1st day in Japan

今日は　皆さん、
Hi All, as promised, I finally started with my blog. This is my first time doing a blog, so I hope I'll manage to keep it as clear and user friendly as possible for you guys. Above picture might seem meaningless, but buying my tickets to Japan were actually a very big and important step to me. A step to the unknown really. You might think it is not really unknown as I have already been in Japan, I know a little Japanese and I even have friends in Japan, but it is mainly my future that is unknown: What should I do once I'm there? Will I find a Job? In Japan or anywhere else? So yeah, above tickets are a symbol of the start of my adventure.


ASAKUSA
Asakusa is the area of Tokyo where I am currently staying at. It's a nice area which is very busy during the day due to the famous Sensou-ji (temple) it holds. At night however, it is very quiet. My hostel is 3 minutes away from that temple. Herewith a few pictures of Asakusa:

This is not a temple, this is a gate! Yep, Japanese people don't do half assed things (excuse the language). This gate is called Kaminari-mon ('Thunder gate'). Herewith a picture of the gate by night:

And the temple and it's surroundings, of course:

Sakura Hostel Asakusa
I arrived to my hostel on Saturday morning, at around 7am. I didn't want to go to bed straight away so I decided to walk around in Asakusa to get to know the area: the nearby shops, restaurants, underground and train stations, ... I came back to the hostel at around 12 and took a nap for around 2h. After that I went to Ueno which is ato nother area of Tokyo nearby Asakusa. It's only 2 to 3 stations away and yet it feels so different to Asakusa. Almost as if you were in another town. Actually, I personally feel like most areas in Tokyo are very different to one-another. It really does feel as if you were in another town. Ueno is a nice area to go to have lunch. There are loads of small clothes shops and small restaurants of all kinds. It's very animated every day from 11am until 4pm at least, and it is even more animated on Saturdays. Over there, you can eat delicious Yakitori, Udon, Ramen, Yakinuki, etc... And afterwards you can have a long walk in the Ueno park. That is exactly what I did. When I got back to the hostel at around 6pm I was quiet tired but I didn't want to go asleep as I wanted to avoid waking up too early on Sunday. I was determined I would not let any jet lag get a hold of me. Luckily enough, a girl staying in the same room as me in the hostel told me she was going to have a drink with some other guys from the hostel and asked me if I wanted to join. I jumped out of my bed and there we went, London (male), London (female, the girl from my room), Australia, New-Zealand, Canada and me. We went for a drink first and then decided we were hungry and started looking for a place that would still serve us some food. That's when we found this small, Japanese style restaurant where we had delicious yakitori and small fish (I don't remember what they were called). After spending some time there, talking with the local people, managing understand each-other between their English and our Spanish, we want Karaoke-ing.

I'm sorry for writing so many insignificant things. I realise now all of this is only about my first day in Tokyo, exactly 7 days ago. I'll try to be a bit more concise from now on, but for now I'll have to keep to this as my laundry is done and I'm going to head out for lunch.

Big hug to all of you guys and do not hesitate to send me a mail once in a while.

バイバイ、じゃまたね。