My first real post can be read, if you choose to read on.
I will start from the beginning; the flight over. It was long, at times boring, and utterly uneventful - except for one instance. We wanted to celebrate the start of our journey with a bottle of champagne in Kastrup Airport and had found a nice spot with cushioned seats. As we were nice and comfortable, I took off the foil and unwrapped the safety wire and bend over to throw it in a bag. During this short moment of inattention, the champagne decided to make its way to freedom without waiting for my help to take out the cork. Basically, this meant a loud pop, making all of us jolt, and a sudden fountain of bubbly wine, spraying all over my face, t-shirt and pants. Furthermore, the spray went more than four meters away from the bottle before I got a cup to cover the escaping alcohol. This little scenario was applauded by the surrounding, waiting travelers, resulting in even more attention from people around us. With champagne still dripping from my face, I went to get napkins to clean up the mess. Nice. Luckily, we hadn't lost too much of the champagne, so we could toast for our journey.
As mentioned, the rest of the trip went without incidents and I could sleep for a bit, which was nice. Thanks for the neck pillow, dad! It was very good to have.
(On the plane to Beijing Airport)
(Baggage rollers in Beijing Airport)
(In Beijing Airport being bored)
(The roof of Beijing Airport)
(Caspar walking on a rolling sidewalk in Beijing Airport)
We arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport at six in the evening and took the train in to town. We could get off at a station close to the hostel, Khaosan Tokyo (Khaosan like the street in Bangkok!), we had booked for the first two nights. Before going to sleep we went out to see the neighborhood. It was already dark, as the sun sets at six in the evening, but it was still interesting to see everything. The streets here are some of the cleanest I have ever experienced. I had expected conditions slightly better than what I had seen so far from Asia (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) but I did not expect such clean streets. It is even cleaner than Denmark. It is quite nice to see that keeping a million-city clean can be done. So, anyways, we walked a bit around the neighborhood to find a restaurant and stumbled upon a 100 Yen convenience store. Everything for 100 Yen! Juice, bread, vegetables, noodles, office appliances - nice! 100 Yen is 7 DKK or about 1,2 USD, just so you know. Even better, it is very common in Tokyo, so we can use it in our neighborhood too, when we move. After having supplied ourselves with drinks, we wet on and found a nice restaurant, where they sold noodle soups of different sorts. It tasted very good and we could go home to sleep on a full stomach.
We are sleeping in dormitories which is okay, if it wasn't for all the snoring during the night. Some Dane with a curly mohawk keeps other people up while they are trying to sleep, apparently. I didn't hear anything. I did get a pillow thrown at my face, though, when I was fast asleep last night. Weird.
This morning we woke up, got a nice breakfast at the restaurant connected to the hostel and went out to do some sight-seeing. First we went to Senso-ji, a holy shrine in the part of the city where the hostel is, which was a quite nice architectural landmark. On the way there we went through a little market filled with souvenirs.
(At the gate of the souvenir market going to Senso-ji Temple)
(In the souvenir market)
(Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa)
(Senso-ji Temple and the pagoda in Asakusa)
After that, we walked towards another part of the city, where there is a park. On the way there we stumbled upon some gaming arcades and we had to check them out. A lot of cheap, cheesy slot machines and very loud pling noises. Very Japanese. Of course we had to try them out, but we failed very quickly and couldn't make the machines work. Apparently we had to put in bills and not coins, even though there was a coin slot, which happily accepted coins, but didn't use them for anything. It then refused to give us the coin back and the girl helping people couldn't understand our Japanese or English, so we had to give up and leave. We then decided to go into another gaming arcade to restore our honor again. Here there were more understandable machines; Those hook-machines where you guide the hook, coin-pushing machines and general amusement games. We tried a few and had our fun, before going to the park.
(Looking for the way to the park in Ueno)
(In a gaming arcade)
(On our way to the park again)
At the park, we walked around a little and found some nice lakes. Two of them were full of lotuses with lotus flowers. A nice sight. We sad down at a pagoda and relaxed in the shade. It was very warm today, so that was a very welcoming break. As the others rested, I went around and took some photos. After a while I noticed some dust blowing up from the ground, which got caught by the sunlight, quite nicely, but it wasn't until I zoomed in that I saw that it was sparrows taking a dust bath. It looked quite funny.
(Lotus flower in the park in Ueno)
(Another lotus flower in the park in Ueno)
(Dusty Sparrows)
(The pagoda we sat at)
(A crane in the lake)
(The same crane again)
(The lotus plant in a fisheye perspective)
After having relaxed for a while, we went on and got into another market area with fancy clothe shops. It was an interesting area because regular Japanese people also shopped here. I have learned the signs for wasabi by the way! It looks like a person with a huge ghetto-bum, a mirrored 5, and a funky u with '' at the side. Now I can find things with wasabi in it. I am a little bit proud of myself. Now I just need to learn the rest of the 50.000 signs *sigh*.
(On the way to the market)
(An escalator taken with a long shutter speed)
(In an American style clothing shop)
(On the way back to the restaurant)
(Resting some tired feet)
(At the restaurant)
(In the living room/TV-room/kitchen of the hostel)
Until next time, take care.
Esben
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