Nick Piper's Blog

In India… It is acceptable to go for a piss in the street

In Japan… Facemasks are work in public to not (i) catch a cold (ii) spread a cold (iii) trigger an allergy from pollen

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In India… Breakfast costs 50p

In Japan… Breakfast cost £25

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In India… The streets are covered in litter and street stalls sell food.

In Japan… The streets are litter free, its frowned upon to eat in public. You shouldn’t smoke whilst walking, only in designated areas.

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In India… The public transport is overcrowded and hot.

In Japan… The public transport is immaculate and spacious

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In India… Traffic clogs the streets, drivers continuously beep their horns

In Japan… Streets are empty and silent.

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In India… Everyone stares at me when i walk down the street

In Japan… Everyone keeps themselves to themselves – to the point that people put plain covers on their books so you cant see what they are reading

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In India… People wipe their arse with their left hand

In Japan… You sit on a heated toilet seat and a warm jet of water is sprayed to clean you, followed by a jet of hot air to blow the parts that other beers cannot reach.

Thumbing through the lonely planet we pick a famous sushi bar to have breakfast. Armed with just over a tenner each we queue for an hour, only to find the large set meal is £25. Slightly embarrassed we leave the queue and search for an ATM that will take our cards – not an easy task.

Eventually we find one and return to the sushi bar – queuing for 2 hours this time. When we enter we are warmly greeted and sit at the bar. The sushi is prepared in front of you using fresh fish from the market. After the first bite all memories of the queue are forgotten.  The staff do their best to explain each one to us. “Sea Bass” Eel” “Sea Urchin” “Tuna” then one I hadnt heard of “Ras Wun”

So I start repeating “Ras Wun, oh ok, Ras Wun” before Leo nudges me and explains he was saying “last one”

But better was still to come.

The final dish is our own choice, so we asked the Chef to choose. He says something and I definitely remember hearing a chuckle. The sushi it arrives and it is very similar to Urchin, soft almost liver like. Leo says he enjoyed “popping the sushi against the top of his mouth“.

We ask what the dish was and the Chef points to the sign – in Japanese, so we take a photo and go about our day.

In the evening we present the photo to the receptionist at the hostel, she smiles and explains what we have eaten, see photo below, Winter Season, 2nd item on menu.

Sushi Bar

Spit or Swallow?

With our body clocks still reeling from traveling across the world, Leo decided that getting up at 4.30am was a good idea.

So we travel to Tsukiji fish market and as is customary when travelling anywhere in Japan – we get completely lost. The fact the street names don’t have names doesn’t help and the fact we know hello, thank you and goodbye in Japanese compounds the problem.

We arrive at about 6am into probably the biggest fish market in the world, with certainly the biggest fish I have ever seen. Row apon row of stalls sell every kind of fish and shellfish imaginable and some you couldn’t imagine !

Photos to follow soon as they are on Leo’s camera

I left my pool and the temperature was 37 degrees, I arrive in tokyo and its dropped 30 degrees!

When i left England i hadn’t packed for this.

It is a massive cultural change to have gone from India – a hot, dirty, chaotic city to a cold, clean, ordered one. As I made my way to meet Leo I stood in awe at the pedestrian crossing – not only was there very little traffic – but the street was silent, for a couple of minutes I stood smiling there listening to nothing !

Unfortunately we are at the mercy of the exchange rate which has dropped from 237 yen / pound to 135/ yen in the last year. Japan was already expensive but this makes it ridiculous.