(iv) Exploring Tokyo: Sensoji, Odaiba, Imperial grounds, Tower

The city that never sleeps. And no I'm not talking about the Big Apple, but it might as well be the New York of the Eastern world. One of Tokyo's largest appeal was the shopping, where anyone can find the most up to date fashion and technology released fresh off the shelves. Not to mention the appeal of many anime/manga enthusiasts around the world, including myself. Out of all the cities I visited in Japan, Tokyo was the busiest city where everyone on the streets moved like they had a purpose. Shopping centers dominated the streets, usually close to major subway stations like Shibuya and Shinjuku. It wasn't hard to turn around a corner and bump into a tall shopping complex that would make any shopping fanatic spend hours on each floor. And the best thing about the opening hours in Tokyo (and in most major cities) was the late night shopping, as many shops usually open around 10am and close up to 10pm. Best to wear your most comfortable shoes when shopping and sight seeing are planned for Tokyo.

Senso-ji Temple 

Before harking on about the modern side of Tokyo, I would like to mention one of the most busiest tourist destination sites within the city - Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. This temple complex is well known for displaying their huge red lantern at the front gate and main temple, alongside a strip of many food and souvenir stores. Also an easy get to destination via a subway ride to Asakusa station, where upon disembarking we entered a shopping arcade that led us to the temple.

This was one of the two giant rope-woven shoes situated at the front gates of Senso-ji.

As mentioned before in my previous post, these wells or Chozuyas provide visitors with fresh water to cleanse their hands and mouth.

 

Outside the temple, by donating 100Y we shook a tall hexagonal metal cylinder until a bamboo stick with a number written on it fell out of the hole on the top. The number corresponded to the fortune paper (O-mikuji) which indicated what sort of fortune had bestowed upon us. From memory I had a not-so-great fortune, in which case I had to fold it and tie the piece of paper onto a metal wire alongside other fortunes so that I didn't have to bring the bad luck with me.    

A line of people proceeded up the temple to chuck a donation coin into the huge grated box before making a prayer.

In many ways these line of stores are a huge tourist magnet, selling all kinds of Japanese knick knacks from cute chibi key chains to traditional stylish kimonos.

Odaiba Island

Odaiba is a man-made island that is essentially a mini entertainment complex with plenty of attractions to visit. By stopping at Shimbashi station, we took the Yurikamome, a monorail that directly took us to Odaiba. Because we only had a short amount of time, the places we chose to visit were Diver City, Palette Town, Leisure Land, and Odaiba Beach to view the Rainbow Bridge.

Although we didn't do any shopping here, Diver City was a large shopping complex that contained many boutiques and high-end fashion stores, both local and international brands. It also has Round1, an entertainment sports facility where visitors pay one price to enjoy various fun activities like soccer, baseball, hoverboarding, karaoke, and unlimited arcade game play. Definitely a must try, and it was the best place to get away from all the shopping and sight seeing, to just relax and be a kid again.

On the basement level was the food court, which had a tourist friendly section that gave us a translated and pictorial menu of each restaurant.

Ordering was pretty simple. We just had to pick the dish we wanted, print the piece of paper that had our order, and hand it over to the cashier belonging to the restaurant. 

As we left Diver City and made our way across the island, I had to stop to take some snaps of these tulip flowers. These bed of gorgeous flowers were planted all along outside the shopping center, very hard not to miss.

Similar to Round1, Tokyo Leisureland consisted of a large arcade floor and a place to practice one's baseball skills with an automatic shooting system. Depending on the game, most of the arcades costed around 100-300Y per game. Other activities included karaoke, bowling, darts, sport games, and interactive rooms such as a haunted house and an Alice in wonderland theme room.

At the front of the arcade area were rows of capsule toys. Capsule toys are quite unique in Japan and fun to collect. They range across from anime figurines, cute animal toys, badges, pins, to slightly weird but also adorable collectables like cats in sushi costumes and bread toasts with suspicious looking faces on them.

Another neat place to visit was Palette Town, which consisted of a concert hall, an auto mobile gallery, and Venus Fort, which was an arty European style shopping arena with a very nice fountain in the center.

Venus Fort was a lot less busier than Diver City, and gave off a nice sophisticated appeal with its European inspired design. Some of the stationary and clothing stores sold quite unique produces, albeit together with a hefty price tag. The Lego Store was also found here.   

Just right beside Palette Town was a colorful Ferris wheel, called Daikanransha. It made for a fantastic photo once the lights were lit up.

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Not so much lit up in its rainbow glory, the Rainbow Bridge connected Tokyo with Odaiba Island, and a great place to view it was at Odaiba Beach.

Tokyo Imperial Palace Grounds

The Palace Grounds were situated in the center of Tokyo, so it was easy to reach from Tokyo Station plus a 10-15 minute walk. Although we couldn't enter the actual palace without registering for a tour, exploring the area was still quite a walk thanks to the outrageously huge empty park area. We were able to go up to the closed gates that led into the inner palace grounds (well just a few meters away across the bridge), and took a nice picture of Nijubashi Bridge. The view of the bridge and palace tower in the distance also made for an attractive view for local painters.

Tokyo Tower

We got off at Onarimon station and literally hiked up a hill to reach the tower. It wasn't easily visible from the station at first amidst all the towering sky scrappers until we caught the glimpse of the iconic red spike. At the time we visited, the top deck was closed due to renovations so we just explored the ground levels where there was the Nepec souvenir store (and a restaurant for fans), a gallery and history of the tower, and a floor of Japanese souvenir stands. All free to access for those who don't want to pay to access the top deck.

(iii) Cherry blossums in Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka

TOKYO

Ueno Gyoen

The public garden in Ueno was our first destination, and one of the two we visited that was free for visitors. The weather paled against the beauty of the cherry blossom forest, but no matter how dreary and wet the day was, there were still plenty of visitors in the park admiring the blossoms. 

The sight of the towering blossoms flanking us from both sides of the path were quite impressive to witness. Everywhere I looked there were smiling faces and cameras capturing these flowers that only bloom for 3-4 weeks a year. Like many tourists here, we were all aiming to capture one of the most popular and beautiful moments in Japan.  

 

 

Despite the downpour, no weather can stop some families having a casual picnic among the trees.

 

There were also smaller pathways diverting around the park, and one of them led us to a small shrine - the first Shinto shrine in Japan that we encountered. As a commemoration for arriving in Japan, I made coin donation and a prayer before ringing the loud bell, wishing that this trip would be filled with fun and excitement minus the dodgy weather.

We didn't know what these little wells were at first, but after witnessing someone use it they were actually for cleansing your hands and mouth before approaching the shrine. They're called Chozuya or Temizuya.

 Also around the shrine were these wooden plaques, or Ema, that people purchase and inscribe their prayers and wishes on.

 At the end of the center path was a big terrace, where semi hidden in the fog was the National Museum. This marked the end of our cherry blossom viewing in Ueno, but before heading towards Shinjuku, we had to settle down for a warm bite to replenish our energy. Thinking how cold the Melbourne weather is back at home, the chill in Tokyo does take quite a bite, even during the Spring season. But once the sun came out, the warmth of Spring was very inviting.

Shinjuku Gyoen

Situated on the opposite side of Tokyo, we took the fast and convenient subway system to one of the top rated gardens in Tokyo, Shinjuku Gyoen. The subway system might look scary at first, but the stations have plenty of English signs all color coded and labelled, so the only information you need are the stations to get off or change to. Sometimes it can involve a lot of walking when changing lines.

Alas it was still raining when we got off at Shinjukugyoenmae. The garden was easy to locate by heading towards the large canopy of trees in the distance. Along the way there were cherry blossoms scattered around the street blocks, and it was hard not to miss a vending machine or two after every couple of meters. Not only do they sell soft drinks, but also coffee, hot tea and coffee, energy drinks, and juices.



The entry fee into Shinjuku Gyoen is 200Y per person. Once inside,  we were met with a huge wide lawn area surrounded by beautiful cherry blossoms. If the weather was more forgiving and allowed more sunshine and less rain, this place would've been a perfect picnic area (rather prodding through wet grass and avoiding large puddles). 

There were many different types of cherry blossoms blooming in this park. It's easy to spend hours looking around each tree and taking snaps of each, but the garden still had plenty to offer.

Situated in the inner section of the garden is a small tea house, called Rakkutei. This was one of the two tea houses that visitors could visit. The cost was 700Y per person, which was paid at the little vending machine at the front to acquire a ticket. Inside was a small semi-dark room with 3-4 tables on each side. It was full at the time so we waited awkwardly for a while inside as the staff didn't come up to us or say anything, but we realized it was probably best to wait outside until somebody left. When a table was empty (big enough for 2-3 guests), we sat down and a lady staff in a kimono came out to clean the plates away and took our ticket. The service was very proper and smooth, and even though I didn't understand Japanese, I could tell she was using the very polite sense to greet us.

We were then given a bowl of green tea, prepared in what I assumed to be in a traditional manner hence the bubbly texture, and a little slice of a Japanese sweet cake. The taste of the tea was very warm and aromatic, easily settling the heart and soul...it might not sound like much, but the tea house was a perfect place to escape the noisy bustling city. Guests talked in mild whispers, and the whole atmosphere was very peaceful and tranquil. Just like all tea houses are supposed to be! Too bad there aren't any like these back at home.

After a moment's basking, in what almost felt like a dream where my world was suddenly stress and problem free, we headed back out to continue exploring the garden. At the back was a gorgeous lake with quite a breathtaking scenery.

As we started to head back to the entrance, we noticed the second tea house of the garden. It was clearly the more popular as it offered the beautiful scenery of the lake as guests sipped on their green tea. Along the way we continued to be overwhelmed by the many shades of pink blossom trees. It was hard not to stop and take a picture of the flowers and the scenery they occupied.

 KYOTO

 Philosopher's Path 

Or otherwise known as Tetsugaku no michi (哲学の道), this was also a highly recommended spot to get a capture of the cherry blossoms. Although slightly harder to find as its located within a neighbourhood, Google Maps was our best friend here (and for most of the trip). We took the local bus 204 to Higashi Tennocho station, where we then set afoot towards Philosophers Path. Because we were running sightly late and the sun was about to set, we decided to just complete the last portion of the path towards Nanzenji Temple located at the very end of the path. However, ideally the best way to enjoy the whole experience was to make a stop at Ginkakuji Temple where the start of the path was and stroll down towards Nanzenji Temple. The bus route was quite simple to follow, and there were bus route maps located at the main Kyoto station.

Once we'd found this wooden engraved map below that directed us to the Philosophers Path, we knew we were heading towards the right direction.

The neighbourhood was a bit of a up hill stride, but it gave us a nice visual insight to how the suburban locals lived.

This gateway marks the entrance towards the Philosopher's Path, leading towards the waterway that cuts through the back of the neighbourhood.

If there was one place to kill time in and to experience a leisurely stroll away from the city center, this place would be perfect.  Anyone could easily spend an hour or two enjoying the canopy of cherry blossom trees, whether it's with family, friends, a partner, or even as a solo traveler.
 

I gotta say, the locals living along the canal are very lucky to have such a magnificent view as their backyard. Who wouldn't want a line of cherry blossoms outside their window every spring?

Maruyama Park

I'm sure there's a bus route that can take us directly to Maruyama Park, but nope we decided to have a leisurely stroll through the neighbourhood instead. So by the time we arrived it was nightfall, but that didn't mean our effort was in vain. Even though it was a lot harder to capture the cherry blossoms, much to our surprise and delight we stumbled across a line of food stalls! (for more details about our food adventures, check out the food post!)

...plus! A great spot to have a meal and sip sake under the cherry blossoms.

At the end of all the food stalls, we stumbled across Yasaka Shrine and the dance stage surrounded by dozens of strikingly lit up lanterns. Another shrine, another prayer!

 

OSAKA

Osaka Mint

The final spot of cherry blossom viewing was the Osaka Mint, situated along the government building on one side, and the food stalls beside Yodo River on the other. Again another popular spot where people flocked to enjoy the long stretch of cherry blossoms, we didn't realise how long the path was until we got to the end of the road. It almost took us an hour to finish the garden. Out of all the places we visited, this attracted the most visitors to a point where we had to take short strides among the heavy crowd. Whilst the actual mint museum itself closed before night fall, this section was opened specifically for the blossom viewing. Even though the flowers were lit up beautifully against the night sky, it was probably better to visit during the day where we could've visualized the different types of cherry blossoms properly (and take better pictures).

With all four cherry blossom hot spots marked off our list, the adventure didn't stop there. But I was glad to finally witness the famous flowers in person, and to discover the huge fuss of why visitors from around the world would choose Spring time to come to Japan. It was definitely a sight worth seeing and experiencing.