I apologise that my last post was messed up, but - sorry, I can't be bothered to fix it. Short term memory rather badly affected by jetlag, although i'm still fairly alert. What was I talking about? Oh yes, Japan.
Today I done a whole lot of stuff. There was a festival in Asakusa this weekend where workers all get together in kimonos and amble about town carrying enormous shrines and shaking them about to bless things it seems. Also, it is the one time in the year when the Yakuza are allowed to bear their tattoos in public - sadly I only saw one and unfortunatately I didn:t get a chance to take a picture. Rest assured his tatoos were appropriate impressive. However, here are some other photos (hopefully, rather than a load of messy HTML):
Then it was off to Harajuku with a couple of dutchmen to gawp at cosplay teenagers of which I felt somewhat uncomfortable taking photos of , but here are a couple anyway. Also, there was a really nasty smell about the place which I was told was some form of fertiliser but I must say it smelt of ... well, something which I suppose you could call 'fertiliser'.
We walked back into Shibya to find a veggie restaurant (important note; if you want to find somewhere specific in tokyo, get a map from them) and saw this shop which was amusing;
Pretty exhausted after all that, it was back to the hostel for a few beers and over to the internet cafe. Although I may sound deadpan now as I am knackered I have to say I am having a really amazing time here and have absolutely no regrets about coming, just hanging out with people from different countries in a foreign land is a enlightening experience, but here in Japan where you find things so different and yet so similar is really quite an experience which I must recommend to everyone. Come here - you won't regret it! Thanks again to all those who helped me organise this. To Naoko, the guys on the BoB and fuckedgaijin forums I salute you.
Oh! And I staying in a capsule hotel last night didn't I - that was pretty cool, I pretty much just crashed there so didn't really experience the whole thing, and it was very quiet so didn't get to mingle with drunken lost japanese businessmen but its down there with the memories - and heres a(nother) photo:
Fucking mahoobley!