Three nights in Tokyo

After three days of walking round Tokyo and trying to suss out its complex underground system we're heading out of town to Hakone, another tourist mecca, to see Mount Fuji. Ric got badly burnt around his head yesterday. An early lesson! We went to Tsukiji Fish Market, a massive hive of fishy activity where we saw twitching heads, bowls of baby eels, huge tuna and the like. We went to admire the walls of the Imperial Palace (that's about as close as we plebians can get) and some other shopping and businessy areas- there are so many!

We're amused by all the quirky signage including hairdryers and cats on the pavements, the somewhat unappetising plastic food models outside every restaurant (helpful though they are), the prohibition of smoking whilst walking even though you can still light up inside most restaurants, trains, cafes and hotel rooms. They're really in to their nutrient drinks here and cold Boss coffee in vending machines. Ric's collecting the free toy cars with those. We haven't yet seen the girls who dress up as cartoon characters or who dance in front of station mirrors but we have seen lots of very neatly dressed school girls...knee high socks galore!

The food isn't as exciting as we'd imagined. Pretty basic, though generally healthy. Fish in everything!

I still have far far too much in my 15kg backpack. Someone nicked my shampoos though so that's one less thing to carry! Bet it was the argumentative surly American girl in this hostel...tush.

So, west to Hakone, then Fukui to visit Dave. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days. We've got to pace ourselves or we'll be exhausted.

Photos will be uploaded just as soon as I find a computer which permits! Here they are on facebook