Tokyo

I love the Japanese. As a country and people they are so much more civilized than anywhere else. They have seemingly thought of everything. We spent only a day in Tokyo, basically due to the cost, but I would love to go back and see the rest of the country. My good friend Takashi and his fiance Nana met us in Tokyo and were good enough to show us the sites.
We spent the morning on a bus tour of Tokyo, visiting Tokyo Tower to take in views of the city and luckily get a great view of Mt Fuji which is usually shrouded in cloud. We also went to the outside of the Imperial Palace, some temple, and frankly I can't remember what else. Tokyo isn't known for its sites. After the tour we made our way to the Fish Market to try some fair dinkum sushi. Neither Leighanne or I had ever really tried sushi, so our first experience was to be at a small restuarant inside the market where the sushi is made right in front of your eyes. It was great, strange, but great. I have no idea what type of sushi we had because it was all in Japanese, but I have no doubt that we had the full sushi experience. Afterwards we visited the Sony Building with all the latest gadgets, minus Playstation 3, then spent the evening drinking amazingly expensive beer in Ikebukuro.

Now, as mentioned before, the Japanese have thought of everything. A few examples are the seemingly endless array of vending machines that provide a quick service for all your needs. One beverage machine can spit out 2C cold soft-drinks and 95C hot coffees, including latte, americano, etc... these all come in cans with special holders so you don't burn your hand. All trains stop at the exact same place on the platform at every station, so in a very orderly fashion everyone queues up and lets the other passengers depart then enter the carriages in an extremely civilized fashion, pushing and shoving is not in the vocabulary. You can even have your train ticket on your mobile phone, nevermind the pre-paid cards like the Oyster Card in London. You simply place your phone on the scanner and away you go. The examples are endless and I'm sure we only experienced a few, but it was educational nonetheless.

After our whirlwind tour of Tokyo it was time to board the long flight to America and Christmas time.