Haaaave You Met...WT: Day 2, 4 districts in one day!

For quick readers:

- went to Imperial Palace, only the outer gates
- Sony building at Ginza
- sushi at Roppongi, it was quite dead there despite being known as the night-life of Toyko
- tour in Tokyo Tower, overseeing all of Tokyo. Very nice

For detailed readers:

We woke up late around 12:00 noon, got food at a Japanese fastfood restaurant. (Picture below) The entire menu was a machine and once you order, you give your ticket to the cook and then that equals fast food.

We then left for Tokyo station to go to the Imperial Palace. We walked around the city, which was very spacious and clean - it didn’t have too much traffic, the buildings were tall and really nice. We walked into a Diesel store, it was expensive and overpriced as expected, and left after 5 min. I was there only to see if the knock-offs in Shen Zhen looked like the real things.

After walking around, we walked towards the Imperial Palace. We crossed the moat that surrounds the whole grounds, which by the way is extremely big because it incorporates numerous gardens and parks. Also, here you could rent bikes free of charge and ride them around the parks and gardens. Too bad we started the day late; the bike renting shop was closing when we got there around 3pm.

Imperial Palace is HUGE! It took so long just to walk to the main gate. Once we got there, to our surprise, we could not go into the palace. We could only stand OUTSIDE and see the surroundings. So the only pictures I got were the main gate and the famous Nijubashi Bridge. So long Imperial Palace.

Next stop, Ginza! According to the guide we had “Ginza, lined up with old department stores full of history and tradition as well as prestigious boutiques, is a flamboyant district for sophisticated adults” This place is really nice – it’s upscale like NY’s Saks Fifth Ave. It is significantly different than Shinjuku in that most of the people here were young adults and the places were not like bars. We went into the Sony store, which had all these high-tech products, like a camera that automatically recognized your smile and instantly took your picture. The computers were really cool too (the 12.1 inch and 13.3 inches were awesome). We then went into the Nissan store, it had one futuristic vehicle that would help you parallel park. Nothing to special, it was weird looking and it’s a Nissan….haha

Next stop, Roppongi, “exciting nightspots and the largest buildings complexes in Japan!” This place was supposed to be the Lan Kwai Fong of Japan, but it was pretty dead when we got there. After all, it was Sunday night. We walked around, saw a Hardrock Café, and I bought a t-shirt for my mom (she collects the t-shurts). We went to a sushi bar, and tried some authentic Japanese Sushi. To be honest, it’s about as good here as it is back in America or Hong Kong. It was actually quite expensive. I found out how to eat sushi from a guy sitting next to us. We should eat sushi with your hand and dip it slightly in a wasabi soy sauce. Then place the sushi in your mouth, take a bite, and then eat the rest. Remember to close your eyes. Yum!! The green tea was good too.

The night’s not done yet. Our next destination was Tokyo tower. We took the elevator to the very top. Below are the pictures from Tokyo Tower. It’s pretty nice to look all over Tokyo.

The tower was closing at that time (it was about 10:00PM), so we had to leave. On our way out, there was this Italian-restaurant turned-birthday-party-club-night right across the street. We decided to go in to try it out.

Well we couldn’t stay out that late, we had to wake up super early at 7am for the fish market!

Reflections:

I really like Japan. It’s a great place to be at and a must-see place to travel to. Today we conquered a lot of districts and I found myself taking a lot of pictures. I was able to fully discover my camera and all its function. Like my mom, I’m starting to enjoy photography; it’s a nice skill to have. So far, Japan in my opinion is quite expensive. All the dishes we ate were above $10USD compared to a $3USD meal in Hong Kong. I guess once you’re traveling, you really forget how much things are worth and just spend freely. But when you go back, it’s work work work to earn back all that money. That’s all for now, stay tune.

Pictures:

Automated Fastfood Menu. Look at all the options!