Friday 18 April 2008

Tokyu Hands / Loft in Shibuya


Another cold rainy day here in Tokyo. Sharon wanted to go to one of the "100 yen" stores, (just like the $2 shops you find in Sydney). We spent about an hour in one just outside Harajuku station. We then headed down to Shibuya which is a really trendy area of Tokyo and looked in a "Tokyu Hands" shop and a "Loft" Shop.

Chris asked one of his colleagues (Ai, pronounced eye) from the Tokyo branch of the company he works for to show us around Shibuya. This was great as we would have got totally lost. Emma absolutely adored her and every where we went she wanted to hold Ai's hand.

Whilst we went to Tokyu Hands and Loft, Paul went to see a Renoir exhibition thats on in Tokyo at the moment. After we were finished in Shibuya (at around 5pm), Sharon and Co. took Emma back to the hotel and I went on to Akihabara to have another look around.

I cruised around all the street vendors then went into Yodabashi (major competitor of BIC Camera). About 8 levels of techno stuff, from phones, computers, tvs, toys, toilets, you name it, they sell it. If you can plug it in, Yodabashi will sell it (and yes, in Japan, the toilet seats are plugged in to the wall)

Everywhere we went today was on the circular JR "Yamanote" Line. It circles around tokyo and crosses most other Tokyo subway lines at some point. If you want to go between districts in Tokyo, this line is definitely your friend. Our hotel is near the "Shinagawa" station, which as an added bonus is also a Shinkansen (or Bullet Train) station.

In Tokyo different companies own different lines, and it doesn't seem if you can get a day pass that covers every line.

I believe you can change lines without purchasing another ticket, but I think you need to tell the machine at which station you will switch lines, so we find it easier to just buy new tickets. That said we have mostly stuck to the circular JR line, as it goes to virtually everywhere we want to go.  

To give you an idea of how big the Tokyo subway is, here is a link to a map ( tokyo metro map
). Its actually easier to navigate than it looks, the map in the actual subway is better than the one shown (the one at the top of this blog is the one at Shinagawa station), and every station on the map has the cost in Yen of how much it costs to get to from your current location. Most stations have the english names in them too. (if not just ask a station guard how much the station will cost to get to). 

If you do get it wrong, don't panic, unlike Sydney where you can get hit with a $200 fine for traveling on the wrong ticket, at each station there is a "fare adjustment" machine which will re-do your ticket for you before you go through the gates. Far more civilised than Sydney's "Shitty-Rail" system.

You just need to remember if the station you want to go to is not on the same line, you probably need to buy a transfer ticket, as when you get to the station where you change lines you may need to go out one set of ticket gates and into another.

I've been using this guide book for Tokyo, which I've found excellent and also has a copy of the subway map in it. 

I didn't take many pics today, I didn't want to risk wrecking my cameras in the rain.

Some links from today :-

No comments: