Tokyo? More like Tokywhoa!

Tokyo was incredible.

I think my fellow volunteer George described it best when he said "It feels like anything could happen here". The whole city seems to be bursting with life, each street offering something new and exciting from hidden temples, to cat cafes and beyond!

My flight from London set off at 1:30pm UK time on September 1st and arrived in Tokyo (Narita) at around 9am on September 2nd. The flight lasted about 11 hours but the excitement of travelling to Japan made the journey pass by quickly (Even if I didn't get any sleep). I was travelling with three other volunteers from around the UK. We had managed to reserve seats together at the back of the plane and it was really fun to just chat and share our thoughts and concerns about the trip ahead. After arriving in Narita we collected our bags and met up with all the other volunteers from Canada and Australia who had arrived a few days/the day before. It was great to finally meet everyone in person although it was a little hard to keep my eyes open!

We were then picked up by a minibus and taken to our hostel (the journey lasting about an hour). The Tokyo International Youth Hostel is located on the 18th floor of a large building and has an amazing view over central Tokyo. After dropping off some of our stuff at the hostel we headed straight out into the city. We started by exploring some streets near the hostel building before having lunch in a near-by restaurant. After lunch we continued exploring one of the more popular streets, passing by all kinds of shops and delicious looking restaurants.
It was then time to hit the train station and subway system (both of which I am still unable to make any sense of) headed to Asakusa. Not long after I found myself staring up at the entrance to Sensouji Temple, Japan's Oldest Buddhist temple. ( I will explain a bit more about the temple in a later post). After exploring the temple and some very touristy market stalls it was finally time for dinner.  We ended up in a ramen house where you had to choose your order from a machine at the entrance. It was delicious!

At this point I had been awake well over 24 hours and the hostel beds had quickly become the only thing on my mind. Even though I couldn't wait to see more of Tokyo I was definitely happy to finally get some sleep...