Exploring Tokyo

Friday, March 9 – 

Outside Tokyo Palace

We started the day with an interesting buffet breakfast at the hotel.  The buffet is described as Western and Japanese, so the selection contains many items Americans would not consider typical breakfast items such as pasta, salad, chicken nuggets, rice, fish, cheese, etc. along with more typical selections like hard boiled eggs, bacon, pastries and fruit.   Because we were up early we walked to Shiba Park and explored our first temple, Zojoji, and shrine, Shibatoshogu.  These are both Buddhist from the Edo period and were very impressive.   Also, near our hotel is the Tokyo tower, which has served as a good landmark to keep from getting back.  Then it was time to meet our private guide for an orientation tour. 

Ms. Muranaka took us through our itinerary and the 21 (yes 21) different tickets and vouchers in our packet.  And we don’t have vouchers for several of the planned activities.  After making sure everything was in order, she proceeded to take us to the subway system to demonstrate the use of our Pasmo card.  This card is a preloaded subway ticket that allows us access almost all of the public transportation in Tokyo.  Tokyo, like many large cities, is actually made up of many neighborhoods and small towns that have their own identity.  

Temple at Asakusa

With Ms. Muranake we traveled to Tokyo Station by subway so that she could point out where to meet the bus for our next leg of the trip in a few days and then onto the Imperial Palace to visit the gardens.  Unfortunately, it was still raining, and the gardens were closed on Fridays.   So the backup plan was to visit Asakusa or “Old Town”.  Asakusa is home to the Asakusa Kannon Temple which is one of the more famous of Tokyo’s temples and often seen in photographs.  From here we were left on our own to explore at leisure.  The temple, while impressive, is very touristy.  We did see many young women in kimonos, mostly taking “selfies”.  If you felt the urge, there were even shops where you could rent kimonos for wearing to the temple grounds. 

Finding a place to eat is not a problem, the area (and Tokyo in general) has small eating establishments everywhere.  Knowing which to choose is the problem.  Unlike in the states, each shop specialized in one type of food so if you want buckwheat noodles you find a buckwheat noodle shop, or if you want rice noodles you look for a rice noodle shop.  We learned that there are more noodle shops in Tokyo than restaurants in New York City.  And they have more Michelin Star restaurants than any other major city. 

Tokyo Tower, near the hotel

After leaving Asakusa, the challenge was to navigate the subway system back to the hotel area on our own.  Ted has some experience with this from his previous trips to Japan many years ago so that was helpful, and we made it back successfully.

For the evening, we took the train back to the Ginza area a short way from the hotel.  The travel agent had recommended looking for “yakitori alley” around the station in hopes of getting some roasted chicken-on-a-stick.  We found a couple of places, but they were packed on a Friday night.  So we ended up at a small Chinese restaurant with an open table which was very good.  Ginza is famed for classy shops (of note is Mikimoto Pearl) and the area is similar to Rodeo Drive or 5^th Ave so after eating we walked around to take in the pricy shops and high-tech glitzy billboards. 

Saturday, March 10^th

We started the day back at the Imperial Gardens for a quick walkthrough of only the bottom section. 

Massive stones of the Imperial Garden walls

The entire area is roughly the size of central park and we did not have sufficient time for more than a quick look.  Our scheduled destination was Nippori station to meet up with a quide for a “foodie” tour of the area.  Along with one other tourist, we sampled local food as we walked through the market.  Some of the food we sampled were rice crackers, savory red bean pancakes, fired cutlets, curry bread and then Beth’s favorite red snapper sashimi and octopus balls.   Yes, I managed to down the sashimi and octopus.  These were washed down with warm Saki.  Then onto a ramen noodle shop with ramen and a dumpling, followed by a coffee shop then steamed strawberry filled rice flour pastry for dessert (kinda like eating a less than sweet filled marshmallow).  The food is nothing short of unique.  If that  It was over 3 hours of food tasting.   Nippori also has a textile section so we wandered over for a quick look at a couple of fabric stores.

Octopus balls on the griddle - far side nearly done

wasn’t enough we finished with beer and edamane.

After Nippori we headed by train to Shinjuku, home to the busiest train station in the world!  It is  Once you follow the herd to the street, the crowds continue to busy streets with many famous department stores, tourist shops and skyscrapers.  When we were walking out of the station, we really didn’t have a lot of choice of what direction we were going until we were well outside.  Once you were in the flow, that was the way you were going.  It was pretty much organized chaos with people texting and talking on their phones as they walked.

estimated that the equivalent of the entire population of Canada passes through this station every day.

After a quick walk around Shinjuku, we headed back into the mass of humanity to find our way to the  Again, a successful day of navigating the subway system and seeing several more areas of Tokyo. 

Beth "enjoying" an Octopus ball

train platform that would get us back to the hotel.

Like a lot of the convenience stores in the states, the 7-11, Family Market and Lawson’s all carry a pretty complete menu of prepared and hot food items.  After our long day touring Tokyo, we opted for a quick, light meal from the Family Market around the corner from the hotel.