Bright lights, big city, gone to my baby's head

Our journey from Christchurch to Tokyo was a long one - the longest  flight we have taken so far on our travels. We have never flown with New Zealand Airlines before & were impressed. Excellent service, good food, a cheeky ice cream treat halfway through the flight & some delicious fizz, which you can order at the touch of a button throughout your flight if you so wish! On arrival at Tokyo airport it was as efficient as I expected then once through, we caught the limousine bus to the central terminal a 15min walk from our hotel.  All straight forward &  all very easy - once we went in the right direction!
We had 3 nights and 2 full days in Tokyo.  We knew that wasn't enough but we had decided to use the time to acclimatise & will return  at the end of our trip to explore further. Tokyo is huge so you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. 
Our first morning we set off on foot,  armed with map & guidebook to explore. we've experienced incredible sights & scenery in the last few weeks but it's so good to be back in a noisy, busy, crowded city. We are clearly city types & our energy levels thrived on it. 

Tokyo is a city of contrasts – they have incredible toilets that warm, wash & dry you from every angle – even playing music if you need to hide any noises but the  public toilets do not have any soap or hand dryers. Outside on the street you can only smoke in designated areas but you can still smoke in restaurants, bars & hotels.  All road junctions, even the tiniest of turnings, are controlled by pedestrian lights & everyone complies – even if there isn't a car for miles. However If you are on a bicycle you can do what you like it seems. On the streets screens & bright lights are flashy & loud, a complete sensory overload at times, yet they play jazz – cool chilled jazz, almost everywhere you go. During the working week all the men & most of the women wear suits & white shirts & look very business like, late in the evening however, they let their hair down & get completely wasted - we saw a number of them staggering along! 
As usual we covered a ridiculous number of kms & visited lots of  must see places. Our highlights – seeing the cherry blossom – about a week from full bloom,  finding the JBS (jazz blues soul) bar up with an enviable vinyl collection. Smoky? Yes but it seemed acceptable there.  Shibuya a vibrant area with bright lights, shops & lots of people; Senso-ji temple & the area around it was well worth a visit. We also found a great bar that sold herbal liquor & a shop that sold dog clothes including a samurai warrior outfit – sadly all too small for A&Gs dog. Food wise, everything we have eaten so far has been fabulous. Ordering it is easy once you work out how. In some places you need to order from vending machines. You simply press the picture of the dishes you want, insert money, get a ticket, put it on your table,  then someone takes it off you & shortly after the food arrives. Easy. 
On our second day we exchanged the vouchers we had purchased previously for  our JR passes (Japan Rail. It cost us £400 each for a 3 week pass & will save us heaps. 

So on our third day we boarded the bullet train to Kyoto & boy was it fast. Mr L clocked the speed on his gps app at 270km per hour. Very impressive & you can hardly feel it. But speed isn't always a good thing as I was reminded by the NSW police this week – I have apparently been summonsed for speeding whilst in Sydney. My first speeding ticket in all my years of driving. So, not only am I a thrill seeking adrenaline junky, it seems I'm now a lawless speed freak. What has become of me.