Well, after 13,800kms in the truck through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Lesotho we arrived in Tokyo, Japan. Just before we left Africa our paths crossed with those in another truck doing the Trans Africa trip – 44 weeks starting in London and finishing in Cairo. These guys had been stuck in the Congo and covered a total of 20km in 10 days because of the state of the 'roads' and the mud. No showers, still camping in the bush and they'd resorted to washing in pools of muddy water. The photos were unbelievable and they literally had to make their own road for the truck which seemed to be on a lean in the sticky mud half the time. They were also running out of water. Some of this was explained enthusiastically to Euan by a 67 (I think) year old Australian chap who had just had to leave the trip because of some parasite he'd picked up, but he'd flown back to Africa just to do the bungy jump from Bloukrans bridge.
Arriving in Tokyo was a shock to the system to say the least. We had a 13-hour flight from Jo’burg to Hong Kong, a two and a half hour wait then a four-hour flight to Tokyo. We were pretty shattered when we arrived and, to our amusement, were ‘heat checked’ before passport control. Presumably that’s to pick up on anyone who is sick!! Despite little English being spoken and signs being mostly in Japanese, we managed to find the hostel where we were staying in. We were warned Japan would seem expensive but we weren’t prepared to be paying £15 each for a bed in a dorm with 6 others. Euan wasn’t terribly impressed. I was too tired to care.
Our first impressions were that the Japanese seem (and rightly so!) pretty intent on making things easier and more relaxed. A brilliant idea as long as you know what is going on! The toilets in our hostel has heated seats (a weird sensation and it just made me want to stand up immediately!), more instructions than a mobile phone manual and there was a real risk of pressing the wrong button and being hit in the face by a jet of water intended for something else. Pressing buttons on the loo was one of the things that really had to be thought about seriously! On a somewhat more pleasant note, some of the trains, tube lines and most of the shopping areas we went into had soothing music being piped out which was actually very soothing.
The people we’ve come into contact with thus far are super polite, gracious and very smiley. For example we were waiting in a queue for sushi and left to go and get money out. When we got back 10mins later the queue had grown but the man who was originally behind us before we left insisted on us going back to our original place in the queue. Tokyo seems an incredibly safe place and we were wandering the streets at night without feeling remotely threatened in any way. Vending machines sit in lines on many streets with no bars or security and many of the bikes parked up outside shops aren’t locked. Thus far, we reckon Tokyo is less manic than London and some of the main roads were deserted at about 9pm. We knew we were in a quieter district but we had really though that most of the city would be pretty busy at all hours.
but then we saw the below which seemed more like what we were expecting
We also came across these game halls that had huge powerful lights outside that lit up the street like day and heaps of flashing lights, bling-bling noises of game machines and jingles and jangles of God knows what else.
and we haven't even started on the public transport yet. London has a long way to go. We were told we could set our watches by the trains and they're right! Every single metro we caught has been on time to the 1/2 minute. We've also been told that if you're 10 seconds after the departure time for the Shinkansen (bullet train) then you'll miss it. Not sure we'll test that one.
I’ve no qualms whatsoever at taking loads of photos and am snapping away at any opportunity (Euan caught me photographing fish in a supermarket and walked the other way!) To be honest, I’m sort of relishing the feeling of not having to ask for permission! My defence having taken the below was that I’d never seen fish this fresh in a supermarket before and for only about £3 too
and I’d never seen spring onions this long either (I hope that’s what they are!)
We love it that everyone smiles back at us and that you’re welcomed into every shop you go into. People smile even when they’re saying that we can’t/mustn’t do something and even though we don’t speak a word of Japanese or understand a word being said, they natter away at us all the same – no idea what is being said but you know you should pay attention. Its very humorous and leaves us smiling. On our first night we ate at a local sushi train restaurant and had what was probably the best sushi I’ve ever tasted.
There are two things that I'd like to eat while here in Japan – wagyu beef and otoro - the best cut of tuna from the underbelly of the fish. We found a butcher that sold all cuts of wagyu beef – roughly £10/100g
Unfortunately we had to spend our two days in Tokyo sorting out our Chinese visas. We had trouble getting a flight out of China and spent a lot of time on the phone with people in Laos (where we’re heading after China) and eventually had to call someone in China as the Laos phone exchange went down. The challenged seemed never ending but the application got submitted eventually.
When we weren’t doing visa admin we did a lot of walking and saw some funny things along with a few of the city sights. One night on our way home from dinner we saw a man walking his dog that stopped to wee on a lamppost. His owner whipped out a bottle of water from his pocket and washed the wee off the post. We’re not sure if this is law or whether he was just super clean. We also passed road works and, because it was night, they had a video of a man waving a flag playing rather than the real thing, a flashing light or nothing at all.
Another night we ate at a noodle restaurant where you go to a menu machine, press the buttons for the food you want to order, take the tickets to the chefs who cook it for you. All the meals were in Japanese so fortunately the waitress spoke some English and could point us roughly to what we wanted. The bowls of ramen that came out would have kept us going for a day and they were so so good!
What we found bemusing is that everything is so neat, orderly and tidy, then we came across a mess of wires that would equal those found in Bangkok
We visited one of the famous Senso-ji temple that was in the district we were staying in and while its been rebuilt a few times, its still pretty impressive. This isn't the temple but is the entrance to the path that leads up to it
We finally got our Chinese visa applications in (and properly relaxed for the first time since we arrived) and had a look around the modern district of Rippongi which had loads of tall buildings, malls and some modern sculptures such as this giant bronze spider complete with while marble eggs in its abdomen.
I found some of the signs amusing and the fact that it was also in English even more so!
but then saw the reasoning behind the sign! These guys were very well behaved and when I first saw them, they were scrambling round the pushchair but one word from their mum and they were all piling in – one hyperactive jittering mass of poodles. She’s making sure the brake is firmly on although why on earth dogs need a pushchair we'll never know!!
and then they just sat there waiting for her to come out of the coffee shop.
We’d spent longer in Tokyo than intended so were pretty happy to have the visa application in and we were free to go! Kyoto here we come!
Arriving in Tokyo was a shock to the system to say the least. We had a 13-hour flight from Jo’burg to Hong Kong, a two and a half hour wait then a four-hour flight to Tokyo. We were pretty shattered when we arrived and, to our amusement, were ‘heat checked’ before passport control. Presumably that’s to pick up on anyone who is sick!! Despite little English being spoken and signs being mostly in Japanese, we managed to find the hostel where we were staying in. We were warned Japan would seem expensive but we weren’t prepared to be paying £15 each for a bed in a dorm with 6 others. Euan wasn’t terribly impressed. I was too tired to care.
Our first impressions were that the Japanese seem (and rightly so!) pretty intent on making things easier and more relaxed. A brilliant idea as long as you know what is going on! The toilets in our hostel has heated seats (a weird sensation and it just made me want to stand up immediately!), more instructions than a mobile phone manual and there was a real risk of pressing the wrong button and being hit in the face by a jet of water intended for something else. Pressing buttons on the loo was one of the things that really had to be thought about seriously! On a somewhat more pleasant note, some of the trains, tube lines and most of the shopping areas we went into had soothing music being piped out which was actually very soothing.
The people we’ve come into contact with thus far are super polite, gracious and very smiley. For example we were waiting in a queue for sushi and left to go and get money out. When we got back 10mins later the queue had grown but the man who was originally behind us before we left insisted on us going back to our original place in the queue. Tokyo seems an incredibly safe place and we were wandering the streets at night without feeling remotely threatened in any way. Vending machines sit in lines on many streets with no bars or security and many of the bikes parked up outside shops aren’t locked. Thus far, we reckon Tokyo is less manic than London and some of the main roads were deserted at about 9pm. We knew we were in a quieter district but we had really though that most of the city would be pretty busy at all hours.
but then we saw the below which seemed more like what we were expecting
We also came across these game halls that had huge powerful lights outside that lit up the street like day and heaps of flashing lights, bling-bling noises of game machines and jingles and jangles of God knows what else.
and we haven't even started on the public transport yet. London has a long way to go. We were told we could set our watches by the trains and they're right! Every single metro we caught has been on time to the 1/2 minute. We've also been told that if you're 10 seconds after the departure time for the Shinkansen (bullet train) then you'll miss it. Not sure we'll test that one.
I’ve no qualms whatsoever at taking loads of photos and am snapping away at any opportunity (Euan caught me photographing fish in a supermarket and walked the other way!) To be honest, I’m sort of relishing the feeling of not having to ask for permission! My defence having taken the below was that I’d never seen fish this fresh in a supermarket before and for only about £3 too
and I’d never seen spring onions this long either (I hope that’s what they are!)
We love it that everyone smiles back at us and that you’re welcomed into every shop you go into. People smile even when they’re saying that we can’t/mustn’t do something and even though we don’t speak a word of Japanese or understand a word being said, they natter away at us all the same – no idea what is being said but you know you should pay attention. Its very humorous and leaves us smiling. On our first night we ate at a local sushi train restaurant and had what was probably the best sushi I’ve ever tasted.
There are two things that I'd like to eat while here in Japan – wagyu beef and otoro - the best cut of tuna from the underbelly of the fish. We found a butcher that sold all cuts of wagyu beef – roughly £10/100g
Unfortunately we had to spend our two days in Tokyo sorting out our Chinese visas. We had trouble getting a flight out of China and spent a lot of time on the phone with people in Laos (where we’re heading after China) and eventually had to call someone in China as the Laos phone exchange went down. The challenged seemed never ending but the application got submitted eventually.
When we weren’t doing visa admin we did a lot of walking and saw some funny things along with a few of the city sights. One night on our way home from dinner we saw a man walking his dog that stopped to wee on a lamppost. His owner whipped out a bottle of water from his pocket and washed the wee off the post. We’re not sure if this is law or whether he was just super clean. We also passed road works and, because it was night, they had a video of a man waving a flag playing rather than the real thing, a flashing light or nothing at all.
Another night we ate at a noodle restaurant where you go to a menu machine, press the buttons for the food you want to order, take the tickets to the chefs who cook it for you. All the meals were in Japanese so fortunately the waitress spoke some English and could point us roughly to what we wanted. The bowls of ramen that came out would have kept us going for a day and they were so so good!
What we found bemusing is that everything is so neat, orderly and tidy, then we came across a mess of wires that would equal those found in Bangkok
We visited one of the famous Senso-ji temple that was in the district we were staying in and while its been rebuilt a few times, its still pretty impressive. This isn't the temple but is the entrance to the path that leads up to it
We finally got our Chinese visa applications in (and properly relaxed for the first time since we arrived) and had a look around the modern district of Rippongi which had loads of tall buildings, malls and some modern sculptures such as this giant bronze spider complete with while marble eggs in its abdomen.
I found some of the signs amusing and the fact that it was also in English even more so!
but then saw the reasoning behind the sign! These guys were very well behaved and when I first saw them, they were scrambling round the pushchair but one word from their mum and they were all piling in – one hyperactive jittering mass of poodles. She’s making sure the brake is firmly on although why on earth dogs need a pushchair we'll never know!!
and then they just sat there waiting for her to come out of the coffee shop.
We’d spent longer in Tokyo than intended so were pretty happy to have the visa application in and we were free to go! Kyoto here we come!
1 comment:
WOW, what a culture shock.
So different. I am surprised you have not once mentioned claustrophobia. I would have imploded.
But heck, a few creature comforts must have been sooooo welcome. after camping for all those weeks.
Regarding the pictures and shooting away, Euan I understand you would ask permission in Africa but in Japan.... come on!!! Have you ever seen a Japanese tourist in London, their cameras are like an extra limb. I would have been just like you Kate, snap snap snap, and good on you or else we wouldn't have all these funny pictures
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