Tokyo, sushi paradise

At last, on June 11^th we arrived in Tokyo after a nine hour flight from Brisbane. With a lot of anticipation, we were in the place I’ve always wanted to visit. And this is not only because of the sushi. I had read/heard so many stories about Tokyo, as in how it is organised, great people and food, sophisticated that I was real curious to see all of this. Soon this would proof to be true. At the airport we took the Nartita express to Tokyo from where we hopped on the metro to our accommodation for that night. Once I had the metro map in my hand I was astonished with all the many different lines they had there. And I always thought the London tube was amazing.

We decided to stay one night at a place in Roppongi and from there we would look for a more strategic place to stay the rest of our stay. Once out of the underground station we were amazed with how busy it was and all the neon lights everywhere. Unfortunately, one thing that was overcomplicated was the way they have structured the addresses in Tokyo. This did not make it easy for us to find our hostel. Luckily we found a guy from a Korean restaurant helpful enough to help us find it. After he had called the hostel and got the exact directions, he walked us all the way to the hotel. He must have spent at least half an hour getting us to our hotel us find the hotel. This was really nice of him. As expected, the room was very tiny; so was the toilet and kitchen. The shower was interesting story; in the effort to save the environment the showers were coin operated. Yes, by inserting a 100 Yen (EUR 0,76)  coin you could shower for 10 minutes. After checking in, we went for a stroll along the neighbourhood in Roppongi. Immediately, we spotted that this is one of the nightlife areas filled with clubs and bars. Everywhere you could see 24-hours convenience stores and also vending machines selling water, soft drinks and tea.

We had dinner at a restaurant there, which off course consisted of sushi. Surprisingly enough, not as expensive as you would expect. The next day we were off to find a sword shop. It was supposedly to be close by so we at first we were considering walking. Just to know which direction we had to walk, Marilou approached a guy walking by and showed him the address of the shop from our guidebook. He told us in the little English he mastered that he wasn’t sure where it was. As the phone number of the store was printed next to the address, he picked his mobile and called the store to find out the exact address. The store was on the way to his work so he offered us to share a taxi with him to the store. Once at the store, he didn’t want us to share the taxi fare with him which was a surprise to us. I guess it must be a culture thing, but we found this very generous. The swords were really cool, but much more expensive than I had expected. After window shopping for a sword, we visited the Tokyo tower, which is a small replica of the Eiffel tower but in red, and also the Toyota Amlux showroom. After a day of wondering around Ikebukuro, it was time for dinner. We decided to go another neighbourhood, Shinjuku for dinner. After a nice shabu shabu dinner (Japanes hot pot) and off course some sushi, we went back to our hostel. The next day we went to the famous Tokyo fish market, Tsukiji. We were looking to have lunch there at Sushi Dai, which is recommend in the Lonely Planet, but when we saw the enormous cue we decided to go somewhere else. We found another place at the market for sushi, which I’m sure we’ll remember a long time. This was definitely the best sushi we’ve ever had…and we have had some by now. Our next stop was the Ameyayokocho market where you can find anything you’d like. This was located at the Ueno area. I had used my last pair of contact lenses so it was time for me to get some new ones. Unfortunately, they would not sell these to me without prescription which was a pain. The lady helping me at the lens shop didn’t speak well English which made things more complicated. Luckily again, there was another lady sitting there waiting her turn who spoke well English and helped translate things. Then she offered me if I wanted she could be my translator for the eye exam. So she did. Again to us this was quite remarkable that she didn’t know us, spent an hour helping us get my contacts. After all this, we decided to visit some temples and shrines, so we went to the Asakusa area where you can find the Senso-Ji. This area was filled with tourists all admiring the Pagoda and shrine. After the taking the necessary pictures it was time for dinner. We decided to walk around the area and find a nice spot for dinner. We walked into a street which was filled with people having dinner on the streets. It had a really nice atmosphere so, we decided to sit down next to some Japanese and order some food. This turned out to be real success and we had a nice time, even though we didn’t understand the menu  

 After dinner we went for a stroll around the Ginza area, which is famous for its nice shops. Again, very busy with people every where. By now we noticed that Japanese in general would always be dressed up and be in good shape. Also the streets would be very clean everywhere despite not having a lot of trash bins. Later I got told that Japanese carry small plastic bags with them, for their rubbish so that they can throw this away once at home. How cool is that!        

On our last day in Tokyo, before heading down to Hiroshima, we had the island of Odaiba near the Tokyo bay on our list to visit. So we went there that day, and could admire the replica of the Statue of liberty they had there. Next to the statue was the Fuji Media building, which is a real cool building. There were a lot of nice shopping malls there, amongst others Venus Fort with its very distinctive interior which is a representation of Venice, with shop entrances and hallways decorated to give the appearance of being outside with blue sky and clouds painted on the ceiling. It was now time to experience a bullet train down to Hiroshima.