The suburban train network is incredible there are entrances to stations  virtually every 100 metres with vast shopping malls linking miles and miles of underground space.  The ticket system works a treat, there are cards that swipe in a 100th of a second, and are smart enough to allow people to enter and exit the same turnstile.  You can also buy cardboard tickets, these get sucked into the turnstiles at super speed and are returned to the traveller at the exit of the turnstile at lightning speed.  If you don’t have enough money on the card at exit, simply go to the “fare adjustment machine’ and add a few more yen to your ticket. As for the trains they are super fast, these are just the city trains not the bullet trains. They pull into the station at 80 km and pull to a quick stop exactly at the right spot. There are markers on the platform to show which train doors will be where. They are so clean you could eat of the floor, not a mark scratch or graffiti to be seen, they are as good as new. We have been on a few sardine tin ones, where you can not move, one we couldn’t fit on and waited for the next.  Some even split at a station and the front carrages head one way and the back head another.

Its always fun to have a look at the weird and wonderful things on offer at a supermarket when overseas- well Japan has some of the weirder treats, and one we were not really expecting.

We made a quick visit to the Nissan head office for a look at their show room. Other than the hot GTR the rest of the vehicle range was pretty uninspiring.  One weird thing was the stage show, there was a girl on stage doing a motor show like speal to no everyone looking at the showcase- perhaps 10 people?  weird – she yabbered on for about 20 minutes about the 2 cars she had with her on stage.

The food is so good here and it is always presented amazingly even if its from a sidewalk stall or convenience stall. We found a great little restaurant for lunch, food was under $3 a plate and the tastiest stuff you will ever have.  Service is also so friendly, lots of bowing and not much English but its not too hard to communicate.  Beer  is BeerU and most of the menus have photos so you can guess what its going to be, been lucky so far no octopus guts to date.

The choice here is amazing, these photos come from a department store’s hobby section- there is just so much stuff you dont see at home.  The big electrical stores are also amazing, They are as big as K-Mart but 8 stories or more high. They will have 10 rows of camera cards, 10 rows of phone cases, 10 rows of keyboards.  If you want a lead, its not like our shops where you are lucky to have one choice, they will have 10 different lengths, then 10 different colours and 5 different brands of the same thing.  Then theres another shop of another brand a few doors down doing same thing.

The city streets haven’t got much going for them during the day but when the lights come on theres a great atmosphere. All the bars and restaurants have big lanterns, theres neon and video walls flashing everywhere. No matter how late it is there are thousands going through the stations.

We visited 2 tiny bars the first one had a row of chairs around a room no bigger than your bed room. It could hold about 10 people. The other was a standing bar, it was so tight. Everyone stands because there is no room to sit. There are tiny tables between guests who squeeze in like sardines. Going to the toilet was a problem, the door was half the width of a normal door and you to squeeze through it fearing you would get stuck in the place. The toilet itself was about 2 foot wide and 3 1/2 foot long with hand basin on top of the system. These were not the smallest we saw, some had a bar with a row of chairs where the guests were backed onto the wall.

We went on a tour of the massive Kirin beer plant and best of all was shown how to pour the perfect beer– mmm pour the bottle from a high height into the glass making 30% beer and 70% foam, then wait for foam to settle to 50% and keep topping up, then when after 5 minutes (and busting for a beer) and the glass is 30% foam and 70% beer the beer is ready..amazing.. Note the beautiful arrangement they supplied for you to take a picture of your glass around

We took a train, then a monorail and another train to go and see Daibutsu the worlds tallest bronze Buddha.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to drop into Kawasaki for a look. They had a pretty vibrant entertainment strip, the perfect place for a Japanese curry and a beer.

Here’s a few interesting things we saw when visiting the local 7-11

Gundam the robot guards a huge shopping complex in Odabai. He is massive.