Two days in Tokyo

I'm writing this is a hurry and take no responsibility for typos and poor grammar!

My very first impression of Tokyo was/is - cleanliness. Which is next to godliness, right? So that isn't a bad thing. But sheez, this place is clean! I feel like I could eat off the pavement. No litter. Barely any Graffiti. It's considered bad manners to eat or drink on the street. Clean.

However, smoking inside restaurants and bars is still considered OK. And on a few occasions we've walked past public toilets that don't do much to hide the people going about their business. And sex-related magazines and objects can easily be found in the most random places.

Despite the huge cultural differences between a place like Melbourne, Australia and Tokyo, I don't feel as out of place as I did when visiting Hong Kong (the only other Eastern city I've visited to date). I think this comes down to the Westernised nature of the architecture and people's dress sense here. I imagine New York to be very similar to Tokyo.

We're staying in Shinjuku, which is a 15 minute train ride out of Central Tokyo. Yesterday we wandered around Shinjuku for the whole day, just getting our bearings. Great record stores, crazy little hole-in-the-wall food places, lots of flouro lighting and signage, karaoke joints, shopping aplenty and temples in random places. During the day, we were surprised how quiet things were. Last night when we ventured out for dinner, we experienced the real Tokyo - people EVERYWHERE.

And all of these people are incredibly nice. Every time we took out a map, someone would stop and offer assistance, whether they could speak English or not.

This morning we got up early and visited the world famous famous markets in Central Tokyo. Oh my, we though Shinjuku at night was busy........the market was just insane. It's the only place so far where the people border on impatience. They ride around on these little motorised trailers and they aren't afraid to drive into you if you're in the way. One guy actually lent over and pushed Andrew out of the way, to the amusement of the guys in the surrounding stalls. The thing to do after a visit to the fish markets is to eat fresh Sashimi, but after seeing all the tuna carcasses etc, none of us could stomach it.

After that we wandered over to Ropongi Hills, where the 52 storey Mori Center offers 360 degree views of the city. Looking out over this sprawling megalopolis makes you realise just how small Australian cities really are.

We're back in the hotel now and after a few Asahis downstairs we're resting our feet before heading back out for a meal at Tokyo's equivalent to the local Pub. I'm recording some footage to make a vidcast when I get home, but in the meantime here's some photos......