On Wednesday evening, we decided to check out Shinjuku. Shinjuku is one of the most famous neighborhoods in Tokyo - a lot of the Tokyo clichees can be found here. There are huge skyscrapers, huge masses of people, drunked salarymen stumbling about, a fair few massage parlors, X-rated cinemas and patchinko places Of course, there are also a huge number of good restaurants.
Anyway, before heading for dinner, I had an objective in mind - to photograph the sun setting over Tokyo from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. The main reason people (like me) come here in particular is that the observation floor is great. Located 202 meters up in the air, on the 45th floor, the views are magnificent. I could see surrounding Tokyo, and in particular the impressive skyscrapers of Shinjuku. And, believe it or not, the tip of Mount Fuji was visible just above the clouds.
The touristy stuff done and out of the way, we wandered about amongst the drunken salaryman mob for a bit, trying to find a decent restaurant (there is just too much choice in this city!) - before finally deciding upon a nice, atmospheric little place not far from the legendary Golden Gai (the Shinjuku drinking area, know for its tiny bars). Fish and seafood was the name of the game (as is often the case in Japan, of course), and we walked away rather satisfied.
On Thursday, after our language course, we decided to sort of randomly wander off from Iidabashi, towards the Imperial palace park (slam bang in the middle of Tokyo). There is a pretty big and impressive park around the imperial palace, which is open to the public and free. The only way to visit the palace itself is through a guided tour (and only during daytime), but the impressive moats and outer walls (as well as the Nijubashi bridge, which leads to the palace) can still be seen from the outside. We ended up having a decidedly uninspiring (and rather expensive) dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
On Friday, we decided to explore Adachi city a bit, before our lessons. We decided to check out Nishiarai Daishi temple, an apparently famous temple that one of our teachers recommended us to visit. Getting there turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected, but we got there in the end. The temple dates back to the 19th century, and is famous for its peony garden. There is also a salt-covered Buddha statue, known to cure warts, apparently! We rather enjoyed the temple, especially the peaceful gardens next to the main building.
We found an excellent eel restaurant next to the temple, where we had a seriously delicious lunch! A bit pricy compared to your average Ramen shop, that's for sure, but more than worth every penny.
We were in a bit of a hurry getting back to Iidabashi in time for class, but just made it in time!
In the evening, we kind of randomly decided to visit Ikebukuro - another famous Tokyo neighborhood, one that we haven't been to so far! The area is a bit like a calmer version of Shinjuku - meaning loads of places to shop, loads of places to eat, loads of places to drink. Basically there's loads to do there. The main attraction here is Sunshine City - basically the oldest "city within a city" complex in Tokyo (construction was complete in 1978).
It's a huge complex (comprising of 4 buildings with the 240 meter Sunshine 60 building located in the middle) that basically contains a huge amount of shops, an observation floor (of course), offices, restaurants, bars, a planetarium, and aquarium, and loads of other stuff... We were content to just walk around, being impressed, and have dinner afterwards. The coolest thing about Sunshine city, if you ask me, was the pictured massive Godzilla foot - check out the size of that thing!
So, Ikebukero is a pretty nice part of Tokyo, I'm sure we'll be back!
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