Dang I’m tired today. I think the almost 3 weeks is finally catching up with me. It has taken a while. It has only taken about 12 hours walking each day and the odd mountain climb to get there, but today I was just tired as buggery. Not tired in a Bill Murray I’m tired of Tokyo way, but physically tired. Seems like my trip is just about the right length given I have only 2 more sleeps until Oz.

What probably hasn’t helped today is the lead picture. Can you guess what I did today at 7am? That’s right, visit the Tsukiji Fish Market. The biggest in the world no less.

Now I have already mentioned the generosity and overall niceness of the Japanese folks, but the fish market proves that you would be hard pressed to find more accommodating people anywhere. Why? Well, until about 8am the Fish Market is a hive of wholesale fish activity. And here is people like me, a camera round the neck, poking around in the middle of it all.

And by in the middle, I literally mean in the middle. At any stage you can get side swiped by a truck or guy on a motorised trolley, or slip in some fresh fish guts. These folk are doing their jobs and tourists like me feel compelled to poke our noses in. What awesome folk.

Anyway, back to the fish. It is pretty nuts. Hundreds of stalls with their days catch. I didn’t arrive for the tuna auction (that starts at a crazy 5am), but this was cool all the same. Cool in a bit of an Iron Chef way actually. By that I mean sometimes the fish are dead, sometimes they are alive, and sometimes you see one get it right in front of your eyes. The eels are the creepiest. My highlight was probably seeing one vendor grabbing what he (presumably) thought were dead eels from one tub, only to have one wriggle out of his hands onto the main counter. I didn’t squeal, but I am pretty sure I did a bit of a double jump. Awesome.

It was also pretty awesome to see big hunks of tuna being carved up in front of your eyes. Now that is some crazy big fish.

The main tradition for a visit to the fish market is to start the day with a sushi breakfast. Who was I to argue? To be honest it wasn’t on the top of my list of things to put in my body at 9am, but then I had a couple beers at that time the other morning, so sushi seemed quite fine.

I found what seemed to be one of the popular spots and lined up waiting my turn. It was all set menu which is fine with me. I went for the smaller collection since I wasn’t really ready to spend about 4000 yen (ie 50+ bucks) for breakfast, and in some ways I regret in now. I may never have a chance to eat any sushi that awesome again. Oh well, mine was pretty darn good.

So with a belly full of fish it was time to head off. My original plan was to visit the Tokyo National Museum, however I found out the night before that it was closed on Mondays. Doh. No probs, that could be Tuesday. What to do though? Since I was close to Tokyo Bay, I decided to jump on the monorail over to Odiaba and visit the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan is less of a mouthful). While I don’t mind shops, give me a good science museum.

What is a bit odd about Odiaba and the bay area is that there isn’t really that much going on. What freaked me out was seeing a baby Statue of Liberty. Um, OK.

So I arrived at the science museum. Now I had a feeling it was the case, and the inner otaku in me was pretty stoked to see that the worlds most famous (real) robot was in the house. Yep, Asimo lives at the Miraikan.

Asimo did his thing early in the piece. He doesn’t really do too much but it was pretty cool to see him in the flesh (or is that metal?). He is kinda freaky to watch walk, but in a pretty amazing kinda way. Oh, he kicked a soccer ball too. He has a pretty wicked left foot. The kids seemed duly impressed (I was too, I won’t hide it).

The museum was not too bad. I thought there might have been more Scienceworks type hands on things, but nope. The science was actually pretty up there for kids, all genomes and things.

My other stroke of luck was the temporary exhibition that was on. The Contemporary Science of Doraemon. Nice! For those of you not in the know, Doraemon is a robot cat from the future and is hugely popular in Japan. The exhibition was looking at some of the things that go on in the cartoon and how they are now happening in real life. The exhibition was OK, not awesome. In some ways it just seemed a bit of a cash in on the Doraemon name, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

That took me to mid-late arvo and I was stuffed. Just plain tired. It was another hot humid day. I didn’t just want to head back to the hostel, so decided to train it back to Akihabara to peruse some shops. No maid cafes again sorry folks, just toys and video games.

So it is all winding down. About time probably, as I am just getting a bit run down. But I have something pretty cool on the cards hopefully for my last night here in Tokyo, so fingers crossed it all works out.

In some respects today was a little disappointing.

Given it was a Sunday, and the typical Tokyo population is not at work or at school, I decided to go to the home of the weirdly dressed and not too shy… Harajuku. This area is known for not only a fantastic park and a couple of unique shopping strips, but more so the strange folk that come out to play (i.e. like my lead picture).

I was all geared up to see some crazy-ass people preening and posing for the cameras. But alas, it didn’t really happen. Granted it was a 30+ degree day, but there was a distinct lack of crazies. Let me backtrack.

I arrived just before lunchtime and decided to wander through part of Yoyogi Park, stumbling upon Meiji Shrine. I guess Sundays are popular for wedding ceremonies, as there was a few taking place, right in the middle of the gawking visitors. Of course I was going to take a photo too.

I then wandered down Takeshita-Dori, the street primarily responsible for the high (or is that low?) fashion of the area. A fairly narrow strip, it is full of stores with all kinds of weird fashion. Nothing took my fancy unfortunately. I did come across the famous Bathing Ape store, but it was a bit lame to be honest. I think the hundreds of knock off Bathing Ape shirts are a bit more exciting (and a hell of a lot cheaper).

That led me to the other shopping street, Omote-Sando. My Lonely Planet guide likens it to the Champs Elysee, and I kinda see why. It is a lovely tree lined street full of your Louis Vuitton etc etc, and is a change from the neon lit streets of Shibuya and Shinjuku. A bit of a breath of fresh air in a way. But alas, again nothing really took my fancy. I did find a Blythe exhibition in one of the high brow shopping centres which was actually kinda cool… about a hundred Blythe dolls dressed in the height of Tokyo fashion. More interesting than the actual fashions I was seeing.

So I got back to the park and Jingu-Bashi bridge expecting to be inundated with lots of strange folk in interesting get up. But it really wasn’t happening. There were a handful trying their hardest, but it wasn’t all that interesting. Even the cameras were kept in their bags for the most part. A bit disappointing. Oh well. You don’t win ’em all.

So I wandered back into Yoyogi park. At least there was some action there. Not quite as many young hipsters as I thought there would be, but there were a couple of bands battling it out with the park folk. Even though I didn’t understand the lyrics, I knew the main band I was watching were just a little bit emo. It seems to translate pretty easy.

The one thing that I struggle to understand is not the hipster kids or the “look at me I’m so weird” folk. It is the rockabilly older folk. Don’t get me wrong, I love it! It is just such a strange one. I wonder if they have normal jobs? Anyway, it was fun watching them bust some moves for a while.

Since I was on my way toward Shibuya, I decided to wander down there by foot. Conveniently some park food vendors were there, so with some Tokyo-style okonomyaki under my belt (different again… less cabbage, more egg) I legged it down. I sniffed out another record store (to the surprise of no one I am sure). Boy. Why can’t I buy LP’s like this back home? When I am filling some of my collection for 600 – 700 yen a pop (not even 10 bucks), I  know I am in the right place. Maybe today didn’t turn out so bad after all.

Thanks for the comments and tweets on my Mt Fuji post folks. It was a pretty big deal for me as many of you know so the kind words are much appreciated! I have pulled up really well today, just a tiny bit of lethargy, so nothing stopping me from getting out in Tokyo again.

Today was almost as monumental as Fuji. Well, not quite, but today’s destination was always going to be a bit of fun… Akihabara. My mate Glen said if I went I would never leave. Not quite, but he wasn’t far off. I felt way more affinity with Akihabara straight off the bat than Shinjuku or Shibuya.

For those not down with otaku culture, Akihabara is Tokyo’s main anime/manga/video game/electronics/toy/nerd district. Otaku is the term that encapsulates those people into these things. While I am not a massive anime fan, video games and toys oh yeah. This should be fun.

Let me give you some impressions why I hit it off with Akihabara pretty much straight away. The electronics I could take or leave to be honest. I didn’t see much that stood out or was particularly new. What I did love though were the many stores selling toys and action figures, and the stores selling old school (think game and watch and SNES) video games. This was way more fun than the generic department stores of the other districts and added way more personality.

It is quite mind blowing just how many action figures there are out there, but even more crazy is how many Japanese people are out there buying them. And I am talking every kind of figure possible. So what did I buy? I just satisfied myself with a handful of small Godzilla figures for my desk. They are easy to pack.

So it was great fun just trawling through those stores, just as it was great fun checking out all the old school video games. Game and Watch! Pity they were so expensive. And pity my SNES won’t play Japanese SNES cartridges as the amount of old games I could pick up for just a few bucks each was crazy.

I know that this culture starts to cross over into adult territory pretty quickly, particularly with the comics. Boy does it ever. I was browsing through the manga section of one store when suddenly those comics weren’t looking all that innocent. The reputation Japan has for being extreme was right there in my face.

One thing that is also extreme, but in a completely different way is the Maid Cafe scene. There are girls in maid outfits everywhere handing out flyers to visit. Now, I know what some of you must be thinking. “Maid Cafes? That doesn’t sound too innocent”. Well, they are sickly innocent. And I had to visit one.

The @Home Cafe was my destination. I had heard quite a bit about it and seemed to be the most popular. Like most, you are greeted by a number of waitresses in french maid costumes with “Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama!” or “Welcome home, master!” who then serve you some kitschy, cute, cafe fare. Me, I went for an ice coffee and an ice cream waffle, complete with chocolate syrup love hearts drawn on by my maid. I am sure I was being pampered, however again my lack of Japanese and their lack of English wasn’t helping. But they were trying to be very helpful I could tell that. At one point some singing and clapping started, but I couldn’t tell really what was happening. But I just joined in anyway. It was hard not to find it hilarious.

I have an unfortunate lack of photos from this experience, as they have a no photos policy. I couldn’t even take one of my food. But it is all a way you can fork out more money for the privilege of a photo with your maid. 500 yen you say? Why not!

I couldn’t resist. Here is me, with tiger ears, hamming it up. I find it hilarious and not at all embarrassing. I’m in Tokyo for crying out loud! My maid very nicely wrote some english on my photo for me, although I think my name got a little lost in translation. I am now officially “Mitt” not “Matt” on both the photo and my @Home loyalty card. That adds to the awesomeness.

So many hours passed in Akihabara. I well and truly got wrapped up in the place. As I was leaving I found the Gundam Cafe. From the look of it there wasn’t much special except for heaps of Gundam figures inside. I was all cafe’d out for the moment, but there is still a few days left, so I might be back.

I decided to jump on the train and swing by Shinjuku on my way back to the hostel. I got wind of some more record stores so wanted to complete my day. Browsing LP’s in a foreign city is pretty sweet.

I also made an effort to wander through the Golden Gai. This is the area in Shinjuku that has all the tiny bars. And I thought there was some small bars in Melbourne. I wandered past one that could fit (and I counted) 4 people. Kinda odd, but cool. That’s Tokyo right there.

So what did you do today? This is what I did…

Let me start back at yesterday.

My original plan was to spend the day wandering Akihabara for lots of electronics, manga, and general otaku shenanigans. I thought I should chase up how to get to Mt Fuji however, since official climbing season opened on July 1 and I didn’t want to be stuck not being able to get there easily. It was top of my list for my visit to Japan.

So I braved Shinjuku Station again and found the bus depot I needed. So I started to inquire about buses to the 5th Climbing Station of Mt Fuji with the ticket girl. However my japanese and her english was making it a little difficult. She was asking me which bus I wanted to go on TODAY. When that clicked, I thought “hell, why not go today?!”. So I booked a spot on the bus for later that arvo and home the following day, and I had just organised the major part of my Fuji climb in the blink off an eye.

I was originally eyeballing tours to get me there and back and give me a fairly regimented climb up. The more I thought about it though, the more determined I was to just rock up and climb it. With my bus tickets, my plan was simply to arrive at the 5th climbing station about 9pm. Climb through the night, catch sunrise at the top, and come down and get an 11am bus back to Shinjuku. The perfect crime.

I had been keeping an eye on the weather and it was a bit all over the place. It did seem however that there was only a pretty slim chance of rain, so there was some hope of a dry climb (but I wasn’t counting on it).

So with my days plans now out the window, I decided to head back to the hostel, make sure I had everything for an overnight climb, and basically rest up, given that:

a. I would be doing close to 12 hours of hiking up and down a FREAKIN’ MOUNTAIN

b. I would now be getting no sleep for a LONG time.

So all packed up with layers of clothes, water proof and wind proof gear, scarves, gloves, and food and drink, I headed back to the bus depot (Mum… I did tell the folk at the hostel I was going, so someone knew). I was kinda surprised to see the bus was only half full. Being first day of climbing I was surprised I got a bus ticket so easily. Anyway off I went.

We got to the 5th climbing station on the Yoshida trail around 8:30pm… dark already. A bit unnerving actually. And it was raining. But then two bits of luck came my way.

First of all was half a dozen folk on the bus. I noticed them while travelling but was not sitting near them. What we had were 3 Brits and 3 Yanks, all preparing to do the same climb as me. So a quick how do you do and I had found myself a climbing group (you will be happy to know that too Mum). They were a great bunch of youngish folk (mid 20’s – mid 30’s) who mainly knew each other working here in Japan. One remaining guy was simply here on work and like me, met them on the bus. We had ourselves a posse.

The second stroke of luck was just as we said to each other “screw it, let’s just start hiking in the rain”, the rain stopped. I had a good feeling about this night.

Here is where I have to be thankful again for my walking buddies. While I could have done it myself, it was dark. Real dark. And there wasn’t all that many people climbing. I had visions of a long line of torches lighting the path, but that wasn’t accurate. So having a bunch to walk with helped stem any anxiety I was even on the right path!

Now, I have to say that what I type now, and the photos I include will just not do any justice at all to the experience I am about to try and describe. But I’ll try.

I consider myself pretty fit. And I know that a lot of people climb Fuji each year. But man, if I wasn’t pretty fit it would be a pretty full-on experience. It is not easy at all. It took us 7 hours to reach the summit. The path changed from loose dirt and gravel, to rock stairs, to full on jutting rocks, all at a fairly steep angle. It was not the relatively smooth path I thought it might be. It was difficult, tiring, hiking in places.

The other thing to contend with was the altitude sickness. I think this is where me being pretty fit really paid off. Aside from a little light-headedness, I was fine. Some of my travelling companions not so much. 3 of them struggled significantly at times, with headaches and nausea. That slowed us down, but was OK by me as we had time up our sleeve.

And so we plugged away, all the time the air getting thinner and colder. I have to say, the last hour was some of the most physically demanding stuff I have done. It wasn’t a trivial climb at all. We did have a good lightning show at times, thankfully in the distance. Then we reached the summit.

Holy hell, it was cold, with little shelter from the wind. Thankfully we only had about half an hour to wait for sunrise, but we needed to huddle together to stay warm. There were a few more people by this point, but still not the crowd I expected. What was also slightly disappointing was that the general store on top was closed. Sorry, no postcards for anyone from the summit of Mt Fuji.

We kept the spirits up in the cold waiting for the sun to poke its head up. Then it arrived.

I gotta say, it was pretty special. I am not sure I will ever see anything like it again. I was tired and cold, but the sun popping up was amazing. One of those moments really. No photos could ever capture it.

On top is the crater which you can hike around. I had all intentions of doing it however it was freakin’ cold, and I was not sure my legs could do another hour before heading down. We all seemed in agreement. So down we went.

It was a strange experience going down. As we had gone up with only the light of our torches, the climb down looked both kinda familiar, but also surreal. Did we really climb up this a few hours ago? We all seemed to have the same thoughts, part due to the darkness, but now also due to the lack of sleep and altitude no doubt.

The descent took about 4 hours, a bit longer than we anticipated. Usually a different path is taken down, one of mainly loose gravel and rock that you can actually run and slide down in parts. That wasn’t open for some reason so we had to contend with the same difficult trail we came up on. It was good to see it in the daylight though. We passed quite a few people on the way up, by which time it was getting to be pretty warm climbing. Poor suckers.

So about 9:45am we were back at the start, all exhausted and tired, a few a little more worse for wear. We had a bit of a rest at the 5th station, with some early morning celebratory beers. It had to be done. The bus ride back with the folk was a quiet one though. We all seemed to get an hour or so sleep, but only enough to make us feel seedier. We reached Shinjuku, and I bid farewell. We were talking about lunch but the overwhelming sense by all of us to get rest seemed to win.

So here I am. I’m feeling OK. Tired for sure, but not as physically drained as I might have been… more the fact I have had about 1 hours sleep in the last day and a half. But that’s OK. The weather was perfect, the climb tough but amazing, sunrise awesome. I have conquered Fuji.

It is funny how things turn out when you are travelling sometimes.

Last night I left the blog post about to head out to watch the Japan v Paraguay game. Taka, my gracious host here in Shinagawa, said he was heading out to watch the game and that the couple of us at the hostel who were keen should come along. Me and the other guy were under the impression we were heading to some nearby bar, but we got confused when Taka suggested we pick up anything we needed from the nearby supermarket. OK we thought. So arming ourselves with some beers and snacks we wandered down the street a little further.

Lo and behold it wasn’t a bar we turned up at, but what seemed like the store/office of some local folk, set up with a massive TV and food galore. We were being welcomed by some locals to their event. Immediately we had food and drink forced upon us and were made very welcomed.

You probably know the result of the game by now. Even though Japan lost on penalties, the vibe was still OK. There was too much food and drink to break the mood too much. So while it wasn’t the bar I was expecting, it was better… local hospitality.

And thanks to that hospitality I did wake up with just a small hangover. More like just being tired really, but that happens when you go to extra time and penalties. But no matter. For the most part here in Tokyo I am not on the clock. Although today did have one important thing on the agenda. Ghibli.

So I bid adieu to my hosts and hit the train.

I have to say I don’t think I have experienced the true train crush yet. I did peak time last night and the crush in the train was no different to me coming home from Caulfield. What is different though is that the huge numbers of people are EVERYWHERE.

I got my way from Shinagawa to Mitaka (via Shinjuku) easy enough, and started the pleasant wander to the Ghibli Museum. It is hard to get lost really…

It really was quite a magic day. Humid yes, but the sun was out and it was a glorious walk. And so I arrived at the museum.

I am not sure those of you who haven’t soaked up the animation work of Studio Ghibli will fully appreciate how special the museum is. I will readily admit that for each Ghibli film I love (Totoro, Nausicca), is another I am a little ambivalent about (Mononoke), so I won’t pretend I am a die hard Ghibli devotee. But this museum makes you appreciate every single frame of these films.

The first thing it is important to point out is that it is a museum, not some kind of Disney fun park. Hayao Miyazaki was adamant apparently that the museum be designed to just allow people to wander and soak  it up. That is what you do alright. Even the english language leaflet urges us to “lose our way together”.

There are gorgeous details everywhere. Unfortunately there is no photography inside, but actually it is a good thing. The last thing the museum would need would be everyone trying to get photos of everything. But this tap outside shows the level of detail.

The museum is full of gorgeous things. A zoetrope of Totoro. Several rooms made out like Miyazaki’s work rooms, complete with drawing desks and what must be hundreds and hundreds of hand drawn storyboards. A theatre showing museum-only shorts (I got “The Whale Hunt”… bummer I didn’t get “Mei and the Kittenbus”).

There was only one disappointing room really. And I knew in advance it would be disappointing. My question to Miyazaki is… why can’t adults climb on the Catbus? I swear everyone, not just kids would be loving climbing all over that thing. But it is fun to watch the kids.

The main photo op in the museum is the rooftop where the robot from Laputa awaits. The sun was out, I was in a magical place. No wonder I am smiling a lot in this photo…

None of the writing in the museum was in English, but it didn’t matter. I am not sure what any of the explanations could have added. It was just charming to let it all wash over.

With a stop by the giftshop on my way out (Ella and Jake, you will be introduced to Totoro soon), I realised I had spent longer than I thought in there. No matter though. What to do? Since I had to swap trains at Shinjuku, why not pop my head out there?

Holy crap. I now feel a little embarrassed I got lost in Kyoto train station. Shinjuku seems the mother of all stations (no I haven’t done Tokyo Station yet). It is freakin’ huge. And there seemed to be dozens of exits. I thought I wanted East Side, so found an exit and popped out.

What I got was just like Shibuya last night, but I don’t know… there seemed to be a slightly different vibe. Wandering around you can tell there is definitely more “entertainment” to be had.

As a consequence I seemed to dig Shibuya a little more, so envisage that I would lob back there from time to time more than pop out at Shinjuku… plus Shibuya train station scares me less 🙂

So some dinner and wandering brings me back to Shinagawa, all sleepy like. Not sure about tomorrow, maybe it is time for Akihabara. Best get some rest then.