Day 1 -- 26th Mar
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| Time |
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| 15:30 |
Our flight landed at Narita International Airport (成田国際空港)
in the suburb of the Japanese capital.
We went through customs quickly, and were happy to be greeted with a lot of signs with kanji (漢字 Chinese characters).
Sight of the familiar kanji was very reassuring in the foreign environment.
Soon we sucessfully navigated through the customs and found ourselves in the
Narita Airport Train Station (成田空港駅).
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| 16:45 |
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| CK and his parents on the train to Tokyo. |
After getting cash from ATM (¥50,000 sound like a fortune, but was actually only US$500),
we boarded the Narita Express Train.
The train ran through a suburban landscape, dotted with clusters of tiny Japanese little houses.
Gradually the houses got more and more tightly packed, and then replaced by taller and taller buildings.
We have arrived at Tokyo (東京), one of the most densely populated area on the globe.
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| 18:00 |
We got off at Shinjuku (新宿), and transferred to Metro (the Tokyo underground railway).
Our hotel was only two stops and minutes away ...
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| 18:15 |
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| Room at Tama. |
We arrived at Tama Ryokan (多摩旅館)
(Ryokan = Japanese-style hotels).
We were shown to our two rooms of delicate tatami floor and fragile paper walls,
and gingerly we placed our bags away, trying not to break something.
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| 19:00 |
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Shinjuku Railway Station serves 3.64 million people daily, making it the busiest train station in the world.
Haruki Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicles, the protagonist sat here and observed the faces of the passerbyers.
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For our first meal in Japan, we returned to Shinjuku, one of the two "downtowns" of Tokyo.
Stepping out of the station, we were immediately greeted by the brilliant neon lights, lining both sides of every street.
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| The yokitori place. |
We made our way to a small side street nicknamed Shomben Yokocho.
Despite its unappetizing reputation, the street was famous for its tiny eateries, each had only a few seats around a counter.
We first stopped at a yakitori (skewer) place, where we had skewers of chicken meat/liver, green chili peppers and mushrooms,
all washed down with beer and plum sake
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| The noodle place |
Shomben Yokocho |
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Shomben Yokocho (Piss Alley) got its named from the drunks who used to relieved themselves on the street.
With a new public restroom, the stench was gone, but the reputation was more difficult to wash away.
Nevertheless, time has slowly changed the horrible name from derogatory to endearing.
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(rice wine).
The yakitori looked and smelt wonderful, but was a bit over-seasoned and on the salty side.
After that, we walked a few steps to a noodle place for some fried noodles and dumplings,
which earned the approval of Emily's Mom.
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| 20:40 |
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| Lanterns. |
Emily & Mom. |
After dinner, we strolled the crowded streets of Shinjuku, packed with teenage girls wearing miniskirts and tons of make-up,
as well as groups of young men dressed like yakuza (Japanese gangsters; East Shinjuku was known to be a yakuza hotspot).
For our safety, we did not take any pictures but watched politely at a distance.
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| 21:30 |
We returned to the ryokan, where the landlady was rolling out our beddings.
Soon we were sleeping soundly on the tatamis.
next day
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Created on 9th Jun 2009. Last updated on 7th Aug 2009.
ckchow.mbox@gmail.com
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