Day 1 - TOKYO!

We landed just before seven am, Ant had got a few hours sleep, I had two, so we were both feeling a little jaded. The airport was easy as pie, however the place to get our JR rail passes didn't open till 7:45, so we had some hanging around to do.

Once we were all set up - we have the rail pass and the Tokyo version of an oyster card as they serve different train lines - we headed to Shinjuku which is where we are staying for our first few nights in Tokyo. We couldn't check in until half past two, so we left our stuff in a locker at the station and went exploring.

First off, we headed to Roppongi Hills, as it has a very tall building that you can go on the roof of as well as an excellent modern at museum.

Then we walked down to the Tokyo tower and a massive temple that is near by.

Once we had seen those it was time to head to our apartment to check in. It's very small, but has everything we could ever need.

We had read about an aquarium on the roof of a shopping mall that is near where we are staying, so headed there as there is nothing more weird than penguins on the roof of a building in Tokyo!

As we were heading back from here we saw a cat cafe advertised and again,intrigued by the weirdeness, decided to swing by. Essentially, a room with lots of sofas, people, and cats. Not much of a cafe, but plenty of cats!

We stopped for a quick bowl of Ramen, and are just doing some prep for tomorrow before bed!

It's amazing, and completely nuts... We can't wait for more.

Things we have learnt:
1) the metro system is awesome and very user friendly
2) the Japanese are polite to the point of madness
3) wifi is your friend
4) you can eat well for very little money if you go to the right places
5) you will have to order food without knowing what it is... Sometimes from a machine that gives you a ticket. You give the ticket to a chef, he cooks it and gives you food.
6) the maps are useless, the streets don't have signs
7) people will speak to you in Japanese even when they know you have no idea what they are saying

Some apps to download:
1) hyperdia - train times and travel info for Japan
2) google translate and the offline Japanese language pack... Very useful.
3) navitime for Japan travel - helps plan journeys, finding local attractions and locating wifi hotspots.