I am now in New Zealand!

On Thursday, I left Tokyo and flew to Auckland note North island of New Zealand! Surprisingly, the trip took a total of 18 hours. I stayed in Auckland for one night, which is very similar to most cities in the world. However, this morning my friend and I got a ferry from the harbour to an island called Waiheke Island. 

We plan to stay with a family of 5 (3 children called Keanu, 6, Mickio, 3, and Tiana, 9) for two weeks, doing work for them in exchange for a place to stay and food. The family have an awesome, outdoorsy lifestyle by the beach and look after lots of animals! They have a dog, a cat, a rabbit, two guinea pigs and their own chickens, which have just given birth to some baby chicks! 

Feeding the chickens:

View from the balcony:

Trips outside of Tokyo

My friend (Ashley) and I, decided to travel outside of Tokyo to see how it is different outside of the big city where it isn't as crowded - there are 35 million people in Tokyo alone!

Kamakura is just south of Tokyo (an hour's train ride away for 800¥) and is known for it's many temples and shrines. 

We stayed in a traditional style hostel and had to sleep on the floor on futons. The walls were paper thin so you could hear everything from the communal room next door!

There was a huge statue of a Buddha down the road from our hostel:

I also went for a hike around an old Japanese temple:

After Kamakura, we visited Hakone, which is up in the mountains and known for its hot springs and onsen (baths with natural spring water).

We hiked up to Mount Komagatake where we had a fantastic view of Mount Fuji and Lake Ashii.

We are now back in Tokyo and await our flight to Auckland, New Zealand on Thursday! We are just bracing ourselves for the second typhoon this Monday - the last one brought an onslaught of torrential rain which ruined our early morning trip to a tuna auction in a fish market (we stayed up all night to visit at 3am!).

Getting around in Tokyo

Tokyo is a huge city! The most common way of getting from A to B seems to be by using the metro system. Most of the time, we have used the metro (1000¥/~£6 for a day pass) and hired bicycles (300¥/~£2 for a day). 

The metro is very quick and efficient but can be slightly confusing! However, most signs are in both English and Japanese so getting around isn't that daunting. A day ticket costs 1000 yen (~£6) and single journeys vary from 170 to 200 yen (~£2).

There are rickshaws available from major tourists spots (like Asakusa) but these are a novelty for tourists (3900¥ / ~£30 for a 10minute ride per person).

It is good to know that a lot of locals travel by bike (the pavement is divided into sections for pedestrians and cyclists). I have enjoyed using a bike as it is a great way to see the city (if you use the metro you are underground and don't get to see anyhing) and is very cheap (600 yen for 3 days = ~£4). Rental bikes come with immobilisers that allow you to lock them up easily wherever you travel.

The bus seems to be used by locals mainly.

Tourists avoid using taxis as they are very expensive.

Exploring Tokyo...

I've been doing the usual touristy things since I got here:

- Visiting shrines

(The site of Tokyo's oldest temple - Asakusa)

- visiting the famous Shibuya crossing

- cycled around Tokyo (300¥ (~£2) for a whole day)

- Trying the local delicacies 

- taking lots of random pictures

Arriving in Tokyo!

All in all, the journey from leaving my house to arriving in Tokyo airport took 24 hours in total! So I was feeling very tired but I still had to find my way to my hostel using a confusing-looking metro system!

Luckily there was a lady to help us who spoke English:

Eventually, we found the place where we will be staying for the next 3 nights, about an hour from the airport on the metro. It is a 'capsule' hostel - where you sleep in a tiny capsule behind a curtain instead of a big Hotel room, costing just under ¥2000 per night (~£13):

The start of the adventure...

Just waiting for the plane at Heathrow airport!! My first flight is to Hong Kong and then I have a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo, which is the capital city of Japan. I should be in Tokyo by tomorrow!

My bag weighed 11.4kg! I wonder what it weighed in grams?

#selfie

I got some Japanese money (Yen):

£90 = 19,000 yen

I'll let you work out the conversion rate 😜

On the plane...

After a very long flight (12 hours), we are now waiting at Hong Kong airport (7:48am local time) waiting for our next plane to Tokyo!