Eye on the Sky(line)

Today marks the penultimate day of our travels. We woke up bright and early to get our last set of insta pictures before we leave The Land of the Rising Sun. Paul started his day how I ended mine - in the one-man steam room - we would both recommend this if you find yourself in our capsule hotel. 

Weather forcast: hot and sunny

Planned activities: Team Labs, batting cage, Shibuya Sky

Completed activities: ALL OF THEM!

Today's theme: Just nearly....

Surprise! Our journey starts, as you may have guessed, on a train! Our quant little capsule hotel is situated on the outskirts of the outskirts of outer Tokyo; a bit like getting an Air BnB in Alnwick and being told you're in Newcastle, so we had quite a journey into the city to be close enough for Team Labs (the win-all-insta-competitions art exhibition visited by the likes of Kim Kardashian). We had bought these tickets on our second day in Japan so needless to say, we were pretty excited! Who knows what celebrity we may rub shoulders with! 

As we set off, Zak and I settled into the lengthy metro ride perfecting our secret handshake, while the rest of the group distanced themselves from us but we all marvelled at the sights we passed: Disney Land, a giant ferris wheel, multiple rivers and giant buildings. Slowly, we neared our destination so a quick check of the time on the tickets would dictate what we would have time to do in Tokyo before catching the final train to the destination.

Queue Paul; our precise and mild mannered navigator and keeper of the tickets. Quietly we watched the colour drain from his sunburnt face, his jawline suddenly looking as chisled as Johnny Depp, his Arnold Schwarzenegger shoulders crumbling before our very eyes. 

"They're in my other bag."

With a pocket wifi in tow, Zak and Paul travelled the long journey back to the capsule hotel to retrieve the tickets while we tried to find something to eat at the next stop... Tokyo. Add another needless train journey to the Japan list. 

Like headless chickens, we ran around looking for the fine dining we have become acustomed to but alas, no 7eleven to be seen - so after filling our pockets with questionable choices, we headed back for our train. 

Suddenly, my friendly face caught the eye of an elderly Japanese gentleman who stood for 10 minutes trying to get me to phone his family member in Sri Lanka - where was our translator when I needed him? I tried to muster all the Japanese he'd taught me these last two weeks to communicate with my new friend. After shouting buildings at him three times, telling him my sister isn't six years old and informing him that I am also a bag, he realised he'd misjudged me and walked off. 

If you'd like to read about the Team Labs experience, please click here.

After our Team Labs experience, we headed for the city for a look around with Shubuya Sky on our evening agenda and a pit stop in Shinjuku for a turn in the batting cages. Shinjuku brought back some painful memories of our first night in Japan when we couldn't find our arse from our elbows and it took us 6 hours to navigate a 2hr journey. However, now we were seasoned train professionals - Samantha even taking up a hobby of trainspotting! We arrived back at the station, jumped on our train and headed for Shinjuku. 

It can't have been that easy, I hear you say... and you'd be right, it wasn't. Our resident trainspotter quickly noticed that the train we pounced on was in fact the wrong train and we were heading in the complete wrong direction. Shit. We disembarked at Disney Land and reorientated ourselves before going again. Add another needless train journey to the Japan list...

Soon we arrived in Shinjuku and we split for food. Anya and Paul going to the very instagrammable Eggs and Things and neither of them buying anything with eggs in! Zak, Samantha, Colin and I sought out a noodle restaurant in an office block and ordered some dishes. The restaurant wasn't busy but they sat us between the only 2 occupied tables. This, and the experiences we've had in noodle restaurants should have given us the information we needed to make the correct choice in ordering food. Instead - we did the very British thing of ordering a dish each from the menu and them turning out to be sharing platters. We perservered with our very British attitudes and, when we'd just about ate the royal banquet we'd been served, we made our way to the batting cages for our first try of baseball. 

Paul, Anya and Sammy found a decent version of an English pub while the rest of tried our hand at that famous American pasttime. We enjoyed a range of pitch speeds from 70kmh to 100kmh and my dreams of being scouted as a professional baseballer quickly dwindled as I struggled to hit any of the balls consistently enough to warrant a contract. 

The night drew in and Shinjuku burst into life. The lights around the city were awe-inspiring. The buzz around the streets was exciting and slightly disappointed that we hadn't experienced this earlier. However, we had a date with the sky that we needed to make and we'd need those extra 15 minutes we had to ensure we weren't sprinting for trains. 

We arrived at the station platform as the Rapid train pulled in. The rapid trains are very useful for tourists as they miss out the likes of Bede, Simonside, Tyne Dock and Chi and and get you straight to the main station - South Shields (or in our case Shubuya). We piled on just in time knowing our journey would now be super quick and we'd have plenty of time to find Shibuya Sky before our 9:20 cut off time. 

We now know Shibuya should have been the next stop. 

Shibuya was not the next stop. 

Annoyingly, we were heading in the wrong direction again, only this time, on a train that missed out plenty of opportunitues to change platforms... Shit. Add another needless train journey to the Japan list.

We changed platforms 4 additional stops from where we needed to be and added at least 14 minutes to our journey. Good job we left ourselves that extra time, right? We arrived at Shibuya with only 5 minutes to spare until our cut off entry time to Shibuya Sky. Off we went on a sprint around the train station to find the right exit to get us close to the right building with enough time to join the queue and not miss our entry time. I feel like the Benny Hill theme would have been a suitable addition at this point. 

When we arrived at Shibuya Sky at 9:19pm (our cut off entry time being 9:20pm), it was clear that they were not expecting us. They checked and double checked our tickets. There was no queue ahead of us. The only information they gave us was the closing time. Clearly we were cutting it fine. Eventually we made it to the lift that shot us 39 stories in the air in only a few moments with a nice ceiling graphic to make it feel as though we were superheroes on a mission through time and space. We arrived to walls of glass and open air, the view going on for what seemed like forever, tiny dots of light indicating life, ant-like creatures scurrying the floor below us. 

The pictures will never do the memories justice. The evening capped off what had been, minus trains, a sensational day. We spent close to an hour committing the sights to memory before making our way to the train station for our half hour trip back to our capsule hotel - one change, then a straight journey home. 

The hits and misses of the day had definitely had an impact on our confidence so extra checks had to be made to ensure we were going in the right direction. Get to the right platform, check! Ensure the train was going in the right direction before getting on, check! Good to go! As the trains were preparing for their bedtime, our track merged with another line. Panic set in but Navigator Paul ensured we would still get to the right station, although the next train would be leaving shortly after we got there... Arrive at the right location, check!

Last train. Last train? Last train. 

11:00pm. Train bedtime soon. Last train. 

We jumped on the last train, another merger, heading in the same direction that we needed to be in.

The onboard computer showed the split. Fukushima nowhere to be seen. A glance showed the same dejected face we'd seen mere hours ago. 

Fuck You Shima!

We got off at the wrong stop (again!), changed platforms (again!) and headed for home (again!) We were on the final train of the night. Had we missed the final train, we'd probably be lingering around trying to get a taxi from people who don't want to give tourists a lift. 

Finally, we arrived at the final destination feeling like we were in Final Destination. We collected a McDonalds and returned to the capsule hotel, hours after we'd first set off for home. Maybe it was the hysteria, maybe the tiredness or maybe just the realisation that we were home and safe but we ate through fits of laughter, so much so that we were asked to go to bed to keep the noise down.