22nd August 1991 Day 33

Diary
This morning we were shown how to get to the station - which we'd already discovered. Then, along with Ian, who'd won the trip in a raffle, we caught a tube to the station and then walked to the Tokyo Tower. The tower is supposedly taller than the Eiffel Tower but you could have fooled me. Anyhow, we manged to get Graham up in the lift. He had his eyes shut but he survived. A Japanese couple got us to pose for photos with their daughter and then we signed our names for them. Strange people the Japanese.

 We went to the Emperor's gardens and palace but they were shut. Typical. In the evening 10 of us got together and hunted round Shinjuku for something to eat. We found somewhere that could get us all in a midst lots of laughter and pointing at the pictures outside we managed to order a selection of dishes. The third one was absolutely inedible. Afterwards we spent a couple of hours searching for a bar that sold only beer - in vain.

Graham and Ian

2011
Shinjuku Station - the world's busiest train station and the dividing point between the hustle and bustle of the bars , shops and life on one side and the government buildings and businesses on the other side.


We bought our tickets through David Barnett's Track and Field Tours Company and there were many other British fans staying in our hotel. Ian was a freelance vision mixer and filled us in on some BBC insider stories - but you'll have to wait until 1st September to find out more.

Bop hanging on

Graham was (is) notoriously scared of heights. I remember him pinned to the wall of a staircase in a museum in Germany because it had a pendulum hanging down the middle. He looked up at the pendulum and froze. I think we peeled him off the wall and carried him down. Getting him up the tower was a major coup. Another friend of mine, Dileep, is similarly scared of heights and when we went to Paris together he ended up stuck at the top of the Eiffel Tower for several hours waiting for me. He went in the lift and I went up the stairs and when I didn't see him at the first stage I thought he'd chickened out. He'd actually gone all the way to the top. This was in the days before mobiles and I couldn't find him anywhere so went sightseeing for the rest of the afternoon while he hung for dear life at the top of the tower. He he.