Day 1 - Tokyo

After our crazy travel day yesterday we had a bit of a sleep in this morning before heading out to explore a bit of Daiba. We left our hotel and walked across to the main shopping centre to suss out the shops and hopefully grab a feed before wandering into Tokyo.

The surroundings of our hotel in Daiba are lovely - waterfront views, pretty lights and a general Harbourside feel about it. Weirdly enough we stumbled across the Statue of Liberty, Tokyo's version of her anyway and I'm still a bit confused as to why she is in Daiba but none the less she looks beautiful with Rainbow bridge & the water behind her and of course we didn't skip on the opportunity for some snaps with her!

We had a quick look in the shops, checked out their arcade which was pretty cool (sooo many claw machines with crazy but funky prizes) and then made our way upstairs to the food court for a quick bite to eat - sticking to the norm this morning, I had Subway & mum & Pete sticking to McDonald's..we will progress into Japanese food eventually I promise!

After having a bit of fuel food & having a little toilet stop (I freaking love Japanese toilets btw - so clean, roomy & colourful and they have little raindrop music so people don't hear you pooping...its freaking awesome!) we decided to make our way into Shinjuku via train. Shinjuku is where the Robo Restuarant show is tonight, we figure it's best to make our way into town, suss out where it is so we don't get stuck tonight then leave the rest of the day open to venture out some more. We are slowly getting used to the subway system, it is still pretty confusing but if we follow the colour systems we should be ok, hopefully! Ha

Shinjuku was pretty busy, there are tons of people everywhere but the bright lights are just amazing. Even during the day the city is lit up with bright billboards and flashing neon signs - I love it! We managed to make our way through the streets, sussing out different shops along the way making our way into the red light district (where the Robo show is) and of course I make a fool of myself...

Naive little Sophie back at it again..you see I only had eyes for the big flashy neon lights that said Robo show and quickly made a beeline heading into the souvenir shop for it (anyone who knows me will know how much I love my souvenir shops) and without thinking a blink, I run up the steps ready to push open the two flagged doors at the entrance only to hear some old guy in a yellow vest screaming at me to "no, no, no" paused on the step, slightly confused I looked at him asking if I can go in and in a Japanese voice he says no...bed...sex...I must've looked a little dumb founded because he then made a donut hole in his hand & with the other hand pushed his finger through the donut hole....the universal language, it was a brothel, thank fuck I didn't walk through there - how embarrasing & of course Pete & mum were laughing their heads off across the road pointing to the extra part of the Robo sign I missed in my excitement (Robo Restuarant 200m down the road) gah, face palm.

After that little bit of excitement we decided to make our way back to the subway and check out the next city, Shibuya- famous for its crazy crosswalks and flocks of people that pass through there everyday. Shibuya was lovely, very busy actually extremely busy but it was nice. Everywhere around here is so clean, and the atmosphere is just alive even with so many people around it all just works, its crazy. We decided to have an early dinner, we had worked up quite an appetite and our feet were absolutely killing us from walking on them all day. After walking around for ages trying to find a restaurant that could fit us in as they were all packed, we settled for TGI Friday - an American steakhouse. It blows my mind that no matter how hard we tried to find restaurants that are "something different" we always end back at the American steakhouses. The food was nice and whilst waiting for our order we saw out the window some Mari-Karters, people driving through the city in go karts, dressed as Mario Cart characters - we do this ourselves in a few days and I can't wait!

After dinner it was time to head back to Shinjuku ready for our Robo show reservation at 7pm, the show starts at 7.40 but we've been strictly told that we have to check in for the show 40 mins prior so for once in my life I guess I'll just have to be on time. We made it, thankfully and then proceeded to the bar area for a drink before the show whilst a guy dressed in a metallic silver robot outfit played the guitar - we're not entirely sure how tonight's show is going to be, we've heard mixed reviews on it but we are in Japan & it's another experience so we will take it for whatever it shall be.

What a show it was! The reviews were right, it was a bit whacky and a bit crazy but was every little bit Japan as I could've imagined it to be. I loved it, we had really good seats in the front row and all three of us enjoyed the night more than I think we all thought we would. I would 100% recommend the Robo show should you ever visit Japan!

Time to head back to our hotel via a few different train lines so that we can try to be in bed at an hour that is hopefully before midnight. Tomorrow, we are off on our day tour to Mt Fuji with a ridiculously early pick up from an alternate hotel back in Shinjuku.

The weather forecast for seeing Fuji tomorrow isn't great but fingers crossed we can at least see a glimpse of her...here's hoping.