Left My Heart In Tokyo

I can't believe how quickly my time in Japan is going. I'm in Kyoto at the moment and even though it's the city everyone raves about the most, I actually prefer Tokyo. I miss it so. Instead of the subway and JR rail, I have had mental battles with buses and the ridiculous map I have been given. I also ran into two perves today and the people here aren't as friendly. On that basis alone, I'd much prefer to be in Tokyo right now. Ok, Kyoto isn't that bad. I have seen a lot of beauty and had a geeky panic attack when I saw Kyoto station. I have since spent about an hour walking round taking "arty farty" photos.

I'll get to Kyoto in my next blog post. For now I'll round up the last three days I spent in Tokyo. I made a list of places I wanted to visit before I left for Kyoto. First on the list was Ueno Zoo. I managed to get there ok. I didn't get lost or anything! It's another notch up for Tokyo as, despite the grid system, I still end up walking round in circles...well rectangles technically (of course I am ignoring the fact that it took me a few days to adjust to Tokyo).

I was so hungry but wasn't sure whether to eat before I went into the zoo. There were only junk food vendors outside and assumed it would be the same inside. I wandered about a bit with my puzzled face on and a Japanese guy asked me if I was ok. I explained my predicament and he nodded and gave me a ticket to the zoo and walked off. Ha! A free ticket to the zoo. That got my day off to a great start.

I grabbed a map and headed straight to the panda.

The enclosures were really small so as much as I liked looking at the animals I sort of felt sad too.

Step away from the cuddly toy shop!

I decided not to take too many photos as I never really do anything with zoo photos. I'd rather save my camera memory for something else. What I did take photos of is the funny and bizarre.

Random farm animals that made me laugh

Bunny rabbits and guinea pigs!

These penguins were on strike

This reminded me of how I will feel and probably look after my time in America

Some randy tortoises

I decided an ice cream was in order. I went over and awkwardly pointed at what I wanted. The guy behind me looked European, foreign at any rate, and ordered in Japanese. I was envious and decided to skulk away before I made a tit out of myself. Most of the seats were taken and a couple of people got up and left. I sat down and saw the guy from before with his ice cream. I wondered whether I should invite him to sit. Something like that in England would be out of the question. The guy would definitely think I was cracking on to him and run a mile. So I left it. A few minutes later he politely asked to sit down. Around 60 hours later I'm still with the ice cream guy chasing after my bus bound for Kyoto...

I best explain. The ice cream guy has a name. A name I find difficult to pronounce and thankfully only had to say once. Ulas - a techie brain who works in San Francisco, has an American accent but is originally from Cyprus. I still made fun of his accent and weird (to me) fluctuations in his voice. He was just as cheeky back which I liked. We decided to spend the remainder of my time in Tokyo together. We went to Akihabara where I had my first kebab and we played on the arcades. I had sudden flashbacks to my childhood when I saw the giant words Sega across the screens. It was great fun and only 100 Yen per game. Of course Ulas refused my advances whenever I tried to pay which was sweet. I'm too poor to protest too much so went along with it. We went to Shibuya on the night to try and take some photos. Ulas has a flash camera and is a decidedly better photographer than me. Although it doesn't take much! I enjoy taking photos and like a lot of what I take but if I put the same photos up for scrutiny I'd get laughed at.

We ate well :-D

Not that well! This is a cake shop which is set out like a jewellery shop. You would choose your sweet like you would a ring. Japan is full of brilliantly unique ideas like this. I love it.

We took advantage of Ginza's free delights. 

We went to the Sony building (also in Ginza) where we got to see fish, weird contortion swimmers and ourselves in 3D. I also saw the end of The Tourist on a massive high definition screen.I'd never seen the film before. There were comfy seats and I wasn't that bothered about seeing the film so I sat down not realising there was a predictable yet weird twist at the end.

Before I knew it Ulas had to go off and do some work stuff so I was left to my own devices. 

I didn't eat as well without him (it still tasted great though!)

I was forced to buy this to get change for the locker. Sheesh. The parcel on the left is a little ice pack. You get this with most cakes you buy so it doesn't spoil in the sun.

I wasn't sure whether I would be meeting Ulas later. I devised a sneaky plan to keep in touch. Without a mobile I had to rely on email. Maluen gave me a handy tip of using the laptops in the electronics shops to go online for free. It was a great idea but I thought I'd get thrown out for being so cheeky. Not in Japan. This time it worked. The day before I arranged to meet Ulas again at Shinjuki Station. Problem is, there are a million different exits and I forgot which one I left him at. Oops. I arrived and dashed to the nearest tech shop and emailed him. He didn't pick it up until around an hour later. I don't know how Ulas put up with me but he did and was great company. 

After his meeting we met again before I was due to depart for Kyoto. I met his work colleague too and we ate a lot of great food together. Fantastic food and lots of laughter lead to a wonderful last evening in Tokyo.

The trio of desserts (ok I didn't eat them all, honest!) and cocktails went down well. I had beer, a chocolate mojito and malibu with mango and orange juice. For the malibu you had to squeeze out the orange juice yourself. Now that's what I call fresh!

We got so carried away that we lost track of time. I had about half an hour to get to the bus stop. I thought that was plenty of time as the pick up point was just by the station. Ha! Sometimes things are never that simple. Seems that the instructions printed out on my ticket were incredibly vague and I had no idea where to go. I had Ulas who could speak some Japanese and his mate who WAS flipping Japanese and we still didn't make it. The emergency telephone number failed and we couldn't find anyone to help in time. If I was on my own I'd have burst into tears. 5000 Yen down the drain. That's about 40 British pounds. Arse. Ulas kept telling me everything was going to be ok and it's not that bad, but it was! Yes, it's not the end of the world and nobody's died. I can quite easily get on the next bus but I have just lost 40 quid! That's a lot of money to me right now. The guys paid for the taxi to Shinjuku station (from Ikebukuro) AND my replacement bus ticket. I must have some form of super powers in Japan which brings out everyone's generous side. I tried to say thank you with gusto but was so embarrassed it was pretty lame. I waved and said bye and thought - they must be laughing their arses off at me right now. A few minutes later I was asleep and now I'm in Kyoto ready for my next adventure. I don't have anyone to save me now so I best start engaging my brain.