Last Stop, Tokyo

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Shinkansen to Tokyo Station

Our final destination, Tokyo. Getting off the Shinkansen we found an information desk that helped us with the subway system to get to the stop nearest our hotel in Akasaka (not to be confused with Asakusa). The subways in Tokyo are easy to navigate for both Asians and Westerners, the color coding with numbering system made things very easy. The most confusing things about the Tokyo subways system is that there are three major lines, all run separately needing a different type of ticket.

From the main Tokyo station we picked up a subway map and easily made it to our hotel. Walking out of the subway we were greeted with skyscrapers and buildings all around and was a little difficult to find our hotel among them but we lucked out and soon checked in to a tiny room yet convenient hotel.

After dinner we took the subway to Shibuya for a bit of people watching, I had seen the pedestrian crosswalking on TV before and wanted to see it in person and it was a fun getaway.

Tokyo by Subway

We had scheduled a half-day tour but figured the subway's were so easy to get around we canceled and did it on our own. After a quick breakfast at McD's we bought a day pass that allowed us unlimited access on one of the three main lines for the rest of the day. Picking up a couple of tourist guides with top destinations with the closest subway stop made getting around a breeze.

We beat the crowds to Meiji Shrine, a large park with the shrine near the middle of the park. The wooden torii (Japanese Gate, the archways) in this park were massive, very impressive to walk through. The local priests(?) were sweeping the walkways of leaves and debris with long twig like brooms, they seemed to be pretty effective. For an early Saturday morning we thought it was odd to see small groups of people dressed up walking in the park but we soon discovered why, a wedding was to take place, we saw the bride and groom being led around for pictures.

Our next stop was the Tokyo Imperial Palace, or rather the outside of it. I was quite surprised at the popularity of the grounds as there's so little to see. Great mobs of tour buses were parked nearby where the tourists walked to the bridge over a small pond, other that that there was not much to see so we didn't stay long.

Our third stop for the day was the Tokyo tower for the views of the city. There are two observation decks, we went to the lower one to get the great views of the city. When you leave the don't take you straight to the ground floor, they force you to get off about four floors up with a large arcade with kid rides and a show with Monkeys. What an excellent tourist trap! We did enjoy the monkey show though and stay until the end to watch the kids get their picture taken with the monkeys.

We went back to Shibuya to see it in the daytime and had lunch there. We tried to figure out how to do a Tokyo bay cruise but couldn't figure out where to go to catch a boat and where we thought it would be we didn't have subway tickets for so we gave up and followed our tour book to visit an area called Kagurazaka and it's carnival atmosphere. We sorta wandered around, getting off the beaten path along small residential streets. It was getting late so once we found a subway station we went back to Akasaka for dinner. Our host at the Yakaturi restaurant couldn't speak much English, but asked if we spoke Spanish!

Homebound

We had plenty of time in the morning so after another McD's breakfast we walked around and came across a couple we had met on the subway two days before, out of a city of millions it was an interesting coincidence but we didn't talk much this time and went to visit the Hei Sanno Shrine. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off coffee/tea break at a local coffee shop with a view of the area until it was time to check out and head to the airport. Narita was further than I thought, took over 90 minutes to get there but it was the first time we road on surface streets in Tokyo as we had used the Subway exclusively up to that point.

Fortunately we had access to the crown room, the food while limited in selection they have plenty of it so we relaxed there with access to wi-fi until our ~14 hr flight home.

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Links

Link to Kodak Gallery Photos.

Video Shibuya crossing at Night (YouTube). Resolution can be changed to 720 (HD).

Video Shibuya crossing at Night 2 .

Video Shibuya Night .

Video Pedestrian crossing in Shabuya .

Video Tokyo Imperial Palace .

Video Monkey show at Tokyo Tower .

Video Monkey show at Tokyo Tower 2 .

Video Monkey show at Tokyo Tower 3 .

Video Tokyo Subway .

Video Hei Sanno Shrine .

Video Ride to Narita from Tokyo .

Video Ride to Narita from Tokyo 2 .

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