Let’s see how this goes. It’s probably not going to be very interesting, not very much might happen and I don’t really expect many people to be reading this, but it already looks like being a very eventful year in my life, with a lot of change to come.

Let’s bring you up to speed – I’m at a bit of a crossroads at the moment. Fairly recently my girlfriend ended our relationship, something that to be honest I’m still trying to come to terms with, and the company I’ve worked at for the last nine years is about to split in two, with people going in various different directions. That’s not really the complete “story so far”, of course, but anyway, let’s get on with it…

Another busy Monday in the office, but it did feel a bit weird. The effects of the forthcoming split are finally starting to materialise. Next week, some people move from London to Paris, in a couple more weeks many others will be moving to a shiny new office, but it’s only now come to the point where it’s starting to feel like this is really happening. It’s going to be a strange few weeks, as I slowly change from working with in an office with over hundred people to about a dozen.

After work, I went to a pub quiz in Crouch Hill. This was my fourth or fifth time to go, it clashes with my favourite comedy night and the occasional football match so I’ve not been able to go every week, but it does mean I always keep busy on Monday nights. And right now, keeping busy is good.

There are a number of different quizmasters and you never know who you’re going to get each week, with the difficulty levels fluctuating quite wildly. As the first questions were read out, I found that the majority of them were easy enough that everyone around the table knew the answers straight away, with the occasional questions that flummoxed me but someone else would know. But then there was one question that stumped everyone else that I knew I should be able to answer – the name of the fictional sci-fi writer who regularly appears in Kurt Vonnegut books. I loved Slaughterhouse 5, having read it a few years ago at a time I was hungrily devouring all of the literary references in the TV show Lost, and searched my memory for the answer. The surname Trout appeared in my head and it fit – the quiz uses themed answers and we’d already worked out one of them was fish. I then spent virtually the rest of the quiz trying to remember the first name, but it wouldn’t come to me. Herman? Augustus? Theodore? Something-ore? Definitely something-ore. And then the word “Killgore” floated into my head, followed by the thought “no, hang on, I don’t think that’s actually a name”. But we put it down anyway, and Killgore Trout was the right answer.

We won! By more than one point, so my contribution wasn’t exactly pivotal, but it was a really fun night. I headed home, managing to avoid getting stranded on the Overground as I’ve done a few times before.

Right, then. 1 down, 365 to go.

The rest of us started to go on our way to Shibuya, first stopping off at Freshness Burger, the other Japanese burger chain I’d been told about all week. After a mix-up involving teriyaki sauce, I enjoyed it but not as much as Mos Burger, by now a firm favourite. Perhaps it was a good thing I was leaving before developing an addiction. After lunch, we caught the local train to Shibuya so I could catch the Narita Express from there to the airport. After getting my final look at the famous crossing, we went to the ticket office and discovered that there was an earlier train than the one I’d booked. After a little negotiation, we managed to swap the ticket before realising that we’d have to run to the platform to catch the train.

After dashing through what seemed like the longest train station in the world, we got there just in time. I said my goodbyes to my friends and expressed my gratitude for the amazing way they took care of me all week. I had only expected to be shown around once or twice, but in the end I only spent one day by myself. It’s wonderful to have friends like these and I thought to myself as I sat down in the air-conditioned carriage and waved to them through the window that I will have to see them all again soon.

It seemed that I was at the airport in no time. There were about three hours to wait until I had to board my flight, so I spent a little time in an Internet café so I could let people know I was on my way home and spent my last bits of Yen on some final goodies to bring home, including some green tea Kit-Kats that would prove very popular.

By the time I was on the plane, it was dark outside. I put on my headphones and started to listen to Bowie’s Hunky Dory album on the in-flight entertainment system as we taxied, with the chorus to Life on Mars kicking in as the plane soared into the air. It felt perfect, but perfectly sad. I looked down to the lights below, everything getting smaller and smaller until there was just the dark black sea with the occasional pinprick of light from a boat.

There was some unfinished business for me, though – I finally got to finish watching Shutter Island, and really enjoyed it. After that, it was Shrek 4, which was OK, and a couple of episodes of Family Guy and Futurama before I found my eyes getting heavy and (a real rarity for me) managed to get some sleep on the plane. When I woke up, it was time for breakfast, although it was only 2am Dubai time. Although the food on Emirates was generally good, I don’t think I was especially hungry.

The stopover at Dubai was around four hours, but felt twice as long. There was just as much to do there as before, and I had saved a few Dirhams to get something to eat, but I think I was just a bit too tired to do anything. It had been an exhilarating week and although it would be great to be home again and there were people I was really, really looking forward to coming home to, there’s always something depressing about the end of a holiday and having to return back to reality, and an airport full of Brits, Americans and Australians as well as every other natitionality in the world was a clear sign that I was now in a different place and on my way home. It probably didn’t help that the airport was incredibly crowded, even at 4am, and despite getting to my gate over an hour in advance, I had to sit on the floor.

The sun rose over Dubai and it was eventually time to board the enormous Airbus A380. As we took off, we flew past the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, which was brain-meltingly huge, ridiculously dwarfing the ordinarily tall skyscrapers around it and seeming to be close to the aircraft even at a high altitude. It really was an incredible sight, and a fairly terrifying one.

As the flight continued, I selected the formulaic-but-watchable Predators and then the very funny fourth series of the IT Crowd from entertainment system. I was very sleepy but couldn’t quite sleep. As we were flying over Europe, I went into the toilet cubicle and as I blew my nose, it started to bleed. Since I was I child I’ve always had nosebleeds, maybe once a year or so, but being in an aeroplane about to prepare for landing made me panic more than usual. I felt as if the thinner air was making me bleed more and for longer than usual, but eventually after a few minutes of pinching my nose with my head back the flow started to cease and I was able to get back to my seat in time for landing, as if nothing had happened.

Finally, I landed in Heathrow. It was cold, it was grey, but it was home.

The Ghibli museum was amazing. Not particularly huge, but it was clearly made with love and is packed with interesting stuff. The building itself is a delight to explore and get lost in, with hidden treasures at every turn, from the stained glass windows to the detail on the sink taps and the huge robot statue in the rooftop garden. The most memorable exhibits included a remarkable three-dimensional zoetrope where it appears that models of characters from My Neighbour Totoro come to life and a mock-up of the animator’s rather untidy studio, where we were able to flip through storyboards for films such as Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service. There were also many exibits relating to The Borrower Arrietty, the latest Studio Ghibli film which probably will take a while to arrive in the UK.

We decided to have lunch in the museum café, The Straw Hat Café, which was a very good decision. Fitting the location, the food itself appeared to be so perfect that it must have come from a cartoon. The sandwiches were made from huge, doorstop-like slices of freshly baked bread with mugs of tea that appeared to have come from a giant’s kitchen. I chose to have a slice of cake, which was probably the biggest and one of the most delicious I’d ever had, along with what the menu described as Looking up at a Clear Blue Sky in the Field Cream Soda – even with that description I wasn’t expecting anything as wonderful as a tasty blue drink with a big scoop of icecream.

There was also a cinema screen which rotated through about eight short films (so you’d have to make that many trips to the museum to see them all). Luckily on this day they were showing Mei and the Kittenbus, a mini-sequel to Totoro. Before we left, we had to visit the gift shop, which was as much of an attraction as anything else. Full of toys and merchandise, it was really difficult to reign in my spending, but I still think I bought around half of my gifts there, everything from a fluffy kittenbus to a box of cookies.

After the museum, we met up with Nahoko, Mari and Aki and had dinner in nearby Mikata. We found an American diner, which seemed a pretty good place to get food and drink. Missing my favourite drink from back home, cider, I decided to give apple beer a try and instantly regretted it – it tasted of beer mixed with apple juice, not very nice. Still, it was my choice, and the food was good – with my burger being so huge it had to be served between two slices of toast.

The drinking continued around the corner, in a place that looked like a more modern, smaller version of the Golden Gai, a grid of alleys with various themed bars. We hopped from one to the other at first before staying at a wine bar with a very friendly Bangladeshi waiter who kept bringing more and more bottles to our table. It slowly dawned on us that this was my last night in Japan, so we decided to make the most of it.

But it was soon time for the bar to close – we seemed to be the only ones there for most of the evening. While it was time for Nahoko to head home, the rest of us decided to continue the party at Noriko’s place. We were pleased to have caught the last train before realising that it only went four stops. A few slightly tipsy ladies wanted to argue with the train driver, but eventually it was decided that the five of us would get a cab back.

We stopped off in the supermarket on the way, to stock up on supplies. The rest of the night was a haze of wine, Pringles and lots of fun. I’ll miss this place, and I’ll miss my friends.

On Friday morning, the weather seemed to have improved. It was overcast but there was barely a hint of rain, so I decided to go to Roppongi Hills after checking out of the hotel but leaving my luggage there to pick up later. Strangely, after being in Tokyo for a week, this would be my first time to use the Metro system (all the other lines I had used were Overground-type trains). It was, like all of the other times I’d used transport in the city, very easy to use and I found myself in Roppongi in no time.

I’d read that the station was very close to the Roppongi Hills complex, so was surprised to find myself emerge in a typical bustling Tokyo street, rather than the clean, modern centre I was expecting. It turned out that it was a short walk down the road and, since I had lots of time to spare, I decided to have a little wander around the area. I quickly found myself in a very residential-looking district, feeling a little lost and like I was going too far in the wrong direction when I suddenly came across the The National Art Center, a beautiful rippling curved glass building housing exhibitions of modern art.

I walked back towards Roppongi Hills itself, up an escalator to the courtyard by the entrance to the imposing 54-story skyscraper. I instantly recognised Louise Bourgeois’ giant spider, just like the one that had stood outside Tate Modern, a little reminder of home that perhaps I needed by now. Inside, I bought what the guide books recommended as the best value ticket, allowing me inside the Mori Art Museum which sits at the very top of the building and the Tokyo City View viewing gallery below. I decided not to go for the open-air roof deck, thinking it’d be a step too far for my acrophobia. Stepping into the lift, it was hard to believe it was moving at all as it silently and swiftly took us 50 floors up. The museum was fascinating, featuring a variety of modern art pieces, including many very large installations as well as smaller pieces, including a great Indonesian rock video animated from hundreds of carved pieces of wood, which were all displayed alongside the screen.

I went down to the 52nd floor to enter the viewing gallery and panicked when I realised I couldn’t find my ticket. Luckily, the staff were fantastic and let me through anyway, so I began my slow walk around all 4 sides of the building, looking out at the stunning views of the city from my vantage point near the iconic Tokyo Tower I’d seen so many times in my youth, normally being knocked over by Godzilla or Mothra. Despite my fear of heights, I was mostly fine, perhaps because everything looked too small to be real and I never got the sense I was climbing so high in the lift. Once or twice I pushed myself a little harder and got close up to the windows and looked downwards, which made me suddenly feel dizzy and sick. For most of the time, though, I just sat by the windows and looked out at the city I had completely fallen in love with, seeing for the first time how all the places I had visited connect together, from Odaiba in the bay to “home”, Shinjuku, towards the north. A wave of sadness washed over me as I looked out across the buildings and cars below, realising that I would soon be saying goodbye. The skies were too cloudy to see Mount Fuji that day, but what I did see was just as beautiful.

I made my way to the lift to take me back to the ground floor but before I could get to the exit I found myself walking through, of course, the gift shop. I decided to pick up a set of Yoshitomo Nara postcards for Noriko as a thankyou for looking after me. Still feeling melancholic, I was cheered when I walked behind the building to find the brightly coloured headquarters of TV Asahi.

I made my way back to Shinjuku the same way I had come. As I had some time to kill before meeting up with Noriko, I decided to see if I could walk to Shibuya. It seemed a fairly straightforward route, past the railway tracks to Yoyogi. From there, it would be easy, I thought. And it was – I had managed to get a complete handle of the geography of the area, even walking down streets in Harijuku that I’d never gone down before and knowing where I was going. Yes, I was feeling a little pleased with myself, and I even made it to that traditional gift shop, which was now open, where I picked up a few samurai and tea-based trinkets.

With more time to kill, I also spent some time in a very large Tower Records store. I felt a rush of nostalgia as soon as I walked through the doors, with Tower having closed down its stores in the UK some time ago, and it was great to be able to go from floor to floor, listening to lots of new albums and be in a bustling record store for the first time in a long time.

I was going to meet Noriko at a gig in Shibuya, which I was quite excited about. I try to see bands in London quite often, so I was interested to see if there are any differences with the gig-going experience is like in Tokyo. It was mostly the same sort of dimly-lit room you’d find above a pub in Camden, although we had to go up in a lift to get there (as I’ve travelled to various places I’ve found that we’re the unusual ones for only having high-street shops and restaurants on the ground floor) and I was pleased to find that my ticket included the price of a drink. The line-up was a little unusual, starting with a Frenchman who drummed along to chiptunes, followed by a remarkably good swing/jazz band who I really enjoyed despite not especially liking that genre of music. It was pointed out to me that Japanese musicians are almost always of excellent technical ability, but it was exceptional to find a band that was as charismatic as they were. One major difference between London and Japan, though, is that the room was foggy with cigarette smoke. I’d completely forgotten that this unpleasant smell was the norm in our clubs just a few years ago and was hard to get used to again, but it was in fact Noriko and her friend who first wanted to leave because of it.

So, we returned to Noriko’s home, my first taste of suburban Tokyo, much more sedate than the centre of the city but still with a certain electricity in the air even late at night. I, of course, removed my shoes as soon as I went inside the door and then was introduced to Noriko’s flatmate Aki. We shared some wine and watched a bit of TV before deciding to get some sleep – it’d be a busy day tomorrow.

I mostly retraced the steps I took on Saturday, with a few diversions. I headed to the Tokyo Hands department store to get a few gifts. It was difficult to find as I made my way through Shibuya’s back streets without daring to open my bag and get out my guide book, which would be instantly soaked. I eventually found the store and dripped my way in, slowly drying off as I made my way up and down the buildings many stairs, finding a few things to bring home.

When I left, the rain was still pouring, and I found a nearby manga and toy shop called Mandrake. After going through the door at ground level, I had to go down several flights of stairs, fairly deep underground – after a while it felt like I was going somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, but then found myself at the entrance to the busy, cluttered store, full of shelf after shelf of comic books, divided into many sections such as action or supernatural and a section for girls, where all of the books seemed to be about guys kissing each other. The toys were mostly action figures, everything from characters from the latest videogames to old favourites like Godzilla and Mothra, along with a few random American toys dotted around the place. It was a good diversion to escape from the rain but after a while I decided to head back to the surface to see if the weather had improved.

The rain was still falling very heavily, I decided to move on anyway so put up my hood and walked up towards Yoyogi park, where I stopped for another Mos Burger, the local chain I’d completely fallen in love with yesterday. While I was here, I noticed that the rain had stopped outside. Obviously, once I’d finished eating and left the restaurant, the rain started again. I walked past the headquarters of NHK, the licence-fee funded broadcaster which modelled itself on the BBC and whose building reminds me of Television Centre as well.

From there, I walked to Harijuku, where the brightly dressed girls had been replaced by a sea of umbrellas. I had a browse around Kiddyland, the large toy store, where I picked up a few more gifts. I then walked up to a shop I’d been told about which sells more traditional Japanese gifts, but it was closed. It was still raining very hard and by now, despite wearing a waterproof jacket and hood, I was pretty much soaked to the bone. I gave up and got the train back to the hotel to dry out and spend the rest of the evening relaxing.

Tomorrow, I check out from the hotel and stay at my friend Noriko’s flat for my final weekend here. I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to spend online while I’m there, so this might be my last post until I return home. The plan for tomorrow is to check out of the hotel at lunchtime and then hang around Shinjuku until Noriko finishes work. I’ll then join her for a gig in Shibuya. Saturday will be one of the highlights of the trip, a visit to the Studio Ghibli museum followed by dinner and drinks with all my friends here. Finally, on Sunday, I’ll be catching my flight home. It’ll be nice to be back home and see everyone there again, but I’m going to really, really miss Tokyo.

I had a very long lie-in before waking up in the afternoon and deciding to have a walk around Shinjuku, the area around my hotel. It was another very warm and humid afternoon and although I was only walking from a couple of hours, it was very tiring. I was trying to look for a place to buy some toys and gifts, but looking through the department stores and streets which seemed to be full of clothes stores like Gap and Topshop, I couldn’t find any. I was glad, though, to be indoors as long as possible, staying out of the heat and taking advantage of the air-conditioned stores. The gift buying, though, would have to wait for another day. After my walk, I went back to the hotel to catch up on emails and wait until it was time to meet up with my friends.

I met Mari at the station, who let me know that Sumie was running late, so we headed off to get something to eat. I’d heard a lot from them about how a local chain, Mos Burger, was much better than any western fast-food places so I decided to give it a try. It really was incredibly delicious and I can imagine myself getting addicted to them just in time to be separated from my nearest branch by several thousand miles.

Sumie joined us and we set out to find a place to drink. We first walked through Kabukicho, which is basically Tokyo’s version of Soho – rammed, neon-soaked, seedy side-streets with hostess bars and massage parlours standing cheek by jowl with dull looking commercial nightclubs with barkers outside (many of them West African) trying to bring punters in. Despite being one of the seamier parts of the city, it was still an interesting and exciting very busy area to walk through.

If this street looks a little familiar, I realised later that it was the one used here:

From there, we walked around the corner to the Golden Gai, which is an amazing little block full of narrow alleys with nothing other than places to drink. Sadly there were signs up saying “no cameras” so I couldn’t take photos. Most of the bars in the Golden Gai were extremely small, literally just bars with room to seat no more than four or five people. Many of them would only accept regulars, so it wasn’t likely to be a place we would be able to drink, but was really interesting to walk through, with every bar (there must have been approaching 100 of them) having its own unique personality.

We met with Noriko and continued to hunt for a place to drink, eventually finding a wine bar. The four of us shared a bottle of white wine and then ordered a bottle of red, which tasted much stronger than the type of wine they had asked for. They complained and eventually we were given a new bottle. They told me that when they lived in London they learned how to complain properly, and had continued to argue their point beyond the time at which most Japanese people would have backed down to the waiter, who had initially told them that they would have to pay for a new bottle.

We had a nice time chatting away and it felt like we got through the bottles quickly but before we knew it, it was past midnight and with no night buses available, they had to catch their last trains home. I had been hoping we could have a later night and I thought I’d be able to pay for their cabs home so we could go to some other bars and maybe try some karaoke, but when they told me how expensive their cabs would be, it quickly became apparent that it wouldn’t be possible. So, I walked them back to the station and then returned to the hotel, smiling at all the drunken businessmen and women I saw staggering to the train station as I went.

Tomorrow I’ll be on my own, so need to come up with some sort of plan. I might go to Roppongi Hills, where there is a very high observation deck in one of the skyscrapers. I’ve never been good with heights, but it does sound like a good way to see the city.

It all started in Akinhabara Electric Town, a district once known for its many electrical stores but now better known for being the home to anime, manga and videogame geeks. I met Sumie at the station and we had a look around the various comic book and action figure stores, looking to get some merchandise relating to some obscure manga or other as a gift for my brother.

The stores were mostly five or six storeys high, sometimes more, with floor after floor of comic books, DVDs, toys and accessories. The breadth of merchandise available was staggering, with too much on offer to be able to decide what to buy. We had a walk around outside while we waited for Mari to join us, looking at the bustling streets with girls dressed as maids handing out flyers for nearby maid cafes. In the end, we decided to kill time by heading to the Taito arcade, where we had loads of fun playing on guitar and drum-based games, despite the fact that the only song I recognised was 20th Century Boy. There were loads of great arcade games to play, but I think the one we enjoyed the most was completely free of charge at the front of the building and involved racing each other to see who could tap a button the most.

Mari met up with us and we decided to go ahead and visit a maid cafe, something we were all a bit nervous about. I was worried that the whole thing sounded somewhat fetishistic and sordid but I’m happy to report that it was a delightful and incredibly sweet experience. I’m sure that some people would get kicks from the girls’ dress (in this particular establishment, half of the girls were dressed as French maids with kawaii cat ears, the other half dressed as policewomen) but there was a real sense of innocence about the whole thing. The girls were almost like children’s entertainers, playing games and engaging in playful banter with the diners. As you can see below, even the food was cute. Some of the more expensive things on the menu included recipes where the maid would draw you a picture in ketchup and mayonnaise on top of the meal, or come to your table and stir your noodles for you. Even when describing it now, it could be construed as something a little more kinky, but in reality it was very adorable and the overall feeling was that it was nothing more than a bit of fun. I can totally understand why overworked okatu would go there to unwind and feel pampered. Our maids were lovely, one got very excited when she found out I was from England because it’s where David Beckham is from and the other made us cast a different “magic spell” each time she served us to make our food or beer taste better. We posed for a Polaroid photo with them, which they decorated.

After the visit to the maidu cafe, we ventured into one of the nearby shops which was full of machines which dispensed Kinder Egg-like toys for 100 Yen each. We wondered what to do next and the subject of Tokyo Disneyland came up. It wasn’t somewhere I’d planned to visit (why come all this way to see the same things I could outside Paris?) but there was a special cheap ticket after 6pm and it was very inexpensive and easy to get to from where we were.

So, we spent the evening in Tokyo Disneyland and I have to admit I had a pretty amazing time. I finally got to go on Space Mountain, after my visit to Disneyland Paris as part of a school trip at the age of 15, when the ride was broken all day until our coach started to leave the site and we saw it finally open. I really enjoyed it, and also loved the new Monster Inc ride and old favourites Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, which had been completely changed to incorporate Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Although it’s only September, the entire park was decorated for Halloween. The three of us had a great time and I really enjoyed the excitement in the air around a Disney park.

After that, we started to make our way home, but got out at Tōkyū station, the main hub in the very centre of the city. We found a lovely bar which had a fondness for playing Oasis songs where we had some drinks and bar food. I attempted to use some chopsticks – the results were mixed. It was a very nice evening and a great way to end a busy and fun day.

We then said our goodbyes and headed home. I think I’ve pretty much got the hang of the transport system and feel like Tokyo is definitely a city I could happily live in. As my stay has gone on I’ve grown to realise that it is a little more expensive than London, but it’s an incredibly exciting place with so much happening all of the time.

My plan for tomorrow is to not set the alarm and wake up whenever I happen to (since it’s my holiday I suppose I can have a lie-in if I want), have a little look around Shinjuku and then meet up with my friends in the evening for dinner and drinks – and with Thursday being a public holiday, we can stay out as long as we want without having to worry about the next morning.

There were quite a few Hawaiian-themed shops along the front of the beach, presumably because the beach seemed to be very popular with surfers. It was a nice little beach, with black sand and a small but enthusiastic crowd. After we had a look and some of us dipped our toes in the sea, we moved on and got the train (a traditional one which reminded me of the train in Spirited Away) to Kōtoku-in, a Buddhist temple which is home of to a very large statue of Buddha. Built in 1250, it has survived tsunamis and earthquakes. We had a look inside the statue and around the temple, which included a giant pair of slippers, big enough to fit the statue if they were ever needed.

From there we decided to walk to Zeniarai Benzaiten Shrine. There was the choice of a reportedly difficult hiking path or walking along the road. We chose the road, which felt like a hike anyway. With the heat bearing down on us, it was a very tiring walk, but also quite pleasant as we walked through an affluent residential area passing some very expensive looking houses, each one different to the last, some of them traditional while others had a very modern design, some clearly Japanese, others with European influences. On our way, we passed an old man on a bike who stopped to give us directions without us asking. The directions took us to a dead-end, where we found this creepy-looking tunnel, which had fresh cold air blowing out of it and once again reminded me of Spirited Away.

In the end, we got on the right track and walked up the final steep hill toward the atmospheric Shinto shrine with its entrance cut into the rock of the hill. Inside were all of the traditional parts of a Shinto shrine. I was invited to join in and wash my hands, light a candle and light some incense, but the most interesting ceremony and one unique to this shrine, was the washing of money (usually coins, but sometimes notes) in the water of the caves here, which is believed to help you to get rich.

Exhausted, we started to make our way back down to the station, dropping by a cafe for some beer along the way. It was a very sweet little place and we were all glad to rest our legs and have a chat as the temperatures started to cool outside. After a while, we headed back to the station and made our way back to Shibuya and then I returned to Shinjuku. On the way back to my hotel, I spotted a double-decker London Routemaster bus which was being used to promote one of the nearby shopping malls.

After a short while in my hotel room, I went out for a walk around Shinjuku, an area I’ve not seen much of aside from the walk between the train station and the hotel. Above the station is a mall which walked I through, getting slightly lost when I realised that, unlike the train station itself, most of the signage was in Japanese only. On the other side of the station was a busy area with lots of interesting looking buildings and many buskers, mostly pretty young girls singing not for spare change but to try to sell their CDs to passers by. I continued to walk around the station to try to get back to where I started but found myself getting into smaller and seedier looking alleyways. Aware that there are some dodgy areas to the east of the station, I turned back and looked for somewhere to pick up some food. In the end, I saw a Burger King where – outside the front door – there was a very enthusiastic girl waiting to take my order with a card menu with lots of pictures to help. She was so good that I was able to order a Whopper just the way I like it (without tomato and mayo).

I really do love it here in Tokyo. The people are so friendly and I’m really appreciating the culture of respect, plus there are so many exciting things to see and do. I think it’s also somehow making me appreciate and want to get more out of London, both are great world cities with so much to offer and it’s really easy to take this for granted.

Tomorrow, I’ll be spending the day with the otaku in Akihabara Electric Town for a day of gadgets, manga, videogames and possibly a visit to a Maid Cafe. Hmm…

When we got out of the train station, we weren’t sure where to go so ended up following some tourists, and came across a beach which had been created in the bay, where people were playing volleyball, playing in the water and riding on jet-skis. We continued walking and discovered this smaller version of the Statue of Liberty:

We then walked to the Fuji TV building, a surprisingly busy building full of people wanting to visit the observational deck or visit the attractions inside relating to their favourite shows. It’s a striking building, particularly with the large ball sitting on top:

We walked across the road to the Decks shopping mall, where there was Sega Joyopolis, what we thought would be a games arcade but seemed to be more like an indoor theme park and also Muscle Beach, which had physical games based on a popular TV show (think Takeshi’s Castle, but serious). Being a bit tired after all that walking in the heat outdoors, we instead bought some ice cream cones, which then very quickly melted all over us.

We continued to explore the island, finding a Venus Fort, a shopping mall which from the outside looked like a very ordinary, boxy grey building, but inside looked like this:

Walking inside the mall, with it’s fake Italian streets, we came across a press conference to launch a fashion range or something. I took my camera out but was quickly warned off by security guards. Next door was a Toyota museum, full of examples of their cars and prototypes they were building for the future, including this robot, a one-person car which looked similar to the chairs in Wall-E, and a walking version which looked similar to the exosuits in Aliens or Avatar. There was also an area where families were being entertained by two comical men making balloon animals, one wearing a giant balloon hat, and the other seemingly only wearing a big pair of underpants. Nearby was a concert venue with lots of excited girls (and a few less excited boyfriends) all waiting to get in to watch a local pop star.

After spending all day walking around, Noriko needed to go home and I needed to rest in my hotel room. I thought about exploring Shinjuku, the area my hotel is in, but didn’t feel up to it after a day on my feet and instead only managed to make it to the 24-hour McDonalds at the end of the street, where I was able to place my order by pointing at pictures on a menu card.

When I returned to the room, a Japanese travelogue about North Wales was on TV, which seemed to over-romanticising it a little, with the narrator even sighing when pictures of an admittedly picturesque seaside town appeared on screen, as if it was paradise itself. I then managed to find a way to watch Manchester United v Liverpool while winding down for the evening.

Time for bed now, a very early start in the morning, so I’ve set multiple alarms and ordered a wake-up call to make sure I’m ready to meet up with Noriko and Sumie in the morning for a day trip to Kamakura.

I went to meet my friends Noriko and Nahoko in Shibuya. I really surprised myself by negotiating the train system successfully and finding the meeting spot without anything going wrong. The closest I came to making an error was when I went to the platform and hung around, waiting for the train as I would in London, before slowly realising that people were lining up in front of where the train doors would be and queued up behind them. When I got to Shibuya, I saw the statue of Hachiko (right), the dog who returned to the station every day in case his deceased master would come back. I then walked across the world famous Shibuya crossing to meet my friends:

We went to a nice little restaurant so they could have lunch (my internal clock is still a bit wonky so I wasn’t hungry) before having a look around Tokyo Hands, a department store with a very wide variety of interesting products to browse. We then walked to Yoyogi Park, which was very busy, before arriving at Meiji Jingū. The contrast between the bustling streets of Shibuya and the calm serenity of the Shinto Shrine was amazing. Although I’m not a religious person at all, it was easy to see why a place like that would bring peace and comfort. I adored the method of praying (throwing a coin, bowing and clapping twice) and we were lucky enough to see a traditional wedding taking place while we were there.

From the shrine, we walked through Harajuku where we saw lots of teenagers wearing the clothes of whichever of the diverse sections of youth culture they belonged to. Particularly striking were the Gothic Lolitas, dressed like Victorian dolls. We had a browse in the children’s department store Kiddyland, where we saw as many Hello Kitty toys as you could possibly imagine and then walked to the restaurant to meet with our friend Sumie. The four of us enjoyed some very nice pizza in a really sweet little restaurant.

After the meal, Noriko and I headed back to Shibuya to find one of her favourite bars, but it was closed. Not sure where to go for a couple of drinks, we consulted my Lonely Planet guide, but the map wasn’t detailed enough to be useful. Instead, we went to another bar which apparently the Super Furry Animals always visit when they’re in Tokyo. It was a great little place (and little is the right word, it could probably only seat about 10 people) hidden away down some stairs in a side street. It was a really good night but I had to head back to the hotel. The trains finish at about the same time as the tube in London, but as Noriko pointed out, we have the back-up of the night bus in London, but not here.

I managed to find my way back to the hotel despite the station exit I’m familiar with being closed. Here’s the massive clock tower I mentioned yesterday, which helped guide my way back to the hotel. I also managed to buy a bottle of cola from a shop on the way and even managed an “Arigato” – oh so proud of myself. Yes.

Tomorrow is Odiba – should be some very interesting pictures from there!