Wednesday 11 February 2015

Japan Trip Yokohama, Tokyo, Osaka and Tanabe Day 5

Well today I say goodbye to Yokohama and head to down town Tokyo for the first time. I am have been to Japan many times now but have yet to see Tokyo. My day started very early as I had a train or 2 to catch and had to allow for serious stuff ups on my behalf. I manage to be up for a cracking sunrise over Yokohama Harbour which was awesome.

The bag packing starts, knowing I was going to be training it I tried to condense everything I had so It was not too difficult to lug all my gear around town. I had booked a hotel located directly above Shibuya Railway Station so things should be straight forward. I managed to find my way to the correct station and platform to catch my train to Shibuya. It should be noted that the station I was catching a train from had 30 platforms and supported 12 lines all hidden by a shopping mall with 60 different exits. I stroke of pure luck had me sorted first time round. On the train I was fortunate to have all the messages in Japanese and in English so getting off at the right station would be a very easy task.

The train arrived at my station, the station I boarded at was big but nothing had prepared me for
Shibuya, it was at least 4 times the size of the one where I boarded in Yokohama. I figured it would all be cool as my hotel was directly above the station, in theory I just had to go up and I would be at my hotel. Oh dear, I had not realised that the station covered 4 city blocks and after walking in circles and losing all sense of direction I found daylight in an area I had not researched. Thank God for smart phones and google. I pulled up in a smoking area for a quick smoke and worked out I had come out at the complete wrong end of the station 3 blocks over from where I needed to be. I made my way down to the hotel to check in.

Being about an hour early for check in I decided to go for a walk around and see what this town was all about. It was still daylight so it was fairly easy to find my way around. I saw a Hooters bar where I figure I could rest for a bit till check in was open at the hotel. A few beers later I was on my way back to the hotel for check in. Shagged from the walking I needed a nanny nap before making an attempt to head out and see the town at night. Just as I was about to hit the hay I went to the smoking area for  quick smoke when out of the corner of my eye I could see a Shimano sign. Bang I had found a tackle store, no snoozing now, I grabbed my wallet and camera and went tackle store hunting. I found the store with ease and made my way up to the first of 3 floors of the tackle store and found myself lost in tackle for about 3 hours. It was getting dark so I made my way back through town hunting down a feed. I settled for a Maccas as it was simple and easy and I knew what I was ordering.

Shibuya is a cracking town and very friendly even in the shady area's I never felt uneasy or unsafe.