Thursday 31 January 2008

The Tokyo Diaries - Part 3

The third and final installment:


I spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to find the notable spots mentioned in the guidebook, as you do, taking the long way round everywhere. I wandered first around a garden near the palace area, and then round the vast Imperial Plaza in front of the palace grounds. You don’t get to see much, and the gardens were unimpressive. I presume the latter was due to it being winter – the greenery was pretty bleak and the sky was white with cloud cover.

Later in the day I went to Shibuya, the home of the excellent ice cream shop, as the guidebook made it sound like a happening sort of place. That was more like I expected Tokyo to be; neon signs everywhere, crowds and crowds of young people and a real buzz in the air. Night was falling when I arrived and I got some pretty pictures.

The next day I was due to leave, but not until the afternoon. I woke up absurdly early, around 4 am, so I decided to do some sightseeing early, with time to return to the hotel for a nap before leaving for the airport. I’d drafted a plan of action in the wee hours, and it comprised of:

1. Breakfast at the hotel – avoiding anything pickled, fermented, salted or raw (the guidebook warned of raw egg at breakfast time – yeuch)
2. Train to Ebisu, where I would visit the National Park for Nature Study (I know, it’s always a worry when the Japanese study something in the name of scientific research, but it sounded nice)
3. Train to Meguro to see the Tokyo Parasitological Museum.
4. Train past Ebisu, possibly stopping at Ebisu Tower to marvel, tourist-style
5. Back to Shibuya for more ice cream and satisfied ruminations over the day’s sightseeing.

It all started to go wrong between items #1 and #2, when I found myself on completely the wrong train line. I managed to get off before it took me completely out of Tokyo. The nice man at the station even refunded my money when I got stuck at the ticket barrier. When I finally got to Ebisu it was starting to drizzle, and was very cold and miserable. It was a nasty area too, all main roads and office blocks, with nothing to redeem it. The park was lovely, though, all green and damp and wild. It was like walking through a jungle, except that you could hear the cars on the main road not far away. I only saw one other visitor while I was there, so I wandered around in happy solitude, pretending it was five hundred years ago and I was a Japanese maiden having an adventure.

The Rough Guide made it sound like it would only be a short walk from the park to the museum. In the end I had to get a taxi there; it was still cold and rainy but I was determined to go there and be grossed out. The Rough Guide also neglected to mention that there was no English explanation of the exhibits, only Japanese. So I browsed the two rooms of jars of pickled worms, with no idea about the causes, disgusting symptoms, etc; in short, my imagination was tantalised but the museum did not deliver!

After that, I decided to skip any more sightseeing and go get my ice cream, followed by a nap before leaving for the airport.

All in all, Tokyo didn’t rock my world. Just another busy, concrete city. I’d go back as part of a trip including other parts of Japan, but it’s not my number one stopover city. Bangkok still holds that place in my heart. Just walking down the street in Bangkok is an entertainment in itself. Tokyo’s too civilized for me!

Saturday 26 January 2008

Shopping Online Is Great

I must say eBay and Amazon have totally been my friends this last year. There’s nothing quite like shopping online when you’re a) totally bored at work and b) need stuff and don’t have the time and inclination to go out and about for them in your precious after-work hours. The drawback to Amazon is that there’s no Amazon.com.au, so I have to order from Amazon.co.uk and pay delivery charges of around $352.80 per book, but what the hell. EBay on the other hand is a shopping Eden I have only just scraped the surface!

I’ve never actually bid on anything from eBay, being the cautious shopper that I am. ‘Buy it now’ items are my friends. Any day now I’m expecting a thrilled and grateful e-mail from my parents when they receive the now out-of-print cookery bible I’m having delivered to them in England. Hah! See if you can top that, brothers. That should see me on top of the offspring league table for a good while. I won’t even have to call them for weeks.

My latest item of desire is a new hair straightener. My old one is still working fine, but it takes a while and doesn’t last very well, for I have the hair from hell. And anyway, you can’t go wrong upgrading your beauty aids from time to time. After all, we’re none of us getting any younger, are we?

So I’ve decided to bite the bullet and get a really good one, no expense spared. According to pretty much everyone, this means a GHD. And there are quite a few on Ebay, purporting to be cheaper than the recommended retail price. Unfortunately I made the mistake of telling the Man that I’m thinking about buying one soon, and he won’t be happy until I’ve ‘done my research’, which normally means spending three weekends traipsing through dismal electrical stores and every outlet of The Good Guys in Sydney (twice for the ones in really depressing suburbs). And asked the advice of every female both of us have ever known.

So maybe I can start here and save myself some time and pain. Any reader comments on this? Is the GHD the best hair straightener of all time? And what’s a good price to pay for it? Please feel free to advise!



And happy long weekend!!!!!

Wednesday 23 January 2008

The Tokyo Diaries - Part 2

I unthinkingly named the previous post ‘The Tokyo Diaries - Part 1' so now I have to continue. Curses. On with part 2 then.

Once in the safety of my room, I opened my suitcase, found some pyjamas amongst all my spanking new bargain clothes (which I took the opportunity to admire once again), and sat shivering on the bed under the stark light. It was pretty depressing. The carpet was all stained, the room was freezing and the sheets smelled like cigarette smoke even though it was a non-smoking room.* It was only seven o’clock at night, but I decided to go to bed. Unfortunately I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely frozen, and had to make a trip to Reception looking rather less than gorgeous. It reminded me of the time I stayed at the airport hotel in Singapore. God, it was cold in there. I woke up frozen to the bed. Getting up was like unwrapping one of those frozen popsicles you get - I had to peel myself off the sheets. Anyway, once they explained to me how to work the air conditioning – duh - it was fine. I woke up again at 10 o’clock the next morning**, ready for a spot of sight-seeing.

I’d been studying the Rough Guide to Tokyo and the Lonely Planet guide to Tokyo for several weeks before I arrived, so you’d think I’d have a pretty good itinerary worked out. But no, that would be way too organised. I actually quite difficult to work out stuff like that before I’ve actually been to a place. I think I’d internalised a lot of the information, but it’s hard to make a concrete plan of action when you don’t have the feeling of a place. So I headed to Ginza, a place the guidebook had made sound quite groovy, with the intention of wandering around and getting something to eat.

Ginza was a bit of a nightmare. I mean, it was really nice, all tall buildings and very clean, but it was all about department stores and designer boutiques. I was hoping to find an informal, cheap noodle bar type thing, but I was obviously in the wrong suburb. When it got to the point that the handbags were looking tasty, I gave up and went to – gasp – McDonald’s. And no, it wasn’t nice.

A word about restaurants in Tokyo. I found it difficult to find a place to eat while I was there. Firstly, the menus were all of course in Japanese. I love certain Asian foods, but all too often their dishes have eggs and whatnot randomly floating around in them (sometimes not even chicken eggs…fish eggs!!!! Yuck!!!). I’m a bit worried about what I’ll find at the bottom of the bowl. So, the description has to be in English or I’m not chancing it. Second, the fashion for eating places, whether lowly noodle shops or more upmarket venues (I refuse to use the word ‘eateries’) was to have an array of plastic models of the dishes on offer in the window or on a table outside. And frankly, these plastic meals looked grossly unappetizing.

But I heartily recommend the ice cream place upstairs from Shibuya station! If you are ever in Tokyo and want to find it, you go upstairs from the station into the cafes and restaurants level of the shopping centre. They mash up ice cream with the fillings and sauce of your choice, and you can have it on a dark chocolate-coated wafer cup. Mmmm, happy troughing. It’s easy to feel self-conscious about eating outrageous desserts in public in an Asian country – I imagine them marvelling, “so that’s why Western women are so big” – but I didn’t let that bother me.

So anyway, I sat upstairs in the Ginza McDonald’s, morosely inserting chicken nuggets and fries into my mouth while my innards tried desperately to leach some much-needed nutrition out of them, flipped open the Rough Guide to Section 1 – ‘The Imperial Palace and around’ and read:

Home to the emperor and his family, the palace hides behind a wall of trees and is closed to the public, but the nearby parks are a natural place to start any exploration of Tokyo.'

The phrase 'spiritual heart' was also mentioned. Bingo. I flipped to the map and plotted my course.



*In defence of the hotel which I’m liberally slagging off here, I must say it didn’t seem so bad the next morning. I was almost cosy there by the time I left. I would consider going back. Plus there were free shower caps at the front desk and I LOVE shower caps. I kept walking past nonchalantly picking them up, with an 'ah, I almost forgot, I need a shower cap for my shower this afternoon' expression on my face.

**15 hours in bed! That’s my idea of a holiday!

Saturday 19 January 2008

The Tokyo Diaries - Part 1

I thought today I’d start my Tokyo travelogue. The result of forty-eight jetlagged hours stumbling around Japan’s capital, it’s your definitive guide to this great city.

Part 1

My flight from London arrived on the evening of January 12th. I stumbled onto steady land dazed and hardly daring to believe I’d survived the journey without going mad and stabbing my neighbour in the jugular with a plastic airline fork (I believe I’ve already documented my terrible journey in a previous entry) – hardly daring to believe the time had actually passed and I was only one benign, nine-hour flight away from home. I’d already decided on the plane that I didn’t want to go to Tokyo anymore as I hated everybody and everything and I just wanted to go home and blubber, but once I was walking along to passport controls, my sanity miraculously returned.
I’d been a bit worried about how I was going to get from the airport to my hotel. It would have made sense to book a hotel near transport links, but when I was researching hotels on the internet I got so wrapped up in price considerations, hotel quality, proximity to points of tourist interest, did the rooms have a hair dryer, etc etc, that my head was spinning and I ended up choosing one more or less at random. So I was pretty pleased to find out that I could catch the ‘airport limousine’ (Engrish for ‘airport shuttle bus’) to almost where my hotel was, and an airport worker wrote out in Japanese a note for me to give to a taxi driver for the final leg. I love Asian efficiency!

The next worry was the hotel. I was a leeetle bit nervous that it would turn out to be extraordinarily budgetty. I mean, hotels with ridiculously over-the-top (and nonsensical) names like ‘Asia Centre of Japan’ tend to turn out to be squalid hell-holes with stroppy Bulgarian prostitutes for maids. After my happy experience with the ANA Crowne Plaza on the outward journey, I was ready for some luxury!

I think I may have already alluded to the toilet; the ANA Crowne Plaza in Narita was really nice. It was such a lovely, plushy hotel room; so, so clean, with two beds, TV, slippers and a robe, a more fully stocked than I have ever experienced before bathroom, and had a toilet seat with heat settings and sound effects! Yay! All other toilets have been a letdown for me ever since. The hotel lobby was huge and marble, there was a designer bridal gown boutique on the premises, and they had a swimming pool and Jacuzzi stashed away somewhere, too.

I enjoyed swanning around as if I were someone important. I don’t know about you, readers, but I love being a lone female traveller. I like to imagine people think I must be on business. What a high-powered job I must have for my company to send me to Japan and stay in a nice hotel! And at my age, too - so young! After all, why else would a woman my age travel alone, without the burden of a husband and young kids? I’m a career woman, of course! Or maybe I’m a rich man’s trophy wife, travelling to Australia after a trip to Europe for a spot of shopping. (Ok, maybe not in my daggy jeans. Unless I'm just TOO RICH AND COOL TO CARE.)

So anyway, I was kind of hoping that Asia Centre of Japan Hotel would turn out to be the kind of place sophisticated, 20-something single women travellers would frequent. Unfortunately it was indeed budgetty, its cell-like rooms very depressing after the groovy Crowne Plaza. The staff were nice, though. No bitchy Bulgarian maids. I think it’s illegal in Japan to be rude.

Thursday 17 January 2008

Jet-lagged Musings

Last night I had a vivid dream about flesh-eating zombies. I know, what the hell? Who seriously has dreams like that? It had a plot and everything. There was also an opening dream, where I was romantically involved with my boss. Again. This is getting tiresome. Maybe I should have an affair with him to get it out of my system, though I’m not sure he’d let me, seeing as how he’s happily married and about ten times more hot than I am. And for God’s sake, it’s not even in system. I’m being raped by my subconscious!

All is well with the animal menagerie. On the way home from the airport the Man told me that although the noisy cockatoos seem to have moved on for the moment, there are a couple of cheeky noisy miners that have been flying into the house and dive-bombing the cat’s food. I wasn’t sure whether to believe him, but sure enough, that afternoon I glimpsed a pair of stalky little bird legs just beyond where I had my laundry airing, hopping around near the cat’s dish, INSIDE THE HOUSE. I should have known he’d let the animals take over in my absence. The Man is the Snow White of twenty first century Man. I wonder if they’ve been helping him pick out his clothes in the morning, and twirling him around, dressing him. How cute that would be.

P.S. I am wearing yet another new pair of shoes today. They look so fab peaking out from under my new trouser legs that I have to keep looking down at them!

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Cabin Fever

I’m back, the Stationery Cabinet is now officially open for business, I’m tackling the backlog of those all important requests for paper clips and such, which means the company can finally begin functioning properly once again. I’m adjusting surprising well, given that I only returned to Australia yesterday morning. My appetite’s not quite returned to its usual ravening levels and I keep finding myself sitting upside down in my seat, but apart from that, everything’s swell. Although, I suspect that tomorrow and the day after will be worse, as the jet lag really hits.

The journey was ok. Well, no worse than your usual Economy hell. Actually, the London to Tokyo leg was pretty traumatic. As luck would have it, my two seat mates found another place to go, and I was left with my three-seat section all to myself. I couldn’t believe my luck. I ate dinner with a giant smile on my face, (despite how difficult it is to shovel chicken noodles in your mouth whilst maintaining a beam of happiness) and I was sipping my wine with pleasant thoughts of turning in for a civilized, horizontal sleep, when flight attendant came up and asked me if she could move someone to sit in one of MY seats. Obviously, I should have said “No, bitch!”, and possibly bared my teeth and hissed to emphasize my point, or at least said nicely that I have a bad back or something. But of course, pushover middle class nice girl that I am, I grimaced but said yes.

I then spent the remaining nine and a half hours of the flight too furious with the flight attendant, the passenger in question and myself to get any sleep at all. I was livid that my perfect, lucky flight had been ruined! It sounds a bit silly now, but when you’re stuck in Economy, believe me, even the smallest imagined slights can make you want to murder people. That’s as good an argument as any for banning weapons on board. Maybe they should relax the restrictions on things like scissors in Business and First Class, but seriously, disarm us in Economy for our own good. It’s a jungle back there.

Anyway, after that, the journey was good. I had two days in Tokyo. I stayed in a very budgetty hotel, with a heaps inferior toilet compared with the one I had on the way to England (I haven’t forgotten to tell you about that; I just don’t happen to be in the mood for stories about the Wonder Toilet today). One highlight of my stopover was the Museum of Parasitology, where I got to see jars of pickled intestinal worms. The explanations were all in Japanese so I had to use my imagination somewhat, but I still succeeded in getting a bit grossed out - Result! Then, on to Australia. As always, I had such a wonderful feeling of happiness upon landing. It’s always so nice to fly in to Sydney!

And miraculously, I came achieved the final leg of the journey – negotiating my way out of the sheer chaos which greets you outside International Arrivals…with only one abusive phone call from The Man, who was going nuts driving around trying to find me. What remarkable restraint. Once reunited, we went to Maroubra for breakfast (because The Man may love me but he loves the surf even more) and I spent the rest of the day asleep.

So, I’m back, roaming Sydney and looking splendid in my bargain new outfits! Hope to get back into the blogging routine soon.

Sunday 6 January 2008

A Quick Hello from England

It's been a very long time since I wrote, but I am still alive and well and in England. I haven't had a chance to sit at a computer and blog since I got here, believe it or not, but I do have new subject matter, including:

1. My fantastic Japanese airport hotel room - especially the magic toilet!

2. My brother's psycho girlfriend, who's managed to alienate most of the family;

3. How much I love English sales shopping (ok, maybe I won't bore you with that one - but I have lots of trophies!).

4. Pressure to fulfil myself by dumping the Man and finding a man who wants babies.

But you'll just have to wait. Because I'm in a cafe/bar/internet cafe right now and if I stay much longer I may end up killing this little boy who's running up and down the place and back talking his mother. Kids.