Back in Tokyo

Sadly, our trip in Japan is coming to an end... :-( But still, a day and a half left to go in Tokyo, so better make the best of it! We got off the Shinkansen at Ueno station, and decided to walk from there down to our hotel in Asakusa.

Asakusa is one of our favourite parts of Tokyo - it's one of the few places that still has some of that "old Tokyo" feel. It's also a bit more lively and has a more working-class feel than Yanaka, where we stayed on our first leg in Tokyo. The downside is that it's rather touristy...

Anyways, after checking into our hotel, we decided to pay our favourite Tokyo temple, Senso-Ji, a visit. Senso-Ji is for sure one of the landmarks of Tokyo, and the place looks particularly enchanting at night. It's also one of those places that always seems to be busy.

For the evening, the plan was to meet our favourite Tokyo guide, Matsuoka-san. So we jumped on the train again, and headed down to Kita-senju station again, eager to find out where what culinary delights our friend would introduce to us this time... Chicken, it turns out! We'd never been to a restaurant serving exclusively (well, nearly) chicken dishes. That would be chicken in all its forms - chicken sashimi (yep, you got it, raw chicken meat!), chick skin, chicken liver and so forth. Not the sort of stuff we would necessarily order back home (well, for the raw chicken that would be a definite no), but we put our faith in our host and Gwere not disappointed. The food was delicious, as always.

Another great night out then... After saying our tear-filled goodbyes, 'twas time to head back to our hotel. 

The next day, we decided to split up for a change. I was quite keen to visit the Tokyo-Edo museum, whereas Mathilde wanted to do a bit of shopping. So I took the metro down to Ryogoku, where the museum is located.

The Tokyo-Edo museum is a great place to find out about Edo-era Tokyo, through some painstakingly detailed replicas of various buildings from a historic Tokyo sadly long gone (blame earthquakes and American WW2 bombings for that). One great thing in about Japan is the volunteer guides that are happy to give you free private guided tours. I was lucky enough to get a one-on-one tour with a very nice lady wearing a traditional kimono. 

All in all, a very interesting way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy day. One of the main replicas at the museum is a Nihonbashi bridge (which was the focal point of Ero-era Tokyo, since that's where the main roads heading out into the provinces all joined) - interesting detail since our next stop in Japan was the Nihonbashi district. (the original bridge is long gone - the current one dates back to 1911). Nihonbashi is more of a business district than a shopping, but hosts some of the most famous Japanese department stores (or depatos as the Japanese would say).

We visited the Takashimaya, one of the most venerable depatos in Tokyo. And it's quite an impressive place indeed - stands up well in comparison to Harrod's for example, I would say. We ended up doing most of our souvenir shopping back in Asakusa though - a bit easier on the wallet and Asakusa is a real mecca for shopping - it's a bit like a blown-up version of a big bazaar. It's not a place to get your Gucci bags though (you're better off going to Ginza for that) - more a place to get stuff "normal" Japanese families need. We even found a ninja shop!

This being our last night in Tokyo, we wanted to end our trip with something a little bit special. I was thinking, why not Tokyo Skytree - the second highest building in the world? Seemed like a good idea, even though it was quite a hike form our hotel. We eventually made it, and paid the rather pricey entrance ticket for the elevator ride up to the top. Well, NEARLY to the top. Actually, you had to buy ANOTHER ticket to make it all the way to the top. Now that felt a bit like a rip-off... Anyway, the whole thing was a bit disappointing, I have to admit. OK, the view is great, but it just didn't have the same impact as say going up the Eiffel tower or the Empire State building. Maybe the Tokyo skyline is just a bit less distinctive...

This slight disappointment was followed by another crisis - where to dine!? The places around Tokyo Skytree didn't really inspire us and it was getting rather late. So we hurried back to the train station and jumped on the train back to Asakusa. Thankfully we managed to find an open sushi restaurant near the hotel, where we sated our raving apetites...

Alas, that's the end of our third trip to Japan. As you have probably gathered already, we had a fantastic times. Seems that our appetite for this country grows after each visit. We can't wait to come back - already!