A Day in Tokyo

The day in Tokyo was supposed to be two and I was supposed to be going to Sapporo.

The day in Tokyo was rather basic, we met an Aussie, always nice. Me her, Andy and Steve went to some bars and stuff in Roppongi.

Roppongi is like Soho or Pigalle or anywhere else in a big city that is famous for vice. As vice goes Roppongi is far ahead of most of Japan, in what you can actually get prostitutes and strip clubs. The endless hawking by black guys on the street is a little painful after a while.

In Roppongi we had a Ramen (Japanese soup with noodles and pork, a personal favorite) in a very odd restaurant. You sat in a booth with a curtain in front of you. You never see the waitress or other patrons, well barely, and you select your soup based upon a questionnaire system. You ring the different flavours you want and differentpork levels, as well as selecting a spice level. I had them put more spice in mine and it was goooood...

I couldn't really afford the night. Steve and Andy paid for me. This was of course really really cool but I still didn't feel too right with it. I was kind of board of traveling day by day at this point, I liked the guys but couldn't spend as much as them. I just wanted to go to the country or something.

My Plan was to go to Sapporo in the far north of Japan, on Hokkaido island. To do this I had to get up really early. Due to another night of drink this didn't really happen, not really though any fault of my own. I was a bit pissed off to be honest. due to the fact that we all weren't up that early I missed the only connection to Sapporo as was stuck in a station with no real plan. I knew that I had to leave the cities, I was sick of them. That however was about it as far plans went.

I almost went to Nagano, this is where the 1998 winter Olympics (which for some reason I slavishly watched) where held. Its in the mountains so seemed really scenic. However scenic usually means no hostels so I changed my plan to the other destination on the board....

...Niigata.

Stay tuned folks for tales of unexpected happenings in Hull's Japanese twin city.