Tokyo

The last day of the work trip was in Tokyo - in the evening when we got to Tokyo we were left to our own devises so we went to a decent little restauarant near the hotel for more sushi and some other delicious dishes and then we headed out to a hot spring (onsen). This place was amazing - open for 24 hours it was basically a hot springs disney land. You take your pick from 15 different Ukata and then you make your way around the various different attractions and spas. It was superb. There was an outside walking pool - which was like walking on nails - inside steam pools and then outside relaxation pools. There was also beaches, pebble gardens, massage places and so on and so forth. You could also play games, do archery etc whilst wearing a kimono. Once you've had your fill of hot spring mayhem you can then eat at one of the many 24 hour sushi restuarants! Amazing place.

The next day we visited our clients headquarters there and then had a nice meal to say thanks and plan the next steps. That all finished about 2pm so I was then free to explore the city by myself for the next few days. Moving from the 5 star hotels that the client had provided to the hostel that I was paying for myself was quite a shock though!

I had 2 full days in Tokyo and a half day either side so tried to fit as much in as possible. On the thursday afternoon I settled in to the hostel and met a few nice people and then we went out for some grub in a cheap local restuarant - even though this was cheap by Tokyo standards I think it still ended up being about £14 a person!. I was staying in Asaksa which is famous for its old temples and history so I explored the local area and found my bearings a little.

On the friday morning I and a few of the otehrs got up at 4.45am to go to Tsukiji fish market (築地市場). This is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. From 5am they run several fish auctions which are a great sight to see - unfortunately we missed the live fish auction but we caught the fresh tuna and the frozen tune one. The tuna they had there were the size of a ten year old child and it was quite funny to see the shop keepers dragging them away on trolleys before slicing them up into different size steaks. After we had explored we then went and had sushi for breakfast - at 7am! So fresh - delicious.

In the afternoon, after sleeping for several hours I then went to the Sumo Wrestling. I was quite lucky here as there are only 6 sumo tournaments a year in Japan - and only 3 of them take place in Tokyo so to be in town when one was happening was a bit of good fortune. The wrestling starts at 8am and finishes at 6pm but the main "superstar wrestlers" don't come on until 3.30pm. I went to the auditorium at about mid day and enjoyed watching the learner wrestlers as the venue was empty so you could go sit right up close to the ring. In the afternoon the place was packed and the atmosphere was awesome.

The next day I explored ueno park, went to see the imperial palace and then went to rophonghi hills for a look around. Then went up the Tokyo tower (which is a blatent copy of the blackpool tower- and painted tangerine in its honour) and styaed there for several hours to see the sun set on the city. In the evening I went out with some of the guys from the hostel and got in at 9am - i was checking out at 11am so didn't really see the point of going to bed so just hung around in the foyer chatting to the friends i made.

On the way to the airport - which due to my being hideosly hungover took a lot longer than the 90 minutes advertised - i met a mexican! I was suitably scared that I would get turned back at Shanghai airport! I told my colleagues about this and they spent the next two days avoiding me for fear of contracting swine flu and even went so far as to put a safety mask on my desk!