One Blonde...: One Blonde in Tokyo: Day 1

Holiday time for teachers in Korean Hagwons is limited so it means that when a three day weekend occurs we need to maximise it. Recently Korea celebrated 'Sollal', or Korean New Year... the second biggest Korean holiday after Chuseok (the time I went to the Zoo!) We celebrated this major holiday in a rather controversial manner by booking flights and going on a trip to Tokyo.

Tokyo, and indeed Japan, have been very central to my life plans for years now, initially I had planned to spend a year not in lovely Korea but indeed in Japan however circumstances lead me to Korea which is AMAZING however i desperatly wanted to visit Japan whilst I was in the area... luckily for me so did my fabulous friends Jenny, Shauna and Mary. We left Munsan on the aiprot bus at 520, and took a flight with Delta Airlines from Incheon to Narita. Arriving in Narita we took a rather lush train ride into central Tokyo before finding our way to our hostel. The Kahaosan Ninja! The place had been recommended by a friend who had stayed there a few weeks previously and it was great. Part of the experiences we had originally looked into when visiting Japan was to stay in a capsule hotel, however we soon discovered these were mainly used by drunk Japanese men and weren't that safe! Luckily for use The Ninja was designed as a capsule hotel. So our hostel room for 16, was in fact 16 wooden pods! It was strange, living in a space where you couldn't stand up, i was in one the second level capsules (they were arranged like conjoined bunkbeds, i was in the top bunk) the last time I slept in a bunkbed was probably when i was atleast 12 years ago so getting up and down the ladder was rather interesting. After dropping off our luggage and freshening up, we decided to go and get aquainted with Tokyo and took the subway to Shinjuku, towards the east of central Tokyo, we then spent around 6 hours wandering, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harijuku. Taking in the skyline, the atmosphere, the shops, the people and off course the world famous Shibuya crossroads, the busiest crossoroads in the world and featured in one of my favourite films 'Lost in Translation'. As the evening wore on we decided to find something to eat, we found a great underground restaurant and managed to indulge in both raw fish and Sake. Both of which were great. We then headed back to our hostel and our first experience sleeping in a capsule... before getting ready for our Sunday assault on the city.