by the grace of God: Tokyo

Arrived in Tokyo Narita Airport early around 7 AM. My first 'adult' solo travel experience. Mind you that although I did self research the places to go, but it was a shallow information as it turns out that there are many things that I overlooked and just found out first hand in Japan.

The 'older' style toilet

First stop when I touched down at the airport was the toilet. Nature calls, as simple as that. And so I meet the infamous high tech toilet. I got a feeling the version I saw is the older version, I think I've seen it possibly on the net before. Still...Japan can make a toilet that can serenade you and makes you want to stay and spray for a whole day.

The bus sign to central Tokyo

I took the airport limousine bus (just a normal bus) for ¥3000 one way. Little did I know, that you can actually catch an express train called LTD. EXP Narita Express to Tokyo station (or whatever station you like) for only ¥1280 (1 hour journey). Great job for doing your homework (Sarcasm mode). Hyperdia website is good for timetable.
From the bus to Tokyo (Narita Airport is at Chiba), I can see one of the Disney Resort Hotels, and just cars after cars as we went through high way. Even to the most common thing on the street I would shot a look just to savor Japan.

Intersection near Tokyo Station

45 minutes to 1 hour later ( can't remember), we arrived at Tokyo. The stop is Tokyo Station. I got there, saw many people and all Asians (compare to where I was in Sydney), and the big station was surprisingly, old and the ceiling is low.
As it was still early and I am staying at friend's house who's still working (I will stay in another town, about 45 minutes -1 hour from Tokyo by train), I have to rent a locker (the biggest locker that can fit my big luggage cost ¥600 for whole day, it's a bargain). There are different sizes of locker. A tip, once you put in the money, don't open it unless you are sure you won't use the locker again. Otherwise, be prepared to put it another coins.

So according to my imperfect itinerary, I was supposed to go to Shinjuku today. Shinjuku is close from Tokyo, only a few stops by Yamanote Line. One thing I found was that there is no English on the ticket machine, and the young train staff I approached couldn't speak English at all, and I have stopped immersing myself in Japanese since early 2010 that by May 2011, all my japanese flied through the window. Somehow I managed to get a ticket. As as I found out later, the transportation fees are at skyrocket price. They are more expensive than Sydney! If you stay long in Japan, it's better to get pasmo or suica card which allows you to just swipe your card, and if you don't have enough credit when you arrive at a destination, you just pay on spot.

What's in Shinjuku? Not much, just your normal big city for shopping, business, eating, meeting your gay friends (my homework leads me that they have this gay areas in Shinjuku and I just have to take a peek) and hang out in one of the red districts. As I later found out, the clothes are expensive, lots of cool and cute ones, but as expensive as Sydney. For lunch, I went straight to Yoshinoya, a cheap fast food chains where you can get a bowl of beef and rice for under ¥500. If you are a big eater, don't go near it. I went for it as 'YOSHINOYA' was the first Alphabets I laid my eyes on.