Jan 11
Today me and Prue had the day in Tokyo to ourselves (Ellen was off with her host family in Disneyland for the public holiday, which was likely hellishly busy), so Prue went off to visit the suburb where the Digimon kids come from while I wondered around Shibuya for a bit. It was kind of an easy day; we bought our Disneyland/Disney Sea tickets for Monday and Tuesday, wondered around the east side of the station for a bit, and headed back for the hostel. When Ellen gets back later tonight we'll go out to the Roppongi for cheap drinks at Gas Planet (and probably come home at 5am when the trains start up again).

Jan 10
We headed for Nikko, renowned for being the most cultural place in Japan that's within easy reach of Tokyo. After the warmth of Tokyo compared to Sapporo, we never really thought to check the weather, forgetting that on average Tokyo is ten degrees hotter than its surroundings due to the warmth generated by the city itself. We got off the train, and stepped into a misty and freezing cold town. There was snow left over on the ground and you couldn't see more than thirty metres ahead of you due to mist generated off the river that flows through the town.

In Nikko we saw Shinkyo, a sacred very old bridge, as well as countless shrines and temples, and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (massively powerful Japanese warlord and eventual leader of the country; he and his family maintained control from the 1600s until the Meiji Restoration of 1868). On our way home there was a group of maybe 7 Australians, with a guy dishing out riddles to keep us occupied. They were hard. >_<" In the evening we explored the area around Ikebukuro (where we're staying), going to a few arcades and Book Off. Hooray! Book Off is awesome.

Jan 9
We started the morning by taking the train to Jujo and visiting Ellen's school (university I guess) where she's on exchange; turns out that it's all female and I wasn't allowed in until one of the staff who's a friend of Ellen got me in. We looked around for a bit and shared some juice with her (American) English Literature teacher, before grabbing some taiyaki (the fish-shaped dessert thing) that was actually cooked properly this time and was delicious.

We headed for the area around Tokyo city itself, heading through Shinjuku (busiest train station in the world; over three million passengers pass through it each day - it's insane) to Tokyo tower, with Ellen waiting down the bottom as we took the elevator to the top and looked around. It was a really clear day so we had really extensive views; we got a vague glimpse of Mt Fuji in the distance through haze. After that we headed for the Pokémon centre in the next metro station over (5 of 5 done, yay!) before going back to Ikebukuro.

At night we went out for karaoke in Ikebukuro (yay!) which was awesome fun; Y2000 each for two hours of karaoke with free soft drinks (we snuck in a bottle of vodka after pre-drinking - about $7 for a 375mL bottle - dirt cheap!) and sang loudly and terribly to the Spice Girls, Metro Station, Fall Out Boy and other stuff. It was great. =D