The test begins...NOW!

Well...its been a busy week.

After a few teary goodbyes at the airport, we boarded our midnight flight on Malaysia Airlines. I got my window seat and we settled in for the long haul.
Not long after takeoff, the first of the food was brought out - salad rolls. Not bad, but not the best either. After the food it was time to take some drugs to make us sleep. Gel had a sleeping pill, and I had two Phenergan, and started watching Racing Stripes, the story of the plucky little zebra who wants to race with the horses.

We should have skipped the drugs. The sleeping pill made Gel vomity-sick, and the Phenergan didnt really kick in until we got to our stopover at KL.
KL is a totally lousy place to have a 4-hour stopover at. Theres apparently two terminals - one with a lot of shops, and one with barely anything. Guess which one we got?

Anyway, with nothing to do, we sat down and waited for our connecting flight. The Phenergan was going great guns in my system then, so I spent most of the stopover asleep, only waking up to guard our stuff when Gel had to go and vomit more. Anyway, the connecting flight was great, the meals were better, and they were a bit more generous with the booze. I kept dozing in front of Racing Stripes again though. Never let me watch this movie again. (For those wondering, the zebra wins the Big Race, because he Believed In Himself And His Friends). About an hour away from touchdown we discovered we could program our own "jukebox" using the onflight entertainment system. My jukebox consisted entirely of "The Best Of Def Leppard", quickly followed by "The Best Of Air Supply"

Come fly with me

Wings. Paul McCartney not pictured.

Japan Airport was fairly non-eventful, except for the person wearing the "I'm with Stupid" t-shirt standing next to me.

First night we stayed in a hotel at the airport. Just like any other hotel in the world, except you could see the planes take off and land really close up.

Next morning we took the train from Narita (where the airport is) to Tokyo. Narita is around 90 mins from Tokyo and in quite a rural area full of rice paddies and not much else. Nice to see some of the countryside before going to the big smoke though. Once we got to Tokyo, we had to change trains twice on the Metro subway before we got to our new neighbourhood. Not easy with all our luggage, but it would have been worse if it was peak hour.

For those who don't know Japan, most of the streets don't have names, and to get anywhere you either need really, really good directions, or a map. The map we had was seriously shite. Gel isnt the best map reader, and my Japanese is non existent, so naturally, we got lost. After calling our agent to come get us, we finally arrived at the flat. Its tiny. The smallest place I have ever stayed in. But it is incredibly well designed, so well so that we have a washer and dryer squeezed in here. Plus, we have a smart toilet - it has the butt squirty-thing and a self-warming seat. Score! Decent views, too.

A room with a view.

We are in East Ginza - its a strange place - sort of a combination of old, run-down buildings and newish offices. Lots of tiny little bars, and strangely, lots of Italian eateries:

Two blocks over the road though, you come to Ginza proper:

Bright Like Neon Love

Ginza is totally expensive, and is home to all the big European designer shops. Chanel has just opened a new one which has been getting some promotion on CNN. A beer in a bar can cost up to Y900. So we havent been going out much or buying many things. Luckily, 7-11 has beer (500ml Asahi for Y200!).

Since we have been here, we've been checking out parts of Tokyo. Saw parts of Shinjuku on Saturday, but I found it a bit crap - full of arcade parlours, pachinko (pinball) centres and strip clubs (wahey!). We only managed to find the good bit as we were leaving, so I'll go back there, along with Shibuya, this week. I'm especially looking forward to Shibuya - its supposed to be the place to buy records and clothes.

Thats about it. Heres some more random photos taken so far:

Fight the Power, my Japanese brothers.

"We're Very Angry! Cheeeeeese!"

On our third night here, this protest march was going on in the main steet in Ginza. Apparently they were protesting about changes made to Japanese textbooks in schools. They wanted us to join in, Gel thought it was totally inappropriate for us gaijins to make comment on Japanese schooling. Possibly the most polite protest ever - they even stopped at the traffic lights (Take note, Melbourne Uni Students)

One of the expensive Ginza bars. Not sure why Doggy's Soul Bar was playing Hall and Oates though.

In Shinjuku, there is this shopping strip called America Boulevard. In the paving, there are special stones, with the name of imporant American places on them such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and the unfortunately-named Gland Canyon.

Yep. Make Bong Rock for People.

Thats it for today. Next update won't be quite as long, as we have internet access now. For such a technology-savvy country, they could do with a few more internet cafes.

Oh, and Japanese chicks are hott.