In Tokyo

In Tokyo at the moment. Have been here for a week now. Staying in Aoyama. Been catching their subway to: Ginza - kind of like Elizabeth St but magnified about 100 fold with 3, 4 level buildings dedicated to just the one label eg Chanel, also lots of dept stores there; Shibuya - great night spot, also lots of cool fashion shops, Seibu dept store is there, Tower Records has lots of cool design magazines and books and is open till 11pm; Odaiba - future city - felt a bit like Darling Harbour, has a replica of the Statue of Liberty, Rainbow Bridge, harbour views, v.touristy but pleasant, walked to Harajuku - cool, hip fashion area; Akihabara - electrical town - there are stalls and stalls, streetsa and streets of electrical gear from cameras to video cameras, tvs, videos, dvd players, mobile phones including the Marc Newson phone, manga dvds, computers, monitors, washing machines - everything all just displayed out like a street market setting - not behind glass or anything. Just one large market area of goodies.

Have taken lots of photos and digital video footage. Will sort through and post up when back in Sydney.

There's so much going on here food wise, goods wise, service wise, everything wise. Pretty cool all round so far. Just much, much denser and more frenetic than Sydney. Plus, it's a great place for night owls. Shops don't close till 7pm, 9pm or 11pm here depending on store, unlike the 5-6pm deal in Sydney. The trains run on time too! and the service is v.frequent. V. convenient.

Lots of people wear face masks. Not sure what the deal is with that.

V.inspired. Lots of sights, sounds, colour, flavours! Loving the food here. Love Japanese food anyway so this place is great!!