Day 15: Our last day

Last day :(

View from our room out over the Imperial Palace gardens

Looked out at our gorgeous view and then went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. The 'American' (bacon eggs and toast) came with brocolli and cauliflower, and a starter of salad. The Japanese love putting salads with stuff!

Then we headed back to Shibuya, my fave area of Tokyo, for a bit of last min shopping, a final visit to Mee's Pancakes (where we had breakfast on our first proper day) and then over to Harajuku which we didnt do properly the first time.

Harajuku on a Saturday is mental. Kiddyland is fun and Takeshita Dori is a mad crush. We found a My Little Pony themed cafe which we joined the ridiculous queue for but it wasnt moving so we left as we were a bit short on time.

We got take away gyoza and headed to Yoyogi park. Even though we were only getting take away food from the restaurant, we were shown to a seat to wait and given hot towels and iced water which was very welcome on another warm day! Everywhere we ate pretty much gave us hot towels and table water which I thought was a nice touch and wpuld love over here. In fact even if you get sandwiches from a station shop they put hand wipes in the bag for you!



Yoyogi park was full of all kinds of people doing all kinds of things- picnicking, practising instruments/football/dancing/and more, so was a great place for people-watching!

Lots of people walking dressed up little dogs, and pushing other dogs in weird doggy prams (yep it's dogs in the prams above!)

It's also very pretty in Yoyogi Park

I also liked the touch of a 'bird sanctuary' area. There was a part of the park fenced off and allowed to grow more naturally, designed as a wildlife (and particularly bird) haven. There was information about the birds so that amateur birdwatchers could identify what they were seeing.

Bird sanctuary, Yoyogi park

Then it was a whistle stop trip to Meiji Jingu shrine before heading back to the hotel to grab our stuff to go to the airport.

The journey back to the hotel was the only time the language barrier was really frustrating as we went to the Hanzomon line at Shibuya and then after a few minutes waiting on a stationary train there were announcements in Japanese and everyone got off and just stood on the platform. Eventually the train left empty and the train going the other way on the same line just sat there. There was no information in English and we didnt know what to do. Eventually we concluded that people didn't seem to be leaving the platform, so that probably meant another train would come eventually, which it did. We finally got back to our hotel and collected our bags and then got a taxi from the hotel to Tokyo Station (the wrong end of the station as it turned out and that place is big!). From there we got the Access Narita bus which is pretty regular, takes about an hour, and costs about £6 each: bargain!

Saying goodbye to Japan was very sad, but I really do hope we'll be back one day...

Day 14: Skytree, Asakusa, Rikugien, Lost in Translation...

Skytree

We started the day at the Skytree in the hopes it would be a bit clearer but it was still pretty overcast. It was still amazing though, looked impressive from the ground, and then when you went up (and we went up to the 450m deck) tokyo looks like a model village type thing, the buildings and cars are smaller than toys.

It was fun spotting places we'd been (eg Tokyo dome city) and Sensoji temple where we were going next! We also walked on the glass floor bit, that bit could do with being bigger I think as everyone was trying to get on it and it's quite small, but it was cool and scary!

After that we tried to go for breakfast in the skytree view restaurant in a connected building but it wasnt yet open (a recurring theme of our breakfast exploits!) So we went to starbucks instead as that was open and willing to feed us and we were starving! I tried to make it more Japanese by having a green tea Frappuccino though.

Asakusa

Next we walked to Asakusa to see Sensoji temple. Definitely the most impressive shrine of the temples we'd seen, very lavish!

On the way out we bumped into Aaron's friend and his girlfriend who we'd planned to meet that evening in an entirely different part of Tokyo, random coincidence in such a massive city!!! Also they were wearing matching outfits which was very amusing! So we found a little teahouse place and had a chat and a drink before parting ways.

Our next stop was kappabashi which wasn't as fun as I'd hoped but had some interesting shops. Then it was over to Rikugien garden.

Rikugien

Rikugien was beautiful- it replicates 88 scenes from poetry in miniature. Not knowing the poems that aspect was a bit lost on me but essentially from wherever I stood I could see something that looked like a classic painting!

Also there were plenty of giant fish and some turtles in the pond so of course we liked it. We did a very short route around the garden because after 2 weeks of so much walking our feet were protesting a bit.

Fish and two turtles!

Lost in Translation

We went back to the hotel to change and then we went to the Park Hyatt of Lost in Translation fame. We had very strong cocktails (I was pleased- the vodka cocktails were made with Grey Goose, faaancy) looking out over the glittering Tokyo skyline and listening to the jazz band play.

We were right next to the band and enjoyed guessing whether the drummer was messing with the rest of the band by adding in bits haha, he certainly looked a bit pleased with himself and the pianist wasn't looking so happy! Also there was a clearly very important man sitting in front of us, who we decided was yakuza haha.

It took us a while to get served and the man who took our order didnt write it down... and it never arrived. Eventually another man came over, apologised and asked if he could take our order again! The order included two glasses of water and even when the rest of our order turned up with a promise that the water was following it never did and Aaron had to ask again! Given that it cost £30 for us to even be in the bar I really expected a bit better, we were in there 2hrs and had one drink and a water each! However, if you have to wait for drinks this was an excellent place to do so and I suspect we were probably just unlucky. It was the perfect place for the last night of a honeymoon- classy and romantic :)

...So of course we followed it with karaoke! I couldn't bring myself to tell the concierge who got us a cab that's where we wanted to go so I just said the station!!! We got the yamanote to Shibuya where we had to change trains to get to Hanzomon anyway, and we know it so much better, and with the help of google maps located a Big Echo. It was aptly named- there was soo much reverb on the mic! Initially we asked for half an hour... then extended to an hour, and if we hadn't had a train to catch I think we'd have extended again! We aren't karaoke people usually but it was so much fun!!! Even funnier because I sounded awful (no surprise) but so did Aaron (big surprise!) He wasn't happy..!

 

Next post: Day 15: Our last day

Day 13: Tsukiji, Hama Rikyu, Shiodome, Odaiba, and Ginza

Tsukiji

Daiwa Sushi

Started the day at Tsukiji fish market for breakfast, we weren't particularly interested in the tuna auction so just headed for the restaurants. Daiwa sushi was awesome and exactly the experience I'd hoped for!

Very tired, early start to get over to Tsukiji from where we were staying (Hanzomon) and then an hour long queue

Could have done with a little less wasabi especially at that time of day but it really was amazing sushi and great service. I would have gone for seconds of the fatty tuna if I wasnt so stuffed from the set meal and that's after getting Aaron to eat 2 of mine which were molluscy (sea urchin and squid, because I'm allergic to molluscs) The guy who was making our food and serving us was really nice and showed me how to eat sushi properly using chopsticks (more scoop than grab). He made each piece in front of us and as he made them he passed them straight over so nothing sat waiting it was as fresh as it could be.

Hama Rikyu & Shiodome

 

We walked to Hama Rikyu which was around the corner from Tsukiji. Hama Rikyu is a really pretty traditional Japanese landscaped garden. Loads of jumping fish in the ponds and a free audio guide thingy in English which was handy and I would definitely recommend using.

The cool thing about Hama Rikyu was the contrast of the gardens and nature against the backdrop of skyscrapers in Shiodome.

 

 

We then continued walking into Shiodome and went to the Panasonic Living Showroom where we got to play with clever fancy sinks and stuff. We concluded if we win the lottery we're getting all that stuff, including the toilet of course, imported!

Walking through Shiodome

 

From there it was to a Godiva cafe for a quick snack as we could both still taste breakfast hours later which just isn't cool, followed by a nosy around the Shinbashi railway museum (more interesting than it sounds although doesn't take very long) and then over to Odaiba.
 

Cool buildings reflected in cool buildings in Shiodome

 

Odaiba

The train to Odaiba goes over the rainbow bridge which is awesome in itself (cars pedestrians and trains all get out to the man made island via this bridge) and has good views. When we got there our first stop was the museum of emerging science which was a bit hit and miss but overall quite good, especially the robot demonstration and the submarine you could get into!

Museum of emerging science at the end of the pathway

Playing with the thermal imaging
camera in the museum

 

Then we went Decks to go to Sega Joypolis. This was both smaller than I expected, and more fun than I expected! We went on a weird indoor rollercoaster which was also part shooting game, and another ride which was a Tony Hawk halfpipe ride where you went on in a pair and had to work together to tilt your board at the right point to do spins, whilst basically on a giant standing up pirate ship type of thing. We also played our favourite drumming game, plus another game where you throw balls at the screen to vanquish legoey looking foes. It was also fun just watching local teens be absolutely awesome at mind bogglingly difficult games! 

Fuji TV building

Rainbow Bridge as seen from Odaiba, the orange pointy thing is Tokyo Tower

 

 

Ginza

Our final stop on our itinerary for the day was Ginza but we were absolutely shattered so we decided to make it a brief visit- dinner, a couple of shops, and then back to the hotel. One of the first restaurants we encountered there happened to be Hooters! Since discovering there was one near our Shibuya hotel Aaron had been determined to go to Japanese Hooters but then forgot all about it until we passed this one, so once he'd seen it we had to go in. It wasn't quite the kind of dinner I'd had in mind but Aaron enjoyed chicken that was actual chicken meat and not gristle, and I did quite enjoy being somewhere with a fully English menu. After dinner we had a look around Uniqlo's flagship store (which was massive!) and bought a couple of bits, and then called it a night. I can't say as I was sorry to have had such a rushed visit, I'm not much of a shopper and whilst it was fun having a look at all the high end shops there's only so much window shopping I have patience for really.

Next post: Day 14: Skytree, Asakusa, Rikugien, Lost in Translation

Day 12: Osaka, and the return to Tokyo

We started the day by sending our luggage off to Tokyo... I really do ♡ Takkyubin!

Osaka aquarium

We failed to find breakfast before getting to the aquarium, it feels like nothing in Osaka opens before 11am! Although having seen how busy Dotombori and Shinsaibashi were late at night in the middle of the week I can kind of see why. However, as with all good tourist attractions there was a café partway round which sold cute pancakes (among many other things) and had a view out to sea.

Aquarium café

Had a walk around the aquarium, saw all kinds of water related creatures from otters to seals to fish to whale sharks and dolphins and penguins etc. Even some parrots (bit vague on why, but each part of the aquarium was themed on a place in the world so maybe that explains it a bit?) We unfortunately happened to be there at the same time as what felt like all of the primary school children in Japan- I had thought scheduling our trip midweek would mean we'd get a peaceful look around but nope- school trips!

So scary!

So cute!

 

Sky building

After that we got a train to Osaka station (mahoosive) and went to the sky building for the floating garden observatory. I foolishly took floating garden a bit too literally, assuming we'd find some kind of greenery up there but no: a lift to the 35th floor, the scariest escalator I've ever been on to the 39th, and a couple of flights of stairs to the roof... and it was a concrete path!



The terrifying escalators as seen from above

Incredible views though, like in Shinjuku slightly obscured by mist, but still really impressive.
 

 

Before we went up there though we went into the basement of the building which is laid out as mock edo (I think edo) alleyways with tiny restaurants. We were determined to try the Osaka okinomiyaki before leaving in the afternoon- we had tried the Hiroshima version and wanted to compare, but signage and menus were patchy, so we resorted to poking our heads into each of the places saying 'okonomiyaki?' hopefully, until we got pointed into the correct place! It was another little place with a couple of tables and a bar with a long hotplate which was used to both cook and serve the food. The menu was only in Japanese and no pictures, so when the waiter/chef came to take our order we just kind of shrugged and Aaron said Igirisu-jin desu, and the waiter said 'welcome' and then suggested 'pork', and 'noodles', and 'half'. We weren't 100% sure what was going on but we like pork and we like noodles so just agreed. Turns out they did two main types of okonomiyaki- one which is more omelette-y which came with bacon on the top, and one which was like noodles and egg and a random filling (yes I have no idea what) so he did us those two and then halved them so we could have half of each, each. I preferred Osaka okonomiyaki but Aaron preferred Hiroshima.

 

Then it was a train back to Shin-Osaka (via a very tasty fancy ice cream because it's hot and we love ice cream) to get the bullet train back to Tokyo and find our final hotel.

Return to Tokyo

LOVE our final hotel, nice room and amazing view! (Imperial Palace gardens on the left, Tokyo Tower on the right, and the bright lights of Tokyo in between!) Tokyo was a bit cooler than when we left and definitely cooler than Osaka, so I somewhat regretted only packing a summer dress in my overnight bag until my luggage turns up! Still meant to be 21 in the day but much cooler at night.
 

For dinner we went to the Sumo restaurant in Ryogoku which is Sumo town, on the way there we saw a sumo wrestler riding his bike in full traditional costume which looked a little odd! The restaurant itself was pretty smoky (one thing I wont be missing about Japan- you cant smoke in the streets but you can inside restaurants, hotels, arcades...) but it looked cool with a big proper sumo ring in the middle. Turned out they'd actually had a match there that evening which is really rare and we'd missed it! However there was some kind of office party going on and two of the guys got into the ring and had a fight haha. Aaron didn't want to go in to the ring for a photo.. I did want to but sumo rules forbid women from entering the ring!!!

 

 

The menu was pictures and Japanese only so took a gamble on a cocktail with a bottle of limoncello next to it, which paid off, Aaron just asked for bieru as had no idea, and then we pointed at some dishes that looked nice, with mixed results. Aaron asked what one of them was, it looked like popcorn chicken, the waiter used a translation app and came up with chicken gristle which we assumed was just a gross sounding way of describing the crap that goes in things like chicken nuggets but no, it was a literal translation :( I only managed 2 bits but Aaron gamely polished off the rest, very unlike him! Got my first gyoza there though so that kind of made up for the gristly horror. 

 

On the way back found a funky vending machine at the station which had cups of milkshake, hot drinks, etc pictured on it. Intrigued I selected cold choc-strawberry milk. It counter down from just over a minute and then a big door slowly opened and there was a cup of milkshake behind it! Took my cup and the door closed itself again. Milkshake was pretty nice actually and had ice cubes in it to keep it cool!!!

The best vending machine of the trip

Next post: Day 13: Tsukiji, Hama Rikyu, Shiodome, Odaiba