Part 2 Tokyo: The city of bikes, bright lights and amazing sights

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Day 6

Up with an early start at 5:30 and determined to hire our bikes, we beat the masses and managed to secure ourselves one bike each. As it was still early we took the opportunity to get some more beauty sleep and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Starting with our delicious Japanese apples and a mister donut for breakfast, we were ready to start our day. The first leg of the route we cycled along the riverbank. This was picturesque and we commented on how many others cyclists and runners there were. Next we had to go further inland to cross the many quaint little bridges (5 or 6 in total) and islands to get to our first destination of Tsukshima. This was an atmospheric street filled with charming little Japanese restaurants. We went to one that seemed pretty popular and was not let down with our okonomiyaki and teriyaki chicken both cooked on the iron plate in front of us.

Next stop was the Tsukiji fish market. This street was full of life, with energy buzzing from each corner and unlike our fish markets at home, there was no smell of fish! There sure was a lot of fish but as it was fresh, it was very kind to our noses. After this it was a half an hour ride to Tokyo tower and temple, followed by another 45 minutes or so to the imperial palace. As we never booked ourselves a tour of the inside we could only admire the beauty of the palace from the outside.

So far our cycling route had been straightforward and we were able to get from one attraction to another without much difficulty. That is however with using our map religiously. Next stop home. How hard could this be? Our destination Asakusa was north and after 20 minutes or so we realised that we had been going south. How annoying, you would think this was a lesson learnt, right? Wrong. Instead of going east we realised we had been going off our maps heading west. Then if that wasn't enough we got caught in traffic and happened on a street in which they stopped traffic over the weekend and had to walk our bikes a block or 2. After taking another turn off this pedestrian street we then got caught among a swarm of shoppers in Ginza and could no longer navigate ourselves on the pavement. In the end we resorted to cycling on the busy roads. It took us around 3.5 hours to get home. Then it was Food > Hostel > Sleep.

Day 7 Yanaka, Harajuku and Akihabara.

Today we both woke up feeling tired and worn out after 6 very fast busy days and a cycling expedition we took around the city yesterday. We didn't think our legs could take much more cycling or walking and so we opted for a metro day pass (600yen/£3.57 each). First stop, was a bite to eat at a place named ‘Freshness burger’. Chris opted for a chicken teriyaki burger and P avoiding chicken like the plague ordered a beef patty teriyaki burger, both being accompanied with wedges and a drink. Score. Both burgers tasted amazing.

After eating, we headed to our first stop, Yanaka with huge smiles on our faces. Deciding to take a little self-guided tour of the area we walked through many winding alleyways admiring the quaint little 2 story wooden houses that were previous merchant houses, with shops on the bottom and living quarters on the top. Nestled in between them was an array of beautiful temples. These temples all had their own story and most had a plaque outside providing information in Japanese and English (something we didn't see often).

Next on the list was an attempt to spot the famously dressed Harajuku girls (and guys). Unfortunately even though it was a Sunday, we only spotted a couple and so made our way to our final stop, Akihabara. Akihabara is known for its manga comics and anime as well as its 5 story buildings of technology and gaming. After exiting the metro we were greeted with a splash of bright lights. Chris was very eager to explore as much as he could in the time we had. We ended up going to a place called Mandarake- anime/manga heaven, along with another similar store ‘Animate’ to explore the various floors of comics and expensive dolls that you could accessorize. After this, we ventured into the old gaming stores, what Chris described as old school gamers paradise. Chris had the biggest grin on his face as he spotted all the old consoles, games, and arcade machines. He could not resist a game of Street Fighter while P either filmed or walked around intrigued by how many people were glued to an arcade game with a stack of 100Y coins ready to play again. Some people ate in these arcades and we also spotted someone who was sleeping. This is serious business over here.



Observations

As we have loved Tokyo and Japanese culture, we just wanted to share some of our observations whilst in Tokyo.

1. People are super friendly here. The countless number of times we were looking lost with our maps did someone offer to help.

2. Tokyo appears to be full of positive sayings to keep everyone happy like when Chris had a manga inspired pancake that was accompanied with a message like 'may this bring you happiness' or the message 'may peace prevail on earth' on a ferry ride we took.

3. There are no bins. Anywhere. We had to carry around an empty carrier bag for our rubbish. Everyone appears to take responsibility for their own mess. Can we take this idea home please.

4 If you have 2 children and can only fit one on your bike. Have the other one run beside you as you ride your bike. Really? Yes we saw this a lot.

5. People will wait at the lights obediently to no end. Even if they do not appear to be working.

6. When waiting for a train people form lines for each door (that is numbered along the track). Therefore when exiting the train, people actually wait for you to get off and then enter in an orderly fashion. The amount of times back home, we've actually struggled to get off a train as people have been too eager to get on. Again we'll take this home please.

7. Do not listen to anyone who says 2000 notes are rare and you should keep them when although it is true they are rare (and only brought in by tourists) they are un-liked by many locals.

8. When you order food, you will often be given a glass of water automatically. We thought this was a nice touch.

9. At traffic lights they play bird noises when you cross and nursery rhymes in the metro stations. Even one of the domestic workers, cleaning the underground was playing nursery rhymes jingles in his utility trolley. Maybe this was installed to make him more happy? Bizzare.

10 We saw some of the most amusing imagery to signify warning and had a lot of fun with pronunciation such as street and shop names. See pictures.



Summary

Like other blogs we have read, we plan to finish each country with a little summary like the one below. As there was soo much to do in Tokyo and we spent a week here, we thought it deserves one in its own right.

Exchange rate at time; £1 to 168 Yen

Chris's favourite place; Akihabara and activity; bike riding across the city

P's favourite place; Yanaka and activity; bike riding across the city

Accommodation; pricey but a lot of options if book a few weeks to a month in advance. We choose to base ourselves in Asakusa that has many temples and shrines nearby and provides a hub of affordable backpacker accommodation. We paid around £15 each per night for an 8 bedroom dorm bed and that was one of the cheapest we could find with good reviews.

Transportation; Very easy to get around the city by metro or bike; only by bike if you are willing to get up early enough and also avoid busy shopping areas like Ginza. If going various places in one day it is certainly worth purchasing the 600 yen one day metro pass. Be warned some metro stations are huge, but nevertheless easy enough to navigate.

Food; Can be daunting at first for westerners as not many food places have English on outside but for many of the touristy areas you only have to ask for an English menu. We also found many places had realistic plastic food on display but to be honest it didn't help us too much as we had a tough time identifying what things were. Chris loved Ramen and Okanomiyaki, P loved Okanomiyaki and soon learnt to avoid chicken and meats (that she found too fatty or did not taste familiar). Check prices on menu's as costs can vary a lot.

Budget; Sorry we'll leave this for Japan's summary as a whole.



See you next in Kyoto!!!

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