Jeez, January just slid by. Last I remember getting home from a great trip to Japan on Jan 4th, next its Feb 3rd and I've just had my first sleep in since last year!!!
So lets dispense the formalities first.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai (for the coming new year).
A little late for some, but I'm a busy guy!! I trust a great time was had by all.
I had the pleasure of catching a few friends in Japan. Tokyo for a few days before Xmas and then up to Niseko, Hokkaido for some skiing/snowboarding/relaxing over xmas and new year.
WOW...Japan is a great place. I was slightly un-impressed initially with Tokyo, but then got to explore a bit, and its a crazy, massive city.
And all the things you hear about Japan being expensive is really not true.
I found the accommodation expensive for what it was (I've seen larger laundry rooms) but the eating and drinking was very reasonably priced.
I guess if you're going to do Steak, egg 'n chips with a Boddington's and a neat scotch finish, you'll be going home a little bare, but stick with GREAT local food and a few bucks are all you'll need.
A little tempura place we ate at one night. Under the main rail link through 'Shinagawa District'. Very Bladerunner!!
There were 10's of em all along the railway.
The hotel was in Shinagawa, just around the corner from my primary client. The Shinagawa Prince Hotel is kinda OK lah! It's a little bit small, but I gather that's the norm.
Its in a pretty central part of Tokyo (again, from talking to some local friends) but best of all, its very close to the Imperial Palace.
The Palace is only open to the public twice a year, and would you believe that one of those days was whilst I was there :) Lucky me.
And it really was worth going.
In all honesty, it did feel a little bit like you were on a conveyor belt, being told to move along if you stopped too long to take a photo.
There were several bag checks, body searches and hundreds of military, police, and secret service....who didn't look 'secret' in the least!!
So the occasion was the Emperor's Birthday. Basically, you get to
walk into the palace grounds, stand around in one of several locations that the royal family will appear at (at very strict times) and then when they appear, shout something (no idea what it was they were saying), wave your Japan flag and take photos and then very politely leave!!! It was absolutely incredible how utterly polite, well mannered and patient the Japanese were.
Well over 20,000 people in close confines and not one aggressive incident.
I'll setup an online gallery for all the photos, cos I have hundreds!
