Japan Holiday, July 24 (IWGP)

Another Shinkansen to Shinagawa in Tokyo. I think you can see Mt Fuji along the way if you're lucky, but I didn't know where or when to look. Also passed Yokohama the second biggest city in Japan, but we were underground or I was sleeping or something like that. From Shinagawa we had to get on a really crowded local subway train about eight stops to Shibuya. Not much fun keeping track of all the luggage and trying not to block people on the train. Thankfully my lack of Japanese knowledge included the words hidari (left) and migi (right) so I knew what side to move away from. Besides that and knowing numbers, I was staring blankly at people the rest of the time.

This time we found the hotel without too much trouble, only problem was it required walking uphill and up a flight of stairs to cross the road (beats waiting at an intersection...unless you're carrying something heavy). Dumped bags and went back down to Shibuya. The crossing here is said to be one of the busiest in the world and it did get a lot of people coming through in all directions, at any time of the day really. As I might have mentioned before, bicycles are very popular in Japan. In particular in Osaka I'd say, you just see rows and rows of bikes left on the footpath (not even chained up most of the time!), as it would definitely be preferable to driving around the city. Anyway, what you get at Shibuya crossing, and also in other places, is that as soon as the pedestrian crossings go green the cyclists take off through, across or around the crossing at the same time. I lost count of the amount of times a cyclist comes out of nowhere just as you're preparing to cross the street. I don't understand that rule at all.

Shibuya crossing

As I was exploring the main streets around Shibuya - Centre Gai, Dogenzaka, Koen etc. I found a place selling red bean pancakes in the shape of a fish! They had six varieties in all, not just red bean. I also finally started to see some vending machines selling soda other than Coke and Orange/Grape Fanta - some of my old friends were back: Dr Pepper! Mountain Dew! 7-Up Lemon Line! 7-Up Dry!? Yeah I don't know about that last one...

Some stores have water sprays to cool down passing pedestrians. Great idea.

I'm on Dogen-zaka !?

World's best sandwich

Two Godzilla's selling soda !

Didn't have a chance to research anything ahead of time, so just took the subway up to Ikebukuro for the evening. They have a large "Sunshine City" area which is a street mall and then a couple of buildings which contains a few level of shops, offices, then some restaurants and observation level right at the top. There was a Namja Land in there too, it looked something like the Sega Joypolis, except you had to buy a ticket or passport just to enter. So that all seemed a bit too much effort, but I was a bit sad I didn't get to go to Ice Cream Land! Did go up to the observatory level however, which provides a good overview of the city. But are these observations places worth the money ? I'd say only if they provide you something out of the ordinary: if it's just going to the top floor of a building then it's no big deal, but if the building itself is a landmark (e.g. Tokyo Tower) and you get to go outside then it's a lot better. It's also good if you can see other recognisible parts of the city, but Ikebukuro was a bit too far north for that.

Looking south-east, downtown Tokyo in the distance.

Shinjuku business district to the south.

Not much to the west (or north either), that big white thing is an incineration plant.

Down to Ikebukuro.

Still some time left in the day, so stopped off at Shinjuku on the way back. Did some more exploring, stopped off in a cafe that looked like a rip-off of Starbucks, right down to the logo. And...great news! you can still smoke indoors in some places in Japan! Also packets of cigarettes cost like $3, amazing. We were looking for some shrine in Shinjuku but must have gone too far, so the way back was through the Red Light district. It didn't seem dangerous at all, although it wasn't particularly late, however the haircuts all the men had was quite hilarious. I'm never seen so many of those big, layered haircuts on men before. Turns out the shrine was being renovated, so lesson of the day is to have a recent guide book with you.