leyton.org

Firstly, Kanji keyboards are fun. They have a UKish layout, but also enable Kanji to be entered. They have a split space bar, and it seems that if you press the wrong button, the computer enters the kanji completion mode. So you’ll have to excuse some odd sentences and punctuation. That’s me giving up on completing something and hitting random kanji-looking control keys until the completion mode goes away.

So, we’re in Tokyo after a very long (12 hour) flight that was delayed firstly for late arrival, then an engine problem (worrying at first, but turns out they couldn’t start one of them.). No sleep, so muchos jetlag yesterday. Despite the warnings of many a sage advisor (Stew), we took a nap after lugging our bags to the hotel (we were told by BA checkin staff we were ‘lightly packed’ for a three month trip, but disagree with her despite the nifty backpack), which turned out to be a bit further from Shinjuku railway station than we’d expected. The much-worried-about navigation problems didn’t materialise, as the maps seemed graphic enough we could guess until we saw our hotel. Our first ‘help, we’re lost’ question was enthusiastically but undecipherably responded to by a delightful japanese girl who pointed and repeated herself slowly and loudly in the way I suspect every English reader of this page has done.

A spot of sightseeing from the top of the Metropolitan Government Building (45th floor) followed, as we scouted out the pick-up point for our tour of Tokyo on Wednesday. Good job we did, as it was a good half an hour from our hotel.

So, after getting a spot of food, we hit the hay and woke up at 6am the next day for a delicious breakfast of Miso soup and Rice. Really. Very nice indeed. You can buy Miso soup in supermarkets in the UK. Not sure if I’d do it for Breakfast back home yet though.

Tour today was good. Some odd and annoying Americans (one in particular) made for a fun pickup (Let me put it this way, Japanese school kids in the bus in front of us were taking pictures of her). Tokyo was in beautiful spring form after a heavy downpour yesterday, so crisp and clear views were to be had.

And the blossoms were in fine form. We seem to have hit it perfectly for Tokyo. Who’d have thought you could take too many pictures of blossom? A stroll around Shinjuku Gyoen was all it took when I realised I could when my recently charged battery gave up the ghost. Lots of pictures.

So, back at the hotel now, plotting a visit to a Kabuki theatre show sometime. Still knackered, but I’d discovered the movie channel (Matrix Reloaded on a loop), have a cheapish beer dispensing vending machine nearby, and a comfy bed. And a full days sightseeing behind me, with detailed re-visits to the Imperial palace and a few others lined up for tomorrow, I think I’m entitled to veg for a bit.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2004 at 9:22 am and is filed under Travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.