Tokyo In Pictures

Hachiko Statue at Shibuya Station. Google the Hachiko story, it's adorable and worthwhile.

Wandering the stinky Tsujiki Fish Market.

Wandering the beautiful flowers of Rikyu Garden.

Maja enjoying her pre-tea confectionary

Maja welcomes you to the park!

Some adorable Japanese lanterns. PIKACHU!

Super Giant sandals on the wall of the Senso-Ji

Don't worry, that swastika is actually a Buddhist symbol. They aren't racists.

Gorgeous painting on the ceiling of the Senso-Ji

Yup, they've got shawarma's all over the globe and everywhere they are slightly different.

Engraving on one of the grave sites at the Yanaka Cemetary.

Maja's newest outfit

Maja's newest husband.

Elaborately decorated rice barrels in Harajuku

If I were you kid, I'd listen to the man. He's a little intense.

Day 4 & 5: Speeding away from Tokyo Madness to Tranquil Takayama

Good morning, good day and good evening world!

The magnificent Torii that greets you as you enter Meiji-jingu

If you thought Tokyo couldn't get any wetter, well you thought wrong! Just on our short walk to breakfast, it started raining and it didn't stop. We hustled to a French boulangerie, Viron, in Shibuya which was recommended by Lonely Planet. We thought 340 Yen ($3.60 CAN) for a tall coffee at Starbucks was pricey, but a simple coffee at Viron was 660 Yen ($7.00 CAN)!

Yikes! But this didn't stop us from getting a croque monsieur, abricot croissant and a chocolate eclair! Everything was magnifique and the restaurant honestly made you feel like you were in Paris, the menu was even in français, much to our benefit. Although this was probably the most expensive breakfast we've eaten, it was worth every Yen.

This picture is ex-STREAM!!

Our next stop was Gwen Stefani's favorite neighbourhood, Harajuku. This area is the shopping capital of Tokyo with hundreds and hundreds of shops lining the streets. (Un)fortunately, we didn't see any of these shops, instead we walked to the Meiji-jingu shrine, the largest Shinto shrine in Tokyo. Before arriving, you pass a number of Torii (gates). These are the famous double T type gates that you picture when you think of Japan. They are extremely eye-catching. At this point, there was a torrential downpour and despite being equipped with raincoats and umbrellas, we got completely soaked. Sadly, it was hard to appreciate the beauty of the shrine with these weather conditions. The Torii were definitely the most impressive part of this sight. 

Be honest, does it really surprise you that much
that Japan has a Hello Kitty store?

The most frustrating thing about our experience in Tokyo was getting lost and endlessly searching (and mostly never finding) many of the sights/shops/restaurants/bars. As we exited the Meiji-jingu shrine from a different gate, we looked for the nearest recommended restaurant. Little did we know that we actually walked more than 2 subway stops away from the shrine, all in heavy rain. We finally reached Takashimaya Times Square, department store in Shinjuku where we warmed up with some tea and beef tongue. Very chewy but delicious! After exploring the mall, we left empty handed but with full stomachs.

Since we explored the male geek district the day before, it was only time to explore the female geek district in Ikebukuro. No matter what neighbourhood we were in and no matter what time of day it was, it seemed like there were constantly people out and about eating, shopping or playing arcade games, and Ikebukuro was no exception. We browsed a 7-floor anime store that lost Maja's interest after the 2nd floor. Oh and we felt no trip to Japan would be complete without a stop-over at the Hello Kitty store which was as adorable (and pink) as you would expect.

You can tell that these Anime characters are designed for women because all the men look like little girls

Exhausted as we were, some more than others, we ventured off to the Golden Gai area of Shinjuku. Golden Gai is made up of over 300 bars, each one smaller than the next, some are even smaller than a typical walk-in closest. The options were overwhelming and you could probably spend your entire trip going from bar to bar.

Maja barely fits in this stairwell leading to this shoebox sized bar in Golden Gai

In normal Tokyo fashion, we quickly and efficient left the chaos to a city buried in the Japanese Alps via bullet train. The shinkansen (bullet train) goes somewhere between 240 km/h to 320 km/h. The train went so fast that we even missed spotting Mount Fuji. After a five hour trip, we finally made it to refreshing Takayama. We checked into our Japanese style inn, Asunaro Ryokan, which was out of this world. The staff greeted us with slippers and showed 

us to our room, which was more like our own little Japanese-style condo. The tatami rooms featured a living area, futon beds, a day room for relaxing, and a private bathroom that featured a high-tech toilet with it's own sink. Guests are also given their own yukata, a casual summer kimono. Surprised by her size, the hotel manager had to replace Maja's yukata with what he called "a Japanese-sized" one. This ryokan also had some great little knick-knacks decorating the halls that had Maja giggling with joy.

Maja's ability to blend in with the local Japanese is uncanny.

Maja's favourite Japanese Grandpa

Our ryokan also offered free bikes for their guests, so we ventured off through the streets of Takayama via bike. It didn't take too long before we parked them though, opting instead to walk through the old centre of town, Sanmachi-suji. This part of the town is made up of three streets filled with traditional shops, restaurants, museums, and sake breweries. The traditional shops had wide ranging souvenirs from little figurines to yukatas to samurai wooden swords. We ended the evening with a decadent dinner at Kyoya, a charming little restaurant where we sat cross legged by charcoal grill. Mike chose the hida beef that you cooked yourself on the charcoal grill while Maja indulged in an enormous meal of sashimi, deep-fried prawns, miso soup, buckwheat noddles, rice and apricot Japanese liqueur, umeshu. The meal was succulent and the staff was extremely friendly, talkative and offered gifts of appreciation. We returned the favour with Canadian flag pins and maple candy. They were so humbled and were eager to pose for a picture with Maja. Now we are going to enjoy the peace and quiet in our ryokan with a relaxing soak in the on-site onsen (Japanese hot springs). 

The friendly and generous staff of Kyoya, Maja's new best friends.

Namaste,
M&M

Tokyo Day 1 & 2 : Stinky Fish and Swollen Feet

Good morning, good day, and good evening world!

We are finally back with a new post about a new trip from halfway across the globe! We touched down in Tokyo Narita Airport after a 16 hour long trip *whew*!

Touching down at 4pm Tokyo time felt like 3am to our jet lagged Canadian minds but we were still determined to seek out a bit of Japanese flavour before passing out in our (relatively difficult to find) hotel room. It was hard to find, but we definitely still recommend Sakura Fleur Aoyama Hotel, it's relatively cheap and only a 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station (but since one of us is Mike, we naturally still got lost). We are staying in Shibuya, which is like Tokyo's version of New York's Time Square (but WAY bigger, if you can picture that). It was a joy trying to walk Shibuya Crossing with two large pieces of luggage. This intersection has the busiest foot traffic of any intersection on the planet, with an estimated 100,000 people crossing every hour, and trust us, it wasn't easy passing through  hundreds of people all crossing at the same time while at the same time dragging an awkward suitcase behind you. Luckily, we've found the Japanese people to be EXTREMELY courteous, friendly and gracious as they always move out the way of your path, your photos, and are quick to offer a helping hand and test out their own English. We explored a bit more of Shibuya that first night, weaving in and out of various small streets, blinded by the neon lights and overwhelmed with the hundreds of thousands of signs everywhere we looked.


Now imagine knocking your suitcase into each and everyone one of these people

The next day we expected to awake relatively early, planning to make it to the five a.m. tuna auction at the Tsukiji Fish Market, unfortunately our jet lag had other plans. We awoke at 7:30 a.m, had a quick breakfast and then quickly received a crash course on Tokyo's elaborate, enormous and complicated subway system. Now imagine the picture above of all those people at Shibuya Crossing. Now imagine them all crowded into a subway car at rush hour. Fun stuff :)

Cleaning the Tuna slicer sword (Don't mess with this dude)

Enormous Tuna Steaks, 5000 yen per kg

Mmmmm suction cups!

At the fish market, Mike managed to stroll the sights without plugging his nose or gagging at the overpowering fish smell! What a big boy! This is the world's biggest sea food market and there sure were some interesting sights. Octopus, snails, clams, eels, squids, basically anything you can imagine. If it came out the ocean, you could buy and eat it at this market. More than 400 different kinds of seafood arrive daily from all over the globe. The best sushi restaurants were also found next to the market as lineups circled the block for people waiting to try the day's special dish. Nothing to report quite yet on that front though, Mike still didn't man up and try some fish (don't worry guys, we're pretty sure it WILL happen eventually). Regardless of whether you're a fish fan or hater, this place is definitely a site to behold.

Lookout point at Hama Rikyu Garden, 10 seconds before Maja trips :)

Mmmm tea... Arigato!

Next up, we made our way to the nearby Hama Rikyu Garden, which was a beautiful and relaxing experience after that chaotic fish market. This gorgeous park is full of century-old trees, perfectly manicured hedges and has an enormous pond with an adorable little tea pavilion in the centre. The foliage at this place was spectacular but there isn't really that much to say beyond how peaceful the experience was. The highlight was definitely the tea pavilion which was rather expensive (for tea) but provided a great taste of Japanese culture, complete with tea ceremony instructions and confectionery to sweeten the deal. This confectionery is called wagashi and you are supposed to eat it prior to drinking the tea in order to sweeten your pallet, balancing the strong bitter taste of the matcha (powdered green tea). 

The confectionery may look like fruit but it's more like candy. Not really sure what it's made out of though

See? I wasn't kidding about the crowds!

Maja's Pagoda Crown

The day's highlight was definitely our visit to Asakusa and the Senso-Ji Buddhist temple. This is one of the major tourist spots in all of Tokyo and for good reason. In order to make it to the temple you have to make your way through a crowded marketplace, Nakamise-dori, that sold some truly amazing goods. Once you plowed your way through the crowd, you are treated to an amazing view of a five-story pagoda, giant lanterns and sandals (yes, giant sandals!). The temple was truly a spiritual place, with enormous incense burners, prayer sticks and cleansing pools. Everywhere you turned you'd see local Japanese spreading incense on themselves and praying. It was truly inspiring. On the grounds there is a Sinto shine which was immaculate. Waterfalls, statues, banzai trees and koi ponds were only a few of sights at this amazing place. It was pretty

damn crowded, but totally worth it. 

Gorgeous Senso-Ji temple (I don't think all these people were just here to pray)

 Finally, we ended our day with another relaxing stroll through Ueno Park and the Yanaka Cemetery. I know what you're thinking, a cemetery? What are you? morbid? The Japanese have a very different relationship with the dead than we North Americans. It doesn't seem to be something to fear, rather it's something to respect and we definitely weren't the only ones casually walking around Tokyo's largest graveyard, with over 7,000 elaborate and gorgeous grave sites.

An example of a typical Japanese grave site. I think I may steal this design for my own when I pass

Ueno Park is where most of the museums are located but being the philistines that we are, we decided to pass on the museums this time around. Instead we strolled around this popular park (with all this walking, maybe now you can understand where the swollen feet came from), enjoyed some extremely expensive coffee, watched some traditional Japanese busking and took in an amateur baseball game. It was a great way to end our first evening in this breathtaking city.

Trying to take a selfie with a heavy DSLR camera and the low evening sun in your eyes is definitely NOT EASY!

Namaste,

M&M