Friday 6th May 2016 (updated)

We landed at 07:00, bouncing on Japanese tarmac, taxiing to a Japanese terminal for a Japanese airbridge connected to the plane controlled by an actual Japanese person. In short, we had arrived in Japan.

We were through immigration, collected the bags and through customs in less than an hour and walking though the exit door, there was a smart gentleman with our name on a board, ready to sweep us to his car and then into the city to our first hotel.

He spoke no English, or little, and he laughed as I got my camera out ready to snap at anything and everything as we made our way to the hotel.

In the end we had an hour's drive to the hotel, along dual carriageways and then onto an elevated road for the final part to the hotel, twisting and turning through the skyscrapers, making it seem to me that we were travelling through a real life Sim City. What really surprised me is that the traffic didn't seem as crazy as i had expected. But in Bladerunner style, there were huge neon signs and video screens everywhere.

At one point I saw a police car turn down a side street, and I tried to snap it. "Police Car"! our driver laughed.

I wanted to tell him "but it's a JAPANESE police car!"

We arrived at the hotel, in the shadow of the Sky Tree, more of that later, and once we had our cases we entered the building, and rode the lift to the top floor where the lobby was. We handed over the voucher for the rooms, were given our keys, and so at nine in the morning, we were in our rooms, with three days in one of the world's biggest cities to fill.

I had noticed that there was a branch of Denny's nearby, so wanting coffee and breakfast, I thought that would be an easy place to have our first meal in Japan.

We took the lift down to the street then ventured out into the hectic world of Tokyo to walk to the end of the block then turned right, crossed the road and went up the stairs, to be confronted by Denny's, but the Japanese version. But they spoke English, and after looking at the pictures in the menu, I chose a Japanese Brunch with a soda, which turned out to be liquid sugar it was so sweet.

Opposite the hotel was a place called The Thunder Gate, which seemed to be a popular tourist destination, but one we never seemed to find time to visit. I think it was a large temple complex, and it was outside that we saw the first of the rickshaws with their, er, puller, dressed in traditional costume, with calves like tree trunks, and as Jen remarked, buns of steel!

We were heavily jetlagged, tired and confused. We walk to the nearby bridge over the river, just looking at people, traffic and trains which filled the cityscape scene, it was all new, foreign and wonderful. I snapped everything that moved. And stuff that didn't.

We walked to a what looked like a shopping centre, but was the offices of a brewery, but along the lower floors were bars and restaurants. And surround this were the everyday Japanese urban sprawl; narrow streets, small houses, vending machines and all of this dominated by the massive Sky Tree a few city blocks away.

But, in the end, tiredness overwhelmed us, so we walked back to the bridge, and back down the busy street past the Thunder Gate to the hotel to try to get some sleep.

I could have walked and snapped all day, but it was suggested that we should try to nap. And so with a heavy heart I walked with Jools and Jen back to the hotel, where we all snoozed until late in the afternoon, by which time it had clouded over and a steady rain had begun to fall, bringing the neon-rich night early, and creating a wonderfully photogentic scene right outside my window, I sat at the window and took shots of it as soon as I was up.

It looked so other-worldly to be honest. Each side street had lanterns emblazoned with Japanese writing, meaning I had no idea. Below a taxi waited for business at the end of one of those streets, and the whole scene was greatly improved by the neon lights reflecting off the wet roads and pavements.

A while later we met in the lobby and decided, or rather I decided that we would go for a walk down the street so I could snap the lights, people and traffic in the rain. I was so exited I thought I might explode. The air was full of the smells of exotic cooking, it all smelt wonderful. But what to choose?

I knew that a doorway with what looked like a flag hanging down indicated somewhere to eat, but all the menus were in Japanese.

We walked on to the end of the road, looked at the traffic speeding through the intersection before turning round to walk back.

We still had no where to eat.

A way down the street was a small chain steak restaurant, they had seats, so we thought we would be brave and go in.

In fact, I was unsure, but Jen said we have to eat somewhere, so why not try it. So I went reluctantly in, and this turned to be the moment when we got a handle on the country and its people.

We were met by much bowing, and shown to three seats at a counter. We order steaks by type and weight, as well as a bottle of house red. Before being cooked, the chef cut the steaks from a larger piece and presented each one to us for inspection before being cooked.

All this was done with them not speaking any English and us not speaking any Japanese. But we made ourselves understood, even ordering a bottle of cheep sweet red wine.

The steaks were serves on metal skillets, so hot it made the corn the steak was served with pop. It was one of the best steaks I have ever had, wonderfully tender and seasoned. We weren't the centre of attention as I thought, people just came in, ordered and ate, just as we did. I got the chef and servers to pose before we left, doing the whole tourist thing.

The hotel had a rooftop bar and garden, so after walking back, we go up order beers and sit in the shelter of an overhanging roof, drinking and looking at the Sky Tree all lit up about a mile away, it's top lost in clouds. It was all so alien and wonderful. I have another beer and take yet more shots.

We had the garden to ourselves, sheltered by a roof overhang. We drank Japanese beer or gin and tonics, played cards all with the backdrop of the naked city, all it up.

And this wasn't our first full day, this was a Brucie Bonus day. It would begin for real in the morning.