I have to be upfront - when I first arrived here in Tokyo by myself I had visions of wandering around for the week feeling lonely and isolated by the language barrier, stuck in just another city, and just generally not having a good time. This would then all change when I met and befriended a beautiful blond girl called Scarlet who was suffering the same problem. We would then go on to have a raging good time while falling in love and living happily ever after…

Fortunately and unfortunately neither could be further from the truth.

Tokyo has turned out to be one of the most friendly and interesting cities that I have ever been to and the closest I’ve come to a beautiful tall blonde is the Icelandic guy that I’ve been spending my days touristing with (while he’s a nice guy he’s just not my type).

The closest I’ve managed to get to having a Lost in Translation experience was sneaking up the exclusive New York Bar and Grill on the 51st floor of the Park Hyatt where the movie was set and checking out the view - which is very impressive.

Its been a long time since I’ve spent time in a city that has actually genuinly had me interested and excited to be out spending my days walking around but Tokyo has managed to spark up my tourist enthusiasm again.

Its also been a long time since I’ve been in a city that is as unique as Tokyo. All the stereo types of a city that is all bright flashing lights, crowds of people, weird and wonderful food, entertainment and culture is pretty much spot on as far as I’m concerned…and that’s been the fun of it.

I’ve spent my week:

  • Being dazzled by the sheer amounts of bright lights in the numerous different centres of the city and marvelling at how each individual area has something different to offer. Whether it be the boutique shopping district of Ginza, the trendy and fasionable Shibuya, the cheap electronics of Akihabara, the party town of Roppongi or the absolutely crazy mixture of everything in Shinzuku. This diversity really all highlights that this is one of the largest cities in the world.
  • Being endlessly impressed by the modernity of the city and how well designed and functional everything is (I’ve been taking photos of fully automated electronic toilets, vending machines for noodle bar meal tickets and umbrella hooks next to urinals all over the place).
  • Watching a sensational sunset over Mt Fuji. I also went out there on a day trip later on and was lucky enough to have good weather and be able to see it perfectly, apparently something not too common.
  • Constantly ordering food with no idea what it will be and not geting any more of an idea when it turns up, yet enjoying every bit of it. I’ve been highly impressed with the food here and have yet to have a bad meal (except when I ate at T.G.I. Fridays because I needed a change).
  • Realising that I really couldn’t use chopsticks that well afterall. Although I grew up beleiving that I could use them I never had eaten more then two mouthfulls of a meal without getting bored and impatient about eating my food.
  • Feeling completely welcome and at ease in the a foreign country for the first time. The locals seem completely indifferent to having foreigners around (not that there are many) and bear no resentment if you do something wrong. I’ve been pleasantly surpised several times at being pointed in the right direction by a complete stranger when I’ve clearly being doing something in the wrong way.
  • Chuckling to myself at the irony of being a snap happy tourist in Japan, rather then being surrounded by snap happy Japanese tourists. As usual I’ve taken many many photos. I even bought a bigger memory card while I was here to cover my shutterbug needs.

I’ve now been to arguably the 3 biggest cities in the world - London, New York and Tokyo - and although I’ve only lived in one of these I can easily say that Tokyo is the one that has impressed me enough. Its nice to find some enthusiasm for site seeing again, I must say that.

The best part about it all is that I still have the most exciting part ahead of me. From here I’m heading to London tomorrow to sleep in my own bed for a week before starting my 3 week tour of India as part of a Cricket team on tour. Expect to hear large amounts of details about this. Some of that detail might even include the cricket if I’m able to make any runs…

Until India.
Ben