The last 24 hours in Tokyo

…which include AMAZING JAPANESE FOOD, autumnal colours and tilted roofed houses around the Imperial Palace Gardens, the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and its high views, the electric city Akihabara, with a final morning ending with Shibuya crossing (part 3) and what else than SUSHI.

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Did you know Japanese sugar comes in long tubes? (Did you also know that I will send you a postcard? See the end of the entry…)

I’m not quite sure I like it. Sugar sachets are more picturesque when they’re thicker, or square, or ideally in colourful cubes. Like the French ones. But Japan is better than France. Is it? I don’t know. France does have pretty good pastries.

BUT LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT JAPANESE PASTRIES.

Better yet, let me show you.

I never heard that Japan was famous for bakeries, but during my last full day in Tokyo I had breakfast (or well, more like lunch) at the most ADORABLE little bakery near my hostel.

Where I wrote the following in my travel journal: “I hate to say it but I feel I haven’t been efficient enough sightseeing Tokyo (like, sat here writing…). Every ‘morning’ I’ve left the hostel after noon. That’s embarrassing. I’m usually the “get up by 8, make most of day”-traveller. But I did decide that I should be lax on these travels – I know from interrailing if you don’t give yourself a breather it’ll just be frustrating.

And another time-consuming aspect here is socialising. Yesterday I spent ages in the kitchen chatting with N from Holland, K&A from England and Mr Over-Confident from the US. I feel it was completely worth my while – travelling is all about meeting new people yeah?”

As you can see, even sitting at bakeries whittling time away had its productivity. (Was that sarcasm?)

So, Day 3, or well, Afternoon 3 in Tokyo included the Historic as well as the Modernistic, as I started off my afternoon wandering around the outskirts of the Imperial Palace Gardens.

It definitely wasn’t top on any of my Tokyo sightseeing lists, since I’d planned Tokyo to be more of the contemporary cutting-edge modernistic sightseeing, while Kyoto then would be more historical and temple-filled. I kind of regretted this decision, because once I got to the gardens, I realised even the Tokyoese (or Tokyoian?) outskirts of the Imperial Gardens were STUNNING. Autumn colours galore, pure and clean and so Japanese, encompassing both the quaint tilted roofed houses on the canalside, as well as the futuristic high-scale buildings behind them.

After, I made my way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, which is this funky twin-towered construction with a free viewpoint over the city. By this point of my trip, yes, the High Building + Amazing High Views Combo had become slightly less exciting for me, after Saigon and Singapore and Hong Kong skybars, Taipei 101s and especially the 20th floor of the Hong Kong block of flats… But still, never say no to a high view eh! And a FREE high view, well… (Especially when you compare to the famous Tokyo Sky Tower, which apparently is ridiculously overpriced.)

I met up with Anna after being lost for only about twenty minutes (I mixed up the monorail with the metro. They have similar colours… is my excuse.), and we went up the first tower.

I also got to experience the Asian Photo Booth, where we cosied up into a little stall where we had pics taken of us in various Asian poses by an automated camera. Then we got to edit the pics (only two of them got edited as we didn’t realise there was a time limit), and get a little souvenir picture set each. Highly adorable!

We watched the sun set – we’d gone up the first building, then figured there’d be better views from the second one, and the sun kindly and obediently waited for us to get back up the second tower before Setting. Thank you sun.

We went back down in a lift which was packed nearly to the rim with humans and packed definitely to the rim with fart. The culprit behind the scent did not reveal themselves, but it was definitely a memorable moment. The relief each one of us felt when we burst out of the lift at the bottom… as we cast a few sympathetic glances at the people waiting to get into the pongy lift.

On the way back to the hostel, one of the most (ah, thesaurus, how I love you) illuminating photos of the trip was taken by a random stranger in the metro, whom Anna randomly asked to take a picture of us. I was completely oblivious. I absolutely love Anna’s guts and boldness. I adore this picture.

In the evening a group of us went to Akihabara, the only gotta-visit-in-Tokyo-area I hadn’t gone to yet.

Akihabara is ‘the electric city’ of Tokyo, where gangs of 18-year-old geeky gamers go and spend their hard-earned pennies on various, er, games. Akihabara is also known for its ‘maid cafés’, which may or may not go with them geeks – you are served by a maid who addresses you as ‘master’ (I never actually asked how they address female guests…) and is dressed in a maid outfit. It sounds distinctly dubious, yes, and I’m sure in places it is, but it is ubiquitous and a popular tourist attraction in Akihabara. Many of my hostel friends had gone to them, and all had said it was a bit weird. Well, a cultural experience, and I would’ve gone if I’d had more time, but I doubt I missed much!

We walked into a restaurant and were promptly escorted out again since we hadn’t taken off our shoes. After footwear was compliantly removed, we proceeded to sit around this table-on-the-floor, where we all ordered random dishes off the menu and had a pleasant, more chill evening than the night before.

The next day was my final morning in Tokyo, so I decided to show myself that I can be that get up by 8-person – I think I got up before 8 to be precise. Kirstie and I had decided to go and check out Shibuya crossing during morning rush hour, which failed in every way possible – I think we missed rush hour, and in any case, it turns out most of the crowds at Shibuya are tourists, who wouldn’t be around zebra crossing it at eight in the morning anyways.

Essentially we sightseed (or is it sightsaw!?) Shibuya at its quietest. Ah well.

Instead of crowded zebra crossing sightseeing, we found an open café (everything at that time seemed closed, empty and… bizarre. Only the Star Wars music playing on the Shibuya streets reminded us that we were in Tokyo.) and had a nice, thoroughly un-Japanese breakfast but with such interesting chats. Kirstie and her hubby Arthur are on their way around the world – having just done the Trans-Siberian railway (ONE OF MY BIGGEST HASHTAG TRAVELGOALSSSSSSSSS, been for AGES), they were now doing a few weeks in Japan before going on towards southern Asia. (Last I checked they had just arrived in Saigon. I AM SO JEALOUS.) The interesting catch to make their round-the-world-story especially interesting, is that they don’t fly. They use all other methods of transport, which makes for a whole lot more intriguing experiences and stories. I was in awe, listening to their experiences so far, and listening to their plans. A cargo ship from New Zealand to Alaska, is this still the plan guys?? (You can read Kirsty’s blog here, highly recommend it both for entertainment and informational value!)

Later on I also visited the famous Shibuya Starbucks, admiring the views while getting a heat stroke the blazing hot sunshine for a few minutes before deciding to retreat to a dark corner instead.

Also a bit more street wandering.

My Last Lunch was appropriately THE BEST SUSHI EVER with Anna.

I ate it all. Travel back in time, tell me I am to eat all this raw fishy stuff, I would laugh in your face. But, that’s done and dusted now. Raw fish, I salute you.

Then, all too quickly, I was waving goodbye to my lovely new Tokyo gang and the bicycles lining the road to my hostel, and said AU REVOIR to the biggest metropolis in the world.

And we will end with the rest of the travel journal entry I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, written at that beautiful bakery.

“Ok I finished my coffee. Now off to train station to book ticks for the BULLET TRAIN tomorrow..

Can’t believe I’m in Japan.”

BTW MUNCHKINS, THREE LUCKY WINNERS (chosen completely randomly from a hat by some impartial human being) WHO COMMENT ON THIS POST BY THE 7TH OF APRIL WILL HAVE A POSTCARD SENT TO THEM FROM ME. <3 (truly!) 

EMZY

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