KONICHIWA

So this is Tokyo huh?

We've officially made it to Japanese soils, how exciting! I'm in a Japanese internet cafe in Shibuya as I write this, an experience in itself. It looks rather dodgy from the outside, lot's of neon signs and a tiny door and stairwell to get in, but it's really nice in here. We're in a cubicle on the 5th floor, you sit on the floor on beanbags under neon lights to type, it looks like the set of a low budget sci fi movie. We each paid for an hour but Shahreena has decided instead to sneak into my cubicle and fall asleep on the floor. We're pretty jetlagged you see, only 3 hours sleep in nearly 3 days.

I've learnt plenty of life lessons on the way here, I am now a worldly wise man;

#1 Everyone from Helsinki is an Indie Rocker. And they all know each other.

#2 A 13 hour flight is severe punishment for your bum. It still aches now.

#3 Although our hotel is huge and very posh, there are too many Japanese business men and suspicious women dressed as Geisha's walking around. It is quite possibly a brothel.

#4 Japanese women are adorable and just seem so happy to be alive. Even the ones working at McDonald's will smile and bow at you when you order some chips.

#5 In Japan, if you have a cold it is common courtesy to wear a face mask to avoid spreading the germs. I keep worrying that there has been huge outbreak of an airborne disease.

#6 Every sign, no matter the importance or seriousness, must be accompanied by a cute cartoon animal of sorts. This seems to be law.


I'm tired now. It's about 11pm here so we had better be getting back to the train station for more misunderstanding fun! (Long story short, on the way here, we bought random tickets for the train by attacking a machine which supposedly spoke ''English", rode around on trains for about 40 minutes trying to work out where we were, only to end up at the original station we started at. Where a lovely woman at the information desk shouted "HAI!" at us and reimbursed us all our money so we could start from square one.)

SAYONARA!