DAY 3 – Tokyo town and around

 
We rose easy as we only had today in Tokyo. This evening we would be off to Kyoto.  Having checked out of the hotel and or bags stored safely in the lobby we were off to explore yet another part of Tokyo. We discussed the night before that we would head off to Electric town, a part of Tokyo that had all the latest in Electronics and see what we could by for Kirill who was back home wishing for a new cell phone. First we had to reserve our seats on The Shinkansen Train then had to negotiate the local train system to get to electric town which was a couple of stops beyond Tokyo station.
A strange thing about Japan, the shops don’t open till late some don’t open until 11am so with us being eager we were real early arriving at Electric Town at 8.30am. We wandered around and looked through the few shops that were open. I was determined to find a good set of Samurai swords to take home as I had checked with Australian customs and as long as the blades were not sharp I was ok. I really don’t know why they bother because all you would have to do would be run at someone and you could stab them. We found a souvenir shop that seemed small, yet as we were lead to the back and down stairs we found an Aladdin’s cave of treasures including a selection of fine swords. Elena and I both went into Western Tourist mode and bought so much it was almost embarrassing. I am sure that the poor salesgirl thought we were there to buy the shop. This store was by far the most friendly and comprehensive souvenir shop we found in Japan and we walked out with our bags loaded.
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We really stood out in the crowd now, two foreigners one bald one blonde in a sea of black haired Asians carrying duty free bags stuffed with Japanese souvenirs and my huge long box with my set of black, hand lacquered samurai swords.
The shops were starting to open now and we searched Electric Town for mobile phones for Kirill. We were disappointed as the range in Tokyo were strangely different to mobiles back home in Australia and we came to the conclusion that there was too much of a risk involved in buying such a gift overseas. What if it didn’t work back home? And the prices were not that much different to what was on offer back home. We instead headed for the computer stores and compared the little add on pieces and programs for our computers.
The cars were different in Japan. Small was the order here, hundreds of small cars and little tiny vans. They were ugly cute if that would be a way to describe a car. But the prices were cheap – real cheep. I wonder what the cost to keep a car legally on the road costs.
Elena was fascinated by the games shops and the children’s amusement arcades. They are like a mini circus stuffed into a showroom – bright colours with coin slot machines that offer soft toys as prizes that are bigger than our two cats combined!
Time was fast approaching for us to make our way back to the hotel and collect our bags; however we needed coffee and cake first. We found a cafe next to the rail station and I managed to find a 10 layer French pancake with fresh cream between each layer it was heaven on a plate!
Fully loaded with luggage and souvenirs we staggered back to the train station. It was about now I started to think, we need to catch the Shinkansen Train from the Tokyo Station, not the one we were at. So panic set in as we rushed through the station flashing our train passes and with little time to spare, we travelled two stops and found the right platform with 10 minutes before departure.
I cannot rave about the trains here enough; they are the best of all trains I have ever travelled on.  Three hours later we were in Kyoto and now needed to find the transfer bus to the hotel. Finding the information centre and restringing using Basic English we raised the attention of one of the clerks who has realised that the bus is leaving and as he signals for us to follow he races off through the crowds with us in hot pursuit and bags in all directions. We made it – the last two on the bus.
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Riding trough the ancient of Kyoto in the evening was a surreal experience. This small city played a significant part in both ancient and recent history of Japan. We dumped our bags and went in search of something to eat for dinner. It was dark now, we found that by 5pm the sun had gone and it was now 8pm. We walked down the hill following the road that the bus had traveled  There was little open as the hotels was o the upper outskirts if the city and closer to the temples. We looked at a couple of small (and I mean SMALL) eating houses but as nothing was in English we were not sure as to what the food would be like. Then there it was shining under a big red lantern the words “English Menu” – so in we went. This place was a traditional Japanese restaurant. You sat on the cushioned mat and the table was more like our coffee table. The total size of the restaurant would fit into a single garage. The food was great. Elena tried a soup of some kind that looked and tasted a lot like dishwater (not that I have tried to drink dishwater). I was game enough to go with some local crumbed seafood and of course no meal would be complete without a local beer. It wasn’t until we finished our meal that we noticed on the window that this place had earned its place in the world famous “Lonely Planet “books based on travel.