Lost and found

Wow, so that was Tokyo. Neon, cartoon characters and diagonal zebra crossings all as expected, but it's not as bewildering as Ms Coppola would have us believe. I had three very different days:

Day one - Orientation. Walked around Shinjuku and Shibuya drinking it all in. I was expecting the visual feast, but not the sonic one - video screens blared, train stations blasted out their individual theme tunes, promotional lorries spewed out J-pop hits and slot machine halls sounded like they'd been hijacked by a gang of psycopathic organists.

Day two - Culture. Meandered through Ueno Park to look at some old stuff in a museum. Then followed the crowds to Senso-ji to see the temple and wander the alleyways.

Day three - SHOPPING!!! From window-shopping at Prada (and you couldn't ask for crazier windows) to actually buying stuff at Banana Republic. From mingling with the goth-French-maid schoolgirls over the soft toys at Kiddyland to marvelling at the delights of Itoya, a very Japanese stationery store.

Plenty of stuff to keep me distracted. Not that I minded being alone. Because I knew I wasn't.