After a long eight year wait, we are back in one of our favourite places in the world; Tokyo! This is a city that's easy to fall in love with, the beautiful gardens, amazing food, eclectic fashion, and exceptional organisation, not to mention hidden gems everywhere, mean that this time around we're excited to see all the new (and old) places to explore.
Our flight was a trying one, Andrew was horribly sick with a nasty cold, so fever, aching and a sore throat meant he did not do very well. I was fine. We arrived in Tokyo at eight pm local time, having been up since three am, and bleary eyed we cleared customs, changed trains three times, and at eleven pm finally found our hotel. We were so exhausted, we went straight to bed. Andrew dosed up on Codral and I started feeling ill too, we needed sleep.
Upon waking up, showering and packing after our one night in a hotel, we felt a bit better and began exploring. Our hotel was opposite the Emperor's Palace, so we decided to wander the gardens to begin with. They are simply stunning in Summer. Last time we were here in Winter and the grass and some plants were dormant (brown) so it was magnificent seeing flowers and trees blooming. The gardens are exquisitely manicured, and they are a tranquil oasis that made us both feel better. We had some ice-cream on the lawn, continued our walk, and came out near Tokyo central station.
Tokyo station is a labyrinth of shops, eateries, cafes and restaurants. Think old style David Jones food court but shinier. We opted for a brunch of Dashi rice bowls, which was served with pickled veggies and seafood and chicken, and it was delicious. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the station, did some clothes shopping at Uniqlo, and then went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and make our way to our AirBnB in Shibuya.
After a lot of running around Shibuya station looking for the locker our key was in, we found it and began the walk up the hill to our apartment. After overshooting it, we eventually found it and settled into the beautiful little studio that will be home for the next nine days. It's bigger than we were expecting, very quiet, and in the heart of Shibuya. By this stage it was nearly dinner time, so out we went again.
And lo and behold, we're about ten shops from a Mos Burger! The last time we were here, we discovered this unique Japanese burger joint, but back then it was like an eighties McDonald's. Now it's more like Nordburger, decked out in a Scandinavian style, but the burgers are just as good as we remembered. Dinner done, it was time to properly shop. We stopped into Uniqlo and H&M, the big ones, picking up more summer clothes. We did all nine floors of 109, the famous clothing hub, which is utterly overwhelming. Imagine if the shop Live was every store in Marion, the music was up in all of them, and they had two of three assistants constantly shouting their specials at once.
Back outside, we decided to just explore the alleys and side streets, and we spent hours shopping and wandering aimlessly. We found a parfait place for dessert, which was amazing, and after our much needed sit down, we made our way back to our apartment to post photos. In spite of the 27,000 steps, the excellent food, tea and atmosphere have made us feel infinitely better. Time for sleep before Disneyland Sea tomorrow!
- Jess
Here is a link to all a daily dump of all our photos if you're interested.
https://goo.gl/photos/3NKa74sueRTAzJog6
- Andrew
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