First day in Japan, 2/02/2015

After long hours of sitting and squashing to the toilets, finally arrived in Narita Airport like everyone else. landing in a the minus six degree Celsius was one of the best surprises from the blazing hot weather of Cairns.

 Actually quite looking forward to the 2020 Olympics, I wonder what cool buildings Japan will offer.

 Next thing was to catch the train to our hotel in Shinagawa, and buying the ticket was one of the hardest thing to do after arriving. Without knowing what the difference was between reserve seats and non reserve seats, and making sure we are going to our hotel and not some where crazy was insane. They paid people standing right next to the escalators saying good morning, isn't it also a good idea to put them next to the ticket machines to help people in need!!

 

Catching the N'EX (Narita EXpress) was a quite a joy, spacious and quiet. The seat could even turn around because a four seats facing each other!! We should get these in Melbourne! But the trains are insanely quiet, having a sigh saying "please turn your phone on silence." Honestly felt quite awkward just to talk to each other. So not sure if the seats will come to use. 

The train trip from Narita to Shinagawa was quite nice, just enjoying the simple scenery of country side -ish of Tokyo. Awesome part is that there are people rolling carts with foods and drinks!! Why don't we have that!!!!

Our first ever meal in Japan was this Horse Mackerel and Yellow- Tail? sushi. Pretty decent for a train ride food.

Arriving in Shinagawa Station was hectic, holding my luggage and having people power walk into me was very confusing and it made it worst when I had no idea where to go as well. It was scary when are you are trying to insert the ticket in the gates, and even with seconds when your ticket is not in, some one will power walk their way with their touch and go cards.

After arriving at our hotel and getting some rests, we have made ourselves to the Shinagawa stations to go to our first destination. Shibuya. The train was interesting, to see people doing their daily lives, some on their phones, some listening to their musics and some looking at us funny.

Shibuya is incredibly busy place, people going to work, buses full of passengers. Never ending. I was influenced to even rush and hurry as they would.

Lunch was at this random ramen place, not sure where it was, but it was quite good.

The famous Shibuya 109, mainly all women accessories and clothings.

Thought I might change from the norm, instead of taking a photo from above to see how big it seems, but to see the infamous Shibuya Crossing from within to see the details.

Shibuya is awesome for foods such as ramen and bbq-ing, surprisingly not seeing any takoyaki and other stuffs.

While walking around Shibuya, accidentally stumble into one of the coolest shop ever, ranging from old mangas to vintage anime figures from all sorts of animations and tv series.
Its called Mandarake, I have no wonder where it is, buts its underground 7th floors, creepy at first but absolutely worth the trip to visit here.
(http://www.mandarake.co.jp/en/shop/sby.html)

A cheeky shot :P

 From old as mangas from 1980s to the newest releases.

Shibuya at night is still as busy as the morning, whilst most shops closes at 10, those that tried to rush in for the last minute shopping are plenty. No matter how small or how big. 

Going back to the hotel was an easy ride as we tried to avoid the rush hours, but even until 10pm, there are still great deal of workers and passengers pushing onto the train on the last seconds. tiring day today, but definitely a great start to ten days trip to Japan.

Please look forward to the next destination: Akihabara the gathering of anime and technology.