few special places. But honestly I don’t know if I have one favorite spot in Tokyo. Oh yes the park – more about later. So here we go.
Big in Japan
Tokyo is a really big city. There are many skyscrapers and everything is built closely together. I really mean that. On your first day in Tokyo we wanted to see the Metropolitan Government Building, which you should have an amazing view over the city. My Japan-Freak friend said it should be easy to find it because we should see it. It is so high that we should see it. We didn’t. There are so many big buildings. You can’t see from many points in the city. Because all building are tall. There is no way to find your way to things like that. You just see the nearest tall building. But it was quite fun to ask her maybe it is this building – or maybe this.
Not so big at all
Like I said Tokyo is a really big city but everything seems kinda small. For example: Akihabara. You always heard that this is the big district for all electro stuff and the Otakus. I thought of a really big exciting district. There should this big store for Manga and Anime over 7 floors just with that stuff, which I wanted to see. When we were in Akihabara it was really small… It is more like one street and the small street between this street and the next isn’t so much going on anymore. My best friend and I were search for this big store. At some point I stand before a really small looking store with 7 floors and said that this has the same name as the big store we are searching. But my best friend ment that this can’t be it. It is too small. In the end it was totally that store.
Maybe it be big inside. We hadn’t time to go back there (that sadly happens when you travel with such a big group). But it really looked really small. When you take all the floors and put them on the same level it is many be as big as a Talia with to floors.
Where are they coming from and where are they vanishing
I thought Tokyo would be full of people a little like Beijing. But it wasn’t. Over the day the city was almost empty. Maybe this is a little exaggerated. But there are not so many people like you would have thought. But in the nights?! From like 6 o’clock to midnight everything is full. All the trains are full of people in suits. They are everywhere. Also Shinjuku is full of people. It is really hard to go in the other direction of all the floats of the people are going. You really have to look every few steps if your group is still near you or if you already lost them in the masses.
So just one tip don’t drive the train after 6 o’clock. The later it becomes the fuller it becomes too.
Adventure eating
Eating everyday was quite an adventure. It is not that there weren’t enough possibilities. One thing is quite clear. You have to go were it is full because if it is not there is a reason for it. I didn’t eat bad food in Japan but when we were on Miyajima for example. There was a small ice shop and with along queue. Just three small shops further was no one. Half of the group bought the ice on the full and the other on the empty store. The part of the group who bought at the full store had his ice cream for 100 yen less than the others.
But back to the problem. Like I said before everything is really small. So the shops or restaurants are all so small too. There are actually were little restaurants that are bigger and then there are most likely restaurants like chinese, italian or Mac Donalds/Burger King.
So with our big group of 8 people we filled most of the shops. So obviously it was impossible to find something to eat with a table for 8 people.
What I love about the restaurants in Japan is that first you almost everywhere you get water for free (no matter what the others say I think that this can be in every country standard). The second thing is that you can see what the cooks are doing. I love it that you can watch them make your food.
In Tokyo we hadn’t something to eat were I said you have to eat it. We mostly ate ramen in Tokyo. I love ramen. Just one thing I really dislike is that the meat is quite fatty is not the right word I think. I just hate fat on my meat.
For Tourist
So, the only thing left to say is… okay I think I didn’t even told you half of it. And here it goes and I remember what I wanted to tell you all. So first of all the city really quiet and clean! So clean! I love how clean it is! That is just amazing. In Tokyo is also everyone so calm. So without pressure to get a train or something. Nobody runs in this city excepted the jogger. Because the train just drives every two seconds. Okay not really but all three minutes. So what wanted I say? Oh yeah they are really quiet but the can be really loud if they want. When they are for their hour drinking with their colleagues, they are loud like everyone else. Also in the night the train are not as quiet as in the mornings.
Second thing is. When you watch an Anime and the two main characters are meeting at night, they are always in a little park with a swing. I haven’t seen one swing in Tokyo. I was looking for them. Maybe I was in the wrong places. In Kyoto I found more of them. So maybe all Anime play in Kyoto.
So back to the point I actually wanted to make. The best thing you can do is buying a JR-Pass. With this Pass you can drive to whole japan with paying again. There are JR East and JR West. With that pass you can drive with the Shinkansen. Tokyo has a really great JR lines through the city. You really don’t need any other ticket. Kyoto has also a JR line going through the city. But there are just two lines but it is enough. Also in Kyoto are also JR busses and you can drive them for free with that ticket.
So yeah. It is quite easy with that pass to move around in Japan.
So guys. This was the first round of my impressions of Tokyo and Japan. Also I am quite annoyed now by our train system and my costumers. The first time I traveled in Berlin again with a train. He just stood with out a reason two meters before the stop… for like 5 minutes. Why? Something like that never happened in Japan. Not once.
The second… everyone was so friendly and open. It was amazing – not like China. In china everyone made pictures of as. Here in Japan nobody cared about us that way. But they were always ready to talk to you. In one restaurant we asked the neighbor table to take a picture and they not just made a science about it so that the picture will be beautiful. There were really interested in what we will see on our travel. It was so nice.
Here the customers not even can say ‘hello’. It is so annoying how unfriendly we are. I miss japan.
And what I totally miss too is the heated toilette seat. I always said that don’t need that but now that I had it everything is different. It is so nice. Oh how I miss it already.