Day 8 - Tokyo. England vs Argentina

Day 8 - Saturday 5th October 2019

Saturday was a fun day. Everyone wanted to do different things, so Matt and I headed to the imperial palace, while Margaret and Tony headed to Tokyo tower for a view of mt Fuji. The palace was very pretty. We could only see the most and one building because it's still lived in by the imperial family today. There was some sort of run going on around the streets too, which was interesting to watch.

We then walked to the nearby fish market. Matt had been desperate for sushi since we arrived. We had sashimi in Hiroshima, but sushi is the same raw fish just with rice. First, we had a blow torched tuba skewer, then went into a sushi restaurant for sea urchin, salmon roe, shrimp, tuna, great amberjack, sea bream, scallop and sweet omelette. Delicious.

We had our England rugby tops on already, so we headed to the Tokyo stadium, along with lits and lots of England and Argentina fans, to the fanzone where they were showing the match before ours. The stadium was just a sea of England shirts. There were so many England fans there!

We met up with our friend Bernie for a couple of beers. He moved to Myanmar last year and was here on a school trip, but managed to sneak off to watch the rugby. It was lovely catching up with him.

Our seats were great! We were in the 9th row from the front, behind and just to the left of the goal that England were aiming for during the first half. It meant I got some great photos of the England tries. We had some very drunk English lads on tour in the row behind us who spent the entire match trying to start fights with Argentina fans. I spent the whole match convinced I was going to get either beer or vomit down my back. Luckily I didn't get either! The 5 of them spent the entire match arguing with each other, as some were very drunk and some just merry and getting annoyed by their mates drunk behaviour. We chatted to them quite a bit. They were very friendly drunks... To England fans anyway!

The match was enjoyable. The Argentina team had a man sent off very quickly for a very dirty and dangerous tackle, so it was fairly easy from there. The referee was Nigel Owens who is probably the most famous ref in the world for rugby, so it was cool to see him too.

We had beers in the seats and did lots of cheering. It was great fun. After, we met up with Matt's office buddy, Will and his mates again to let the crowds clear at the station, then headed back to the hotel after a cheeky McDonald's. While we were drinking with Will we worked out that it was 36 hours until they would see each other in their office on Monday, which was a bit depressing!

Today is Sunday, and we all have travel days. Luke left early for his flight home. Margaret and Tony head to Kyoto on the train and Matt and I have a 2 hour train to Nagoya, to get our flight back to Shanghai. It's been such a great holiday. I seriously love Japan and would love to come back to see more. But for now I'm looking forward to an evening at home watching Bake Off and enjoying kitty cuddles.

Day 6 and 7 - Tokyo

Day 6 - Thursday 3rd October 2019

Day 7 - Friday 4th October 2019

On Thursday we got a bit of a lie in because our train wasn't until 9.30. We had a pie for breakfast, then got our nice comfy seats for our 2 and a half hour journey to Tokyo. We saw the enormous foothills of mount Fuji on the journey, but the top was covered in cloud. It's very big! We arrived in Tokyo at midday, but unfortunately that was when my body decided that 5 days of heavy sightseeing was too much and I had a focal seizure. It's not a full on seizure, just a zoned out weird feeling that sets me really off balance and is only fixed by a long sleep. Luckily it didn't take too long to get to the hotel, and I slept for several hours on a very uncomfortable bed that sloped towards the middle. We went to a nice restaurant later for a mixture of local food including, mackerel, pork okonomiyaki, pickled cucumber, sushimi, squid and Matt had a glass of saki. It was very tasty, but I was a bit out of it, so I went to bed straight after, while the others found a pub to watch the rugby in.

Today, I was feeling much better and was up for exploring, despite a very uncomfortable nights sleep on that awful bed, and a sore back. We found a bakery for breakfast and then planned our route. We stayed in our district, but there was still a 30 minute walk between every place. Tokyo is enormous. Shanghai is the biggest city in the world in terms of people, but Tokyo is the biggest in terms of area. And it's a crazy, wonderful city. I love it. It has so much personality and isn't afraid to be itself. Anything goes here.

Our first stop was the metropolitan government building, which has two towers you can go up for free. We went up the south tower and again, we couldn't see my Fuji due to clouds, but otherwise it was a great view of the sprawling city, with its mountains in the distance. The building had a little area displaying the Olympic flag and mascots too, as the summer Olympics 2020 will be here in Tokyo.

Next, we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine, which is in the middle of a lovely leafy park. There was a traditional wedding procession going on, which was interesting. There were huge barrels of saki and wine being brewed too. The saki was in elegantly decorated straw barrels.

We then headed to the Shibuya crossing, which is supposedly the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. At the busiest times, 1000+ people cross at once, in every direction. Its amazing  no one bumps into anyone. They have the diagonal crossings as well as the straight ones here, so it really is in every direction.

Next, we went to an awesome area full of what I call 'Instagram food', basically food that looks stunning so you just want to take photos of it. This is really what I was expecting of Tokyo and I wasn't disappointed. First, we had a grilled cheese sandwich at Le Shiner, a rainbow food truck that had 6 different colours of rainbow cheese in the middle! Then we had a hot chocolate with a 3D foam Pikachu (Pokémon character from our childhood). Margaret got a 'hello kitty' hot chocolate. They were tiny works of art!

We wandered along to the 2020 Olympic park, which is still under construction. The main stadium is enormous and covered in trees, which is nice. They had on display the 3 couldrons for the Olympic flame from the various summer and winter Olympics in Japan. Very cool. We hopped on a train back to our hotel and walked via the Kabukicho area, which is essentially the red light district. Its very neon and gaudy and will be spectacular at night when we go back...

It certainly was spectacular. Like Soho on steroids. An assault on the senses. Neon, flashing lights, adverts blaring, hosts trying to becon you in to restaurants, cafes, bars, the smell of food cooking.

We had a drink in a pub then began what turned into an hour long faff finding a restaurant. We ended up in a delicious Korean BBQ, where you grill your own food. Wagu beef is Japanese beef and it's so tasty. We ate quite a lot of it!