Japan part 1 - Tokyo

I've always wanted to go to Japan. I can't quite explain why but it has always been on my list of places to go. When my sister announced that Japan was the final leg of her travels in Asia, I decided to go for it and booked my flights.

We started in Tokyo. It's a massive place with a train system that I could never quite grasp. There are lights and people everywhere, everything I expected of the city.

The first evening we met one of my sister's friends who is teaching in Tokyo. He took us to a restaurant where you cook your food on a hot plate in the middle of the table. We cooked these savoury pancake type things. Not quite sure what was in them but they tasted great.

The following day we met my sister's friend again. Our first stop was a Japanese cat cafe. Not what you're probably thinking... In Tokyo, a lot of people live in flats where they are not allowed pets. As a result they visit a cat cafe to get a chance to play with the cats and feel like they have a pet for an hour or so. It was a strange experience but one we all really enjoyed. Probably took a few too many pictures of cats though.

 

 



After getting very attached to the cats, we moved on to Asakusa to visit one of Tokyo's larger shrines. It turned out to be huge and really busy but very impressive. There were loads of people visiting just to reflect and pray.

On the Saturday, we took the train to Hitachi-Ushiko to meet with our former Japanese neighbours from 1988. They invited us into their home for Japanese tea and cake before taking us to Koubuntei. Koubuntei was a good two hour drive from their house so it was a struggle to stay awake for the whole journey! At Koubuntei, there is a 17th century (or so) house and park. We took a tour of the house with our Japanese friend translating before having a wander around the gardens. It was all very pretty.

Once we got back to Tokyo, we went to the Imperial Palace Gardens in the centre of the city. The gardens were really pretty and surrounded by the sky scrapers of the city. It reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York.

The snow hit on our final day in the city. The day we were due to get the night bus to Tokyo. We decided to spend the day exploring the shops and hoped the snow would ease in order to allow our journey to Kyoto to go ahead according to plan.

Unfortunately, when we arrived for our 10.45pm bus, we were told it was cancelled due to the snow. Leaving us with no alternative but to book onto one the following day and spend the night in the bus station waiting room. Not comfortable at all! Particularly as we got woken up at 5am and told to leave the bus station for an hour.

My next entry will be all about Kyoto and what we did when we eventually did manage to get there!