9th April 2009 - Osaka to Tokyo

I tried sleeping in today but my damn body clock set off it's alarm at 6:01 am (the usual time I wake up)... So I turned on the tele to watch some more Japanese TV, this morning I caught their version of Sunrise/Morning Show and yes... it was bizaare.

One of the things they mentioned on the show was this miracle tight pant that had a number of springs in them.. And they had versions for both men and women! If you're having trouble fitting into a pair of skinny jeans, simply wearing these tights would be the equivalent to losing 5kgs or 8.5cm off your waist (of course they had the photos to prove it). For only three payments of 4900 Yen, you could acquire one of these miracle tights... but I declined as a set of complimentary steak knives were not on offer.

So we got downstairs and had the "complimentary breakfast" which was a selection of two types of bread... one of which was a croissant.

Ee Laine and I decided to have a leisurely stroll around our hotel as we had to catch a Bullet Train (also known as Shinkansen) to Tokyo in about an hours time.

Instead of turning right in front of the hotel which would have directed us back to Mos Burger... we took a left this morning and uncovered a vast marketplace 5m from the entrance to our hotel. The streets were lined with tiny businesses (most shopfronts were 3m x 5m in size).

There were pet stores, stationary shops, hand bags... you name it and it was there.
There were already kiosks opening with deep fried crumbed animal bits (this was at 9am in the morning mind you) and even I thought it was a bit much to eat this gear for breakfast.
We walked a straight line as we didn't want to get lost in the maze, we did have a train to catch and the chances are that we can't count on a bullet train being late. When we did make it to the other end... I discovered a long lost friend :)

Standing across the road from the street market, we uncovered the name of the marketplace - Shimbashi Street Market

We Kept trudging along and stepped into the Jusco Shopping Complex... this place was pretty big but I'm sure I'll be seeing some titanic shopping centres over the coming days.
Snack time (yes we ate about 30 minutes earlier but food is the universal language and we intend to be quite fluent in it :) ) At the entrance was valet parking but not of the normal sort you'd expect:

Ee got a fruit salad from the mall and I picked up this drink:

From the extensive soft drink selection



My god is this drink is awesome... it was like a peach explosion in my mouth, I'd rate it a 8.5/10.

Time was winding down and we needed to head back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and commence our trek to Tokyo via the bullet train... but we had to stop by one of the bakeries in Shimbashi Market that we had passed earlier for a bite... This place was called "Tour de France" - for some reason, it seems the Japanese are absolutely smitten with French culture/cuisine and there are heaps of French influenced bakeries around each corner.

This was my booty from the visit to that little bakery... Sausage, cheese, sauce and crispy croissant skin... DROOL

Oh, before I go on any further I must point out my "what the hell?" moment of the day - I'll let the below speak for itself.

Just looking outside the bullet train as I type this blog entry is giving me a headache... we must be travelling between 250-300km/h right now and the world outside is a blurr. Below is a pic I took of our ride before we hopped on.

Mount Fuji sped past our window and this was the clearest image I got with my camera *boo*

After about 3 hours on the bullet train, we finally reached Tokyo. We got to our hotel at 3:55pm and finalised payment/paperwork for the room. Time was now 3:58pm... check in is at 4pm.

Have you guys ever watched "Meet the Fockers" where Ben Stiller is at the airport at the end of the movie and was the only one in the terminal... and the air hostess won't let him on the plane as it wasn't his turn? I had that moment live today and I almost lost it.

So.. I grabbed my gear, walked 3m away and sat down. Twiddling my thumbs on the table staring at her. 3 minutes pass by and she then hands me the keys... This incident replaced my original "What the Hell?" of the day.

After dropping off our luggage into our room at 4:01pm, we made our way to Ikebukuro which is the neighbouring suburb to our hotel.. I was interested in scoping a camera and I made a deal with Ee Laine that she can go wherever she wants after I check out this Electronics superstore known as Biccamera... This shop was 7 complete levels of awesomeness (excluding the huge basement with all the camera gear)... At the end, there was no worthwhile purchase there as the Yen was just too strong... it would be cheaper if I bought my camera from Australia which was profoundly disappointing.

Then it came to my turn to fulfill my end of the bargain... we walked into Seibu and it was basically 9 complete levels of awesomeness if you're a lady...

If you can picture an area the size of a football field dedicated to stilletos/high heeled shoes priced at a weeks salary.. you're in hell if you're a bloke or heaven if you're a lady (or a bloke who's into this kind of stuff) Just when the damage seemed over, the next level was dedicated to handbags...

After crawling out of Seibu, we made our way to Shibuya and got lost in the labrynth of shops and neon signs... The below foot traffic at possibly the biggest intersection in the world is quite something to behold... The volume of people you see below is constant and makes you wonder where they all came from and where they're going.

Distractions got the better of us and we ended up forgetting to eat dinner (was about 9pm when we realised this) and we decided to eat at the nearest/nicest looking Japanese restaurant. This restaurant popped up:

It seemed quite busy and the ordering is a piece of cake. I LOVE this system where a vending machine is used to take your order! It takes away the pain of trying to converse in a foreign language and fumbling for payment with unfamiliar currency. You just insert money, a listing of available meals to match your budget light up and you just press the button for the corresponding dish. A ticket prints out as well as change being issued via coins and you walk into the restaurant and take a seat. That's as simple as it gets really!

I ordered the monster sized "oishii noodles" - Oishii means yummy or something along those lines from what I gathered. I rate the Ramen a 7 out of 10 overall (9/10 for the sheer volume of food for 1000 Yen)

Aside from the food, here's my major purchase of the day - a pair of Nike Runners, they are so light it's as if you're walking bare foot... they probably weigh between 200-300 grams.