My first few days

WOW I MADE IT!! Finally I've landed in Japan. I think I've been running on over-excitment for the past week but now jet-lag has begun to overcome me and I've been sleeping for 12 hours and a time and still being tired when I wake up. Bad times! But WOW what an amazing and scary place Tokyo is. It's not like anywhere I've ever been. It's busy like I don't know what, London doesn't even compare I don't think. Every building is a mountain high and NEON.
We're staying in Nakano which is right next to Shinjuku, however, while Nakano is still quite busy around the station you only have to walk for a few minutes and it becomes really peaceful and you feel like you're in a crazy little town! Our guesthouse is a traditional style Japanese house with sliding paper doors and walls (which means I can hear Max snoring from the other room) , a tiny kitchen with one gas burner, and a toilet seat that stays warm all the time! The house itself can get really cold if the weather isnt good but its ok in our room because we have a miniture heater that makes our room nice and toasty. I'm really happy we didn't just get a western style hostel, that would have been rubbish. This is what they call "living the dream"

Entrance

Kitchen/tv room

Tv with FOUR WHOLE CHANNELS AND TAPE!

Shower...room?

Our bedroom with futons, there's also a door that leads to the garden behind the curtain.

My overall first impression of Japan would be "MENTAL". Seriously this place is mad! It's so clean and COLOURFUL! The first day we arrived and Max showed us around I was so shocked at the amount of colour everywhere. Signs, shops, trees, and people are so colourful! It's beautiful to see everything so well presented and is completely different to the big cities I'm used to. Obviously Tokyo is known for its neon signs at night but if you take a walk to the residentual areas you'll see they're just as bright and colourful and neat. I haven't really photographed much but I will bring you photos to try and show you what I mean.

Next important point, food! FOOD IS EVERYWHERE HERE! Honestly, EVERYWHERE. Vurtually every street here has a million tiny food bars serving up hot noodles, curries, takoyaki, sushi, cakes, bentos....everything. I can't believe that such a slim and healthy nation is this obsessed with food. THEY LOVE IT! I know thats because everyone in Tokyo probably eats out but one of the big reasons I wanted to come here was so I could taste this food and try it out for myself. So I've been itching to cook with all these different ingredients I've found in the supermarket! I've been making at least one meal a day for Carly and Max.

Breakfast of teriyaki fish, rice and tamoyaki and cabbage.

After a dinner of tempura, cabbage and hot soba with sauce.

Dinner of rice, tofu in broth with shitake mushrooms, carrots and daikon, and chicken and eggs and blanched spinach with bonito flakes and sesame seeds.

I also attempted making bentos for Carly and me to take to Hello Kitty Land! Gentlemen bears!

So the last week has gone so fast and it's been so amazing being here. I'll admit I've had some problems adjusting to the idea of actually living here. My biggest hang up is the language barrier which has proven to be a bit embarrassing. I can only speak a few words and phrases and I find it very difficult to get the jist of what people are saying to me. I know that this will improve with time but I'm really embarrassed that sometimes people have to try and explain in English what they've just said. It's going to take some real dedication on my part to study and learn and get to grips with this language but in the end this is what I came here to do. To imerse myself in this culture and pick up a new language. Ironic that this seems to be my biggest adversity right now!

I think thats all I'll post for now. Look out for a video blog coming sometime next week. I might just have to do a general one about Nakano and our guesthouse! Who can say? Shoganai??