Andy and Amanda in America: December 2006

Lee wanted to visit Tokyo so we decided to fly there and have a mini-break. Flying is cheaper and much quicker than the Shinkansen, but it still costs about 150 pounds so it's not really cheap.

Tokyo was a cool place but it really tired us out!! We spent all day walking around and then in the evenings Lee wanted to have a drink and discover the nightlife (Andy and I would have preferred to have a good meal and go to sleep - maybe we are getting old!). It didn't help though that we stayed in a hostel. We opted for a 4 person room thinking that they wouldn't put anyone in with us!! We were wrong!

A shrine near our hotel.

The first night we had an Italian guy who, despite us being asleep, came into the room shouting in Italian. He then proceeded to loudly snore, which meant only he slept that night!! We were lucky the other two nights though as our neighbour didn't make a sound!

Hostel are strange things though!! I thought that people used them as a cheap place to stay whilst they explored. The people in our hostel didn't seem to realise they were in Japan! They spent all day on the Internet, had pot noodles in the kitchen at lunch and dinner time and then watched movies in the living room in the evening! They could have done that at home!!

Lee and Andy at a shrine.

On our first day in Tokyo we went to the National History Museum. They had a special exhibition of Japanese paintings on canvas and on screens. Lee ran round the exhibition as fast as he could even though it was his idea! We then visited the Science Museum which was cool.

Lee without his make-up on at the Science Museum!

This whale missed the sea!

I was so tired!

Lee wouldn't let the other children play with the exhibitions!

On the other days we visited Shibuya (it has the 6 way road crossing that is often shown on TV) which is so busy. Crowds of people just come at you! Lee said it was like the crowds you get at a big football match.

They show this crossing on TV quite a lot.

On Saturday evening we met one of Andy's students from last year. He has gone from working student hours to getting up at 5.30am and then getting home at 11pm. He brought his sister to meet us (she lived in London for 3 years). They took us to the restaurant in Kill Bill. It was embarrassing though as they insisted on paying for everything (we had drinks, went for dinner, went to a club and then had more food!!). We tried to pay for things but they wouldn't let us!!