Joel here

Enter the Blackledge.
That's right, I give Tom a month's head start and I STILL manage to get to Tokyo before him. Typical.
Right now I'm in Asakusa, a pretty awesome part of Tokyo.
Yesterday I left Heathrow at 1pm, and on the 11-hour flight I was given my own little screen and lots of music, films and TV to enjoy. Knowing that this would be my last chance to sit and enjoy so much pop culture for a while, I gorged.
Arrived in Tokyo around 9am this morning. At least, they told me it was 9am. Frankly I counted the hours and I don't think they're being honest. At the airport there was a long line for everyone to give Japan their fingerprints and have their picture taken. Customs thoughts I was suspicious, they told their dog to give me a sniff and Customs Lady had a look in my bag, and asked me simple questions in a strange manner, I think she was trying to catch me out. Anyway, I convinced her that my sleeping bag wasn't a bomb and on I went to the train station. I stood before the ticket desk for a few minutes, walking this way and that, trying to get my head round the Tokyo rail system. But, as hard as I tried, I just couldn't make it complicated. I've only used it today, but it seems very easy; it's designed so you pay what you want for the ticket and then make up the rest when you arrive or have to change. Very helpful for travellers. Also, the station names are in Roman script as well as Japanese. Nice one Tokyo.
There were a couple of a 'is this my train? it's probably my train. i'll just get on it' moments, but the fact that I didn't get lost shows how easy it is to use.

Once I arrived in Asakusa, I had a couple of hours before I needed to get to the hostel so I went for a bit of a wander. This place is pretty indescribable, I've never been anywhere like it. It looks like a big city; there are lots of tall, impressive buildings, wide roads and many different people. However, the atmosphere is so calm that you occasionally struggle to match up the visuals with everything else. There's such a sense of space here, like all the little alleyways could just go on forever (and I suspect that they do) and everyone rides bikes on the PAVEMENT. This alone makes me want to move here. No one really seems in a hurry, and little market stalls stand next to gigantic office buildings.
So there I was on my wander, looking at various markets when I came across a HUGE temple. Note the capitals. This mother was big. Surrounding it were various lesser temples, shrines and tacky candy floss stalls. I didn't go in the temple, as I thought with my huge backpack I might knock something over but I was walking past it and found 100yen on the floor. I suppose I should throw it in the pond (another thing there's plenty of, although they ask that you don't throw coins in as there are fish).

Anyway, I was getting pretty hot and achy with my big bag so I decided to amble down to find my hostel - 'amble' is the operative word here; I still had a while, so I just decided on going in the general area, and letting my sense of direction do the rest. After lots of wandering through small alleyways (even smaller than those other ones) a man on a bike came over and tried to give me directions. However, he spoke no English and I speak no Japanese, and my map seemed to be the most confusing thing he'd ever seen. He got the attention of another guy who spoke a little English, who phoned up the hostel on his phone to ask for directions. Of course, it's never that simple. The hostel, you see, is in fact three hostels. Mine is the 'Annex', and I only had the phone number for the Guest House. After a bit of walking round and talking about how nice Asakusa is, the man decided that he didn't know where we were going and left me to it. I thanked him and I literally turned round the corner for a woman on a bike to offer me directions. She seemed to know where the hostel was, although her English wasn't great and her directions consisted mainly of '1,2,3' and hand gestures. She cycled alongside me, though, and we found it. Except that wasn't it. This was the 'Smile', the OTHER hostel of the three. Rather than hurt her feelings, I thanked her and waited until she rode away until I started down the road in the other direction.
I eventually found the hostel, which is where I am now, and this i actually the scariest bit - I can't just walk around with a vague purpose anymore, I have a place to stay.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.
Hopefully Tom will find his way here tomorrow.
Joel xxx

P.S. I saw the smallest dog in the world today. I'm not kidding. It was tiny.