Explore Shinjuku
Due to jet lag Salmonella and I woke up pretty early. There were a few things that we had on our list today. Our friend Funkycat would be flying in today so we needed to meet up with him. I’d also be meeting up with a familiar travel friend later in the day and we’d be Mario Karting all over Tokyo.
But first Salmonella and I needed to get a Tokyo Subway Metro ticket so we can move around the city. I suppose most visitors to Japan end up getting the Japan Rail pass so they can freely move about the region. However, because of our itinerary, it wasn’t cost effective. The Tokyo Subway Metro ticket is a good alternative pass. It doesn’t allow you onto any of the JR rail lines, but it does give you access to all Tokyo Metro lines. So depending on your travel plans it may be worth it.
Unfortunately the ticket office doesn’t open until 9 AM and we were up at around 6 so we had a few hours to kill. We decided to walk around our neighbourhood to see what a Tokyo morning is like! It was a nice leisurely stroll through some of the area around Shinjuku.
Explore Akihabara & Ueno Park
After finally picking up our metro passes, we made our way to Akihabara. We walked around the area and ended up spending a long time in the Yodabashi Camera store. It’s a six storey electronics store selling anything from camera equipment to house hold appliances. If you’re a tech geek, stores like this and BIC camera make for a very pleasant shopping experience!
We still had a bit of time to kill so Salmonella and I hopped on the metro and went one station over to Ueno. Here there was this lovely park that we spent some time walking around. There was this beautiful shrine in the middle and right behind it was this pond where they rented out swan paddle boats. I thought it was a very interesting contrast.
MariCar
It was time to meet up with GIMPY!!! If you’ve been following Travelling Minions, you’ll know that Gimpy was a travel companion that I travelled with to South Africa, Dubai and Egypt. When we last saw her we witnessed her getting engaged in London. We’re meeting up again, this time with Gimpy’s Hubby and we were going to get into different cartoon outfits, jump in some Go Karts and zip around Tokyo with MariCar!
We saw this as a viral Facebook video. Since we were in town we had to do it! Its incredibly touristy, its not something culturally enriching, and certainly isn’t something the locals would do (I think). However, it was INCREDIBLY FUN! Its also a great way to get a feel for different wards of the city, share an experience with some great people and the costumes were simply a bonus!
If you’re fine with being looked at, while stopped at an intersection. Or you’re a big Mario Kart fan and have always wanted to try it in real life (without the items unfortunately). Or simply want a cool way to see the city, I can’t recommend this enough. You will need an international drivers licence in order to drive on the streets of Tokyo so make sure you get that before heading to Japan.
Dinner in Saboten
After finishing with MariCar, Gimpy, Gimpy’s Hubby and I met back up with Salmonella and FunkyCat (who flew in while we were Go Karting) for dinner. We chose a place called Saboten in Shinjuku station. They specialize in curries and pork cutlets and we were all really hungry. We all ordered different combinations of food. We eagerly chowed down on the food while we caught each other up on our different travels.
Shibuya crossing
Our next stop was the famous Shibuya crossing. This was on of the top things on my list to see. It seems like every movie set in Tokyo ends up with a scene at this crossing at some point. When I got there, I was amazed at how many people there are and how lit up it was! Its a lot like Shinjuku which I compared to Times Square, so Shibuya is just an even grander version of that.
We spent a bit of time here crossing, exploring the surrounding area and then playing around with how to photography it. In honesty, its quite difficult to do. When you’re at street level, you don’t get a good scope of how the crossing works. There aren’t many elevated locations in which to take a photo, so I had to make due. We ended up stopping on a street island and setting up on a small sign post in order to take some long exposure shots of people crossing. It wasn’t ideal but it was enjoyable to try different things and soak in some of the atmosphere!
Golden Gai
After Shibuya, we wanted to hit up an area called Golden Gai. Its a set of alleyways that contain about two hundred different little bars. We thought it would be a great place to check out the atmosphere and grab a quick drink as well! There are tons of little bars that seat only 6-8 people and choosing one to go into was difficult. Eventually we settled on a second floor bar, that had enough room for the 5 of us. There were a few other travellers in the bar already and we had a great time chatting, choosing songs to play and simply hanging out!
Omoide Yokocho (Piss Alley)
After, a few drinks in Golden Gai, the last place we wanted to hit was Omoide Yokocho (Known as “Piss Alley” or “Memory Lane” to some). Similar to Golden Gai, it is a small alley near Shinjuku station full of yakitori shops. Salmonella and I had seen it on our initial walk about the first day, and we had suggested it to our friends. We all chose a small shop to invade and ordered a few skewers for the group. Its really neat just to see the different little shops along the alley Because they all open up to the alley it creates an awesome atmosphere between the different shops!
It was getting late and we eventually parted ways with Gimpy and Hubby. They would be flying out tomorrow to Hong Kong, but we already made plans to meet up with them again near the end of our trip in Osaka!
We had another full day of exploring and eating tomorrow, so we headed back to our AirBNB and crashed soon after.