Japan, my most easterly destination, bestowed highs as lofty as snow-capped Mt. Fuji and lows as deep as any ocean trench. My time in this volatile land was marked by blithe, carefree fun, haunting anxiety and, finally, mechanical tragedy. But, in a country of such natural beauty with such a unique culture and fascinating people, it was inevitable that travelling here would be an intensely rewarding experience.

TOKYO:

'Freaks!' was my narrowly researched conclusion on Tokyoites after a weekend's strolling around the city's plentiful points of interest, guided with supreme insight by my brother William and his girlfriend Charlotte (Tokyoites themselves are equally freakish). I certainly don't mean anything derogatory by the term 'freaks', rather the opposite in fact - amongst its younger generation (which I base this estimation on), Tokyo has a uniquely visible social spectrum, making its people and culture irresistibly fascinating to an outsider (like me!).

Amongst the ordinary, everyday people, the young seem to be divided up into groups, expressing themselves through the most bizarre, extreme fashions - exactly what they are trying to express is a little harder to judge. Of course, the vast majority of Tokyoites are as perfectly normal and mundane as any group of Londoners, but, wandering as I did, through Tokyo's numerous urban centres at the weekend, you can't help focusing on the oddities and come away thinking that Tokyo is a brilliantly strange place.

This is a quick guide through the various nuclei that make up the veritable urban safari park that is Tokyo on a sunny Saturday afternoon (incidentally, William and Charlotte deemed it unnecessary to take a rifle):

Shinjuku: Glistening skyscrapers and wide breezy streets, this slick business district is as gleaming as a designer's sketch. Amongst the grazing herds of dark suited salarymen, queueing up at traffic lights and striding to offices carrying buckled briefcases and bags under their eyes, a keen eye may spot a training Yakuza or perhaps a whole pride of young Yakuza, identifiable by their sharp skinny suits, confident swagger and untamed

Lion-o (thundercats) hairstyles. Apart from the masks, these guys look every inch the 'Crazy 88'.

Shibuya: Shopaholic haven, karaoke queen and department-store domain, this is the stomping ground of the Ganguro, high-heeled, mini-skirted, bleached-blond girls with a Tango tan and make-up which looks as if its been applied with a paint roller. Although there is, at present, a healthy population, word on the street is that numbers are dwindling and the ever shifting fashions could place Ganguro on the endangered species list within a few years. William also added that they don't wash.

Meiji-jingu: A forested park set in tradition, housing Torri (Japanese wooden gates), shrines and imperial gardens - this was a glimpse of the serene tranquility that formed my romantic ideas of what Japan must have been like before sky-scrapers. Not only did we see numerous Japanese wearing traditional kimonos here (comparatively uncommon in other areas) but we were also lucky enough to catch a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony - an outwardly quite sombre affair (I first thought it must be a funeral until I saw the bride) but extremely elegant with a long column of black dressed and suited guests and family, slowly following the bride (wearing a white dress but with a large white Japanese bonnet instead of a veil) and groom as they gracefully proceeded through the shrine.

Harajuku: The den of the unearthly, outlandish and preposterous. This is where the Tokyo phenomenon of 'cos-play' ('costume-play' - basically dressing up as bizarrely as you can think of for no superficial reason other than to attract interest) is most apparent, and also where the freaky nature of Tokyoites really became ingrained in my impression.

The central Takeashita road (no joke) is a bustling little lane of relatively normal shops and cafes but the people wandering up and down it make you feel as though you've stepped onto the set of a science-fiction movie.

In contrast to the Ganguro, various Tokyo teens have gone for the Puritan look (never saw that one coming back!). Covered from ankle to jaw with conservative black frills like an albino on holiday to Mercury, and complete with a black skull cap/bonnet and a copy of the book of Mormon (the book's a guess), these young girls are clearly not interested in looking cool.

Goths are no new phenomenon, but these goths, or 'turbo goths', are something else. They have the usual thigh-high leather boots, vampiric white faces and trailing latex trench-coats etc, but they also have imaginative extras. Glazed, pupil-less eyes (special contacts), strange bushy tails and more metal studs on their faces than there are rivets in an ocean liner, are amongst their unique accessories. These people must literally spend hours getting ready before they leave their houses.

Perhaps the very strangest of the cos-play cliques are the 'Little Bo Peeps', polar opposites to the satanic goths but a lot more disturbing. Dressed up in billowing pink frills, they look like China dolls on acid or a drunk Mary Poppins on the point of a nervous breakdown. Like the other crews they just sit in groups of their own, twirling their pink, frilly umbrellas, making sure they're on display to tourists etc, while looking as though they've lost a lot more than their sheep.

Exactly why Tokyo teens feel the need to dress up in such a manner to simply hang around in groups escapes me, although the classic teenage trait of needing attention is probably a major cause. You could also speculate that modern Japanese youth feel restricted in the traditionally inverted Japanese society and so find themselves going to these kind of extremes to express themselves. Whatever it is, as a tourist with a camera confronted with something weird, I was happy to oblige in giving them that craved attention.

Yoyogi Park: Dancing Elvises, of course. At the entrance to the park is a throng of about thirty men and a few women, the infamous 'Tokyo Rockabillie Club', leather-clad with tubular quiffs that would put the King himself to shame, swinging, shaking and shuffling to the sounds of good old-fashioned rock n' roll. They're not bustlers asking for money or anything in fact, they've just dressed up and come together to dance away like its 1956 - and why not?!

The Musical mayhem of Yoyogi as a whole, however, carries on through the generations. Along the street bordering the park are numerous fully-equipped rock bands complete with punk hair-dos, blaring amps and 'groupies' performing coordinated dance routines. Slamming their drums, clanging their guitars and screaming into their microphones, these future stars of rock do everything they can to out-noise their rival bands, only a few feet away on their left and right, who are equally trying to drown out all other racket with their own. The result is audio chaos, what any young rocker strives to achieve - this would be no place for an aspiring Damien Rice.

Within the park it doesn't get any quieter or less interesting. The path leading through is more of a canine catwalk than a practical track. In Tokyo it seems that dogs are more fashion accesories than animals, and dressing up your little pup (jeans and T-shirt combos are 'in' this season) is as common as dressing your baby. Amongst the other usual park activity of picnics and frisbees, you have people practicing their instruments to launch themselves onto the pavement stage (an extremely ungifted saxophonist set up practising next to us), Christian groups reciting psalms with the aid of their blowpipes, and the ghostly noise of bagpipes, drifting to our ears through the distant trees like some shrieking spirit. This is not the place to come for a little peace and quiet.

Within such an exhilarating city, we did everything from stuffing our faces at Yakinuku (12 piled plates of meat for two and a half people (Charlotte's only small) in 90 minutes) and every other type of Japanese cuisine to seeing the Beatles re-incarnated (so good was the tribute band) and performing a duet of Shaggy's 'Boombastic' in karaoke. William and Charlotte gave me nothing less than a truly unforgetable time that has left me itching to return.