I don't think I have ever been more eager to leave a holiday destination. We arose early, grabbed some breakfast pastries and left B&B Pansion. The walk, that we had become so used to would be walked once more in my lifetime. After a couple of interconnecting trains we were soon at Hakone-Yumuto and eventually back at Odawara. We arrived in Tokyo shortly before lunchtime. Up until this point in time we had made one crucial assumption. That being, when you book something online you're pretty much guaranteed that booking. We haven't had Internet connection in just over 2 days and all we had was the name of our final hotel. The Kent Hotel, Shinjuku.
Immediately arriving at Shinjuku station the number of people that sustains a population of 12 million people (in Tokyo) was informally introduced to us. We were caught up in people moving in every direction, running for trains, moving like ants with a place to be. We were not up to par, stuck clueless we walked about dodging people and maneuvering our luggage through the station of Shinjuku. We decided to seek help from a place called Across Travellers Bureau. We emerged from the underground station and it couldn't have been more blatantly obvious that we were lost tourists in one of the largest cities in the world. Lugging luggage around with one hand, map in the other, camera around our necks. Could we have advertised being LOST anymore?
Due to our skillful acting and the confused looks a local ran to our aid. He took our Lonely Planet and proceeded to direct us to the Travellers Bureau. We spoke and tested his broken English. Turns out he was/is studying English and wanted to get some practise (uh huh! Motive!). After some walking through the busy streets he brought us to a major intersection. Looked up. Looked back at the map. Looked around. Looked back at the map. "Mmmm, it should be here". Clearly disappointed that he was unable to help us he directed us towards a Tourist Office on the other side of town. His instructions were surprisingly good and we found the place and spoke briefly with the information desk workers.
Kabuki Cho, is definitely a happening place. Plenty of large billboards, shops, people and restaurants. We struggled to find the Kent but after some searching we found it. It was tucked away in the cinema district. To our shock when we arrived to check in the concierge told us there was no booking under the name we had provided. We had just assumed we had received the reservation confirmation. We hopped into the first Internet cafe we could find. The guy at the desk was exuding confidence at the highest level. Unfortunately due to our circumstances it definitely wasn't the time and place for over exuberance.
Checking my email confirmed our fears. Bookings were full and we had missed out on the reservation. We prepared a new line of attack. First and foremost we would head back to the Kent and see if they had any rooms available. If not, then we had a thorough list of backup hotels and locations to approach for lodging. Fortunately we got back and to our luck booked two separate rooms.
We unpacked and grabbed some Ramen for lunch. What a terrible start to Tokyo. The rest of the day we spent exploring Shibuya. This was supposedly the trendy part of town, the place to be. It must have been the weather but we were quite disappointed. It was spent doing some light shopping, dodging umbrellas and avoiding the rain. One highlight of Shibuya was building 109. A building dedicated to fashion, in particular women's clothing and accessories. It was a senses overload, chicks screaming out shop sales, gorgeous Japanese women. My mind was at the point of shutdown. Wow! Grabbed some pasta for afternoon tea. There are some seriously hot chicks in Shibuya.
That evening we explored Shinjuku, the place is huge, we were constantly referring to our map and took numerous wrong turns. It's too easy to get lost here. What a bright city! Large signs advertising different products, even larger projectors displaying the latest J-pop single, Neon signs of every colour imagineable, reds, yellows, pinks, electric blue, the list is endless. Thankfully our hotel The Kent is situated close to the station. What we didn't realise it that Kabuki Cho is on the Red Light District side of town. We were approached by plenty of people. "Do you want to see Japanese girls?". For some reason only I was approached by these seedy pimps.
Used the net that night, the usual emailing, browsing. Found out that Yube is also known as Yuskin. Well i'll be...
