Japan Part 1: Tokyo

We land at Tokyo Narita airport at 7:35am on Tuesday morning. Ness' immediate reaction is that everyone had been lying to her about the crowds in Tokyo. The airport is quiet and we breeze through immigration and collect our bags quickly. Once past the arrival gates, we collect our JR Passes and our pocket wifi - which we can already say, have both paid themselves off extremely well.

The trains from Narita airport are clean and efficient...once you get on the right one, after a one-station trip on the wrong one. :) It's about a 1 hr ride into Shibuya Station, or as Tim likes to call it - Shi-BOOYA station and a 5 min walk to our hotel - the Shibuya Tobu Hotel (thanks to Amy for the recommendation). We drop our bags off at the front desk and head off to the Harajuku area, just a 10 min walk away.

Being a weekday, we don't see any Harajuku girls as we walk down Takeshita Street. As we stroll around the area, all we find are crepe after crepe stores, when all we want is a savoury lunch. Our quest for local food ends with our first meal being a burger from the franchise Lotteria, which Ness still says counts as eating the local cuisine! Bellies full, it's time for a stroll through Yoyogi Park before heading back to the hotel to finish checking in and to have a rest before making our way to the Tokyo Government Towers.

The view from government towers is amazing, with buildings covering all available space, as far as the eye can see, in all directions. The sheer magnitude of Tokyo is mind boggling. Unfortunately for us, Mt Fuji was hiding from view that day.

Our next stop is dinner in Shi-BOOYA after a brief detour via the world's busiest intersection. We were surprised to discover that we had unwittingly passed through the intersection earlier on that day...apparently there are big peaks and troughs in the crowds.

Click if GIF doesn't loop

As a side note, considering how many people live and work in Tokyo, the streets are pretty clean, the traffic is free flowing and there's minimal air, or sound, pollution. In makes the place feel like it has significantly fewer people than it actually does.

Back in Shi-BOOYA, we search for a specific restaurant famous for its curry. After stumbling backwards and forwards through a small red light district, we discover that the restaurant we can't find, is closed, so we drop into a random restaurant for a delicious eel dinner.

The next morning, we ask the front desk to recommend a place for a local breakfast. She gives us a map and we head over to a little store near Shi-BOOYA Station. Tim sticks to a Japanese curry dish while Ness opts to point at something on the menu and say "one please". For one Yen cash, can anyone tell Ness what she actually ate?

Satiated, we travel to Ueno Park, a spacious public park on lands formally owned by a temple. We begin our tour of the park with a stroll around the lake. We're surprised to find the lake covered in a bright green algae and couldn't figure out from the (Japanese) signage whether the algae is good or bad for the wildlife. As we wander around, we come across a lady who's dog is having a staring contest with a turtle. Obviously we find this very cute and so does a local who stops to take photos. We also spot a duck relaxing amongst a school of cat fish.

To escape the heat, we next head to the National Science Museum, also on the grounds of Ueno Park. We immediately enter the Theatre 360, which is a spherical cinema, where audience members stand on a raised platform, while a movie is projected onto the walls of the sphere. While somewhat nauseating, the experience is pretty amazing. We float over dinosaurs, watching them battle for food and love being able to look in any direction. Quite amazing.

We next head to the "hands-on learning" part of the museum, which presumably targets children so of course, we play with all of the stations. We learn about strength of the keystone when we build block arches, we then witness momentum in action, enjoy the benefits of pullies, play with magnets, and generate static electricity.

Before departing the museum, we check out the huge dinosaur bones (the t-rex is still our favourite). Outside the museum, Tim is amazed by a scale replica of a blue whale "are they really that big? really?".

Hunger returning, we head to Shimbashi for lunch at a Soba place. Ordering from the vending machine then collecting from the chef, Tim is surprised that his noodles are served cold. Quite tasty and nice on a hot day, just surprising.

Craving dessert, we head back to Harajuku and discover Dessert Collection. This fantastic buffet place looks like something a fairy tale threw up. Quite pricey, but a great experience. We're surprised to see a business man seated by himself, daintily eating one of each of the desserts.

After a rest at the hotel to recover from our sugar comas, we head out to Tsukishima for some Monjayaki! Monjayaki is a speciality cuisine from the Kanto region and is said to have originated from Tsukishima in Tokyo itself, so much so that the main street in the area is lined with Monjayaki stalls and referred to as "Monja-Town". Very similar to Okonomiyaki, Monjayaki is made with a more liquidy dough, has the appearance of melted cheese when it is cooked and is eaten with small spatulas straight from the grill. A great experience all round.

After dinner, we consider visiting Roppongi, but decide against it. We're not into nightclubs and regarding the other entertainment, let's just say, which tourist would have King St on their list of things to do during a visit to Melbourne? Also, we've got a ridiculously early start tomorrow if we want to see the tuna sales.

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