Well, I’m not entirely sure how I can top yesterday’s cats, capsules and khazis post, but I did start the morning by meeting Godzilla – which you don’t get to say every day!

In the event, I actually woke up full of beans this morning, having slept a good 9 or 10 hours last night in the cocooned, womb-like safety of my capsule pod (so method to the madness after all!). The only annoying thing was this whirrrrrrr like noise that kicked in every minute on the minute, which I presume was the remote sensor in place to (somewhat obtrusively – and most definitely non-consented on my part…) track and monitor my sleep quality – though nothing a bit of Youtube white noise didn’t sufficiently put paid to in the end.

First item of the day for me was hitting the train station to a) reserve some seats for onward travel and b) observe Tokyo during rush hour. Mission complete on the former front, but somewhat less success encountered on the latter… Shinjuku station was certainly busy and definitely labyrinthine (Bank is for utter wimps, by comparison!), yet somehow managed to simultaneously to encapsulate both the orderly and chaotic in one. Think mad crowds, unerringly queuing commuters, various jaunty musical interludes, and repeat announcements ringing out from the tannoys in that high-pitched, teenage girl staccato type voice that the Japanese seem to go in for…

However, any uniformed men or women shoehorning people on to packed out trains with the aid of a reliable broom (which, let’s face it, was what I was really after here…) were conspicuous only by their absence on this occasion. Apparently “train pushing” is much less of a thing these days, as it unsurprisingly fell foul of modern-day Health & Safety regulations – much to my own selfish disappointment, not to mention the presumed relief of the average Tokyo commuter…

From here it was on to downtown Shibuya, to both dump my bag at new hotel (still a cheapo hostel, but one at least with the luxury of its own bed) and visit the famous Shibuya Crossing – that iconic Tokyo cityscape scene of multiple pedestrian crossings all in play at once. I ended up getting hopelessly lost on the way there – Google was completely confused at the sheer multitude of floors, muddle of entrances and maze of exits at Shibuya station – and quite frankly I don’t bloody blame it! Finally though, I made it there (if more by accident than design in the end), to some great views from on high:

After downing a quick snack (pork bun and cucumber salad) from one of the ubiquitous 7/11s here, I then carried on down the Meiji Jinga Shinto shrine, which sticks in the mind for the giant vats of sake saved in straw barrels they have on show here (though I’ve yet to touch a drop of anything other than Asahi 0% here myself – check me!).

From here, it was just a hop skip and a jump to Harajuku, which I’d understood as a kind of underground, counter culture type neighbourhood, with a something of an edgy / alternative vibe. What I instead found in the (hilariously titled – only just noticed!) Takeshita Street was a true orgasm of rainbows, kawaii and cotton candy (the latter also only available in said rainbow theme). Honestly, it was like a unicorn had projectile vomited pink and glitter all down the street… I only spotted one or two OTT clad Harajuku girls ‘proper’ out in force here, and pretty much everybody else was normally attired and / or just queuing for crêpes (as in literally all around the block at every single confectionary stand going…). I have to say, I can’t really see where Gwen Stefani was coming from on this one, but one thing’s for sure: my 4-year old niece would absolutely bloody love the place!

In fairness, a few streets down from Takeshita (fnnarr fnnarr) was a more artsy network of backstreets, where I had a bit of a wander and stopped for a drink at the funky Design Fiesta Gallery, but that was about it in terms of visible counter culture in evidence for today. Maybe it’s just been done to death over the years, or perhaps it all happens at weekends, who knows…?? Either way, put me down as officially non-plussed for this one.

Anyhoo, last stop of the day for me was one of the city’s many food courts, where I stopped in for my third matcha latte of the day (weirdly, I didn’t think I liked matcha before I came here, and now its proving a burgeoning addiction…). Bizarrely enough, it turns out that a certain strata of Japanese restaurants have a “thang” for replicating the various dishes they have on offer in plastic format and setting them out in public view as a way of enticing people through the door. This is in spite of the fact that each and every one of the dishes invariably ends up looking disgusting – spaghetti carbonara in particular lends itself poorly to rendition in plastic form). The mind truly boggles – I mean, there must be literally a whole cottage industry out there responsible for crafting these abominations… Is each model unique to the restaurant, for example, or does each place choose from a set menu (no pun intended!) of available local and international dishes…? How and where do you train as a plastic food artiste (and – most importantly – can I get in on that gig….??).

And speaking of food, for those who’ve asked where my usual round of food pics are (as in actual real-life edible dishes!), fret ye not – I’ll look to cover off all that I am eating and drinking here in Japan via a couple of stand-alone posts along the way… 🙂

As for now, my Fitbit reliably informs me that I’ve covered 30,000 steps and clocked up 137 Active Minutes for the day, which is a new record – at least in the six months since official records began! My feet hurt and am knackered, so I’m off to bed for now – more from the Tokyo leg of the journey in a day or two’s time!