Links to other Japan pages  Kyoto  Hiroshima  Jayne

Tokyo at night.

Eventually I got the shinkansan, or bullet train, to Tokyo. This is a really expensive but really efficient and fast way to travel, and as time was limited it was the only way to do it. Jayne had given me specific instructions as to where to sit if I wanted to see Mount Fuji, but they were in vain - the weather was too cloudy.

I arrived in Tokyo in mid afternoon and after checking out the tourist office, braved the subway to Shinjuko. This was fairly hectic, but not nearly as much as I'd feared - the stories of people being herded onto the trains by railway staff were wide of the mark on this route. I had a look around the shops in Shinjuko, and took in all the neon (left) too.

Sleeping quarters in a capsule hotel.

I'd already decided that I was going to check into a capsule hotel, so I found one near the station. I wasn't sure what I expected. What I got was sleeping space roughly 2m by 1m by 1m, complete with TV (right). It didn't have a front door, just a shutter blind to pull down. These were located in two rows of about 10, one atop the other, like bunk beds (left).

This was my bed for the night.

I left my bag in the locker and wandered out, for a fairly quiet night in the Roppongi district.

Three huge video screens outside Shibuya station.

The next morning I indulged in the seated showers, but passed on the communal bath before heading for Shibuya. Shibuya station is famous for it's statue of a dog. The story behind it goes like this, courtesy of Jayne.

A long time ago (perhaps 100 years), the owner of the dog would take the train from Shibuya station everyday. The dog would follow his owner to the station everyday and wait for him. One day, the owner died, but everyday the dog still waited for his owner to come back. Eventually the dog died too!

An incongruous wooden building in the city.

But the rest of Shibuya is more what I expected. Huge video screens (left), huge department stores. For a people that are quite small, they're into big in a big way. Shibuya also features a Tobacco and Salt Museum which is every bit as interesting as you would expect.

In amongst all the high rise buildings is one old wooden one, whose owner refused to sell (right).

A love hotel.

Japanese cities are very crowded, and their houses do not afford a lot of privacy. So when Japanese couple want to have sex they have two choices: they can be very very quiet, or they can go to a Love Hotel. The former method is popular in parts of South East Asia, in places where it is normal to have several generations sleeping in the same room. It seems to be quite practical for making babies, but when you have to keep silent while you're doing it, it doesn't sound like it's a whole lot of fun - especially for the woman. So the Japanese have come up with Love Hotels.

The shopping arcade leading to a temple.

Essentially these are hotel rooms you can rent for the night or during the day or by the hour. The one in the picture offers different rates depending if you want to 'rest' or 'stay'. They all seem to offer the same deal. Just in front of reception is a bank of TV monitors showing the available rooms. You pick the one you like, pay the receptionist and then go and shag each other's brains out. I'm told that some Love Hotels offer specialist rooms, but I never saw that. They're also a bit picky if you try and smuggle more than two people in, say ten or so. Whether you could get away with a threesome is left as an exercise for the reader.

The temple.

In the afternoon, I went to Asakusa. The main attraction here is the temple, complete with a bustling shopping area leading up to it (right).

The Pagoda.

The temple itself is very cute, complete with pagoda. Exactly what I expected from a Japanese temple.

That was more or less it for Tokyo. The way to the imperial palace was closed for some reason, so this was as close as I got (below left).

The gate house for the imperial palace.

Links to other Japan pages  Kyoto  Hiroshima  Jayne

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Last modified on 22nd December 2007 3:31 PM EST

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