Tokyo. Omg we're in Japan! Seriously this place is awesome. We spent 2 action-packed days here during 'Camp Europe' last year but didnt ever get around to writing about it. We plan to make up for that this time though! In Japan the cool thing to do is stay in a 'Ryokan' or Japanese inn. While there are some mega flash ones about the usual type seems to be cute old houses that have been converted to guest houses - ours was called Taito Ryokan. Take our word that its really cool and the guy in the office is really friendly and helpful. We met a nice american guy called Max who we sat around with and talked to a couple of times. He is into photography so that was an excellent conversation starter.

We read about a place in Ikebukoro called "Hello Kitty" that is both a pet shop and a place where you can go to play with about 20 cats that are just wandering about! Naturally we had to check it out so after navigating around for a bit we found a large room in the pet shop that was ruled by what had to be the biggest cat ever! He looked like a lion and just perched up on a pedestal surveying his domain. Annie took an instant liking to a grey cat with the freakiest eyes - check out the photo below!

If you know anything about Japan you have probably heard of the infamous pedestrian crossing at Shibuya. Every few minutes starting from around 5pm the traffic lights stop the cars and a seemingly endless stream of people is unleashed onto the road. We sat in Starbucks for ages and gawked at the myriad of tired workers heading home after a hard day's work. We'll try and upload a video when we find it. Not long before this I had decided to resurrect a big hobby of mine and invest in a new camera (it's a Nikon D300 for anyone interested).

Japan is the place to come for all things electronic and Akihabara is the place to go for it. It's where I found my camera and is street after street of absolutely every gadget imaginable. Ipods to incandescent lightbulbs, it's all there. Being geeks we love it, especially the 10 storey malls full of nothing but gadgets. :)

Does music by Gwen Stefani ring your bell? Haha yeah i think she is crap too but she sings about 'Harajuku Girls' - where else do find them but Harajuku? Even in the freezing cold and snow that we found on the day we went there they stand about on a bridge dressed in the most amazing outfits. Some shake their heads and giggle uncontrollably when you ask if you can take their photo while others just nod seriously. They love being looked at for sure. At dusk they all disappear into the bathrooms at nearby cafes and come out looking completely normal before going back to their normal lives in the suburbs. They are nearly impossible to describe so hopefully the photos below will do them justice!

In the evening we caught the train out to Shinjuku to check out an area called 'The Golden Gai' that is a collection of what must be the world's tiniest bars - some of them can literally only fit 4-5 people. The area proved almost impossible to find and we walked up and down the same street about 5 times before finding a really helpful guy (who wasn't even from Tokyo) to help us read the maps on the street! We eventually got there though hehe. We had read that most of the tiny bars wont allow the gaijin (foreigners) to enter so we looked for one of the few that does only to find it closed - gutted! It was definitely a sign though because we found another with English writing outside called Nana, named after the woman who was married to the Japanese artist that decorated the inside of the bar in a Spanish flamenco fashion after living in a small Spanish town inhabited by artists. What can we say about the people there other than they did nothing but confirm our belief that everyone in Japan is unbelievably friendly and chatty. The owner started by cooking us dinner for free in a minute kitchen behind the bar. It consisted of a very un-Japanese omelette with a couple of slices of french bread, followed by orange slices for dessert! How cool is that?!? We chatted for ages with him and a woman who obviously came to the bar a lot about all sorts of things from our home country of NZ to how to follow correct 'onsen' etiquette - we will talk about onsen in another post though. After talking about the famed Japanese rice wine known as Sake for a while he decided that we had to try a top quality example. It was nothing like the cheap and probably fake stuff found at home - it was really smooth and sooo nice! That's probably why it cost 4000 JPY for a single shot though (about NZD$47). For us though it cost as much as dinner - nothing! We love this guy. :) We stayed there for hours chatting to other bar patrons that came in, all of whom seemed fascinated in everything we had to say. All in all it one of the most fun and rewarding evenings we've had yet for sure and we are definitely going back!

The following morning brought a pretty cool surprise for us - Tokyo was covered in snow! Luckily we had spent the previous day looking for thermal underwear (ohhh so sexy, especially when they sag and pull your pants down around your bum) so we were well prepared for how cold it was. Having spent the last 2 months in the sweltering heat of South East Asia meant we weren't accustomed to such low temperatures!

On our way home we walked through the slightly dodgy area of Shinjuku and marvelled at the huge photos of the people who we assume will 'hang out' with you for the appropriate fee. Funniest part was that the guys in the photos all looked the same hehe - see below for one of the signs.

I think that's about it for now though. Next it's on to Nozawa Onsen where hopefully we will get to go snowboarding ... I have been waiting for the chance to go snowboarding outside NZ for YEARS and I can't wait. Bye!

P.S. The wee golden-coloured kitten having a rest isn't related to anything above. We found him in a random pet shop in Tokyo - he's just too cute to not upload a picture of. We want him. :)