October 10 2019 – October 14 2019
Just a quick word to say: we are okay. The typhoon barely touched where we were staying in Tokyo but we have seen and heard of some of the devastation of the rest of the area so we know how lucky we are.
Anyway;
Our second day began with us leaving our posh hotel and beginning our backpacking for real. We checked out of the Westin Tokyo and headed back around the JY line to Shimbashi to our hostel. Based in the backstreets of downtown Tokyo, this hostel could best be described as cosy. It was one giant room with 26 pod style beds, a microwave, kettle and bathroom. However, we weren’t planning on spending a lot of time in the hostel so this was fine for us.
We unpacked and headed out into a drizzly city. Sky grey and raincoats on, we walked the Imperial Palace of Tokyo. Not having prepared in the slightest, we were disappointed to find that is wasn’t open to the public. We saw a sign for gardens and thought we would try there instead. Some good amount of walking later and we discovered this too wasn’t open. Finally, we tried one more sight; the Meiji Shrine. Another walk away and realised this too, wasn’t open. Apparently Friday’s are for downtime in Tokyo. Lesson learned, check these things before walking a total of 20 km around a wet and windy city.
To ease our suffering we decided to head to Cat Street, mostly because we liked the name, to check out some of the shops in boutique style stores and popped into an old-school American diner style coffee shop to cheer ourselves up with a latte and a doughnut.
We then found an absolutely excellent Chinese gyoza restaurant. There were only 3 things on the menu; gyoza (steamed or fried), chicken soup and cucumber salad. The kitchen was completely open with bar stools all around so we could watch our food being cooked. We promptly ordered a selection of steamed and fried dumplings and a bowl of chicken soup, a beer and an oolong sour (which genuinely turned out to be cold tea and vodka) and sat back to watch our food be prepared.
Once we had had our fill of delicious dumplings, we headed to the Shibuya crossing to witness the chaos that is the busiest crossing in the world before meeting up with our friends for a few drinks in an English pub style bar in Shibuya’s nightlife district.
After a few highballs and lemon sours, and a few more bars, the idea of karaoke was broached. now, karaoke in Japan was one of the things that was absolutely top of Katy’s list but that she hadn’t really considered an option as it’s not that great with just two people. With eight, however, including one fluent in Japanese, everything changes. When we arrived we were informed that for just 17,000 jpy extra, we could add unlimited drinks to our 2 hour session. Of course we said yes without hesitation. The first two hours of karaoke were excellent, so good in fact, that we paid for another, and then another. I think it’s fair to say that by this point 4 hours of unlimited drinks had taken their toll and the singing probably left a lot to be desired. Throughout the night we all kept telling ourselves that the next day would be a right-off due to the typhoon anyway so we might as-well have the best time we possibly could.
Did I mention that to order more drinks you simply rang the bar from the dedicated phone in the karaoke room? Well its true and it was awesome.
So we stumbled home at 6 in the morning, falling asleep as our heads hit the pillow (until Martin fell out of bed that is), having turned off our alarms we were ready to sleep the day away. When we awoke there was very, very heavy rain outside but the wind hadn’t started by this point. This was truly a very lazy day, we ate noodles, tried and failed to watch films, played some games and went for a very wet wander around the eerily deserted pre-typhoon Tokyo streets.
The next day we woke up to clear blue skies and, amazingly, a visible Mount Fuji. After a minor mishap with the trains and opening times of certain things (hey, we didn’t name this blog Travelsty for nothing) we headed up the Tokyo Tower to capitalise on this rare sight.
Then we were off to the Teamlab Borderless digital art exhibit. If you’re ever in Tokyo, we cannot recommend this enough. The pictures don’t even do it justice but we will show you some anyway. Its an incredible, interactive digital art show across 6 different rooms all with specific themes. From a flower forest to growing your own butterflies to creepy processions traipsing through the hallway who turn to watch you if you get too close. It’s honestly spectacular.
Just around the corner from here is a large shopping centre with an entire floor dedicated to arcades and sweet shops and just everything make you happy if you are a big kid (like we are). Our favourite game was this beauty. And I don’t mind saying, we absolutely smashed it.
On our final morning in Tokyo we visited the Tsukiji Fish Market. This place is packed full of stalls and restaurants selling the freshest fish and some of the best sushi in Tokyo. We wanted to try a few bits so we ordered a sushi platted to share and watched it all made in front of us and then sampled some amazing grilled tuna (grilled with a blowtorch I should add!).