Probably the most difficult journey of the trip so far, Shinkansen Yamabiko 50 whisked us from Utsonomiya to Ueno on the outskirts of Tokyo in no time. Eight months ago, when we were organising this trip, we noticed that we could not find accommodation in Tokyo as it was already all booked. Consequently, we ended up with a privately rented apartment for the four days we are here. We normally try and avoid such places for all sorts of reasons, but here we are. It proved more complicated than we had anticipated to get from Ueno station to our accommodation. We salvaged the situation with a splendid evening meal in a little local tempura restaurant accompanied by sake - which Steve managed not to tip all over himself (this time).

If the apartment we are in is anything to go by, Tokyoites live cooped up like battery hens. Still, it's probably a worthwhile trade-off to live in such a vibrant and happening city.

Tokyo

After a rather fraught arrival in Tokyo, our first full day turned out very well. Megan had discovered some weird art collective called teamLab and we had booked tickets way back for an installation known as Borderless. Not being of a particularly artistic bent, your author will not try and describe what these guys are about other than to observe that it seems to be some kind of fusion of art, sound and computer graphics. The place is massive and completely dark other than for the actual displays. There is a large number of different displays each with an arty description of what they are exploring, but the key seems to be that the observer gets lost in all the rooms and the displays themselves migrate between rooms gradually. It is also possible to interact with some of the art and it can change depending on what the observer does. For example, projections of roaming creatures can be touched and they will turn to look at the observer. Flowers can be plucked and butterflies captured. Some displays depend on how many people are watching and others can be altered from your phone. All rather strange, but very impressive and a lot of fun. We spent a few hours roaming the place looking at the art and drinking tea with flowers projected into it!

As we trundled around Tokyo on the metro, the tips and tricks we had learned last tine gradually came back and the process became easier. One thing we had not come across last time was the women only carriages. They are clearly labeled, but only if you know what to look for! Nobody objected and it only happened the once. Due to where we were lodging, we took the opportunity to revisit Sensō-ji which we saw on the last trip. This time we were able to go by night when most of the tourists have cleared off.

We took a local train out to the north east to Katsushika City to visit the Buddhist temple of Shibamata Taishakuten where the temple itself is faced on all side by exquisite wood carvings that are unusual in that they have not been painted. Due to their delicate nature, the carvings only receive a light annual brushing to remove cobwebs. There is also an oddly shaped tree outside the temple that the Buddhists have managed to interpret in some religious manner. Those enterprising Buddhists also run a ferry across the local river (for a small fee). This is quite something since there is really nothing of note on the other side. The temple and ferry combo are denoted as one of the 100 landscapes of Japan for some reason that is lost on this author. Still, it's a nice spot and not too touristy. The approach to the temple consists of a narrow street lined with old shops.

In actual fact, unless you are mad on anime or something called Pokemon, Tokyo is not full of attractions (or so it seems to this traveller). A lot of things are very big and don't fit well into photos, but many of the main attractions we reported on during the last trip. As a result, we spent a couple of days ticking off some of the less touristy bits - and some so touristy we had skipped them last time. In this latter category was the Godzilla head in Shinjuku, the 3D Cat in the same area and the Tokyo Skytree. The Skytree area was holding a Christmas market, which has to be the earliest one we have ever been to. Steve wanted to pay homage to the Budokan and Megan wanted to ride the driver-less train out to Odaiba to see a large animated Gundam figure. This figure is supposedly life-sized which, in this case, means 19.7m tall. And broken. It is not animated any more. But it was an interesting trip and we got to see Tokyoites out on a Saturday evening doing what they do. Which seems to be shopping, eating and worshiping stuffed replicas of cartoon characters. Could be worse.

When we first arrived in country, we immediately headed north to Aomori and then worked our way gradually south back to Tokyo. Now we are heading south to Okayama from where we will work our way north back to Tokyo again. So next up is Okayama.