Me And My Friend Mickey!!!!

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The Aftermath

Waking up the day after a big night is never easy. Waking up the day after your birthday, in a strange country, hung over, and looking at a travel day is almost guaranteed to be a nightmare. Thank God it was Japan and four and a half hours later we’d crossed 880km from Hiroshima in the West back to Tokyo in the East.

Being Sunday, I took Mel to see some of the sights I’d already done such as Harajuku, Shibuya’s manic cross walk, and Shinjuku’s neon lights, as well as a few new things thrown in like Yoyogi Park. Just across the bridge from Harajuku Station is a parkland dedicated to the Meiji Shrine. Turning up after 5pm created a beautiful twilight walk but unfortunately the actual garden area of the park had been closed for the day. Never mind, we needed to have an early night anyway.

Bright and early, we were on the Metro at 5.45am to head down to the Tsukiji Fish Markets. These markets are the largest fish markets in the world and the largest seller of tuna also. Whole tuna is cut in front of you with an array of almost any creature of the deep available with it. There isn’t a lot of seafood I can’t identify but I’ll easily say that I found at least half a dozen here. To this day I still don’t know what it was, but I am happy to report that not once did I see dolphin or whale.

Around the corner from the markets is one of the oldest gardens in Tokyo. Originally built as a tea house by a Shogun , it was turned over to the government as a public area for everyone to enjoy. While still being in private hands it housed people such as U.S. Presidents and British Prime Ministers who were visiting Japan.

After such an early start, we decided to take it easy and do some more gardens, with the Imperial Gardens being the main focus of the day. Arriving around midday, we wandered the perimeter and took in views of the Imperial Palace before finding that the East Imperial Gardens that are open to the public, are not open on Mondays. A bit of a shuffle of the schedule and it was decided that Thursday should have enough time to squeeze it in, so instead it was a short walk to the Bank Of Japan, an old architectural wonder that is surrounded by sky scrapers but still retains it’s charm.

The Happiest Place On Earth….. Or At Least In Japan

Tuesday dawned beautifully (and I say dawned cause once again we were up and about early), as it should for the newly proclaimed Disneyland Day. Tokyo Disneyland is certainly a site to behold, and I know your all saying “my god, your such a child” and the truth is…. YES, your damn right I am. From the castle to Toy Story , Pirates of the Caribbean to the Tea Cups, and Disney Characters at every turn, the two of us ran rampant through the magical kingdom of Walt Disney. All I can say is…. thank god it wasn’t a busy day because the ability of some of the queues to blow out to insane was evident even on a day like this. The longest we waited for a ride was 50mins but that was largely due to the best queuing system in the universe!!! Called Fast Pass, it lets you get a place in the queue buy telling you when to come back (within an hour time range) and then you just go straight in. BRILLIANT!!!!! So instead of spending half the day in queues you can go see some of the other sights and just turn up when required for your ride. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again….. the Japanese have efficiency down to an art form!!!

After being there from before open until after close (left the hotel at 7am and got back at 12am) we began preparing ourselves to do it all over again. Tomorrow ….. Tokyo Disney Sea!!!!

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

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Comments

[amy denning]

wow!!
thats sweet as, hell spewin i never made it to japan! so jealous!!!! great pics!