blog
The Colonel
Feb 14th.
Today was my first full day in Tokyo. After getting myself up, showered, I eventually left the apartment at around 2pm and made my way to Ikebukuro station and bought a Suica card for use on the public transport.
One thing I was nervous about before coming here was how hard it might be to navigate my way around the train network. I’ve travelled on London/Paris/New York before, but this was a new system and completely foreign.
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about, at least not when I had access to Google Maps. Unsure of what I wanted to do, I ended up making my way to the Tokyo Skytree. The largest ‘tower’ in the world and the second largest man-made structure. Due to the time I arrived, I was able to watch the sunset from the top, and catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji in the distance, which was pretty cool.
After coming back down to ground level, I had to decide what I wanted to do next. I had bookmarked a few free things to do, that were happening during my time here. One was illuminations at Tokyo City Dome, which sounded alright. So I made my way there.
I literally knew nothing about the area or what it was before arriving, so when I saw there was a roller coaster, I had to find my way on it. I got myself a ticket and joined the queue.
Now, it was dark by the time I got there, so while I could see the coaster, I wasn’t really aware of just how big it actually was. I could see there was a big hill at the start (but then, don’t all coasters have that?) and I could see that it came through a hole in the wall on top of the building opposite. That was kind of it.
The above video shows the full coaster in POV, in daylight. You can see just how steep that first drop is and when you’re not expecting it, it feels even steeper. It was fun though, especially as I wasn’t expecting to ride a coaster at all.
After the coaster, I decided to make my way back to the apartment. Stopping off at a supermarket to buy some snacks for the remainder of the evening.
The pocket wifi provided by the AirBnB has been a godsend, I connected it up to my anker power bar and shoved both in my rucksack, and didn’t have to think about it again.
West meets East
It’s currently 3am local time in Tokyo, I’m laying in bed, having gone to sleep early and woken up again. What better time to start writing? – It feels really weird to actually be here, having booked the trip almost a year ago, it felt like forever away.
The adventure began in Paris, where I spent a day and a bit at Disney, what better way to forget how unprepared you are for Japan than riding rollercoasters?
February 12th, 2018:
Monday morning rolled around and I had a quick shower, packed what was left to pack and checked out of the hotel, ordering myself an uber to the airport. Definitely not the cheapest option, but it was early and I really couldn’t be bothered with the multiple trains and wait times. It was nice to just be on my way, not having to think about it.
Check-in went without any issues, and my back was checked through to Tokyo (a bonus, after the hassle of my very first trip). I had a quick breakfast and headed through to my gate to await my flight to Moscow.
I was due to have a couple hours layover in Moscow, during which time I figured I’d be able to do some final checks/preparation for Tokyo. I was wrong.
We got off our plane from Paris and without really being told where we were meant to be going, had to get through a pointless security check. The whole ordeal took so long that by the time we were on the other side, the next plane was boarding.
I say ‘we’, because on the way through and in the slight confusion of where I was supposed to be going, I heard some people speaking English – “Are you going to Tokyo as well?” – they were. “I’m going to stick with you, if we get lost, it’s your fault.”
They seemed OK with this and so it was. We got to chatting as we went:
We were all going to Tokyo. Great.
Both staying in AirBnB’s. Cool.
Where is your AirBnB? …Mine, too…
Who is your host? …Mine, too…The AirBnB I’m staying in is one of a few apartments in a small apartment building. Turns out, the people I’d spoken to completely by chance are staying above me.
The flight to Tokyo was, uncomfortable. I tried my best to sleep the whole way, but all I was able to do was drift in and out. I even put my chair back at one point, which is something I never do – and something that annoys me when people in front of me do it, but it was a last ditch attempt for comfort and only kind of worked.
Arriving at Narita airport, it was like a different world from the disorder of Moscow. It was calm, it was quiet, it was orderly. I sailed through the border check and went to wait for my luggage, being joined by my new-found English friends after a while.
Once we had everything (a head and bag count was done), we got our train tickets and sat down.
Minutes later, there was a microphone and camera in my face. Japanese TV, apparently. They did a quick interview with me (there wasn’t much option to refuse), asking where I’d come from, what I was going to be doing in Japan, etc.
After that, the train from Narita to Ikebukuro was uneventful. Once we were allowed on, that is. We tried to board and a guy came running along, he had to clean first! We watched him go on, clean the carriage and turn the chairs around so they were facing the direction of travel. Japan!
Once at Ikebukuro, we split up. Nicola and I walked to the AirBnB while the other two took a taxi with the luggage.
The walk was pretty straight forward, but somewhere along the way, we missed a turning. Standing, looking a little lost, an elderly Japanese couple stopped and offered us help, ending up walking with us to the apartment. I don’t know if we could have refused their help even if we wanted to – which we obviously didn’t. The man didn’t seem to speak much English (but he spoke enough) and the woman was a big fan of the Beatles.
In Paris, before leaving, I bought a ‘world adapter’, because I am a massively unprepared person and I hadn’t picked up any adapters before this point. However, upon arriving in Japan, the ‘world adapter’ (which says Japan on the label) doesn’t actually fit any of the sockets. So after a quick google, I ventured back out into the city, this time alone, to see if I could find one that works.
I knew we had passed a number of big electronic stores near the station, so that’s where I headed and I found myself in Bic Camera. 8 floors of… stuff. A couple hundred yen later and I was leaving with what I went in for. Easy.
Once back at the apartment, I was tired and opted just to sleep – which is why I’m now awake at this hour.
Today is the 14th. I’m here until the 24th and I have no idea what I’ll be doing in those days. We’ll see what I decide to do when I wake up!
Tak, København
Just like that, the trip to Copenhagen is over.
While we felt we had done everything we wanted to do, there was still a niggling doubt in my mind that we might have missed something big, so it was nice, while sat in the park, that a woman came over to us – to rest, apparently. I felt sure she was out to scam us, she seemed like the type to suddenly break out a clip board asking for donations to some obscure cause – but ultimately, she seemed to just genuinely be looking to chat.
She asked us where we were from, how long we’d been here, “had we done everything?”
We told her we thought so, but weren’t sure.
“Have you done the castle? (we were sat next to it), The mermaid? Chrstiania? … She named a couple more places, which have slipped my mind, but the answer to them all was yes. “Ok, bye”, she replied. “You’re done. You’ve done it all. Copenhagen is not that big.”
‘Check out’ of the AirBnB was painless, we went for food in the morning, and were back in the apartment for around 12 – the time we’d said to Lone to come meet us. She showed up. We said goodbye and we were off.
I was a little worried about doing this trip with just one other person. Having done trips before with just two people, the confines of a trip can be exhausting, but I think the fact that we were able to ‘escape’ each other when we got back to the apartment (and the fact that we were comfortable spending a day alone) meant that that strain didn’t get to be too much.
Copenhagen, before I went, wasn’t somewhere I’d ever really considered before. While I don’t necessarily want to rush back, it’s only because I have other places I’d like to visit first. I’ll definitely recommend it as a destination for other people.
So, thank you, Copenhagen… or… Tak, København. Mange tak.
Do Not Feed The Animals
On our last full day in CPH, we split up. The weather, having been amazing for the first two days we were here, was now terrible with torrential rain.
I had considered doing a museum or something – something indoors, something dry… But, in the end, the zoo was closer, even if it meant getting soaked.
I didn’t bring any waterproof clothing on this trip (not that I really own any anyway), so with just my hoodie for protection, I set off in the direction of the Copenhagen Zoo.
I quite like visiting zoos in different cities, they’d never be my first port of call, but if I’ve done the things I want to do and have some time? Tell me where your zoo’s at.
The zoo in Copenhagen was an interesting mix of new-style enclosures and old-style. All the animals appeared relatively happy and well cared for, unlike some zoos I’ve been to (looking at you, Rome), but certain enclosures left a little to be desired.
I wasn’t really paying attention, but I can only assume I was getting a few weird looks from other zoo patrons as I walked around. Everyone else in the park was wearing several layers of waterproof clothing, ponchos, umbrellas, etc.. I was walking around in jeans and a hoodie, with the hood down and the sleeves rolled up.
At the giraffe enclosure, they had set up branches for them near the fence, which the giraffes were stripping of the bark. If you wanted to, you could have reached out and petted them and while I didn’t opt to do that (do giraffe’s bite? I didn’t want to find out), I did strip a little bark off the branch, which the giraffe gladly took out of my hand.
It was only later that I noticed the sign at the top of this post – but that was next to the rhinos… I assume it referred almost exclusively to the rhinos, not the giraffes. Right?
After a couple hours there, in the rain, I decided to head back to the airbnb. Drenched. But I fed a giraffe, so it was all worth it, no?
Make Mommy Proud – Use The Bin
Not content with the 16 odd miles we walked yesterday, we walked a further 11 or so today. We set off around lunch time, having had breakfast at Dyrehaven, a small cafe-bar just down the street from the AirBnB.
Our first stop of the day was to be Christiania, I’m not sure what I expected it to be, but it what I got wasn’t what I expected. The place looked cool and had a relaxed vibe to it (helped along, I’m sure, by the amount of pot going around). We stopped to eat, for the second time, at a juice and sandwich bar, inside Christiania – is there a mandate somewhere that requires all juice/smoothie bars to be painted in the same shade of green?
Both the Smoothie I had, and the Turkey sandwich were delicious.
After Christiania, we started to make our way through the streets to Copenhagen Street Food, a large warehouse, essentially, on the docks, inside of which is row upon row of street food merchants, selling pretty much every type of food you could possibly want. We ended up with some ice cream, and I got a brownie – a dessert to our Christiania main, if I come back to Copenhagen, it’s definitely somewhere I’d re-visit and get more from though.
We started making our way back to the AirBnB after that. Winding our way through the city streets, stopping off at The Round Tower, which has a viewing platform at the top, giving views across Copenhagen.
We got back late afternoon, and after the 27 miles of walking across two days, opted to stay in for the night, save for a quick shopping trip to the nearby supermarket for some snacks.
Copenhagen is a lovely city for walking around in. They do love cobbles though… Cobbles which I’ve tripped over multiple times now, though, as yet, I haven’t fallen flat on my face. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Must Have At Least 3 Working Limbs
Before coming to Copenhagen, people would ask me if I was excited about the trip – to which I could only respond, ‘not really’. That’s not to say I didn’t think I’d have a good time, or I didn’t think I’d like the city, just that I knew next to nothing about the place, so I had nothing specific to be excited about.
On our first full day, we wandered. Before leaving, I had looked at a map and planned a rough route to take, but I had no idea if that route would work out or not and being as we didn’t have anywhere we had to be, or had to see necessarily, the wandering method was sure to work.
And it did.
We walked through various different neighbourhoods, commenting on the fact that a lot of Copenhagen looks like a film set. Both in terms of it’s cleanliness, but also the buildings look like giant facades, to the point where if you could just get behind them, you’d realise there was nothing there, just plywood and scaffolding.
We also commented on the fact that we saw pretty much every demographic on a bike, young, old, men, women, different ethnicities… The only demographic we didn’t see were unattractive people, because there are none. Everyone is attractive. Sometimes too attractive.
On our meandering journey, we found The Little Mermaid statue. Which… Is a thing. I’ll probably never understand art, never understand why something like that is popular. I feel the same about the Mona Lisa in Paris. It’s nice, sure… But there are other more impressive pieces of art (to me).
At night, we headed to Tivoli gardens, one of the only things I had wanted to make sure we did when coming here. I’d read about the Friday night concerts they put on, which made the decision of what day to visit a no-brainer.
Once in the park, we went on a few rides and then had some food. Avoiding, the whole time, the 80ft chair-swing ride. Because, I’ll go on pretty much any other ride going, but I don’t trust those things.
I thought the music would start around 8pm. However, it was 10pm before Beth Hart took to the stage and midnight before she left again. It was interesting watching her with the crowd – the crowd that clearly knew who she was and knew the words to her music, as someone who had no idea who she was and knew none of the words to her music. I’m not sure I’d set out to listen to many of the songs again, but I enjoyed it while there.
After a day of wandering the city though, then over two hours of standing during the gig, everything was sore. Feet, back, legs.
Outdoor concerts should be a sitting down thing.
Vesterbro
A few days before were due to arrive in Copenhagen, I got a message from our AirBnB host to let us know we’d be arriving slap bang in the middle of ‘Distortion‘, that it’d be loud and crowded and that we should enjoy it while we could.
Our travel day started off at 7am, with the first of two trains to Edinburgh, followed by a tram to the airport – first tram experience, not bad Edinburgh. Though a tenner if you don’t get your ticket from the machine seems a bit steep.
The flight was delayed for a whole hour, because they couldn’t get a bus to get the people who had arrived on the plane, off the plane. Something the pilot was all too quick to point out before we took off – “Not our fault, promise!” I might not believe you, but your free wi-fi made up for it.
The first experience, having left the train that took us to our destination, was seeing a guy on the floor, vomiting on the ground. Welcome to Copenhagen(?).
Our host, Christina, was extremely attentive and helpful via text, making sure we were getting the right trains and helping us with directions the whole way. Not that that didn’t stop us taking some wrong turns and getting a little lost, but we made it in the end.
The apartment is small, but lovely (I will post more about it in a later post).
We ventured out into the streets, after being given the tour of the apartment by Lone (Christina’s Mum). The streets during Distortion are… Something. The ground was sticky. The crowds were thick. The bass of the music vibrated my rib cage.
At one point, I commented to Allan that I’d hate to be someone wearing flip-flops walking the street, due to the broken glass everywhere. Five minutes later, there was a guy picking glass out of his toes.
People were swaying around drunk, but the people we encountered seemed nice. One guy even stopping to welcome us to Copenhagen, after asking if we were tourists.
It was an unconventional start to a trip, but it was an interesting way to be thrown into the action.
New York City: Goodbye 2606
The alarms went off at 8:30 for the final time on the trip. We all lazed around, people got showered, packed some final things. Then it was time to say goodbye to 2606 (and 2602), head down to the Lobby and check out.
We had to be back at the hotel for just before 3pm, to get the shuttle to JFK, but we had a good few hours left before then, so we went for one last meal together, then had a walk around Times Square, and that general area, before going to get a drink and sitting on the Library steps for a bit.
We got back to the hotel, got our bags (which they’d kept for us after we checked out), and the shuttle arrived to take us away.
The drive was a lot less exciting on the way back, more tunnels, less bridges.
We made it to JFK.
Stuart had planned on stopping in London, to go to a friend’s wedding. He was booked all the way through to Aberdeen, but when Paula checked everyone in the night before, she had purposely not checked him in on the Heathrow to Aberdeen flight.
At the Self Check-in, it automatically checked him in to all the flights. He attempted to get out of it, but failed. Meaning he had to travel back to Aberdeen with us all (once through security, he started looking into alternate options for flying BACK to London the following day).
The good news is that everyone got their luggage in under weight limit (not something that was guaranteed with Paula & Hannah) and then came the wait for the plane.
The entire journey home felt a LOT shorter than the journey there. Less hold-ups.
On the flight back, I watched a heap of shows, but slept for only an hour. We were late getting into Heathrow, and a bunch of passengers had been told that they wouldn’t be making their connections (but that they had been booked on later flights) – thankfully, we weren’t one of those groups, but our connection time was still tight and we had no idea how long we would be at the border.
I called my Mum to say we’d landed. She told me that the flight was delayed. Which made the whole thing a lot less rushed – and sure enough, bringing up the BA app, it told us the 8:55 flight had been delayed until 9:17.
We stopped by a WH Smith to get something to eat and then went and sat, waiting for the gate to be announced.
I hadn’t eaten anything on the flight over – I didn’t want either of the hot meal options, something the flight attendant couldn’t seem to understand.
“This is the ONLY hot meal on the flight!”
Aye, and it’s not good, so no thanks.
Our gate was eventually called and it wasn’t too far from where we were sitting, so we went over and took a seat there, then eventually, boarded.
The flight back to Aberdeen felt super short. Just as I was considering trying to get some more sleep, they announced the final approach.
Once in the airport, we made our way to baggage claim – thankfully, everyone’s bag made it. Mine was at the front of the queue, which was a nice surprise.
My mum came and took Paula and I home. Where I went almost straight to bed and slept for 12 hours.
–
New York isn’t somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. There’s stuff there that I’ve wanted to do, but the idea of travelling to the city to do them hasn’t really appealed. I’m not a city person. At least, not when it comes to cities like New York.
That said though, I did enjoy it and I wouldn’t be opposed to visiting again, but I doubt I’d make it the focus point of a holiday again.
There was a lot of talk of living in New York when we were there and I wouldn’t ever want to do that. Out of the two cities we visited (New York & Philadelphia) I probably enjoyed Philadelphia more. It just felt… nicer.
I wasn’t sure how I’d get along with everyone, spending all day, every day with them – we spend a lot of time together any way, but I can always not come out/go home when it becomes to much. That was less of an option here.
It ended up being a pretty positive experience though. No (huge) fall outs, no-one got on my nerves (too much).
Still, one of my favourite parts of the trip was when I went it alone.
New York City: I’m a Fucking LOL a Minute
This morning Ryan, Allan and me went to Yankee Stadium, while the others did shopping or something.
We headed to Grand Central, got out our metrocard, ready to go.
Nope.
Insufficient funds.
The cards ran out at midnight last night. A quick trip to a ticket machine and we were on our way.
Once there, we got to the street and looked around.
Where do you think it is?
Ryan turned around first – I think it’s there. Allan and I turned to see A MASSIVE STADIUM on the corner.
He was right.
The tour was pretty cool, we saw the museum, monument garden, dugout, and the locker room. I think if I was actually a baseball fan, I would have found it a lot more interesting than I already did. At the end they gave us a Yankees keyring as a souvenir. Which was unexpected.
The three of us made our way back to grand central, then did some shops, starting with the Apple Store in the station.
I then ended up spending $130 on tshirt at the NBC store. After that, I went to the HBO store and headed back to the hotel.
When I got back, the door was slightly open, due to the latch being closed before the door.
A sudden panic set in, did it close like that when we left this morning, was the room going to be empty when I opened the door? Fuuuuckkkkk.
Opened the door. Stuart was lying on the bed. Hannah and Paula were due back soon, he didn’t want to have to get up to let them in. Lazy.
Hannah and Paula came back and we sat for a. Bit, before going and meeting Allan and Ryan at Times Square.
From there, we went to Madame Tussauds.
It was a lot creepier than I thought it would be, but still, pretty fun.
After, I went to Hard Rock again to pick up a tshirt, then back to the hotel before dinner.
Back at the hotel, the clouds darkened and then. LIGHTNING! The whole gang gathered in our room – best view – to watch the lightning. We watched it for far too long then headed to an Italian place for food.
The place was good but everything was double portions meant to share. It worked out well, but was confusing at first.
After dinner, Tain and I walked back to the hotel, while the others did some snack shopping. Stuart was first back, he’d been caught in the start of a shower. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I answered, both Hannah and Paula were stood there, soaked. Looking sorry for themselves.
Then… Came the packing… We leave tomorrow.
New York City: 69’s Good Right?
We all had to be up, out and at NBC for 10am, so we could make our slot for the studio tour.
We made it with time to spare. The tour itself was shorter than I thought it’d be, but it was still pretty cool. We visited Brian Williams’ news studio, as well as the SNL studio – which was tiny.
After we were done with the tour, we looked around the store, then headed to Pier 86 to get on the Circle Line tour.
The tour we went on was only the half circle, it took us down past the Statue of Liberty, around the bottom of Manhattan under all the bridges, and back again. The guy giving the tour was good, talked less about food than Madge though.
Ecause the tour was shorter than we expected, we went to the intrepid, which is docked next to where the circle line launches from.
The intrepid was hit by Sandy, but it was still cool to cool around, they have a concorde, and a space shuttle on board. Admission also included a tour of The Growler – a submarine.
After, we walked back to times square area. I then opted to go back to the hotel, where I ended up staying for the night.
The others did some shopping and went for Mexican food at night.