Japanese diary - Arrival in Japan, Part One

こんにちは、みんなさん！
Hi everyone!
This is going to be the start of my hopefully weekly diary (that I will try and upload every Sunday,  apparently!) although this first entry will be a little longer as its been more than two weeks since I arrived here now and a lot has happened including a few busy days in Tokyo and settling in to my new 'home' here in Osaka.

First I think it best if I start from the beginning of my trip, which began by leaving from London Heathrow at 6am, on the 14th May, with my little sister Ellie. It was a long day of travel, and actually a lot of it seems like a hazy memory from long ago and it seems strange to think it was only a few weeks ago! From Heathrow we flew to Rome, to catch a connecting flight to Tokyo. We had quite a long transit in Rome, 5 hours, and also a stressful few minutes before we we're about to board when we thought we might be in the wrong terminal (we weren't!), but we managed to eat an authentic Italian pizza and charge our phones whilst we hung around. The flight wasn't too bad, the food was actually really good! And I managed to watch Lego Movie, Frozen and Big Hero 6, so I was pretty entertained.
Arriving in Tokyo, Ellie and I planned to stay for 5 days before I flew out to Osaka and she left for new Zealand!

I think we covered quite a lot in Tokyo, we visited all the main shopping districts except Akihabara, spent a day at Ueno zoo and managed to visit both Disney Parks (land and sea) in two consecutive days, though we we're completely exhausted by the end of it. I think I'd really love to give the Disney resorts their own post, so I'll save that till I have internet access on my laptop and can upload all my hundreds of Disney photos!

Ueno zoo I still have slightly mixed feelings about, although it was amazing to see some of the animals we did, some enclosures we're just not as spacious and looked after as I wanted them to be. And I now know this isn't just a cultural thing as I have since been to another zoo in Japan (Wakayama adventure world, it will get it's own post!) And I know the animals there were very very well cared for. Really, I think Ueno zoo could do with upping it's entrance fees, it was just so cheap to get in (I've actually forgotten how much but definitely less than ¥500) and if it was a little more they might be able to improve a few of the enclosures with that money. Though it was kind of a negative visit,  I still enjoyed the day and some parts weren't bad, there was a very impressive Vivarium and nocturnal house, and the petting zoo area was very cute!

So apart from the zoo and Disney, I mentioned already that we went to all the major shopping districts (except akiba) despite the fact neither of us had a single inch of space in our luggage! We spent a lot of time in Shibuya mostly, going for the Hachiko statue and staying for shibuya109. If anyone reading this doesn't know the story of Hachi, please go look it up immediately, especially if you love dogs or animals at all. Its one of my favourite true stories of all time, and will make you cry. Shibuya109 is the iconic shop on the other side the scramble crossing from the Hachiko exit of the train station. A huge 10 story fashion store filled with tons of small boutiques and shops, covering all the different styles from Gothic to high street fashion to super cute, with even a few sports fashion stores thrown in. Yeah that's a thing.
As well as Shibuya, we spent almost a whole day in Harajuku, Takeshita dori will always be one of my favourites even though it's so difficult to navigate!

To be honest,  I probably left this entry a little late to write, as I realise now I'm already a bit foggy on a lot of the details. I think for now, I'm going to make this a part one, part two will cover my initial few weeks in Osaka (I know you're all dead excited!) And I also have a ton to write about Disney and Wakayama and everything, but luckily I'm finally getting internet on my laptop on Thursday so that should make it a lot easier to write up these entries!

So for now, またね~ from Osaka and keep tuned for more of my exciting adventures!