Overnight by Tokyo Station

And so it came to pass that, for the first time during the summer months, I would be returning for my third trip to Scotland; this time with Angie in tow! You can read all about my experiences in Scotland in my very next blog post....

Before we made it to Scotland, however, we had to travel to Terminal 2 at Tokyo Narita airport from Takamatsu. This time, however, was a bit more of an adventure than usual!

Usually I've always taken the night bus to get back home, as I've found this overnight service to Tokyo station (followed by the hour long train to the airport via the Narita Express) very convenient and perfect for syncing up with my flight times the next morning. This time, however, Angie and I were sadly unable to take this service as the tickets were sold out when we tried to book it. A bit of a pain, but not a deal-breaker. Instead, we would have to take trains almost immediately after school to get there in time (including the usual transfer to the shinkansen in Okayama), which would be considerably more expensive - basically double the cost (¥9000 vs ¥18000 approximately).

The other downside was that we were unable to find any suitable accommodation for our overnight stay. The only hotels available were far out of our price range, and we were too far away from any of the other cheaper hotels to consider them. As such, we would have to somehow spend the night in Tokyo around Tokyo Station... somehow.

Storage lockers.

Things appeared fine when we first arrived in Tokyo. Arriving just before 11pm, we put our luggage into the overnight storage at Tokyo Station (which apparently is time-locked between 11pm and 7am). Unfortunately, this would incur an overnight storage fee, but there wasn't anything we could do. Our flight was around 11am the next morning, so we would have to kill around twelve hours overnight, which we had initially planned to do just by killing time in the station. It quickly became apparent, however, that all of the restaurants and kiosks in the station were closing for the evening. Tokyo Station is nowhere near as central, big or busy as Shinjuku station, and it quickly became apparent that the station would be pretty much dead overnight.

We decided to make our way out onto the city streets, to see what food we could acquire there (as we hadn't eaten dinner, and were accordingly pretty hungry). It took an age to get out of the station, though, as Angie's ticket had disappeared and we had no idea how to cross the barrier gates without it (eventually a sympathetic gate-keeper happily let us through).

The area outside Tokyo Station.

Walking around the streets, we soon realised that not only were we with inconsiistent phone signal, but all of the nearby restaurants were very pricey and almost all closing at midnight (which was only minutes away). We followed our Google Maps towards the nearest combini, thinking that perhaps it would be our only source of salvation (there was also a McDonalds listed, but we had no idea whether or not it would be open 24 hours).

As we walked, and walked, and walked for seemingly an eternity, we headed towards a nearby karaoke place (Big Echo) next to a series of combinis, dreading what felt like the inevitable microwave dinner that awaited us. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon a small restaurant under an archway nearby, which appeared to be open all night.

Ordering a mix of dishes, we at last had some small comfort after feeling near starved and a bit helpless. The food was pretty good, as it happened, though the restaurant felt like it was in a very rough part of town!

Dinner!

After eating, we stopped at a nearby Lawson for overnight supplies, then made the long walk back again to Tokyo Station. Upon arrival, it became very clear that the station had actually closed for the night; it was almost deserted with the exception of a few construction workers who seemed to be doing some work on the building, and a few rather suspect characters that may well have been homeless. With several hours to go before morning, Angie and I appeared to be stuck.

Luckily, Angie struck upon a brilliant idea; find an all-night Internet Cafe.

Media Cafe POPEYE.

A quick Google search on our iPhones revealed one not too far away named 'Media Cafe POPEYE'. We decided to make our way there, which involved walking again for what seemed like another thirty minutes (including walking past some rough areas of Tokyo where several homeless people seemed to live). The cafe seemed to be in something of a red-light district (with police also patrolling the area), which was more than a bit concerning, but as our options were limited we decided to go for it.

The cafe itself was quiet and a bit run down; not as nice as my local Funky Time Internet Cafe (which I often frequent for the wonderful free drink service), but definitely serviceable. We each booked a private cubicle for the night with a padded floor, and also spotted a few other heads asleep at various computers nearby. Angie and I managed to get cubicles next to one another, which - along with the toilet facilities - would definitely do us for the night. We popped our phones on to charge and I decided to try and turn my PC on - but I couldn't even work out how to start it. As such, Angie and I put down our heads and managed to get about five hours of sleep.

Around 6am, and still feeling very sleepy, Angie and I got up in order to make it back to the train station for seven and reclaim our luggage. It hadn't been the best accomodation by any means, but it was definitely more than serviceable and provided an opportunity to get at least a little bit of sleep. If anyone is stuck overnight at Tokyo Station, I'd definitely recommend this an option (although be aware that you have to sign up for a membership card first, and that the walk may be a little dodgy - a taxi is probably recommended!).

A dodgy part of town.

The early morning walk felt somewhat surreal, as we again saw several homeless people living only a small walking distance away from the main Tokyo station. After about thirty minutes, we arrived at the front door (which I had often arrived at around 7am via night bus), and opted to get straight on the next train to Narita Airport. On the Narita Express, we both felt a little worn down before our flights home had even began.

Back at Tokyo Station.

We checked in at the airport, picked up some presents in the Duty Free, and finally made our way back to Scotland.

It had definitely been a long and memorable evening.

Tokyo 2013 (Day Four): Tsukiji Fish Market & the National Museum of Science and Nature

At JR Ueno Station.

Rainer and I came to our last day in Tokyo feeling more than a little worn-down. The last three days had been hectic, and had involved a lot of travelling. However, we were determined to make the most of the day before the travel home that night.

Breakfast.

After checking out of the hotel, we opted for a simple breakfast at the Tully's coffee shop nearby, before heading on to our first destination of the day; the Tsukiji Fish Market.

Tsukiji Fish Market

A stall at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

After trying (and failing) to visit this iconic location the day before, Rainer and I finally made it here early on Monday morning. There was a notable increase in the number of pedestrians walking around, and we followed them into the huge warehouse areas. Scores of forklifts were moving crates of fish around, and there were countless workers carrying out their duties who seemed completely unfazed by the daily swarm of visitors.

Rainer and I walked down the designated paths into the market area, where many local sellers were selling off local produce. We walked around the stalls, trying plenty of free samples. In addition the fish, there was all manner of Japanese produce - as well as a whole host of clothing stores! Surprising, and definitely not what I expected. The area was very intimate, yet was full of people. Every second store seemed to be yet another sushi store, and so we knew straight away what we would be having for lunch.

Our lunch was quite the treat; freshly prepared sushi at one of these local restaurants. We indulged in a huge plate of recommended sushi, though half of them were completely unrecognizable to us.

The fish was cut and prepared in front of us, and it tasted incredibly fresh (as opposed to the occasional "warm" kind which is unfortunately present at a few chain restaurants). I tried my best, but there were a few which I simply couldn't stomach and had to leave (one actually kicked in a bit of a gag reflex). Rainer, however, managed the lot. The vast majority of what I ate was fantastic, and it felt great to eat fish in this iconic location.

Overall, the fish market was an excellent place to visit and a great start to our final day.

National Museum of Nature and Science (Japan)

Back in Ueno Park.

Starbucks from afar!

Rainer and I made our way towards Ueno Park, to try and see a little bit more of it during the day-time (partially to dispel our rather unfortunate experiences with it the previous evening). Upon arriving, we thought about heading to the zoo, but stumbled instead upon Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science. As Rainer and I are both science-junkies, we decided to say "what the hell" and gave it a shot.

The National Museum of Nature and Science.

The gift shop features what are apparently dinosaur bones

and space food for sale.

After a quick detour into the gift shop, the first thing we saw was a huge 3D dome theatre (named "Theatre360"), in which we stood on a bridge. After the doors closed, the dome came to life and all manner of things started to move around us through two presentations; one a presentation on the history of the dinosaurs, the other on the evolution of mankind. Even though these presentations were exclusively in Japanese, it was very easy to follow the images which conveyed the stories. It was a visual spectacle, and I love seeing things like this that can bring natural history to life in such a vivid way.

Marine-life bones.

The museum was filled with all manner of exhibits, but what struck us the most were the dinosaur skeletons. There was a huge collection of ancient animals reconstructed and pieced together for display purposes. I absolutely love getting up close to these things - not least because they can be quite terrifying. We spent far too long looking at these guys in detail.

Another large display was dedicated to the evolution of man, showing hundreds of bones of predecessors to homo-sapiens. The continuity and progression of these forms was very impressive to see first-hand.

In addition to skeletons, we also saw a huge exhibit of creatures which appeared to have been taxidermied. While somewhat morbid, the variety of animals on display was staggering. Seeing such a vast variety in the same species of animals and insects (for example, the hundreds of beetles on display) was quite eye-opening to the diversity in nature.

We also spent a lot of time in the lowest floor of the museum, where physics and space were the central themes. There were a huge number of physics experiments that you could participate in by pressing buttons and interacting with various devices. Elsewhere, there were videos of space exploration and models of the cosmos. Again, I loved this stuff, and Rainer and I spent ages wandering amongst it all and studying it in detail.

Physics n' stuff.

As the afternoon was rolling into the evening, we made our way to the cafe and decided to have dinner. The cafe was decorated in the fashion of a jungle, and had all manner of animals popping up around the place. The menu wasn't too extravagant, but I had a nice curry and followed it up with a panda-shaped parfait. Not bad.

Panda parfait!

On my way out, I also picked up some dinosaur omiyage biscuits to give to the teaching staff at my school as a present. Naturally.

T-Rex Omiyage.

Monsters University

Having only a few hours left in Tokyo before the night bus home, Rainer and I decided that the most relaxing way to spend our evening would be with a film. We opted for Monsters University, and spent the next couple of hours relaxing with Pixar.

A pretty good film, all things considered (although I hadn't seen the first film at this point!).

Night Train back to Takamatsu

Following the film, Rainer and I made our way back to Shinjuku station, where we hoped we would be able to take the night train in the same way Yas and Angie had done so yesterday. Sadly, this didn't work out particularly well. Despite being told that we were too early to buy tickets earlier in the day, we were now told that the tickets had sold out (!). Not very convenient. We had a bit of bother the previous evening trying to buy tickets there for Angie, too (Yas had already purchased his). I would say it's probably good idea to get a return night bus sorted way in advance of your trip in case you run into any hiccups like this.

It wasn't the end of the world. Knowing that there was a night train available from Tokyo station which went directly to Takamatsu station (from my trip to Chiba last year), Rainer and I made our way to Tokyo station and booked cabins for the night on the train. It was a bit of a rush to get to Tokyo station in time (and I hadn't withdrawn enough cash to account for the extra fee - which was hefty! - so Rainer had to loan me), but we made it.

I've no idea what this was, but it was driving along Shinjuku.

As before, I thoroughly enjoyed riding on the night train. Being provided with a free dressing gown and bed for the night makes a huge difference compared to trying to sleep in relative discomfort on a night bus. I spent the early hours of the evening playing on my DS and reading, before getting some rest just a little after midnight. Rainer had never experienced the night train before, so he actually had a nice experience. It really is recommended.

Fate was against us again, sadly. The next day, the train had some sort of malfunction and - rather than take us back to Takamatsu in time - we were dropped off in Osaka and made to transfer on the shinkansen. Oh dear. We made it back in one piece, but it was a little unfortunate.

JR Ueno Station.

And so, our four day trip to Tokyo concluded. It was a damn good one, and left the trip on a very high note. Still, I feel like I've only barely scratched the surface of this colossal city.