Good evening, All. It’s Midnight on the dot and I’m writing you from the Toyoko Inn just outside the West gate of Shinagawa Station, Tokyo.
It’s been a long, long day – I’m exhausted. I’ll update the blog as often as I can during the trip, with pictures. For now, I’ve arrived safe – just wolfed down a convenience store yakisoba and I’m headed to bed. Tomorrow is off to Kansai and I won’t really be back to Tokyo until the 7th.
But for now, let me say that everything here seems fine. Shinagawa is not one of those neon madhouses like Shibuya, so it’s hard to say just what this area is normally like – but at 11:15 or so the station was packed, lots of folks out and about, laughing. Most restaurants open, most of the lights on. Plenty of bottled water at the convenience store, and I didn’t see anyone glowing or with a third eye. For a city that supposedly either deserted or a war zone – depending on which Western news outlet you check – things sure seem relaxed. If I hadn’t known what was happening up North, I wouldn’t have seen any obvious signs something was different. This was just a brief pre-sleep excursion tonight – a lot more about Tokyo upcoming in a week or so. Stay tuned in the meantime for Kyoto, Osaka, Miyajima and more…
Ryan
April 1, 2011 at 7:29 amThanks for putting this up. My partner and I have have booked two weeks holidays in Japan arriving on the 5th of May, and are unsure whether to cancel or plans or not – we both still really want to go.
Our plan was to fly into Tokyo then head right down to Hiroshima, spending a week making our way back toward Tokyo and then a week in Tokyo itself before leaving. With circumstances as they are we weren't sure if we should be skipping out on Tokyo (or Japan altogether).
We look forward to reading about your experience there.