Fashion & travel: TRAVEL: JAPAN TOKYO

7月5日东京 tokyo
After work on the Tuesday went home got a quick shower and headed for he metro to the airport. The majority (minus a small

Bag of clothes) was all Rebecca's plus some gifts for the family. The metro (around 11) stopped and shared a taxi with 3 Chinese to the airport (7 each) they were all very friendly, 2 guys going away for business trips and one girl meeting her parents who were coming for a week for a visit. Spent ages in the queue, as an idiot as I thought, my ticket didn't include luggage, thankfully they aren't so strict in china so didn't way the large backpack (which people had been helping me put on as it was almost as big as me!) then squished things around and put some stuff in my carrier backpack: the queue was the visa was just as large, so even though I arrived very early, when I finally

Got to my gate I had half an hour till we took off. I was near the front. Beside a window to a Chinese couple. I was tired, I was 1am. Food and drinks were not provided (bit like a European flight) I slept awkwardly with my eye mask using rebs blanket thing.so not much, so eyes from air con arrived exhausted with a sore neck as always, however watching the sunrise from the plane and seeing Mount Fuji from above so clearly was remarkable! .the queue for the customs visa check （海关/出镜检查）took forever with my heavy bag, maybe another hour...and the guy stamped it in a new page, now I have ONE PAGE LEFT CLEAR dick thankfully ryan had sent me great directions for meeting them. The girl (with great English) helped me get the ticket and led me to the bus (airport limousine) it was empty minus one girl from California (华裔） who'd been traveling New Zealand then parts of china now to japan before going back to china later in the year. She added my wechat lol. One stop on the metro before meeting ryan and reb who
Had been waiting since 5 (I landed 4) and it was after 6. They took my luggage like heros and we went to the air B&b for a much needed power nap!

We got up and slowly made a move after coffee and present giving (I had a late bday present, a beautiful antique locket with an onyx stone and inside there were pictures or reb and I (Milan) and ryan and I (Kyoto) I was very touched. Ryan's tshirts unfortunately didn't fit. Wasn't happy! I can maybe keep one and reb can have the other?
We then headed to odaiba 台场 an artificial Island full of malls, a sort of beach, a Statue of Liberty (?) 自由神像 and a Gundam statue robot (anime) along with cafe, but he's getting rebuilt for the new series so was currently dismantled :( we went to Palette mall which had a 100¥ store anime shops and lots of designer boutiques. It drizzled slightly so we explored around before checking out some more malls - including the hello kitty store 🐱 and then going to Saizeriya for the first meal haha. We had a chilled day before heading back and watching some anime Osomatsusan (sextuplets - bit odd and very basic animation style) the house is big - one floor. Small kitchen with the very small Japanese toilet (no window so a sauna as usual) the room itself is big enough. Double bed. Ryan has a futon plus tv and seats. It's a quiet area, part of old Tokyo - where the brothels would have been apparently haha. We had tv microwave, hot Plate, fridge freezer etc so it's decent. Exhausted I slept through the alarm until 10 the next day! (9 china time but still!)

thursday 6th July
So a lazy start for me. We got ready drank some coffee and planned the day. A day of on foot action (metro isn't the cheapest, the weather is nice and walking is good - though our feet disagree haha) we headed first to the asakusa district 浅草区 an older district of japan we passed the Tokyo tower and the beer factory with a sort of one sided golden bull Horn coming from It? We went to the famous 7th century senso-ji temple. We went to a famous melon pan shop which had an offer
For melon pan and a traditional drink - e.g. Lemon tea with Japanese yuzo honey, or one of the flavour soda drinks. For 500. The temple was beautiful, the area around it full of shops packed with people. Full of kimono to buy 和服。

thursday 6th July

So a lazy start for me. We got ready drank some coffee and planned the day. A day of foot action (metro isn't the cheapest, the weather is nice and walking is good - though our feet disagree haha) we headed first to the asakusa district 浅草区 an older district of japan we passed the Tokyo tower and the beer factory with a sort of one sided golden bull Horn coming from It? We went to the famous 7th century senso-ji temple. We went to a famous melon pan shop which had an offer
For melon pan and a traditional drink - e.g. Lemon tea with Japanese yuzo honey, or one of the flavour soda drinks. For 500. The temple was beautiful, the area around it full of shops packed with people. Full of kimono to buy 和服。

Friday 7th July
Up a by earlier today but still not out so quick haha got the metro to the shinjuku area stopping first to go
to the beautiful shinjuku gyeon park with a vast beautiful pond area where lunch was eaten at leisure and British rose gardens where we sat and chilled for a while before heading this time to the Meiji shrine - a Shinto shrine so plain and simplistic though sat upon larger grounds and woods, parts of it were being reworked and were covered up though.

From here we went to the haraijuku district where I have always wanted to go (not recommended for a weekend expedition as that's when it's most packed! Still busy of weekdays but walkable) it was full of cute shops, from accessories and cafes (cat maid owls) to shops dedicated to cosplay (though they wouldn't let you try on unfortunately) and no refunds! From here we Walked on out down past tower records (which ryan and Rebecca Later bough the song track for 'your name') to the famous shibuya crossing! Which we did twice for My sake haha.

We went in to different stores and even went on a hunt for miniso, yet suprisingly the Chinese stores are bigger and better and better stocked, Rebecca still bought a load of things before finally making are way back to the apartment to get ready for the festival tonight, everyone dressing in yukata (apart from me who wore rebs new bunny lounger style yukata haha) they looked awesome and no1 blinks and eye with reb in her clip clip shoes and hand made socks to match them.

We were of course late for Matt (rebs American friend who has been working in japan for placement and has been helping with her paper as he wrote on a similar topic) a lovely guy felt sorry he had to wait for so long (turns out by the fountain is a hook up spot and he was approached by men a couple times lol) we went to the tail end of the fair with it closing up, food was going cheap, it was mainly a food and drink fair and festival, performances had been missed etc but there were still lots of stragglers. Ryan and Matt got some Taiwanese dumplings and cocktail sausages with Chinese bubble
Milk tea, it was cold and ryan was unsure of the strange bubbles

Of the tea, plus the sausages were oily and nearly got on his yukata, shame, earlier could have been better. We sat and chatted till we were moved on and then dandered around the park area. Illuminated mainly by moonlight. We strolled around a small shrine and marveled at the lake of Lily pads, it had been over grown, a lake of green leaves no water in sight (everyone was a bit confused at the sight haha) Matt told us the story of the festival and how's it's celebrated on 2 occasions, more so the seconds later date of August as it's a more accurate. The story is similar to that of the moon goddess (the rabbit) and her lover celebrated at mid autumn moon cake festival 中秋节 2 lovers forbidden to be together and cursed, only able to meet once a year on a certain date were the spells power losses its grip, a bitter sweet tale of love, like an ancient Romeo and Juliet (but with less death and finality) eventually we made our way towards the exit for Matt to get his long train home before it might shut while we walked (a regret rebs feet had the next day!) late back and with chatting on return we were late exhausted and slow for the busy morning next.

YOKOHAMA

2nd biggest city

port and us navel base

pokemon shop

worlds biggest ferris wheel

we got a JR TRAIN directly to Yokohama, approx, 1 hour. as er usual, it was SUPER hot. once we arrived and had some lunch we headed (

the most unconvenient way to the city's park and its awesome free zoo. relaxing for a while on a bench with the tropical bird calls surrounding us

china town

the port

KAMSKURA

and downed it like a Beer due to the heat. The shrine/temple area was busy with activity, a musk smell of incense in the air, the first temple was at the foot of the mountain area, there were lots of steps to get up to the temple.

after our visit we decided to see the famous "Big Buddha" and began our walk, theres a ticket fee of 200, with discount for students only available for primary school students. for an extra 20, you can go inside it.

maybe i've seen to many big buddhas but i wasn't overly impressed, we sat on a nearby stone and relaxed enjoying the atmosphere of the area. we left and visited some shops along the way before coming across another shrine full of plants, more like a beautiful overgrown secret garden that an honored shrine, it was charming and unique. it was very beautiful.

Rebecca wanted to go to the beach so changed into it and went for a dip.

MOUNT FUJI

we terminated at was full of people, however the rest of the town is pretty empty and not touristy at all! most seem to just use it as a pit stop and get buses from here to other areas. We stopped at a supermarket, got some food and sat on the rocky cove area looking out onto one of the lakes of "Fuji 5 lakes" we wandered around before heading back and finallyy deciding to get a ticket for one of the buses that could take us to the suicide forest：Aokigahara