Day one Ikebukuro

So we are in Japan, landed safe and sound after a stormy night of flight delays and vomiting. There was a scary moment there when we heard ‘could the Lahiff-Jenkins family please make their way immediately to gate (whatever it was) you are the final passengers for that flight’. At the same time Hamish and I were punching the shit out of a vending machine desperate for a bottle of water as Iggy howled desperate for re-hydration.

Quinn slept like a log on the plane so has been full of beans all day while everyone else is exhausted – as soon as breakfast came out Iggy started vomiting and I’m not surprised as I have never seen, and could not believe anyone could reconstitute eggs that way! Go QANTAS.

The little spit of Tokyo we have seen so far is great – the train ride on the way in from Narita Airport through Tokyo station and to Ikebukuro where we are staying, was sensational.

It’s really hot here, which is great after a long Melbourne winter, so everyone hangs their mattress’s out the window and the high-rise buildings, which house many Tokyo residents, look like colorful Christmas trees. We eagerly watched the countryside flash by and searched for raccoons in the bushes – escapees from Pom Poko – our current favorite Studio Ghibli.

Ikebukuro is full of sex venues and sleaze – but the children can’t tell so we have been tiptoeing around making sure we don’t wander anywhere to untoward. Everything is bright and some places are completely mental. We are however trying to catch up on some sleep, our accommodation is expensive – oh it’s so easy to spend money here – just in 7 Eleven – such great stuff everywhere and we don’t know what we like or what we want to eat – we have spoken Japanese as much as we can using our phrasebook and some pretty lame sign language including a hairy discussion in a taxi where we nearly ended up getting out but I love problem solving and so it was sorted.

It smells like wet hot wood here and it’s lovely. The streets are so clean and everything is marked out in English so it’s easy to get around – but it’s only been one day so let’s not start any back patting just yet!

Our ryokan has a traditional hot bath so I went and had a soak for about five minutes – which really was all Quinn would allow, and I am now rather pink like I’ve been sunburned. We are all looking forward to having more energy tomorrow and hitting the streets with vigor. I’ll send more picts soon.

Love Carmen