All-Nighter

Oh my god its been a long day!!! To start with I bought a Tokyo Metro One Day Pass which alowed me unlimted travel for a day on the Tokyo Metro Lines. I then headed off to The Imperial Palace East Gardens which is a vast green space in the heart of the city, which was once part of the emperor's private garden. This place was huge, even though it was a fraction of the whole garden. There was a small museum near the gate showing exhibits from the imperial collection before the massive foundations of the castle keep made of huge stones that for some reason looked a perfect fit for one another. Im not surprised this is a popular place for the bussinessmen on Tokyo because its the perfect getaway from hectic Tokyo City.

As it was nearby I decided to visit the National Museum of Modern Art. They had a special exhibition for some Van Gogh work but the tickets were 3 times the price of a normal ticket so I didnt bother. As it was a sunday there were so many people there, so I joined the long queue to get in. After my 45 minute wait I finally got inside to find I was in the queue for the Van Gogh Noooooooooo!!!! When I realised I just walked straight in to the normal gallery. To be honest there wasn't much stuff here and it only took me 30mins or so to walk round. Just up the road was the crafts gallery which my ticket also covered to I took a walk up and had a look. There was some nice stuff in here but it also wasn't very big and I was out again in no time.

By this point it was about 1pm so I began to head back to the subway to catch the train to Yoyogi Park. As it was a sunday this place was packed with families having picnics, playing games on the field and having a fun time. There were also street performers of all different kinds demonstarting their skills which was really good to watch. Just out of Yoyogi park next to Harajuku station was where all the teenagers hung out all dressed up in bizzare and wonderful clothing along with the the face paintings and other things attached to their bodies.

My next point of call was Meiji Shrine just next door. This was a walk into the woods and through the great Torii (gates) which are made from 1,700 year old cypress trees from taiwan. After I had seen the shrine I went for a walk in the Meiji Shrine Gardens which were really beautiful. There was a big lake and a fishing spot which was swarmed with really big carp sunning themselves - i couldnt believe how big one of these fish was.

From Harajuku I got the train to Shinjuku to go see the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings. Shinjuku station was absolutely huge, there was a constant tidal wave of people pouring through it all the time. The Government Buildings were a good walk away from the station but it was actually conected to it by the exit, you could seriously get lost in this place it was so big and it was a good 20min walk. When I got to Builing No.1 I jumped in the lift to go up to the observatory on the 45th floor. The view from there was spectacular looing across all of tokyo, you could see the futuristic looking skyscrapers, the imperial palace garden, tokyo bay and beyond it was truly immense.

I was planning to go to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden afterwards but by this time it was 4pm and It shut at 4.30 so I didnt bother. Instead I decided I would have a walk to Kabukicho which was the major entertainment town in Shinjuku offering many restaurants, game arcades, and movie theaters. I had a wonder around for a while then dived into my first Sushi bar. They had the sushi on a revolving belt so you just took the plate you fancied. The plates were all different colours which indicated how much each plate cost. I ended up having four plates which were pretty nice though I think I did pick up a plate which had some kind of jelly fish on which tasted a bit odd.

I decided to call it a day and headed back to my hotel for a shower. I have decided to stay a few more night at the Joyoh Hotel as its pretty cheap and isnt as far away from Tokyo center as I had thought. I was running pretty low on cash but you would not believe how hard it is to find a cash machine in this country - you would think they are everywhere but are few and far between as everyone deals with cash and cards arn't that widely accepted. Also for a country that is so clean I couldn't believe I could not find a dustbin anywhere????

Anyway after my shower I headed downstairs to the hotel lobby to jump on the computer, but they were all in use so I sat down on the social chairs and got chating to these guys called Tony who was from Toronto Canada and Thomas who was from Denmark. They both semed pretty kool and were off out for the night in Roppongi so I decided to join them. It was Tony's last night so he really wanted to have a good send off. The Alcohol in Japan is sooooo expensive, im talking about 4 pounds for a bottle of beer!! Thomas speaks fluent Japanese so he was useful to have around and asked some of the locals where were the places to go. We got a few names and went off on our search. The first place we went to was GasPanic, this really loud club which played hardcore techno music hmmm great. After a drink we left and went in search of a place called 911, this place was much better. More people and the music was better too. We had a really good night and ended up going to another bar until 5am the next day (They were serving until 10am)!! It was hard to get round the fact that is was broad daylight when we left the club as it just didnt real right. We got on the subway to head back to the Hotel, As it was like 5.30 by this time I though I may aswell check out the Tsukiji Fish Market. Thomas just wanted his bed so me and Tony went for a look. We managed to find the place without too much difficulty as it was really busy with people setting up their stalls and carting around boxes of fish. We didnt stay there for too long as we were both really tired and Tony had a 3pm flight home so we thought it was best to head back and get some rest.

When we got back to the Hotel I just crashed out on my tatami mat, It was about 7-8am by this time so I decided I would set my alarm for 10am as not to waste too much of the day sleeping. I have got up and had a shower to prepare me for the day, im going to go to the post office as I have been tod there is an ATM which will work for my card. I think im going to check out Asakusa today and maybe get the boat down the river to the Hama Rikyu Garden.