Let's get back to the thrilling story of my week in Japan:

We left off last time just as I was crashing, jetlagtastically, into a couple of hours' deathlike sleep at Steve's place. Well, let me tell you it was GREAT! So great in fact that I had to really force myself ever to get up again. After several false starts (bless you, snooze function!) I dragged myself out of bed and through the shower - with a brief but most pleasant visit to the heated toilet seat! (These are standard in this country; in fact, Steve told me that his toilet is one of the least interesting he's been on, in terms of functionality; sadly I didn't get to experience any unexpected jets of water or air or electricity while I was in Japan...) Then I headed out, alone, into the Great Unknown that was Tokyo.

My first port of call was the nearby area of Akasaka, which has lots of restaurants & bars but also a big temple on a hill, the major attraction of which is the hundreds of crimson prayer flags that line the staircases to the top. I duly walked up & down stairs for a while, then found my appetite and wandered into the morass of eateries. It didn't take me too long to settle on a nice-looking sushi bar. And OH MY GOD it's true: the sushi in Japan is just incredible. Every grain of rice was heaven; the fish was exquisite; and the cold fresh beer did my head a world of good.

Steve met me in Akasaka and took me to the rooftop bar of one of the posh hotels nearby. We had an exorbitantly priced cocktail and enjoyed the view over the nocturnal cityscape, then brought ourselves back down to earth by heading to his nearest offie & buying a bunch of beers, then heading back to his place & having a proper chinwag. And so ended my first day in Japan.

Sunday didn't get going for quite a while. I slept like a zombie in Steve's super comfy guest bedroom, and there was no noise or disturbance from outside (it's quite a posh area). I finally emerged around midday and Steve revived me with a coffee. Then we headed out to do a spot of sightseeing. The weather was somewhat overcast but it didn't really rain, it just sort of fogged.

We went by Metro to Shinjuku and walked through some of the shopping streets before reaching the Tsuan tempura restaurant. There we were treated to the full-on tempura lunch, complete with sitting awkwardly on the floor beside a low table. The tempura was delicious, especially the huge pattie of shrimps but also the vegetable & fish ones. I accidentally took the dining room's sliding door off its hinges whilst putting my shoes back on after lunch, but we made a fast exit & I think we got away with it unnoticed...

A restorative Illy espresso & cinnamon bun later, we walked through Shinjuku to its big park and marvelled at the delicate beauty of the chrysanthemum displays (it's the time of year for them). The park itself was delightfully laid out too, with a more relaxed "English" section and a more thought-through "Japanese" part replete with rockeries, pools, bridges & a huge pagoda donated by the Japanese community in China.

From the back of the park, we walked to Meiji-Jingumae, Tokyo's main Shinto shrine, which stands in another large park. There we saw couple after couple in traditional dress lining up to be married. By this time it was getting a little darker overhead, but somehow the grey skies seemed to me expectant, exciting, full of promise. I love travelling!!

We walked through the rest of Meiji-Jingu park to Harajuku, where sadly the dodgy weather meant that there were far fewer freaks in Elvis Presley costumes than on a typical Sunday. Still, we saw a gaggle of people in '50s outfits & matching hairstyles dancing along to boom-box beats at the entrance. After a quick adzuki bean dumpling (yum!) we crossed the main road and found ourselves in the heart of the Tokyo Dance Music Festival! Gothtastic Harajuku girls aplenty, along with lots & lots of youngsters who looked like they'd been partying hard for about the last four days.

Our stroll took us past the Yoyogi National Stadium and on to Shibuya, a trendy shopping area with the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. Now THAT was quite something! Five roads intersect here, and all five of them have simultaneous red lights. Then a flood of people crosses in all conceivable directions for fully two or three minutes, before normal traffic flow is resumed. The other amusing attraction in Shibuya is Love Hotel Hill, which is home to a number of these archetypally Japanese service centres: what with Tokyo flats being so small and so expensive, young people often live with their parents, making intimacy at home difficult to achieve in privacy.

With all this walking, we were developing quite a beer thirst, Steve & I. So we took the Metro to Ginza (a very glitzy shopping area) and headed to the Lion Beer Hall, an art deco confection that is slightly reminiscent of Munich's beer hall culture. Well, the staff wear dirndls anyway. Oh yeah, and they serve "German" snacks like sushi & sauerkraut! The beer was tasty and the decor made a change from the modern steel-and-glass grandeur of the shopping precinct around us.

Our final port of call for the day was back in Akasaka, in a tiny - and I mean TINY! - restaurant that specialises in wagyu beef and wild boar dishes. Our table was recessed into the ground with a footwell around it, so at least I didn't have to lose the blood flow to my legs in another crouchtastic dining experience. We had a stew of wild boar and a few side dishes, all washed down with draft beers. And then we crept out through the hobbit-sized front door and headed back up the hill to Steve's.

Thus ended the second day of my sojourn in the land of the rising sun.