le tour de burt

I don’t really know where to start with Tokyo – it’s a complex place. It’s like mini cities within the city, the urban sprawl personified…..

Neil and I had 3 full days to explore with the use of the JR Yamanote line (free on the rail pass), that runs in a circle around the city (its a full hour to make the complete circuit).

We eased into Tokyo gently, heading into the Imperial Palace Gardens for a stroll, playing with the technology on display at the Sony Building in Ginza (think 5th Avenue NYC) and heading out to Roppongi to look at the Roppongi Hills complex. It had this huge statue spider outside of it and I thought it looked rather funky – and it offered a good view over towards to the Tokyo Tower, which is just a replica Eiffel Tower with a few extra centiremetres thrown on the top for good measure!!

On day 2 our first stop was Shinjuku (entertainment and sky scraper district) to make use of the free observation floor in the Met Government Building. Sadly the morning we ventured up was dull and overcast so Mt Fuji couldn’t be seen in the distance, but it did give us the chance to appreciate the density of the city, block after block of buildings, railway tracks going this way and that, expressways heading out of the city and the odd splash of greenery in the form of parks or gardens.  Now we hadn’t planned to stop at the Meiji Jinga shrine – but after getting a little lost we stumbled across it and a traditional wedding, which was lovely to see! In contrast to the kimono clad bride and pristine dressed relatives we then visited the “costume play gang” – teens dressed up in all bizarre outfits, offering free hugs and generally drawing attention to themselves. They are indeed an attraction in themselves – they even have an association!!

It was then a stroll around the shops in Harajuku – heading in the direction of Shibuya and to my mind one of the most recognisable Tokyo sights – hundreds of people at the scramble intersection, a surge of humanity as the lights change to green on the crossings! I had gotten a picture which in my mind summed this up – but sadly our memory card decided to format itself and the pictures are lost….so for those of you who are not familiar with this sight – watch Lost In Translation!

Now for someone who isn’t a lover of fish I seem to have a bit of an obsession with fish markets, and as Tokyo has one of the largest in the world it was only a matter of time before we visited. So that was the start to Monday, followed by a trip to the arcades and an afternoon out across Tokyo Bay (queue replica Statue of Liberty)….and then it hit us, the following day was our last day – and it had to be special.

Now Sumo might not be everyone’s cup of tea – I appreciate overweight men in nappies isn’t easy on the eye, but its so much more than just the fight. Neil and I really enjoyed the whole experience, and it was followed by one of the most peculiar moments we had the whole trip – a visit to a Maid Cafe. It is what it says it is, a cafe, run by maids, (basically young women dressed in maid outfits) and generally frequented by Japanese men wanting to look but not touch! But it was the quirky and bizarre that made this trip – and sumo maid Tokyo (thanks Neil for the clever use of words!!)