Good For One GalaxyA city where flashing neon lights meets with tradition.Where organised chaos reigns supreme. And where a new experience awaits around every corner, down every alley and up every staircase.
Shinjuku at night
Here are a few of the highlights from out Tokyo visit.
Lights of Shinjuku
Shinjuku at night was like walking through a scene from Blade Runner. Advertisements lined the buildings bombarding the eye with flashing lights and colour. Every floor of every building filled with something. We stumbled upon a cat cafe, the biggest $2 shop we had ever seen, numerous karaoke bars, and pubs (izakayas), and that was just scratching the surface.
“Memory Lane” or also strangely known as “Piss Alley”
Memory Lane — the tiny alleyways in this area are crammed with some of the best local eats, in particular Yakitori. Each restaurant only seats a few people at a time.
Fun fact: this place received its odd name as back in the day the area wasn’t built with toilets; so people would urinate on the streets.
Glad that’s not the case anymore!
The food in Tokyo was so tasty and at times — strange.
We ate sushi ordered from TV screens and served to us by our very own high speed conveyor belt train.
Conveyer belt sushi
We chose our ramen using a vending machine that was delivered from behind a curtain to our one-man booth.
Ramen vending machine
Ramen booth
We also had $3 soba noodles cooked fresh at 10pm, hot canned tea and coffee sold from vending machines, weird custard filled treats and drank plenty of beer!
There are vending machines on almost every street corner selling any type of hot or cold beverage you can imagine!
Oh and the locals love their plastic food displays!
Subuya crossing by day and night
It’s one of the busiest crossings in the world with over 500,000 people crossing it per day.
We watched this busy ritual from the Starbucks Cafe that has a fantastic view of the crossing.
Shibuya Crossing
Going kawaii in Harajuku
Image courtesy of tokyofashion.com
Harajuku is an area of Tokyo known for its Japanese youth culture and fashion.
As we wandered down Takeshita Street everything was so kawaii! It was like a little girls colouring book.
← And yes, there were people dressed like this
Takeshita Street in Harajuku
Some of the dresses for sale in Harajuku
Tokyo Fish Market
A visit to Tsukiji Fish Market was a great experience. Locals were bustling around buying the days catch, forklifts whizzed through the crowd carrying large tuna carcasses and boxes of molluscs.
The market also sold fruit and vegetables but at AU$80 for a punnet of strawberries we thought we’d pass!
We later learnt that high quality fruit were given as honourable gifts to friends and colleagues.
We heard that some of the best sushi in Tokyo was made at the markets themselves — bought by vendors that morning and made fresh to eat just a few hours later. There were numerous laneways lined with dozens of tiny restaurants, each only seating a handful or people at a time. Every single restaurant had a line of people hanging out the doors, all waiting to try tome of the freshest sushi and sashimi around.
We waited in line for nearly two hours to eat some of the best fatty tuna on offer… it was worth the wait!
The tiny sushi restaurant we ate in only had about 10 seats
Best sashimi ever!
The gates of the Meiji Shrine
Meiji Shrine
The Meiji Shrine and the surrounding grounds were picturesque and peaceful. It was hard to believe that such a place existed within a sprawling urban city like Tokyo.
Collection of sake barrels that have been donated by sake breweries for such thinks are ceremonies and festivals
The gates into the main area
Traditional Japanese dress for a wedding
People writing their wishes and prayers on “Ema” which is a wooden wishing plaque
Tokyo was full of curiosities and delights. It’s a place we would return to in a heartbeat.
But it was time to move on to our next destination, Hakuba, for some slip and sliding in the snow!