About 6 weeks ago, we boarded a plane to the country that has been at the top of my bucket list for a VERY long time: Japan!
I first became fascinated with Japan at intermediate school: we had a teacher from Sapporo, who taught us a few basic greetings, how to eat with chopsticks and showed us a bunch of pictures from Sapporo’s ice festival. At high school, I took up Japanese properly, cementing Japan at the top of my bucket list ever since.
Like most, we landed in the mecca for the ultramodern, pop culture and everything BIG: Tokyo. And here our adventure began
After navigating the rabbit warren of Shinjuku station, we emerge to street level and find… Green Peas?!
With 6 hours til checkin, we busied ourselves getting to know this overwhelming city
Best way to learn a place: an observation deck!
Coming from New Zealand, sights like this are simply mind-boggling. Where is the edge of the city?
But among the huge skyscrapers, a tiny slice of peace
City, as far as the eye can see
We spent a lot of time in Tokyo just wandering about
First stop was some shopping in Shibuya
It’d be rude not to watch this
Surprisingly mesmerising
Candy coated Harajuku certainly lived up to its reputation. So much kawaii!
Of course we had to find an arcade in Akihabara
Despite the busyness, you could find pockets of calm