Last weekend a friend of mine from college came to Tokyo to meet up with me. She is in Japan visiting her grandparents up north in the prefecture of Akita. Since I am in the southern half of Japan we thought it would be best to meet up in the middle in the great city of Tokyo.
I took my first overnight bus in Japan from Nagoya Station to Tokyo Station. Surprisingly they are not as comfortable as the overnight buses in Thailand, but I survived with the help of multiple stops at Starbucks (all the while stealing internet from the only free wifi in Japan)
Akina and her cousin Corina met up with me early Saturday morning and we walked ALL over Tokyo. If you look at the path we took on the subway map it would create at least two stars of David. Here are a few photos of our progression of Tokyo.
After dropping off our extra bags in a locker in the subway station we started our journey by heading to Asakusa to see the Sensō-ji temple. We wondered around the temple and gates for a while and then found a nice Ramen shop that confirmed my love for Asian noodle soups of all kinds. We had no agenda for the day so we decided to head across the city to Shibuya Hachikō crossing-the famous free-for-all cross walk. This also marks the spot where Hachikō the dog waited for his owner to get off the train for nine years after his owner's death.
Akina thought a nice ending to a long day of walking through the city would be to soak in an onsen. She found an onsen theme park in Odaiba called Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari. For one price you could bathe in numerous onsen baths as well as eat in a fair type atmosphere inside the onsen building. It was a great way to relax after such an eventful day. Unfortuantely, we were too relaxed to go out and enjoy the night life of Tokyo. We grabbed some fast food for dinner and headed to our hostel for a night of sleep fully interrupted by a man with sleep apnea situated on the bunk below Akina's.
The next morning we devoured a breakfast of champions (soba noodles with eggplant tempura) and headed to an Abandon Tsukiji Fish Market. On the way to the fish market we stumbled upon a silly prefecture festival. At this festival there were a few dozen characters walking around representing the prefectures surrounding Tokyo. The fish market was unfortunately closed for an unknown holiday, but it was interesting to wonder around the eerie, empty market. Afterwards we found a wonderful sushi place nearby where I enjoyed my first sushi experience in Japan!
When we had our fill of sushi we headed to Harajuku. I have been told that on most Sunday's there will be close to a hundred people wondering around in costume. However, we stumbled upon a Harajuku that was completely abandoned. We assume it was due to the same mystery holiday that closed the Tsukiji Fish Market.
Carena is quite familiar with Tokyo having traveled to the city once a year for the past four or five years. She has a few favorite places and one of them was a coffee/cake shop located in Harajuku. We went there and enjoyed a delicious cake set that included reverse osmosis coffee.
Our last stop on our Tokyo tramp was shopping. We made it to the five story Forever 21 and the Top Shop nearby. We wondered down Takeshita Street in the rain and then it was time to head back to Tokyo Station to say our good-byes.
I took the Shinkansen back to Nagoya. What was a five hour bus ride only took an hour and forty-five minutes on the bullet train.
It was a wonderful weekend with a great friend. I am so lucky I got to meet up with Akina in such a crazy beautiful city!
I took my first overnight bus in Japan from Nagoya Station to Tokyo Station. Surprisingly they are not as comfortable as the overnight buses in Thailand, but I survived with the help of multiple stops at Starbucks (all the while stealing internet from the only free wifi in Japan)
Akina and her cousin Corina met up with me early Saturday morning and we walked ALL over Tokyo. If you look at the path we took on the subway map it would create at least two stars of David. Here are a few photos of our progression of Tokyo.
After dropping off our extra bags in a locker in the subway station we started our journey by heading to Asakusa to see the Sensō-ji temple. We wondered around the temple and gates for a while and then found a nice Ramen shop that confirmed my love for Asian noodle soups of all kinds. We had no agenda for the day so we decided to head across the city to Shibuya Hachikō crossing-the famous free-for-all cross walk. This also marks the spot where Hachikō the dog waited for his owner to get off the train for nine years after his owner's death.
Akina thought a nice ending to a long day of walking through the city would be to soak in an onsen. She found an onsen theme park in Odaiba called Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari. For one price you could bathe in numerous onsen baths as well as eat in a fair type atmosphere inside the onsen building. It was a great way to relax after such an eventful day. Unfortuantely, we were too relaxed to go out and enjoy the night life of Tokyo. We grabbed some fast food for dinner and headed to our hostel for a night of sleep fully interrupted by a man with sleep apnea situated on the bunk below Akina's.
The next morning we devoured a breakfast of champions (soba noodles with eggplant tempura) and headed to an Abandon Tsukiji Fish Market. On the way to the fish market we stumbled upon a silly prefecture festival. At this festival there were a few dozen characters walking around representing the prefectures surrounding Tokyo. The fish market was unfortunately closed for an unknown holiday, but it was interesting to wonder around the eerie, empty market. Afterwards we found a wonderful sushi place nearby where I enjoyed my first sushi experience in Japan!
When we had our fill of sushi we headed to Harajuku. I have been told that on most Sunday's there will be close to a hundred people wondering around in costume. However, we stumbled upon a Harajuku that was completely abandoned. We assume it was due to the same mystery holiday that closed the Tsukiji Fish Market.
Carena is quite familiar with Tokyo having traveled to the city once a year for the past four or five years. She has a few favorite places and one of them was a coffee/cake shop located in Harajuku. We went there and enjoyed a delicious cake set that included reverse osmosis coffee.
Our last stop on our Tokyo tramp was shopping. We made it to the five story Forever 21 and the Top Shop nearby. We wondered down Takeshita Street in the rain and then it was time to head back to Tokyo Station to say our good-byes.
I took the Shinkansen back to Nagoya. What was a five hour bus ride only took an hour and forty-five minutes on the bullet train.
It was a wonderful weekend with a great friend. I am so lucky I got to meet up with Akina in such a crazy beautiful city!
Comments
Post a Comment