Pretty much everywhere I look, and each direction I turn in there are constant reminders, but very occasionally I'll be engrossed in doing something to make that my thoughts of being miles away from home disappear. I usually snap out of it pretty quickly when I encounter a sign I can't read or I look up and realise that I am surrounded by several pairs of eyes peering at me curiously.
I think it's happened more as I've gone on, which is strange because as I mentioned in the intro to a recent blog I wrote, being in this part of Asia as apposed to the part of the journey which took me closer to the equator I am actually even further in the minority because there have definitely been significantly less tourists in Korea, China and Taiwan than in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
I'm not sure how long it would take for me to fully acclimatise to living in a foreign country if I were to do it again - but I guess even though any difficulties would disappear slowly, you'd still have the feeling that you were just visiting unless you could speak the language fluently and totally embraced the culture that you'd moved to.
Some of the cities that I've visited on my journey so far, I could definitely have seen myself spending an extended amount of time there. Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jakarta are cities where 'foreigners' often find themselves settling for work or due to relationships and it's no coincidence that those have generally been the places where I have felt the most comfortable.
At the other end of the scale, in a few cities I have felt glad that I was only passing through as I'm not sure how well I'd be able to adapt to living somewhere like Vientiane, Manila or Phnom Penh on a permanent basis. That's not to say they weren't very nice places to go to, but those three particularly are so different that it would take some serious adaption before I ever felt like I was anything more than someone passing through.
I've always felt like I would be someone who is pretty comfortable living or staying anywhere, and I think this journey has gone some way towards proving that. Obviously I've coped better in some places than others, but I haven't had any situations where I've felt like I really needed to move on from - although I'll admit that I've been less sad to see the back of some places than others. I do genuinely believe that has been based around the circumstances of where I've been staying, as mentioned in previous chapters of my tale.
Even after a couple of days I feel like Japan is definitely a country which I'd be able to cope in for a longer period of time. Had things worked out differently then I might have actually ended up moving here as I did look at a number of jobs in and around the Tokyo area about eighteen months ago. Part of my interest in working in Japan was because I've always been fascinated by the country, it's people and it's culture - something which I hope to experience a lot more of in the coming weeks....
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Before coming on this journey I think that Tokyo was one of the places that I was most looking forward to visiting, and it's somewhere that I have throught about visiting on holiday several times, but never had the opportunity to stop by.
The Japanese capital is recognised as one of the most popular tourists destinations, not only on this continent, but across the world, and I was very much anticipating arriving here to build on what Yokohama got started as an excellent experience.
Having arrived from Tokyo when I landed on Tuesday I figured I shouldn't have too much trouble getting back there, although I spent quite a bit of time doing research last night to make sure that I was clear about which trains I should be catching in order to get myself to the right place.
My hotel is actually on the outskirts of Tokyo in an area somewhere between the two districts of Itabashi and Toshima. Although I'd liked to have stayed in the heart of it all, there was simply no way that I was going to be able to afford to stay somewhere decent and do that, so I selected to find a hotel with good transport links which allows me to get to and from the main hub of the city without too many problems.
If you include the metropolitan area, I believe Tokyo has the world's largest population, and being the capital it naturally has great links with other parts Japan, and other cities across the world.
There were several options for getting to Tokyo from Yokohama, but I figured that the easiest way might be to just go to the train station and ask someone as I have begun to realise that as long as I have a base of information, I'm comfortable about letting other people figure things out for me if I tell them where I need to be.
I had to go back to Yokohama Station on the subway, and then from there I went to the information desk who had provided me with a map the other day to see if they could make any suggestions. The very helpful lady in there pointed me in the direction of the 'JR' ticket desk and said that I could enquire there. When I arrived there was a quite a bit queue, but there were a lot of people working so it went down relatively quickly.
I asked the man serving me whether if it'd just be best to get the Narita Express back in the direction I came from on Tuesday, but he asked me where I needed to go, and when I told him, he suggested a better route for me.
It was rather confusing as I had to take the Shonan-Shinjuku Line to a station called Ikebukuro and then from there take the Tobu Toja Line to Tokiwadai Station which is the closest one to the hotel I'm staying in. Still with me!? Good!
All of this lovely information was provided to me by a very helpful lady at the JR information desk who even showed me a picture of what the train looked like and then gave me a card that I could give to the men on the platform if I was unsure about which train to catch.
Thankfully I didn't need any further assistance other than that because the train came, as described, and also there were signs up in English which made it an awful lot easier for me. I have to praise the trains and subways of China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan on behalf of the tourists that visit. They make English language announcements and have their scrolling signs which also include English and it just takes any worries I might have away. Part of this has to do with the fact that cities like Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing have held major international sporting competitions, and these sorts of things are legacy from that I guess.
On the first train I was on it was pretty busy and I pretty much had to sit on my bag in the corner of the carriage, but once I got to Ikebukuro the train to Tokiwadai was pretty empty.
I think what makes part of the train conundrum so difficult, not only because the names are difficult for me to pronounce and remember, is that each one of the trains come from the same station, although they have seperate entry gates. For example at Yokohama station there were trains for five different lines, and each one had a separate sign pointing towards where you needed to be in order to catch that train. I guess that makes things easier, but for example later when I knew where I needed to be, but didn't know which type of train I needed to catch, then it becomes more difficult!
Anyway, back to the easy part which was my journey as at about 1pm I got to Tokiwadai Station, pretty aware of how to get to my hotel as on the way from the previous stop to the correct one for me, I'd seen a big sign for my hotel so it was a case of just walking five minutes down the road to make it there.
Even though check-in time was supposed to be 2pm (there was even a big sign about the counter to suggest this) I was given my key and the details of how things work were explained to me. I was pretty pleased that I'd been able to check in early as I figured it would give some time to explore Tokyo, which after all is what I came here to do.
I'd had a sneaking suspicion I might have some extra time for exploring today so I'd come up with a few ideas of what to do. I had to head back in the opposite direction I'd just come from, first returning to Ikebukuro Station and then making a series of complex of confusing changes in order to get to a station called Yoyogi.
As I just mentioned that pretty much all of the trains depart from the same station, just different platforms, I encounter something different on my journey to downtown Tokyo as I brought I ticket to get to the transition station, then had to go out of the metro station and back into another one using the same ticket in order to get where I needed to go. Thankfully I managed to work it all out, but it was mightily and unecessaeily confusing!
I should point out that I feel like Tokyo is going to be one of those cities where there are a lot of things to do, rather than a lot of things to see - although the first thing that I was going to do was actually to see one of the country's most famous sights which is Meiji Jingu, known as the Meiji Shrine.
Having got off the train at Yoyogi I grabbed a quick snack from the shop and then continued on towards the shrine which is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken in around 1920. Meiji was one of the people who helped Japan flourish into the country that it is today, so much so that the government decided to build a monument in his honour.
It was partially destroyed in World War II, but reconstructed into what you see today around the late 1950s.
The shrine itself makes up only a small part of the complex which is surrounded on four sides by these large gates:
I walked around the outer garden which was made of long stoney paths before eventually coming to what looked to be a courtyard:
There were several buildings were as well as another enrty / exit gate.....
....a place where people could buy blocks of wood and write their wishes on....
....and then also the shrine itself:
There was something of a peaceful feeling standing there, and there were some Japanese people offering prayers to the shrine which means following a routine of washing your hands using the cups provided, bowing twice before offering your prayer, and then clapping your hands twice before one last bow.
At the large gate people who'd prayed also offered one last bow facing towards the shine as part of their ritual.
It was interesting to walk around, and there was some nice scenery around including the Meiji Gardens which you had to pay to get into.
I took a look around the souvenir shop to see what kinds of gifts they had on offer and there was lots of interesting traditional fayre including kimonos, chop sticks and headbands.
From there I continued walking, and before carrying on to my next destination which I wanted to visit as the sun was disappearing I was that there was a park next door to the exit.
It has been bright and sunny weather again today so I thought I'd spend some time enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze so walked to the centre of Yoyogi Park where there were seats all the way around a couple of fountains.
I stayed there for about an hour just relaxing and reading completely losing track of my surroundings and before I realised I looked up, and the sun was starting to drop from the sky:
Yesterday when I'd been in Yokohama I'd walked through a lovely park which was just behind the Pacifico building but I didn't take any reading material with me. Today I'd thought it through a bit more clearly and was able to make the most of my time there which was a great decision.
I set about doing some walking from Yoyogi Park in order to reach the final place on my list which I shall discuss in a second. The exit to the shrine and the park had brought me to an area in Tokyo called Harajuku which is well known within the city as a popular shopping district in the capital. It's also known as a 'hangout' for stylish teenagers and young adults to come, and as I was walking down the busy streets there were definitely some alternative looks going on.
I'd say that I have definitely noticed some differences between the fashion choices of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese people, and without this sounding strange, the latter definitely have the widest range of looks. This goes from hair colour to their clothing style, and in Harajuku there was plenty of this on show ranging from people wearing all black with the 'alternative' look to people wearing high heels with brightly coloured socks and rainbow plaid clothing.
More than anything else I was just enjoying finally being in Tokyo and walking down the busy streets which were filled with people. I continued walking up a hill through Harajuku until I came to the next stop along the train like which was Omotesando. From there I looped back around to complete my triangular route with the final stop of my day being Shibuya.
Remember a while back I discussed that there were a list of places that I really wanted to go? Well, although Tokyo was on the list, one specific thing I wanted to see and experience whilst I was in the Japanese capital was lurking around the Shibuya area. Unlike the grand things I'd seen in Beijing and at Angkor Wat, this 'sight' was more superficial, and although you might not know where abouts in the world it is located I'm pretty sure it will be familiar to you once I describe the sheer organised chaos which is the Shibuya Scramble:
The Shibuya Scramble, more commonly known as Shibuya Crossing, is one of the most famous, yet obscure things in Tokyo. Outside Shibuya Station, which is reported to be among the busiest in the world, people line up on multiple sides of the road to cross in all different directions.
For the thirty seconds that traffic stops the street fills with pedestrians who surge at the intersection from all sides crossing over into various different directions - maybe it's just one of those things that you just have to be there to see to totally appreciate it:
Unless you go high up into one of the many office blocks it's quite difficult to get the effect of the crossing itself from close up, but I stood on one side and held my camera aloft at what I thought would be the perfect moment just as the floods of people started piling across the road from all directions.
After videoing it and taking some pictures, of course I had to go and join in myself and I think I pretty much walked from every direction to the other in order to get the full experience among plenty of other people who seemed just as excited to be where they were as me!
I definitely want to spend some time in an authentic Japanese arcade whilst I'm here, and this was a perefect example of everything you'd want it to be with people totally focussed on the games they were playing whilst loud music and flashing lights go off everywhere. I think I was genuinely just as amazed by this as I was by Shibuya Crossing and just to make sure when I came out I went across from corner to corner one more in order to get back to the station:
On my way back to the hotel I experience a good old-fashioned Tokyo railway experience as everyone piled on board to the first train that came along. I don't think it's quite as bad these days as when you used to see pictures of the train conductors pushing people on to make sure they didn't get trapped by the door, but it was definitely pretty cosy whilst inside.
I made the change at Ikebukuro again and then continued on back to the hotel where I picked up some food on my way back for my first night here.
Is it possible to totally fall in love with somewhere in just one day!?
I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that even if I left today, Tokyo would have lived up to it's expectations. There genuinely seems to be so much to experience here, and I think that the next couple of days are going to be extremely enjoyable as I go out and about in the city.
Crossroads - Bone Thugs 'N Harmony (1995)
....and a bonus just for comedy value: Crossroads - Blazin' Squad (2002)
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