Oct 24-27
It took me 45 hours to get from Chile to Japan. I lost 3 days in transit and spent far too much time in a teeny tiny Mexican airport. That's what you get for booking a cheap flight... Luckily, Tokyo was well worth it!
Despite arriving insanely sleep deprived at 6am, I forced myself to go out and make the most of my incredibly limited time Tokyo. Sushi for breakfast gave me some much needed energy to begin my tourist-ing in Akihabara...the electronics center of Tokyo! Here you can find absolutely everything electronic you ever dreamed of. There was a mixture massive department stores and tiny, quirky shops. One shop was dedicated entirely to old-school video games. Hello, nintendo 64! Where have you been the last 20 years?! Hiding out in Akihabara it seems.
There are also heaps of gaming shops, filled with arcade games, claw-grabbing-prize games, computer games, gambling games.. You name it. Fascinating area!
Next up was Asakusa. On my way there I found take-away sushi heaven. I bought myself an assortment of packaged sushi and sat by the river to eat, admiring both the Tokyo Skytree and the strange sperm-type thing. What the..?
Oh, how naive I've been.. Sushi doesn't just come in little rolls...it comes in every shape and size! Sushi triangles are super common in Tokyo. One sushi piece I bought thinking it was just a sushi roll... But no, this was DIY sushi. Or RIY, if you will (roll your own). Not as easy as it looks! Discovering the RIY triangle sushi the next day provided whole new challenge..!
Once I got to the market in Asakusa I quickly realised I shouldn't have eaten so much... The market was full of incredible little treats begging to be eaten. You wouldn't believe how many different dishes can be made from just rice! One favourite treats was these little balls of doughy goodness, filled with sweet red bean paste. No, I shouldn't have been eating them..but yes, they were worth the stomach ache that ensued.
But enough about food. In Asakusa I also stopped by the Shinto shrine, where I made a wish (and was told it would probably not come true...oh good)
I hopped on a metro with the intention of seeing sunset from the top of the Metropolitan Government Building. However, sunset was earlier than I expected snd so I arrived at the base just as the sun was going down.
Unfortunately, so did another 100-odd people. The long queue meant that by the time I got up to the top, it was pitch black. Oh well, the night view was still impressive!
Japanese curry filled me up for dinner. Deeeeelish!
After a 12 hour sleep I got a bus out to Lake Kawagauchiko, about two hours out of Tokyo. Once there I hired a bike and cycles around the lake, admiring the stunning views of mount Fuji.
Being autumn, the paths were lined with colourful trees and beautiful flowers!
Eventually I reached ?? Park, where bright plants and flowers made for an even more picturesque little setting.
Unfortunately the sun sets the wrong way to get an ideal sunset over Mt Fuji. But it was a lovely sunset nonetheless.
When I was at the bus station, waiting to board a bus back to Tokyo, there was an earthquake! Walls shook, windows rattled...for all of about two seconds. 4.6 magnitude, apparently! Which is essentially considered nothing. But hey - I survived an earthquake!!
I got up early on my last day in Tokyo, to try and jam in as much as possible. I headed off to Shibuya with Eric, who I met at the hostel that morning. We watched the 'mayhem' of the Shibuya crossing from Starbucks...although I think we chose the least busy time of day for it! Still good people watching.
While there I also spotted the statue of Hachikō, a dog celebrated for his loyalty; he is said to have been at the train station every day to meet his owner after work, even for years after his death.
Next up was Harajuku, an area reknown for its quirkiness.
Being that it was the lead up to Halloween the shops were filled with costumes. But even costumes aside, there were many odd and whacky little bits and bobs in the shops.
I had a delicious sushi-train lunch back in Shinjuku.
After filling my belly I strolled down to the Shinjuku gardens only to discover it was closed! Boo. Instead, I went back up the Metropolitan Government Building, to catch a glimpse of the skyline in daylight. It's good to be able to actually see all the buikdings! Very different view than it was during the evening.
Then...the Robot Restaurant. This has to rate as one of the weirdest things I've ever done on my travels. Weird and wonderful. But mostly weird. The room they took us to to have some drinks before the show was covered in sparkles. An extravagantly decorated room...to say the least.
The show was a mixture of music, dance, robots, half naked ladies and crazy costumes.
Most of it was an absolute jumble of music and dance and robots...but at one point they attempted a storyline. The animals paradise was being taken over by robots. Half naked ladies to the rescue! And when each half naked lady failed to conquer the robots, another half naked lady would appear with something bigger and better to help her in combat, ranging from an ape, to a shark, a dinosaur and eventually a huge serpent.
A unique experience..which I suppose is exactly what you want from Tokyo!
I returned to the Shibuya crossing just after dark, when it was much busier. Word is that this is the busiest intersection in the world.
Dinner was incredible. I went to a super-modern sushi train restaurant. At the table, a tablet was attached at head-height, which I used to scroll those the sushi options and place my order. No more than a few minutes later a little tray would zoom out, on the 'train' to deliver my food. And it was deeeelicious.
It's been fun, Tokyo. And I'm super keen to come back and explore more of Japan one dayor now... It's HOME TIME!
