Tokyo

All the stereotypes that you might think about Japan, they are ALL TRUE !!!

Polite and proud people famous for their discipline and their attention to the detail, crazy users of mobile phones and whole mini markets inside vending machines, everything I had in mind about Japan has been confirmed with the surprising addition to the obsessive smoking habit.

This was a good reminder of what we will be expecting when we move back in Greece, but people here are 10 times worse. We had to actually leave from cafes, bars and airport lounges because there was no smoking free section and we could not stand the stinky smell (I am writing this while on the plane and I can smell someone smoking behind me!!!).

Nevertheless, Japan is a true “foreign country” for western people, or at least as foreign as it can get with the Starbucks and McDonalds that you see all over the world.

You would expect a well-developed country and a modern city to look and feel like any other western big city but it is different. For starters everything is in Japanese and apart from the very few big international franchises, you have no idea what is what.

Occasionally we found ourselves staring at objects and we could not tell if there were sweet or sour snacks, toys, accessories or replacement parts of something. The shop labels did not give us any clue and sometimes the taste did not help either.

As far as being the country of advanced electronics and crazy technology, this is more of a perception that was true back in the 90s and (unfortunately) the trend did not carry on during the last decade. Vending machines on every corner, heated electronic toilet seats with more buttons than your TV remote control, tall skyscrapers and very fast trains are all things that excited visitors 10 years ago and although they are still here, they are old news.

I do not blame them, as it is difficult to impress someone that reads 3-4 technology magazines per month and has practically searched (and almost owned) anything that takes batteries and sold on Ebay.

We arrived in Tokyo late at night and got the train to the city. You might think that living in UK you get used to the expensive transportation, but here you are in for an expensive surprise.

Our hostel was small but clean. The bed was bigger than the room but that did not bother us apart from having to take turns who gets in and out from the tiny non-existing corridor.

Tokyo does not have one main typical downtown area. It is divided in neighbourhoods and each one has its own central point. This made our "wondering around to see everything" plan a bit difficult but we did the most we could do in 3 days.