Tokyo!!!!

Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend here, Fri-Sun, so me and two work mates decided to have a weekend in Tokyo, my first time really, other than passing through on the way to the airport. Was a bit apprehensive as Tokyo is soooo big, makes London look like a village hamlet. Turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea, as all...and i mean ALL the hotels were booked...we only got 3 cancellation rooms on the Friday morning. We got the bullet train (Shinkansen), which is just under 2 hours to Tokyo. We arrived at lunchtime, and we met up with a friend of mine Justine from Niigata, who was also down for the weekend. Friday afternoon we met her and about 20 of her mates in Yoyogi Park, for beers and frisbee. Yoyogi park is a beautiful place, there are people doing everything there, from football, to juggling, to playing music, to dance, to...well, everything. Our hotel was in Shinjuku, across the road from a lovely park and about 100 yards from the Park Hyatt (the hotel from Lost in Translation). Its in th skyscraper area. Friday night we met up with Justine and her friend Kate for a few beers and a TGI Fridays..(you can have too much fish and rice you know....!) we then went to play on the arcades and photo booth things) we left Justine and Kate at around 10pm and went to a club the size of someones front room...literally. its in a dodgy area where they have Love Hotels..where they rent rooms by the hour. Friday was a relatively tame night as we didnt want to miss out on Tokyo on the Saturday. Saturday, me Gareth and Adam did the touristy things, which are all on one train/tube line. We did Ueno park, a lovely tranquil place (apart from 1 milloin tourists!). Ueno park is strange that jsut outside the gates is one of the busiest places in Tokyo. We toured the markets in Ameya Arcade. Then onto Akihabara, which is techy heaven, all electronics gizmo's...a fast busy place where you can lose your mind if you hang around too long. We then went to Shibuya, where the famous busy pedestrian crossing is for a bit of shopping and umpteen photos of said crossing and neon lights! Saturday night, myself, Gareth and Adam went out for dinner then to the 'dodgy' part of Tokyo, Reppongi. Its the centre of the Tokyo sex industry, but to be honest, it isnt that bad, as long as you ignore the touts and the dodgy clubs, we were actually just trying to find a normal club. After stopping some Germans to ask for advice, we ended up in a mad club called Vanilla. Just a normal dance club, but Japanese style, where everything just appears weird! Had an amazing night out. The Japanese had this weird thing where they would chant 'wwwhhhhooooaaaaa oi oi oi oi!!!' at every chorus of every tune, so its all you could hear, and every song then sounded identical...all night! well, when in rome...of course we joined in! Note for the Weeble boys, got chatting for quite a while to this girl...who ended up being the girlfriend of the drummer of Capdown!! what are the chances??? she's just moved here. Small world. We left around 4am, to go home, stopping off at McDonalds near our hotel, well, they did, me being me and always the first to go to bed, apparently, they werent serving food til 5am, and it appeared closed, so they went to sit upstairs to wait, expecting it to be empty, only to find that every table was full with someone sleeping on each one!! why they didnt take a photo ill never understand!!
Sunday we went back to Yoyogi park to relax in the glorious sunday sunshine and watch the world go by. Yoyogi park on a sunday is famous for al types of things going on. Loads of weird kids dressed up in all kinds of clothes being photographed by tourists, a footpath with bands playing every 100 yards, about 15 of them in total! weird elvis impersonators dancing, people with drums, people doing martial arts, frisbees, football, skipping, running, playing guitars....everything imaginable, such a great vibe. we had to eventually leave and get the bullet train home....tired, but such a great great weekend. Tokyo is an incredible place, such a mixure of beautiful parks, temples, noise, people, smells and downright utter organised chaos...great for a weekend....couldnt live there though..everything is just way way too much....of everything! I love Tokyo!!