Day 1- Tokyo

Subway Confusion

We are up and out bright and early. It is cloudy today but a very comfortable 23°.

Our hotel is in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. We walk to Shinjuku Station and try to find where to buy our subway tickets and where the subway line we want to use can be accessed.

There are people everywhere in the station. Most people are dressed in either black, white, navy or grey. Every now and then you see beige.

People drive (and walk) on the other side of the road from what we do in North America. The minivans, like most things are very compact here.

The strangest thing is that there are no garbage cans. You have to take your garbage with you.

We continue walking and looking for a place to buy subway tickets. Shinjuku Station is massive… with multiple subway and regular rail lines on multiple levels. It is the busiest train/subway station in the world! On an average day 2.7 million people pass through the station.

Eventually we find a tourist information office staffed by women all wearing kimonos. We are able to put a multi day subway pass, get directions to the correct subway line and we are on our way. It turns out that the subway we are looking for is right beside our hotel.

Imperial Palace Gardens

The Imperial Palace is our first destination. The Imperial Family still live in the palace. We don’t actually get even a glimpse of the palace but we do walk the palace gardens and see a number of the old guard houses.

We hear yells and grunts, so we join numerous other tourists who are looking through bushes at men practicing marshal arts (and attempting to beat eachother with sticks). They are practicing in a traditional, open style building.

Nippon Budokan

Leaving the Imperial Gardens, we walk past the Nippon Budokan. This was a venue for judo in the 1964 Olympics. It also hosted famous artists such as Brian Adams, the Beatles, Abba,Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton , Kiss, Duran Duran, Neil Young and Cheap Trick to name a few.

Kitanomaru Park and Yasukuni-Jinja Shrine

We walk through Kitanomaru Park, heading to Yasukuni-jinja Shrine. This shrine is where 14 of Japan’s WWII war heroes (or criminals depending on who you speak to) are enshrined.

We sit in a park while John has his coffee fix. Groups of very young school girls in matching uniforms walk by chattering like little sparrows. We are surprised that they don’t seem to be chaperoned.

Tsukiji Outer Market

From here we take the subway to Tsukiji Fish Market. John now has the subway figured out so we have no problem getting there.

The actual Tsukiji Fish Market moved to Toyosu but an area of sushi and food stalls are still there. It is quite touristed with touristy prices to match. We stop at a sushi restaurant for a late lunch anyways.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a ton of bricks and just want to go to bed alas, it’s only 2:30pm. I’m exhausted.

Ginza

We check out a nearby shrine for fishermen before doing a 15 minute walk to the Ginza area which is a western style shopping district and one of the world’s largest pedestrian zones.

We pass the historical Kabuki-za Theatre.

By this time I am beyond exhausted so we take the subway back to our hotel for a short power nap.

Shinjuku by Night

Refreshed we head out to explore Shinjuku by night.

There are bright lights everywhere; up and down skyscrapers, on lit up signs and even on trucks advertising Japanese pop stars (with their music blaring of course).

The streets are crowded. I am seeing a bit more colour worn in the evening.

There are a couple of huge LED boards featuring a 3D cat that crowds stop to watch. It is interspersed with advertisements. Click here for a short video.

If you liked that video, click here for more of the cat.

Kabuki-cho

We walk into the Kabuki-cho area.There is a line of girls dressed in an anime fashion up and down a street. They are holding up signs with prices. John and I google them. Apparently you can take them back to the “Love Hotels”. Yep, we are on the edge of the red light district.

I see a Krispy Kreme Donut place and can’t resist. They aren’t as good as I remember.

Of course we have to go to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The staff are very patient explaining to us how to pour our own green tea and how things work. It is quite fun.

It’s raining on and off so we head back to the hotel.