After a stopover in Hong Kong we finally reached Japan. As we were doing couchsurfing we stayed at the home of Japanese people (Kaz and Daigo). But our first two days were not very productive, we were tired from the trip and still had a reflection of something we eat in Nepal, with a mad diarrhea! Heheheh …

But Tokyo is really crazy. Super modern, clean, consumerist, but with a unique personality. The Japanese are very different from the rest we have seen in Asia. They are shy, reaaally nice, a little bit crazy, stylish and super workaholics! Moreover, the food is fantastic, even the dishes from seven-eleven! It is almost impossible to make a mistake.

The best in Tokyo was walking in the streets, watching the people and the different look of each neighborhood. So, even being very expensive in the end we managed to control our spendings well. At night Wwe visited the super bright neighborhoods of Shinjuku and Akihabara, with their huge illuminated signs and their famous manga drawings everywhere. I think that’s an image that everyone has in mind when they think of Tokyo.

We also visited the district of Shibuya, which has the famous intersection where about 100 000 people cross every hour! It’s a lot of people. Watch the traffic light at the crossing is an event! But there is also the neighborhood of the alternative young people and you can see from the weirder to the more fashionable. Almost a live museum! Takeshita-dori Street in Harajuko is also super cool and even more alternative, where you find the Harajuko girls, who often seem to be dressed like dolls. It was definitely our favorite neighborhood in Tokyo.

To see a more traditional area we visited the district of Asakusa, where there is the Senso-ji temple, with many shops in Japanese style, but very touristic of course. We liked very much the Ueno Park, we had​ ​a pleasant walk, we visited the neighborhood and the cemetery of Aoyama Roppongi, where we saw some of the typical cherry blossoms, very nice!

One day we did a day trip to Nikko, two and half hours by train from Tokyo. And when we got there we had a nice surprise … It was the day of the Yayoi Matsuri festival with a procession of mikoshi (wooden decorated cars) with traditional clothes and music. It was super cool! And to make the experience even better the old people in the procession were so happy and drunk that they couldn’t stop offering us food and sake. After many toasts we end it up drunk with them. Super fun day!