Tokyo. Yes, We love.

One thing wrong with Tokyo. I can’t find anywhere to buy fruit. I can’t find any where that sells food with fruit in. I managed to find a bannana at Starbucks. That is the only fruit I have eaten since Australia I think.

Whilst in Japan let me make special mention about a site called Yongfook.com. A website about some guy living in Japan who is from UK. He reviews crazy Japanese food products, like a recent entry for a product called ‘Dairy Sour’. Here is a excert of that review – ‘Am I the only one to whom, the word “sour” when coupled with “dairy” instantly conjures up an image of rotten, fetid milk, the kind that you keep in your room at university because your crap student housing doesn’t have a fridge and the solid parts have all curdled and separated from the murky, “milk water” which floats at the top, making you dry heave when you imagine touching the cheese-gas-expanded carton and the volatile liquid erupts out and explodes all over your face, eating away at your skin like that virus in The Rock? THAT is dairy sour.’ Some people won’t get/like the humor but I love it, it’s really funny. I also know what he is talking about now (as I sit here munching on some Choco Flake [crunch] biscuits and looking at the box of ‘Morinaga’s Milk Caramel’ bar that I just bought which turns out to actually just be hard fudge. As for coffee shops, in India the difference between Cappucino and Latte was the size of the cup, here there doesn’t appear to be a difference, they both seem to be identical (no chocolate powder on the cappucino).

So last night I went up the Tokyo Tower, as shown in the last entry pictures. It was pretty cool, its not very high but the night time view is great. I wanted to head to Roppongi to get something to eat afterwards and after seeing how close it looked from up the tower I decided to walk. Distances obviously look closer from high up as it took a while to walk there!! I was surprised to see so many western faces! It appears Roppongi is the party capital of Tokyo. It also appears to be the place to ‘score’. I wasn’t really dressed for a night out (black coat, beanie, Frommer’s Guide to Tokyo) but I did seem to be a target for the drug pushers. After being offered drugs by about 25 people I deceided to make a sharp exit.

I got back pretty late so today was a late start. I walked up to the Emperors Palace, you can’t really get into it, its closed off to the public except for two days a year. This is the best shot you can get of it –

I then headed to Ikebukuro which my guide describes as ‘less refined, a bit rough around the edges’. It was nothing of the sort. Although I did get the crossed arms from a worker in the arcade, because you are not allowed to take pictures. Here is the picture (haha in yer face) –

Arcades in Tokyo aren’t the futuristic place with all the new stuff that we don’t get in the western world for another two years that you might expect. They still play Street Fighter 2, fighting games are like spectator sports. There’s typically about 10 people watching two people play on a big screen separate to the main playing screens. Then there’s the gambling rooms, in one arcade there was a huge screen with computer game horse racing and about 30 consoles which people can sit at and bet on virtual horses to win real cash. Then there’s these games where you pretend to play guitar (you have to push three buttons on the neck of the plastic guitar in time with the computer screen) as well as drumming machines and pretend turntables. It makes you wonder why the people playing them don’t actually get into playing guitar/drums/dj mixing for real though. The arcades also seem to be the place to bring your date/girlfriend – “Do you want to go out tonight darling? I’ll fight you on Tekken, best of 5?” must be how it goes.

The great thing about my new camera is the lens. I can use it to spy on people, here is a shot at 200mm of a guard –

Not sure what to do tonight, maybe get an early one so I can hit the fish market early tomorrow morning for my last day in Japan.