Tokyo Part 1

Travelling in Japan is amazing. Everywhere you look there's something unusual and different to see. In these blog posts I'll try to include a variety of strange encounters but you'll have to go and experience them for yourself. 

20 September

Arriving at Narita Airport we headed straight into Tokyo Central Station on the Narita Express. The Remm Kyobashi Hotel is ideally located in the Station/Ginza area and the Kyobashi Metro Stop is right outside the hotel. The Ginza line takes you almost anywhere you're likely to want to go in Tokyo.

We met Robert, Nikki and Ranj at the Swan Lake Pub and later happened upon a row of local restaurants ( Izakaya is the Japanese name for a small, local restaurant/bar ) nearby for dinner. 

Horse meat sashimi anyone? Neil and Rob tried it.

21 September

So our main reason for coming to Japan was for the Rugby World Cup.

We secured our tickets more than 2 years in advance and finally after all the planning and build up we were off to the Springboks' first game of the tournament in Yokohama!

Hearty Breakfast. Japanese bakeries are very popular for breakfast and coffee.

Shinkansen. Japan has the best public transport in the world. Bullet trains can travel over 300kms per hour so you can travel between most cities in a matter of hours.

Pre match drinks.

Bokke Vs Kiwis.

They won.

We still had an awesome time. 

Tokyo has many distinct and varied districts and a week is not enough time to discover all there is to see and do.We tried to venture into a different area every day.

22 September

Akasaka

An upmarket commercial and residential suburb with some more traditional streets and buildings.

We met Rob here for a day of rugby watching with some strolling, eating and drinking thrown in.

Here's a pic of a tearoom window. Dessert Bunny Chow anyone?

Neil shopped in his first Don Quixote of many on this trip. Nicknamed Donki, this is a chain of discount stores crammed to the gills with literally everything from upmarket liquor to designer handbags to branded sex toys for men ( if, like me, you didn't know this was a thing, check out Tenga on Wikipedia ) or just cheap socks, kit kats or a deodorant or chopsticks.