On September 22nd we flew from Singapore for 7 hours to Tokyo, Japan! This was our last city on our month long adventure on our "Long Way Home" and our first time in Asia. When we arrived we quickly saw the bustling city, bright lights and very little English to be read on the signs!
After checking into our hotel in the Shinjuku area we set out in search of dinner. We found a hibachi style restaurant with examples of the food out front so that was helpful! Also we realized that we were automatically given English menus with out even being questioned by the way we look.
The next morning we were ready to get out and explore the city. We walked to Shinjuku station which was near our hotel and actually is the busiest station in the world. In 2007 it was reported that an average of 3.64 million people used the station! Luckily when were in the Singapore airport we had bought a Tokyo book to help us to know places to visit and how to get around. It took us quite some time to navigate the train maps to figure out how to get where we wanted to go...but we finally figured it out!
Our first stop was to the Tsukiji fish market. This is the largest wholesale fish market in the world and every morning beginning at 4:00 am there is a tuna auction where fish is bid on to be sent all over the world. If you've had sushi it most likely may have passed through this market!
We walked along the many fish stalls where men were packaging their fish however since we were there a bit late in the morning mostly everything had already died down. We also found out it was a day where not as much action was happening to begin with.
There was still plenty happening going in and out of the market, we had to be careful not to get run over by many carts and trucks buzzing in and out. We also saw an enormous pile of Styrofoam fish boxes out back...
Next we wandered through the nearby outdoor dry market. Eventually we found a dried mango stand which looked good so we bought a few and later went into a convenience shop for a snack. No English on anything so we had fun just choosing a few random items!
Our next stop was to walk through the park called Hamarikyu Gardens which was very pretty...
My favorite was the crazy looking trees...
Within the gardens was a traditional tea house that our book recommended we stop at. Upon entering we had to remove our shoes and could either sit on mats on the ground or outside. We choose outside and tried the famous matcha green tea, it was a bit bitter but was fun to try something traditional to Japanese culture.
As we walked along from the park our book pointed out to look for the building that looked like a bunch of cubes or washing machines stacked together. These are actually very small living quarters in which some people live in...And we thought our London flat was small!
Next we walked along the busy shopping street in the Ginza area and checked out a few stores. I bought a Japanese made jacket I actually had my eyes on at a store in London and found it here so decided to go for it!
Lunchtime!
After lunch we did some more walking this time to another park and to see the outside of the Imperial Palace, in the pic below on the upper right. This is the primary residence of the emperor of Japan.
Finally we decided it was time to hop on the train and head back to our hotel for a rest. It wasn't rush hour so luckily we weren't too crowded. We found it interesting that rush hour seemed to be much later in Japan, closer to 8:00-9:00 pm when it seemed most business people were just leaving work! We also noticed not much color is worn to work, all the men were in either white, light grey or blue plain dress shirts. We also had to watch out not to hit our heads while on the train, the handles were very low for the short population there. At 5' 2" even I felt tall for once (and the only blonde!)
Later that night we did some more exploring the area near our hotel.
The next morning we headed back to the Tsukiji fish market, earlier this time to take a second shot at seeing more going on. It was certainly busier and fun to see huge deep red tunas being sliced with what looked like swords!
The octopus were cool and the baby squid were so cute too!
After the fish market we visited the Meiji Jingu. It was so quiet along the long pretty wooded walk up to the shrine you hardly could believe we were still in the middle of the city.
So neat to visit our first Japanese shrine!
Below is a wall of old sake barrels, can't tell how big they are but they were huge!
From the temple we walked through the Takeshita area which is a place where lots of younger Japanese like to hangout and shop, there were some very interesting stores in this area and great people watching!
Later that night we rode the train to the Shibuya area to see the famous Shibuya crossing. This is the iconic place in Tokyo that is often seen in movies because of it's very busy intersection. It was raining so it was crazy to see so many umbrellas passing through the crosswalk when the light would change!
That night for dinner we got real adventurous and found a nice looking place to eat where we ordered the "sample/surprise" menu and didn't really have any clue what we were getting. We wanted to try some of the sushi which was good but I much rather prefer sushi rolls rather then just chunks of raw fish. We did really enjoy the soba (buckwheat) noodles and the sake at the end!
The following morning it was pretty rainy. We found it hard to walk on the busy streets with so many umbrellas since everyone was shorter then us and pretty pushy...There were multiple times where an umbrella was suddenly passing under my umbrella and getting caught! Haha! We had thought about planning a day trip out to see Mount Fuji but since the weather wasn't looking good we decided it wouldn't be worth the money if we wouldn't be able to see the mountain. We also thought about going to Kyoto, a village in the countryside. Turns out it was expensive to get there and in all honesty we were getting worn out of sightseeing by this point in our month long adventure. So we opted to stick around Tokyo as it seemed there was still plenty to see. Here we are below at the Senso-ji temple.
Streets of old downtown Tokyo...
For lunch we had nice warm bowls of one of the famous Japanese dishes, ramen. Tasted good on a damp day!
Later that night we took the train to a shopping area for dinner which actually crossed over this bridge to get there...
On our last and final day in Tokyo we walked past temple near our hotel...
And spent some time wandering the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen (Gardens)
After the gardens we explored the city streets some more and did some shopping for things to bring home. We found a vase, Japanese bowls and some chopsticks!
You never knew quite what to expect while walking around. Check out the dog and CATS we saw!!!
For lunch we decided we had to try a sushi go round! The men in the middle were slicing fish and preparing different types of sushi, then they would add them to conveyor belt which circled the restaurant. As things passed by we could take whatever we wanted to eat. Then at the end they looked at the colors of the plates we had to total our order. The food wasn't the greatest but still something fun to try!
Japan sure has a lot of fun eating styles...This is what our last dinner looked like! This time we had our own BBQ grill in the center of the table, the Kobi beef was delicious!
The next day, September 27th it was time to make our final flight on our Long Way Home Adventure: Leg 7- HOME to Minneapolis! We had an amazing time traveling for a month since leaving London but were ready to get home and see our families and friends and get resettled back into life in Minnesota. For this flight we decided to cash in our airline miles we had racked through Delta and "treat" ourselves to business class on this last and final 11 hour direct flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. Wow was it worth it...now this is the way to fly! We each had our own little pods and could even lay all the way flat. The food from the menu you could order from was great as well. My favorite was the sundae cart mid flight! :)
When we arrived in Minneapolis it was a crystal clear blue sky summer day over the Land of 10,000 Lakes...
Our 2 years abroad were truly the time of our lives and they went by in the blink of an eye. We are so grateful for the opportunity we had, all the places we were able to visit, memories we shared together, visitors and trips we had with those who came to travel and stay with us and especially for the lifelong friends we met while living in London! The end of our adventure was bittersweet but there really is
"No Place like Home!"
