Konichiwa Tokyo

My last day in Manila was spent nursing the hangover from the previous evening´s excesses. I joined Becky for lunch in a street food stall just around the corner from the hostel. They had a number of pots laid out on a table; you simply lift the lid of each one, decide what you´d like and it´s served up to you with rice.

Shortly after Becky beckoned me into a hairdressers to enquire about prettying myself up a bit, though as I was a bit short on cash (and as mother had insisted I do just that not one week before) I declined and headed back to the hostel. I spent the evening researching for my trip to Costa Rica, doing the usual admin of booking hostels and checking what the currency is. That night Bing´s wife cooked me a great rice dinner with corn on the cob and mango for dessert. I was being well looked after.

6am the following morning, and continuing on the theme of drizzle and rain from the day before, I woke up to make my way to the international airport - to Tokyo! I was very excited about my trip there, and even getting up at 6am to rain didn´t dampen my spirits (no pun intended). The flight from Manila with Japan Airways was amazing, I was in a smaller part of the plane upstairs and there was loads of space and the food was great. I was later told I must have been ¨bumped up¨because I was in ¨the bubble¨- which is the fancy part of the plane apparently.

Upon arriving at Narita airport, the journey to Asakusa was fairly straight-forward, this was vastly aided by the helpful lady at the tourist information stand. I paid my 1000¥ (approximately 8 pounds) and got the express train to Ueno, which took just over an hour. I then had to transfer to the underground and get the Ginza line to Tawaramachi station. This was all very easy, as I didn´t really have to think too much about directions and so forth. It was when I was on foot I got lost. The directions were simple: walk straight out of exit number 3 for five blocks; turn left at the 24 sushi restaurant; go past the shrine on your right; take the next right and it´s there.

Half an hour later, dark setting in and beginning to panic a little, I plucked up the courage to gesticulate at a Japanese couple and they pointed me in the right direction. Much to my relief I finally found the place. The directions to the hostel would've been better interpretted by an ability to read Japanese - this is a skill I do not possess.

The Asakusa Toukaisou hostel ($20 per night and the cheapest I could find) was really rather nice. According to the Japanese tradition you take your shoes off before entering; the place was immaculate and the common area very nice. This first I went on the hunt for food, I found myself in what must've been the Japanese equivalent of a fast food restaurant eating noodles, deep-fried dumplings and drinking a Kirin. There were many other lone diners in the restaurant, so I didn't feel as uncomfortable as I had lone-dining in Malaysia and suchlike.

I had a little wander around the local area and resolved to head back and get an early night to prepare myself for a day of exploring the following day.