Japan Day 12: Back To Tokyo.

Hello people from Japan!  Fifteen of you read this blog last night so I wanted to say that I'm really enjoying my time in your country: thank you for being so accommodating and I apologise in advance for my cultural faux pas and my butchered attempts at your language. Not to mention my sub-par chopstick skills which put everyone next to me in restaurants at risk, and by the way I've demoted myself back to L plates after my last lunch time efforts ended up in me wearing my sauce. Time to start carrying a bib as well as a mask, methinks.

Okay, on with the show.

I took a walk through Dotonbori at 06:00. The shops were shut, the tourists all tucked up in bed, a small army of workers cleaned up rubbish and made deliveries, and three Japanese teenagers demonstrated that teenagers all over the world had the capacity to be loud and slightly silly when out in the early morning.  

Sunrise on the Tonbori River.

Tonbori reflections.

Dotonbori morning.

Back in Sydney Roger was out to coffee with our sons as they farewelled him onto a plane bound for... Japan! Yes, my solo travel days were about to end and I was interrupting my southward travel with a quick trip back to Tokyo to meet him and give him the benefit of my vast (ha!) experience in all things Japanese.

I caught the Shinkansen north.

A smoggy day zipped past outside the train, little patches of rural Japan interspersed with cities.

The track ran in and out of tunnels along the coast, providing tantalising glimpses of little bays and seaside towns. In no time at all I was back in the hurly burly of Tokyo experiencing the pleasures of the Bic Camera store as I navigated buying a SIM card for Roger. In a huge feat of self control I didn't go to the camera floor least I become so enamoured of photographic possibilities that I would never leave and be found a fortnight later weeping over the impossibility of choosing between new lenses for old or the shiny allure of brand new cameras. 

I saw all sorts of interesting things on the way to my hotel at Kitashinagawa;

A drone capable of carrying people.

A modern day dalek  security robot.

What?!!

And a shop dedicated to very stylish walking sticks.

My little hotel was tucked away off the main thoroughfare, in a little street where bicycles and pedestrians dominated and cute little shops jostled with residences.  There were no lifts and an elderly porter carried my bag up the stairs to my room, despite my protestations that I could do it myself. I unpacked, settled in, and headed out to the airport to finalise the solo part of my trip.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Outside my hotel.