So we started with a massive journey! We stayed in JUCY snooze in Christchurch and then got a taxi to the airport at 4am ready for our 6am flight! We changed in Auckland and it wasn’t too bad. And that is coming from someone who hates flying! We had plenty of movies to watch and the plane was empty so we had our own rooms each!
I enjoyed annoying Joe and then moved to my own row to try and sleep! We made it off the plane and the luggage made it too which I always get a bit nervous about… especially when you change flights! We had to now navigate the subway, we’d read online that this could be a bit tricky. But to be honest it’s a piece of cake! If you’ve ever been on the underground it’s pretty much the same, the ticket machines are in english so you should easily be able to work out what to do. We successfully made it to our hotel! 
The hotel is tiny but exactly what we need and only a 5 minute walk from our nearest station. We headed out for a walk and got some steak and octopus for dinner.
we stayed out quite late drinking Moscow Mules excited for our next day of adventure! Our plan was to sleep in as Tokyo is more of a nighttime city and nothing opens early. That plan didn’t work because we both woke up at 5am and sat in bed for a bit twiddling our thumbs. In the end we came up with an agenda and headed for the fish market. This was one of the few things we really wanted to do. Although there are lots of things we wanted to do, for our first time in Tokyo our plan was to go with the flow and try not cram too much in, basically we just wanted to soak up Tokyo and see what we thought! You’re not really supposed to go into the fish market till 11 for tourists which is fair enough but we snuck in and it’s pretty cool, everything is massive! Literally if you want to buy oysters the size of your head his is the place to go.
But this time I was getting kind of hungry and actually feeling a little faint. It was also by now pouring with rain despite still being boiling. I had previously suggested going into 711 and getting some crackers or something but that suggestion went down like a sinking ship. Anyway I finally agreed that Joe could have some sushi and I’d maybe try a bit and get something else later. Down one road everyone was queuing up to get into two sushi places and we opted for one next door that was less busy. We looked at the menu and then the chef dropped the bomb shell that you have to order at least one platter each, bloody brilliant. I’ve never tried sushi and if you know me you will understand food isn’t really my thing. Give me mac and cheese any day. Anyway I somehow agreed to this as Joe loves sushi and this was the only thing he wanted to do while here… and if I am going to try sushi for the first time it might aswell be in Tokyo with the chef preparing it right in front of me! The platter we ordered was 7 pieces and I slowly started psyching myself up for it. Despite being 8am I also ordered the biggest beer they had! Now I’m quite proud of myself because to start with it was all going so well, after 3 pieces I started to think… my god I’m actually going to do this! I passed up on some fermented eel thing so Joe got to double up on that. The next piece was rice topped with scallops wrapped in seaweed paper. I bit this one in half, and knew straight away I’d made a terrible error… I looked at Joe and instantly thought I was going to be sick. I could tell by his face that my face said it all. My other main concern was offending the chef who is literally within arms reach of me, I have no words to explain how traumatic the whole thing was but I managed to swallow the thing with the help of some beer and then felt instant relief. Joe ate the rest of it from my plate and we continued as if nothing had ever happened.
Even though you may not think it from my description I’m so glad we did this! Traveling is about getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things and I can leave Tokyo saying I definitely did that! and in all honesty if I hadn’t eaten that scallop one it would have all gone smoothly. I would even go as far to say I enjoyed some of them. If you love sushi obviously this is the experience for you, Joe beamed the whole time and would go back for lunch and dinner if i’d let him! If you do want to try it for the first time and you’re adventurous with your food then it’s also brill the chef was amazing and so friendly, that might of changed if I’d been sick all over his restaurant! The one thing I was surprised at (and joe did actually back me up on this) is that it’s quite big mouthfuls, I’m no expert and this is obviously he knows the correct way to serve sushi but I was expecting it to be a lot smaller. You really have to commit to putting the whole thing in your mouth! Good luck if you decide to try it!
Straight after the museum and of course another beer we headed to Akihabara to visit M’s a 7 story sex shop! This was an interesting area and we saw maid cafes and a lot of anime shops and geek culture. The sexshop in itself was pretty much like most sex shops I’ve been to but more crammed in, there were a lot of creepy old men in there all looking at fake bums and woman’s underwear, but we enjoyed our quick tour and then continued to walk around the area and take it all in!
We next headed to the Tokyo National Museum to immerse ourselves in a bit more culture. I’m sorry to say but we were very disappointed with this. We found it very unorganised and all over the place the first exhibit we looked at was about Egypt which was slightly confusing and a lot of the displays were about Asia and not specifically Japan. Also none of it’s in English so we didn’t know what we were looking at half the time. There is an audio tour which in hindsight might have been a smarter option but anyway we left and headed for Shibuya to look at the busiest crossing and go shopping oh and get some lunch. We started for lunch and decided on a ramen restaurant you order from a machine and it gives you a ticket which you then present at the counter this is interesting but it was easy and we sat down excited. I ordered dumplings and Joe got pork ramen.
Of course we got beer too! The food was amazing we shared both dishes and thoroughly enjoyed our meal much more up my street thank god. After his we walked around and shopped and looked about after living in Christchurch for over a year it is a proper culture shock! We wanted to do a lot more walking around but the rain was so bad so we sat inside at a bar and researched a few more things to do tomorrow!
We did a bit of shopping which I’m sure was traumatic for Joe. Then we headed back had a nap, realised we’ve been up along time and we’re tired!!! We went to a steak house down the road and it was delicious and then had an early night! Day one in Tokyo has been great and I’m really excited to see what tomorrow has in store for us!
Paris X
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