More of Tokyo... sorry it's behind schedule... keeps you wanting more!

This is from 5 March 2005 - I wrote this on the plane...

Well I have a few days to catch up on apparently... do you know how hard is to type crammed into cattle class on a 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Paris – hard I tells ya! And to top things off there's no movies on! Well they're all in Japanese and French except one about Golf, errrgghhhhh I hate golf. But enough about hitting small balls with sticks into holes hundreds of metres away.

Day three was a charm, I somehow managed to get to Hamamatsucho Station by 8.45 in the morning rush hour – now that was a joy, being crammed in and the pusher-man yelling at you to squish more (you presume) even though your cheek is up against the pole, your right hand is desperately clutching your handbag and your left hand is in someone else's pocket... at least you hope. Somehow I made it and in Japanese efficiency we we're all on the bus and ready for our departure at 9 am. I was sitting next to a French man, Dominic, who had spent the last 5 years working in New Caledonia (ouch, what a chore) and opposite to a crazy guy, called Antony, (wacky English professor) and his lovely Swiss wife, Denise.

Once we were all introduced we could enjoy the fine weather and beautiful scenery to Mt Fuji.
On the way we glimpsed the mountain through the window, and I took a, somewhat, blurry photo. It saddens me now that this was the clearest we'd actually see it all day, damnit, why didn't I clamour over the crazy English and lovely Swiss to get a better picture... oh well, I wouldn't say that it was a totally bad thing anyway, because as the road up the mountain was closed (due to snow) we could only go to the fifth station instead of the first, and so we got to go to a lovely shrine in Hakone instead.



I'm getting ahead of myself, yes there was snow, and from the Mt Fuji visitors centre we got our first glimpses of heavy grey cloud on the mountain top. But hey, they had hello kitty in the gift store. As we drove up the mountain we could see that we weren't going to be able to go all the way up. So basically we got up as far as the road would take us and stopped and looked at the snow and clouds. Interestingly, there was a stand selling ‘hotdogs’ which smelt something like I imagine eel with piss on a sugar bun smells like. Charming. I wasn't brave enough to try them, is that being unfaithful to the traveller spirit? Or merely minimising hospitalised time?

So we took the bus back down the hill to a major hotel where would have lunch, and also visit the museum and see the amusement park attached... ummm hello... our lunch was on the restaurant on the twelfth floor, where, I imagine, there would normally be nice views of Mt Fuji, but at least lunch was good and the skies opened up and let some of the snow that was obscuring our view fall.

After lunch we headed on the second part of the tour to Hakone (have you read this far well done to you!), where we got to see an extra. The extra was the Buddhist shrine, guarded by Shinto deities - an assimilation unique to Japan. It was beautiful, and apparently contains a portion of the Buddha's ashes which were presented by the Prime Minister of India when the shrine opened.

Hooray for boat cruise! There's nothing like 15 minutes on the water to make you feel completely exhausted, freezing and realising that it's 4 pm already and you've still got to go up the mountain (reading back it seems that 4 pm is definitely my flagging time). Lake Ashi really was beautiful, and it felt like something from the not too distant past when a traditional Japanese boat of gold and red sailed past.

We alighted at the cable car station to take the gondola up to the top of Mt. Komagatake. Where apparently you can get a good view of Mt Fuji (not today!) and Lake Ashi Below (terrifying – I do suffer from vertigo at such heights). AND to reward my pluck and courage, more snow storm at the top. I am actually not being sarcastic, I like it when it snows and the Julie Andrews inside me gets to sing “My Favourite Things” and the bit about the snowflakes on the eyelashes.
And this was really a Julie Andrews moment! There were hills, alive maybe, and definitely snowflakes on eyelashes.

So we were exhausted on the way back to Tokyo that night, and after spending another hour around Shinjuku station looking for the elusive Citibank ATM which supposedly (according to legend) takes foreign cards I went back to my hotel (just missed a call from mum too damnit!).
I almost forgot to mention – while I was looking for the ATM I found “INGRID” clothing store... I wanted to buy something just because it had my name tag already sewn in! But that would be for the wrong reasons... right?

Day four, 4 March 2006, was a pretty slow day for me, off to Harajuku. I checked out the Meiji shrine first. The deities enshrined are the former Emperor and Empress of Japan. They are deities very much revered by the Japanese people for their modernization of Japan in the late 19th Century. It was pretty, and remarkably enough I bumped into Dominic the French guy again – who would've thunk it huh?? In a city of 12 million!?!

It seems as I left the shrine and headed to Harajuki shopping precinct that the 12 million were in fact here and shopping for Prada. So I went down some side Alleys and pretty soon got lost, I still hadn't found any money changers, ATMs or people willing to hand me cash so I was lost, broke, and injured, did I mentioned injured – my knee was killing me, must have been all that trekking up the mountain on that cable car.

I found a grave-yard – hooray for signs of life! As I followed some dudes from the temple I realized more shops were appearing and I eventually found civilization again and the infamous Takeshita street ... So this is where Gwen Stefani was when she was inspired to sing about Harajuku girls. Well, basically I didn't see what the fuss is all about, or maybe that's because I was so used to Kuwaiti girls wearing wedding clothes to university that it all seemed a bit less than I expected. Only one girl was dressed like a French maid/bunny rabbit and another like Jack White/betty boop. Not crazy enough I say! At least I bought a hat, though looking back, it's probably a little bit more 50 cent than Sienna Miller, but who cares, I was in Harajuku, damnit! Word...

I was pretty tired, having tried local Japanese MacDonald's competitor (I had a shrimp burger, that was weird - the shrimp exploded from inside the patty, hmmm exploding shrimp) but I decided to face Ginza anyway. At Tokyo station I hobbled up the road 10 minutes to find the Sony Building, the rest of Ginza was un-extraordinary and usual shopping stuff. In the Sony building I was Aibo the robotic dog... he he Aibo, so much love you can't give.

I also tried to find somewhere to give me a manicure, but they were going to charge me $40 for the white and $40 for the pink on a French Manicure – oh and did you want nail care with that? That I'll be an extra $40... I think not.

So I went back, via Tobu, Ikebukuro, to get my dinner and go to the hotel room to repack and get an early night for Paris tomorrow. So here I am on the plane, after getting my luggage down to 26 kilos (I threw out one pair of socks - amazing – I'm convinced that Canberra airport has it in for me). My sore knee irritatingly squished into the seat in front of me (come on I'm not that tall) ready to face Paris, Le Train Grand Vitesse, and other wonders of France.
Xoxoxo
Ingrid