Sunday, March 15, 2020

Tokyo, Japan

I had a full day today of exploring Tokyo and managed to cover a lot of ground thanks to this walking tour I came across on Airbnb. The tour was offering a full day of exploring the main Tokyo highlights and I figured it would be a great way to be introduced to this city. I quickly signed up, dug up the most comfortable walking shoes and I was rearing to go.

Turns out I was the only tourist who was signed up for today so it worked to my advantage as I got to pick and chose the pace of the tour and my guide Michiyo was very flexible in switching things up. We visited a lot of places so I will try to list some of them as I remember:

Meiji Shrine - A shinto (one of Japan's main religion) shrine dedicated to modern Japan's first Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The area surrounding the shrine is very pretty and makes for a nice walk. Michiyo my guide told me that normally the area is crowded with people but because of the Coronavirus people were advised to stay home and avoid crowded areas so on this particular day the crowds were nowhere to be seen, much to my joy.






Harajuku Fashion Street - Known for it's interesting street fashion especially among the teenagers, many trendy shops and boutiques can be found along Takeshita street. It wasn't crowded today and I enjoyed checking out some of the interesting shops and taking in the cool vibe of the area.





Shibuya Crossing - A large iconic intersection that get's crowded by people once the lights turn green. I found the intersection to be smaller than portrayed in pictures and videos that I had previously seen online. The surrounding areas are full of neon sign advertisements and even though we were there during the day, I can only imagine how colorful it get's at night.




Akihabara - A well known shopping hub for inexpensive electronics and heaven on earth for anime and manga lovers.



On Sundays some major streets are closed off to vehicles and pedestrians are free to walk or bike along these streets. I like it!



Ueno Park - A large public park that's home to Tokyo's cherry blossoms, temples and museums. Too bad the tree's haven't fully blossomed yet but I can only imagine how beautiful the park must be surrounded by cherry blossoms.








Asakusa Sensoji Temple - One of Tokyo's most famous and oldest Buddhist temples, sorry to do this description the injustice of being so short but my eyelids are literally half closed and my mind is already half asleep.





That's it folks! jet lag is kicking my butt right now and I am losing focus as sleep threatens to overcome me. All in all it was a good day and I enjoyed getting an overview of what Tokyo has to offer. I am heading to Kyoto tomorrow so watch out for an update, in the meantime let me just surrender to this sleep because I need it.




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