Let me start by saying that for all you people who are considering visiting japan for a holiday that you have it easy when it comes to buying train tickets. You actually get the best offer.
for 10,000yen (about 70pounds) you can get an express/shinkansen 3 day flexi-pass. Basically, if you have a foreign passport stamped with a short term visa (i think 6months or less) then you can buy online or through an agency a ticket that can be used on as many trains as you like on the JReast routes for 3 separate days within a month. This means you can dart in and around japan with ease and if one day you want to go upto sendai you can do a day trip there...the shinkansen takes about 1.5hours to get to sendai.
Or if you want to go further north you could come visit me near Morioka which will take you about 6hours...still achievable within a day.
This ticket though is just for you lucky visitors because once you are living in japan the offers are not as great. The shinkansen from morioka to tokyo (one way) is about 13,000yen. The offer we have is for 11,500yen we can take as many ordinary trains in a single day on 5 separate days within a month...
Sounds good doesnt it?
It did to me and my friend which is why we bought it...little did we know at the time that to get from where we live to Tokyo it would mean taking 11 trains for a journey that would take 14hours.
Lets just say that when we finally got to the hotel i was so tired that i wanted to go to bed. Our hotel wasnt in the best of areas...there wasnt any crime, it was an industrial area near chiba city but the room was 7,000yen a night (thats cheap - 3,500yen each), this also meant no night life yet my friend wanted to go for a walk and when i refused he gave me the good old lecture of living life to the full...
- I actually get tired quite easy...i have problems with my sugar level and so when i need sleep i have to sleep but in this case i had been up since 530am, travelled 14hrs with very little sleep because i was left in charge of the changes and by the time we got to our room after food and what not it was gone midnight...so forgive me for wanting to rest. -
Anyhoo...the next day we over slept. Not by a little but by a lot. It was 1pm!!!
Again i was blamed for not setting my phone alarm (he also had a phone)...his first question though was "so what are we doing today?"
If only you could have seen the look i gave him...we had discuss before the trip some of the things we wanted to do, such as tokyo tower, shopping, game arcades, anime stores, disney etc. We had agreed i would sort out the hotel, the train journey to and from tokyo and the day at disney...his job was the other days.
So pretty much the day was wasted because the last shuttle bus to the station was at 10am and it was about 2hrs walk...so still slightly sleepy, annoyed and hungry we set off on foot...luckily near us was a mini shopping outlet that had a restaurant where we ate burger patty and chips (we had to order a separate portion of chips because they literally only put 4 on the plate)...my friend also got a chilled latte...the picture made it look like chocolate in it but it was coffee jelly (it was disgusting) .
We later managed to walk all the way to the station which luckily for us had other shops and restaurants and game arcades which managed to keep us preoccupied for awhile...Although my friend got annoyed yet again because i had won a few prizes on the UFO grabbers (including a Stitch ice cream maker) but my friend hadnt won anything and had spent way too much trying to get a wallet from one machine.
That night was suppose to be any early night but we got back at the hotel about 1130pm and my friend had the bright idea to watch a movie...he gave me the guilt trip, well more of an order to watch...so we watched Aladin.
7am...the alarm clock goes off...we are both so tired but to day was Disney...I was sleepy and slightly annoyed with my friend, especially when he tells me at the train station he had forgotten his money - things like this happen but luckily i had enough to cover us until i could find an ATM.
But i soon woke up when we reached the gates and saw the castle!
I should probably say that i am a big disney fan...after al i did do film and TV and uni and so love Pixar and especially 3D films. So i was very exciting when i heard they had brought back a film made 25years ago which was a collaboration between michael jackson, george lucas and disney and it was filmed in 3D...how awesome. I have also been lucky enough to have been to Disney world and also disneyland paris...this themepark is inbetween the two...it needs more roller-coasters and a better system for waiting for rides...
They have a fast pass for some rides but the ticket will be for about 2hours later and rather then give you and 10min gap to use it it gives you an hour...whats worst is you cant get another fast pass for another ride until about an hour after you got the first ticket...generally the time in line is 1.5hrs...i think the shortest we queued was 50mins.
Unfortunately we never got to meet mickey...we saw him in a parade but that was it :S
Can you guess where we went the next day?
Not paris...but to Tokyo Tower
We had over slept again but this time got a train into tokyo and headed to tokyo tower...for about 3000yen we went to the main observatory deck which meant we could see over the whole of tokyo...amazing.
the price also included a wax museum similar to madame tusaudes (cant spell)...except this was a cheap smaller version...also a horror wax museum (this looked more like walking round dark teenagers bedrooms) and then a world record museum which was about 10years out of date...still it was an interesting experience and lasted over 3hrs...Afterwards we went into Ginza...it was getting late so we were just admiring the shops from the streets and taking in all the hussel and bussel (where we live it generally quiet and by 8pm your lucky to see cars on the road)...we went into the Sony store only to be told they were closing BUT around the corner i found heaven...and heaven was open
Another thing you should know about me is i love technology, gizmos and gadgets and so even though i was a little down after been told i couldnt look round the sony building i was happy again when i could go play in the apple store...my friend hates apple...BUT he is now considering the ipad...lol...
When we got the train back before we got the shuttle bus we decided to go get some food...he took me to a an australian steak restaurant...OMG! it was so expensive...a refillable soda was 450yen and the meal which was a ribeye 8oz steak with chips, veg and a salad was 3000yen (about 22pounds). the most i pay for steak in the UK is 14pounds...but i do know that beef here is expensive and it was the most succulent, juicy, melt in your mouth steak that i have had for a very long time.
Our final day was an utter disaster... my friend loves anime, manga and to some degree cosplay. He had heard about an infamous street nere harajuku station where there was a massive anime store and people in cosplay would gather on the street. So we went. We got of the train and he gave me the look...he had only forgotten the directions. So we set off walking. I went towards the shops and also in search of food...he kept trying to ask people for directions but even shop keepers were confused...after many hours of walking in circles we finally stopped at an internet place.
When it came too the information about the anime shop was about 7 years old and as for the cosplay it only happened on sundays outside the station...and the street with the shops on we had actually walked up and down 3 times.
Eventually we made our way back and he wanted to stop off at the game arcades...whilst he played and talked to one of my friends who i havent talked to in a long time...he really cheered me up.
That night me and my friend continued texting whilst my travel friend put on a movie...at the end of the movie i was more or less told off like a little school boy for not paying attention...in fact my friend was so annoyed he ended up going for a walk to cool off.
The next day we got up a little later then planned because he had looked up the price for the shinkansen to sendai (halfway point)...he said the ticket was cheap (5,000yen) and it would cut the journey time in half.
Lets just say by the end of the trip we werent talking.
For the shinkansen you have the fair prices and pass price - the fare is about 5,000 and the pass is about 4300yen...dont ask me why they do it this why because i dont know...all i do know is that day i had to pay out another 70pounds for a train ticket to get me halfway...to make things worst this was a nonreserved ticket and so we were standing all the way to sendai.
You will be happy to know that me and my friend are still talking...for me i feel i had spent too much time with him (before going to japan i was at his house nearly every day). I also like things to be planned, organised etc and so for a trip we dont make a great team...
He has said maybe next time we can go to Osaka and do Universal studio...i was honest and said "not if its just the two of us"...
Sorry for the long blog but it was tokyo and 5 days...it wasnt the greatest trip but we learn a lot about friendship, planning, saving up for the shinkansen, take a pillow if going to be on the train 14hours (also take food)...theres still so much we didnt see BUT we are both hoping to get a transfer closer to tokyo so theres still plenty of time to see more
Make sure you check out my videos...and remember if you want me to make a video on something specific then please ask
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