We did many a things in Tokyo, so I’ll be highlighting some of my favorites in the interest of time and saving space on the internet for other blog posts. Still, it will require TWO TOKYO-THEMED POSTS. To give you the general idea of how ginormous Tokyo really is, here’s a small chunk of it, as viewed from one of the observation decks of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

This is only a small piece of the expanse that is Tokyo.

Our first night in Tokyo, James and I ran off to explore the nearby Diver City Plaza mall area in the Odaiba area. While there, we ran into the Diver City Gundam Cafe, which happens to have its own Gundam just hanging out in front of it. IT WAS SO FREAKING AWESOME!

“Oh, hi. I’m a Gundam. Just chillin’.”

We found a sushi carousel restaurant called Sushi Train. If you’ve never been to a sushi carousel, you should find one and eat there. The basic concept is that a conveyor belt throughout the restaurant and as sushi is made, it’s placed on the belt. When a plate of sushi comes by that you’d like to eat, you pick it up and place it on your table just for you.The color of the plate tells you how much that plate of sushi costs. When you’re done, you stack the plates by their color and a waiter counts them up for your check. You can also put in a request for a specific food item or beverage. This place was extra cool for having a mini-bullet train that would bring you the specified plate of sushi you ordered.

The next day we got up EXTRA SUPER EARLY to journey with one other tour member to see the infamous Tsukiji Fish Market Tuna Auction. The auction is only open to whole sellers and restaurant owners when it comes to bidding on the tuna, but there’s room for 120 people to observe the auction. The only catch is you have to be there early, early, early – we arrive at around 3:40 AM. Moments after we arrived, they closed the door to any more auction observers. We had to navigate around the very active (and dangerous!) fish market area filled with beeping trucks, moving forklifts and hurrying workers to get to the actual auction area. The auction itself was over within 20 minutes or so, but after we made our way back through more crazy forklifts, we wandered down the street to a more farmer’s market style area selling fresh fish and snacks.

Many of the tuna were bigger than me.

The weird little machines being driven behind the yellow car almost ran me over twice!

After breakfast, we visited the Edo Tokyo Museum to see life-sized centuries-old-style Kabuki theaters, miniature replicas of cities, and more. Then we wandered down Harajuku,a street known for being the birthplace of new Japanese fashion trends and huge crowds of teenagers on weekends. I noticed someone with a crepe, which I’d had on my previous Tokyo visit and had on my list of things to have again, because they are SO GOOD. We found a cute crepe place where they pile in the ingredients like no other.

We later ended up in Akihabara, a district famous for all things arcade, electronic, and toy-centric. Many of these arcade buildings are six to seven stories with many crazy games. We sampled the Table Flip game, something I’d heard about in a YouTube video guide of Japan. (Thanks, Internet!) Afterwards, we visited the Asakusa shrine, which was exceedingly crowded to the point where James and I ducked into a side street to walk back to our meeting place so we’d be less squished. We traveled to a river cruise to take a boat back to our hotel area, where we said goodbye to our guide, bus driver and fellow tour members, as they were heading back to their homes the next day. We still had one more day left in Tokyo, with a different guide, but that’ll be covered in the last installment. 🙂