Tokyo

I arrived here on Monday afternoon and strolled up the road from my hostel in Asakusa to Senjosi temple. The approach to the temple was a small street lined with a tourist market, but best of all were the guys advertising, and operating, a running rickshaw service. Clad in faded, well worn bike shorts and uniform tops, these young men ran, pulling rickshaw-like carriages. I stood and feasted for so long on the sight of their well-toned muscular thighs, as they casually hitched up the hem of a shorts-leg here and there, that of course I was soon approached with the offer of a ride. I decided against explaining that I was only interested in their legs and moved on.
Yesterday was a big city day. Got up with one of my dorm-mates at five o'clock to visit Tsukiji fish market. Visitors are no longer allowed into the tuna auction, but we managed to find ourselves on the edge what looked like the post-auction collection point, or similar, where huge frozen tuna were being lugged about. Apparently the best of them sell for something like three million Yen. Elsewhere in the market the fish, newly bought at auction, were being cut up - those that were still frozen were whizzed through a bandsaw, fresh ones cut up by hand. Every kind of seafood imaginable was there, three foot long octopus tentacles were being curled int plastic bags, sea-cucumbers lurked unattractively and squid were being held up for inspection.

Later in the morning I set out again, this time for Akihabara - electric town. I trawled various stalls and shops looking for sushi-shaped usb sticks to no avail. I imagine you can buy any bit of electronicsy stuff you could ever want here but I wasn't too excited by tray after tray of miniscule computer components. Still, the place was buzzing with gaudy shop fronts, sales pitch and even a maid cafe.

Next stop was Kiddyland - a shop famed for its plethora of kitsch. Hello Kitty may be king here (or should that be queen?) but the shop had a whole Snoopy floor. Exhausted by the Stuff on offer I retired to the storefront to enjoy a Hello Kitty ice-cream.

Strength restored, I walked down to Shibuya to witness what might be the world's busiest pedestrian crossing (supposedly). It was fairly manic, a four way intersection, so four zebras - one across each road - as well as diagonals. Unfortunately it wasn't rush hour, so my photos don't look quite as good as others I have seen. From here I went to Shinjuku, where I visited a couple of enormous camera shops to track down a new battery. And play with lots of cameras on display while trying not to be too tempted by any of them. By the time I left, it was six o'clock, so Shinjuku station was fairly busy. I've been through it a few times now and there is rather a lot of it. Apparently it has 60 exits and more than 3 million people pass through it every day.

Today I set off for Tsukudocho, near Kagurazaka to see something closer to old-Tokyo charm. The area is full of tiny narrow roads lined with houses, cafes and bars and made a nice contrast to yesterday's bright lights. I then went to Koishikawa Korakuen - a walled garden that proved to be a very attractive haven of calm with its lake, streams and pathways that wandered up little hillocks and over bridges. It even contained a small rice paddy, planted by someone who wanted his wife, who came from a rich family, to understand the hardships endured by peasants. In the distance the peak of a rollercoaster could be seen... so off I went in search of the beast.


The coaster was "Thunder Dolphin" at Tokyo Dome. It whizzed over, and through, buildings as well as through the middle of a spokeless ferris wheel. Well, I suppose with a spoked one it might have presented a problem. Of course, I had to have a go... The guys operating the ride waved us off as if we were dear friends going away for a year and when we returned they clapped our amazing achievement with delighted smiles. I stepped off, my hair pointing backwards and 90 degrees to the back of my head. It was fast. The initial hill was at least twice as high as the mall below and the view from the top was amazing, but unfortunately we didn't hang around there for long. The first drop was terrific - so steep it felt like freefall (it isn't) and apparently over 80 mph.