Tokyo was wonderful!

Tsukiji Fish Market was crazy but so much fun. Went fairly early in the morning (9am is early for me, but I hear that there’s "fish auctions" straight from the boats if I’d arrived at 4am! Picture Granville Island market, but about 20 times bigger, smaller isleways, more people, and all fish!! Flipping fishies to my left and my right, almost getting run over by wooden fish carts being pulled by,

Navigation was tricky at first, but I had very good luck (stepped out of the airport gate & a Tourist Info desk was right in front of me!). By the time I left I was confident on the trains & could get around anywhere – well except for my little mistake getting to Narita airport on the way out… I thought that the "Narita" Station would be Narita airport, but it turns out that it took me to the little town of Narita, sort of near the airport, but kind of in the middle of nowhere. On top of that, it was a slow train that stopped everywhere so after all was said & done I ran up to the Singapore Airlines counter less than half an hour before my flight was actually supposed to leave. Its true that the Singapore Airlines girls are great! – airport system so efficient that I wisked in & had time to spare.

First night I stayed in the Kimi Ryokan, which I’d definitely recommend to anybody looking for a place to stay in Tokyo – price was reasonable (for Tokyo) and setup was very nice – a lounge with free green tea downstairs, tatami mats in the rooms, and even a Japanese robe to wear.

For the next couple nights I stayed with a friend, Justin, who’s living in Tokyo near Ikebukuro station, so I got to see Tokyo from a "local’s" point of view… well a local who’s been there 1.5 years! He quickly steered me to the best type of hot canned coffee from the vending machines, explained the world of the metro, told me the Japanese bath house etiquette (Japanese ladies giggled at me anyways, but I think I did everything right!), and even rode me around town on his bike. What a spoiled backpacker, I am!

My favorite meal was at a rotating sushi bar, where you just choose plates of food as they "roll" by and then pay for the number of coloured plates that you have once you’re done. I hear that there’s actually a couple of these type restaurants in Vancouver, so I’ll definitely need to search those out once I’m back.

I walked sooooo much in Tokyo that the 9 hour plane ride to Singapore was a welcome chance to sit down! Besides, the Singapore Airlines food, movie service, etc is awesome, too! Its actually a bit weird to keep switching back & forth each flight between "backpacker mode" where I eat pretty cheaply, etc, to "plane luxury mode" where they serve 2 beautiful meals per flight & drinks all the way.

• Many young girls wear what look like white legwarmers… all exactly the same. They’re actually loose socks
• Everyone carries little silver cell phones – at first I couldn’t figure out why everyone on the metro was staring at them, instead of talking into them, until I found out that they can download their email!
• Bathrooms all have slippers in them for cleanliness – I’ve also heard slippers described as "portable carpet"
• Number of Tatami mats are actually the unit of measure used to describe an apartment’s size. Definitely NEVER wear shoes into somebody’s house.
• Often people wear white cloths strapped over their mouths, especially in the subways. I was told that this isn’t for pollution, as much as to stop the spread of germs
• Toilets – what a range! There’s everything from heated seats with "babbling brook noises" playing (so that person next to you doesn’t hear anything you’re doing), to bathrooms in very nice places that just basically have a basin hole in the floor.
• We joked that in other countries people will pickpocket your wallet, while in Japan its so safe that if somebody were to leave their wallet in the subway, it would just clear an area around the wallet where nobody would sit.
• Fermented beans – can’t remember what they’re called again, but ICK!!!
• Fast food place called Mos has rice burgers – not the patty, but the bun. Mine was a rice bun with an omlette in the inside.
• Cementary near where I stayed has lots of traffic – there’s a road through the center and it’s a major pathway, too
• I found little packages with waffle & cheese sandwiches – this is something that Linda always made fun of me for making at home!
• Vending machines with hot drinks right out on the backstreets
• Sony building had AMAZING electronics. Mini disk players, thin laptops, etc, etc. They also gave out a bunch of samples of stuff that looks like shampoo – I can’t read the Japanese writing on the bottle so I’m scared to try them!