There are some places you visit because they’re nearby.
Some because the flights are cheap.
Some because somebody on Instagram made a beach look nicer than it actually is.
And then there are places like Tokyo.
Tokyo had been on the list for years.
Probably decades, really.
It always looked slightly unreal.
Too big.
Too bright.
Too organised.
Too many people.
Too many trains.
Too much anime.
Basically everything I like, mixed together with several things I don’t understand.
Perfect.
And after months of planning, booking, Googling and repeatedly asking questions like “Which train line is that then?”, we finally arrived.
Day One – I Have No Idea What Time It Is
Getting to Tokyo involved Birmingham, Istanbul, Narita and enough hours in airports and planes to completely break my understanding of time.
At one point I was eating what might have been breakfast.
Or dinner.
Or possibly a snack that had simply become a meal through lack of sleep.
Eventually we landed at Narita and made our way into Tokyo to the ANA InterContinental in Akasaka.
By this point I wasn’t in sightseeing mode.
I was in “stare out of hotel window in mild disbelief” mode.
Tokyo.
Actually Tokyo.
Bloody hell.
Day Two – Ancient Temple, Anime Overload and Flying Sumo Wrestlers
First proper stop: Sensō-ji.
Which was a very sensible way to start.
Huge lanterns.
Temple buildings.
Incense.
People quietly praying.
Beautiful.
Calm.
Peaceful.
We’d done a bit of reading beforehand about temple etiquette, mainly because my default approach to unfamiliar situations is to copy what everybody else is doing and hope nobody notices.
Worked fine.
Then we went to Akihabara.
Which is basically the exact opposite of Sensō-ji.
If Sensō-ji is calm, ancient Japan, Akihabara is Japan after a some MDMA and three cans of energy drink.
Lights.
Anime.
Arcades.
Games.
Figures.
Music.
Signs everywhere.
More figures.
More anime.
Then another eight floors of anime just in case you felt there wasn’t enough.
It was completely ridiculous.
Naturally, I loved it.
Later we headed to Shinjuku for sumo.
Now, sumo looks fairly simple on television. We have been following Sumo since Chanel 4 used it show way back in the day
Two big blokes.
Small ring.
Push each other out.
Done.
But seeing it close up makes you realise how fast and explosive it is.
Lots of ceremony.
Lots of staring.
Lots of tension.
Then suddenly:
WHACK.
One massive man is airborne.
Outstanding sport.
Afterwards we wandered around Kabukicho and found the famous Godzilla head sticking out of a building.
Nobody seemed particularly alarmed.
Apparently this is normal.
Day Three – Shrine, Shopping Chaos and a Very Good Dog
The next morning we went to Meiji Shrine.
One of the strangest things about Tokyo is how quickly it changes.
You can be surrounded by traffic, skyscrapers and train stations, walk for a few minutes and suddenly you’re underneath enormous trees heading towards a peaceful shrine.
Meiji Shrine was brilliant.
Quiet.
Beautiful.
A proper change of pace. I have been really taken by Shinto (Shinto is the indigenous, traditional spiritual practice and religion of Japan, centered on the veneration of sacred spirits or forces known as kami.)
So naturally, after all that calm, we went straight to Takeshita Street in Harajuku.
Which was absolutely rammed.
Bright shops.
Food stalls.
Fashion.
Noise.
Teenagers. ( seemingly all dressed as anime characters )
Tourists.
And me wandering through it all looking like somebody’s dad who had accidentally joined the wrong school trip.
Then we headed to Shibuya.
First stop: Hachikō.
Very good dog.
Then Shibuya Crossing.
I know.
It’s a crossing.
That is literally what it is.
But somehow it’s brilliant.
Thousands of people all start walking in different directions at the same time and nobody seems to bump into anybody.
Meanwhile I can walk through Worcester town centre at lunchtime and take out three pensioners and a Greggs sign.
We crossed it ourselves.
More than once.
If you’ve flown halfway around the planet to see a zebra crossing, you may as well get full value from it.
Later we found somewhere high up to look across the city.
And once again came to the same conclusion:
Tokyo is absolutely enormous.
Every time you think you’ve understood the scale of it, you go up a tall building and realise you were miles off.
Day Four – DisneySea
Then came Tokyo DisneySea.
We are big Disney Park fans so it would be remiss to travel all this way and not visit
So different to any other Disney park we have been to
Huge themed areas.
Amazing buildings.
Loads of little touches that somebody has clearly spent months designing even though most people are walking straight past them while trying to find popcorn.
And Disney does that strange thing with time.
You think:
“We’ll just do one more ride.”
Then suddenly it’s dark.
No idea how that works.
Probably magic.
Or capitalism.
Day Five – A Thousand Cats and Mild Sensory Confusion
Our final proper sightseeing day started at Gotokuji Temple.
Also known as the cat temple.
There are little lucky cat figures everywhere.
Hundreds.
Possibly thousands.
Big cats.
Small cats.
Rows of cats.
Shelves of cats.
Cats looking at other cats.
At some point you stop asking why there are so many ceramic cats and just accept that this is obviously correct.
Then we headed back into central Tokyo and went up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Best feature?
Free observation deck.
Free is a lovely word.
Particularly after several days on holiday.
The view was incredible.
Tokyo stretching endlessly in every direction.
Still massive.
No noticeable shrinkage.
Later we went to teamLab.
I’m not entirely sure how to describe teamLab.
Lights.
Mirrors.
Flowers.
Dark rooms.
Huge spaces.
Things moving around you.
At various points you lose track of where the wall is, where the floor is and whether your brain has simply packed up and gone home.
Very weird.
Very clever.
Very good.
We also squeezed in another trip to Akihabara.
Because apparently one visit to several hundred anime shops wasn’t enough.
And throughout all of this was the ongoing vegetarian food mission.
Japan is amazing for food.
Slight complication:
A lot of apparently vegetarian food has fish stock hiding in it somewhere.
So meals often went something like this:
“Vegetarian?”
“Yes.”
“Brilliant.”
“Except for the fish.”
Ah.
Eventually we found some proper vegetarian ramen.
At that point it felt less like lunch and more like winning a cup final.
So… Tokyo Then
Five days.
Temples. both Buddhist and Shinto
Godzilla.
Sumo.
Anime.
DisneySea.
Lucky cats.
Shibuya.
teamLab.
And more walking than my legs had formally agreed to.
We stared at train maps.
We got on trains.
We got off trains.
Occasionally even at the correct station.
And somehow, despite Tokyo being huge, busy and completely baffling at times, it never really felt stressful.
Everything just works.
The trains arrive.
People queue.
The streets are ridiculously clean.
Nobody seems to be shouting.
And there is always a vending machine nearby in case walking past the previous vending machine has made you thirsty.
I expected Tokyo to be good.
I didn’t expect it to be one of those places where, before you’ve even left, you’re already thinking about coming back.
Would I go again?
Absolutely.
Tomorrow, ideally.
Although I’d like to make one small request first.
Can somebody arrange for Tokyo to be about 30% smaller?
My feet would really appreciate it.
The best thing we still had a 12 night cruise to do.
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