Konnichiwa Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo early in the morning. After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we headed straight to the subway to start exploring the famous city!  Tokyo's subway system is so large that it has several subway companies operating lines which means that you have to buy separate tickets when transiting between lines of different companies. We figured it out eventually but it almost doubled the cost of traveling on the subway (their subway system makes Hong Kong's look like child's play!) 

Tokyo Station is one of the largest subway stations in the city. It is a beautiful building and again looks more like something you would find in Europe. 

 

We signed up for Tokyo's version of the hop on hop off bus. Our first stop was the Tokyo Skytree Tower to check out the view of the city from up there. After locating the line for tickets, we were a little discouraged as the line was very long - but it was moving. When we were finally able to even see the ticket counter we thought we were getting close, but the line just swept to the back of that room too.




It took us over 1.5 hours just to purchase our tickets and then we had to wait in yet another line for the elevator to take us up to the top.

Finally, we made it to the top, but it was just as crowded up there. It took a bit of waiting and a little pushing but we finally got some window space. The views were incredible! Tokyo is absolutely massive! In certain directions you could see all the way to the horizon, but towards downtown it was covered in a layer of smog.

Like most tourist hotspots there were several groups of young kids with their English classes asking questions to foreigners. We were stopped at least 5 times - guess we look pretty approachable - that or they knew just by looking at us that we were American and not European (native English speakers). In exchange for our participation in their assignment, the kids gave us cute origami cranes that they had made. We now have a small collection...

The Japanese are really into Halloween - people dressing up and intricate decorations throughout the city that would rival the Christmas decorations in most malls in the US. McDonald's was advertising this special burger for the occasion... egg yolk, squid ink sauce, set in a black bun.. yep pretty scary! No thank you! 

We passed a Turkish gyro stand which had Turkish icecream.. If you have never tried it, you must! It is creamy and amazing...we love it! 

After dinner, we saw the Tokyo Tower lit up and thought it looked close so we started walking towards it. With a tower that big, the distance was very deceiving... but we finally made it. Melissa's activity tracker said we walked 8.6 miles that day - I believe it!

The Tokyo Tower is not as tall as the Skytree, but the night views were very nice.Tokyo Tower is synonymous with Tokyo and until 2012 when Skytree opened, it was the only tower in the city. Supposedly, the older Japanese prefer Tokyo Tower (which was built in the 1950s) and the younger Japanese prefer Skytree.

We really wanted to go to the tuna auction at the Tsukiji Fish Market but after talking with the concierge at the hotel we decided against it. Only a small number of tickets are given out each day (less than 150) and you have to get to the market at 2:30 am to attempt to secure your spot. It's a very popular tourist activity so the lines start early - over 2 hours before the auction starts!

With that being said, we decided to just walk through the market  by ourselves. Japan's huge coastline and landmass gives it access to fish that swim in warm and cold currents. There were so many different types of fish and shellfish, many of which we have never seen before. Most of the people shopping there seemed to be shopping for sushi restaurants.

Around the fish market there are small sushi restaurants which we wanted to try, but the lines were like all the other ones in Japan..LONG...

Our time in Japan was slowly drawing to a close and I still had not had the Japanese pork cutlet yet, so we sought it out instead. It was good, but not overwhelming.

If you have been to Waikiki, Hawaii you have no doubt seen it - the strange wax food most Japanese restaurants showcase in their front windows to draw in customers. We always got a chuckle out of it when we saw it (nothing in wax really looks appetizing), but MOST restaurants in Japan have this. We later found out it was supposedly for non Japanese speakers, but I don't buy it as there is not one word in English on the displays. When something is coated and deep fried it is really hard to tell what type of meat it is, unless you see the shrimp tail.

Tokyo Imperial Palace is a beautiful green space in the middle of central Tokyo. We took advantage of the nice weather and followed the locals by having a seat on the Palace park for a bit of a rest.

Beautiful tree lined pedestrian street infront of Tokyo station.

One evening we took the hop on bus which gave a completely different perspective of the city with all the famous neon signs.