I've arrived in Japan!

Well, I arrived over 3 days ago. I've just been too jet lagged to get round to writing anything. But from now on, I'll try to write things as they happen!

The plane at Heathrow

The 12 hour flight from Heathrow to Narita was good; the flight attendants were all Japanese so they were ultra polite (sir and madam were used a lot). The food was edible (although the scrambled eggs looked like mash potato). However, I barely slept at all. 

As I staggered off the plane, I took my first pictures in Japan:

Narita Airport

Okaerinasai! We all went down the escalator, realised we missed this photo opportunity and then ran up the stairs to take it (to the amusement of some Japanese women behind us)

We met Tomoko-San and Iwase-San at the airport, before boarding a bus to the youth hostel in Shinjuku (part of central Tokyo). It took about an hour and a half because the speed limit is about 50 mph on Japanese motorways. I noticed even the vehicles on the roads are different here. The cars tend to be much smaller and box-shaped and the lorrys were really small too. They looked like toys.

The Tokyo Central Youth Hostel is on the 18th floor of the building, and this was the view from our room:

After dropping off our (very heavy) bags, we had an hour before lunch so we went into an arcade filled with school boys on their lunch break. You could tell they probably went there every day (their levels were displayed in screens above the gaming machines and they were wearing white gloves so they could move their hands along the screens faster).

One of the boys showed me and Syeda (another Lattitude volunteer) how to play and start the game up. It was like Guitar Hero, except the screen was circular and had buttons all around it. After the first two rounds I turned the difficulty up. Big mistake. I don't have any footage of it, but if I did I would not post it here!

By this time we were being watched by all the other volunteers and the Japanese school boys, who then went on to show us how it was done:

After Tomoko took us to see the shrine/temple (?) in Asakusa. There are so many people in Tokyo, and they're pretty much all Japanese (I was expecting to see a lot of foreign tourists, but I probably only saw foreigners twice whilst we were there). 

 This is the first gate. I wish my old school's uniform was like that...

There was a long street between the first and second gates with various stalls selling everything from food to clothes and jewelry.

Skytree is the second tallest building in the world. The clash between ultra modern and traditional sums Japan up very well.

The main temple building.

Before entering the temple, you have to wash your hands and mouth with wooden ladles supplied at the fountain. You fill the ladle with water, pour it over one hand, then the other. You then put some water into your mouth and spit it into the trough just in front of the fountain and then tip the ladle up so the water runs down the handle, cleaning it, before placing it back.

 There's also an incense thingy (that is the technical term...) where you waft the smoke over your head.

At a temple, you throw about ￥5~￥10 through a wooden grill and then clap your hands twice (I think its to get the attention of the gods?) before bowing your head and praying. 

Afterwards, we went to Akihabara (famous for computer games, anime, electronics and general otaku-ness). Akihabara 秋葉原 actually means field of autumn leaves, but I didn't see any trees...

 Just lots of people...

We went to another arcade, where I spent about 10 minutes trying to explain we wanted to play a 4 player game together but we couldn't read the menus on the screen. When we finally started playing, we had about a minute of frantic finger tapping before we were annihilated... It wasn't worth it... 

For dinner, we had takoyaki and went to a ramen bar. There was a machine outside where you enter your money and choose your food. It then gives you a ticket which you hand to a man as you walk inside. I had miso ramen (num num).

A platform in Akihabara Station. I wouldn't want to get onto the next train on that side... It conjures to mind the youtube videos of commuters being unceremoniously forced into trains by white gloved conductors. You might be able to notice that they're all standing in lines next to where the doors will open. For all the crowds and millions of people in Tokyo, it's still so ordered. 

I spent a long time trying to take night photos, and I managed this after many failed attempts:

The others were either too dark or looked like nuclear explosions. 

My first day in Tokyo was amazing. It felt like I was in a dream (although that could have been the jet lag). I'll do the next post tomorrow, I've got to find my way around a Japanese supermarket now... Wish me luck!