A Trip to Tokyo - The Second Day

So on day two we had the ridiculous idea of waking up at 3.20am to venture out into the cold and dark and watch the famous Tsukiji Tuna Auction. You are advised to get there early to queue up and get yourself on the list as one of the two groups of tourists allowed in to this early morning madness. There was already a queue when we got there at around 4.20am, but luckily after a few minutes we were herded into a warm room, albeit without anywhere to sit, as we waited for our 5.25am viewing. We were very sleepy as we stood around waiting, wearing silly yellow vests and arguing about whose great idea it was to come out at this hour to see some fish. However, when we finally went in, it was quite fascinating to see the men checking the quality of the tuna by hacking at it with large hooks, looking at it for a few seconds and then moving on to the next one. During the auction they bid using their hands, so you are forbidden to use flash photography, wave your arms around like a madman or do anything that would distract the auctioneer from the bidders.

Me Looking A Bit Sleepy In My Silly Yellow Vest

Using A Large Hook To Check The Quality Of The Tuna

The Slightly Mad Auction Room

Inspecting Slices Of Tuna With A Torch

The usual tourist course of action after the auction is to wander around the market and have a sashimi breakfast. However by the time the auction was over we were ready to go back to our bed, and at only 6am we didn't fancy waiting the 3 hours before the main market opened to the public. So we decided to go back to our hostel for a well-earned nap, and do the rest of the fish market properly the following day at a more acceptable hour.

After our nap we felt refreshed and up for some raw fish! We ventured across the river to a revolving sushi restaurant (the sushi revolves, not the restaurant), but unfortunately it was closed. A kind lady from a nearby hotel directed us to another one, and we had a very delicious and reasonably priced lunch of sushi and squid tempura. 

Sushi Restaurant

Delicious Sushi!

Squid Tempura

 We then went for a wander not far from our hostel towards 'Sumo Town', Ryogoku. There weren't any events on at the time, but we still wanted to see the stadium and museum. It was a nice area and a friendly American guy directed us to a traditional Japanese garden which we had a stroll around. 

Alex Outside The Sumo Stadium

Traditional Japanese Garden

We Managed To Find The First Few Sakura Blossoms Of Spring

 That evening, we wanted to finally have our posh birthday meal... but it was a bit of a disaster. It was pouring down with rain and we headed out far later than we meant to, and took the subway to Shinjuku Station which is the busiest in the world. It was completely mad and it turned out that the restaurant we were looking for was a long walk through this huge station. When we got there, they were near to closing time and had no tables available, so we went back to the station where we had seen plenty of restaurants, and picked a small udon noodle eatery. We were tired and a bit annoyed about the evening, but the food was actually really delicious and we were glad we had a chance to try it.

Beef On The Left With Mixed Tempura And Seafood On The Right

A Trip to Tokyo - The First Day

When we realised that my birthday fell on the last day of our second term, we decided to bite the bullet and take the opportunity to book our first trip out of Korea! What with Tokyo being so close and, to us, such a fascinating and exciting city, we decided that it would be the perfect place for a long weekend. 

We had a long day of travelling on my birthday (Wednesday). I won't bore you too much with the details, but this is an outline of how our journey went; woke up at 3.45am, took a taxi to Daejeon Station, took the KTX at 6.30am to Busan, took a taxi to Gimhae Airport, took off at 11am (after some baggage re-arranging as our case was too heavy!), arrived in Tokyo at around 1pm, took the train to Asakusa where our hostel was, got lost for around an hour trying to find the hostel, finally arrived at around 4.30pm. Considering how 'close' we thought Tokyo was, it was a long and tiring trip.

We had planned on heading into more central Tokyo for a fancy birthday meal, but we were tired and didn't fancy any more travelling that evening! We went to a place called '270' very close to the hostel and recommended by the staff, where most of the dishes cost 270 yen, which is just under £2. We ordered the food on a little screen attached to our table, with the help(?!) of some drunken elderly men on the table next to us! We then went back to the hostel for an early night.

Birthday Beer!

A Selection From Our Meal - Sushi, Salty Peas And Camembert Wontons

The next day, we woke up at 8.30am, eager to start exploring. We took the subway to Shibuya, where we saw the busiest crossing in the world. Each of the pedestrian crossings at this junction goes green at the same time, and everyone streams into the road in a mad rush. When we were there it obviously wasn't one of the busiest times, but it was still quite crazy. 

Shibuya Crossing

We then walked towards the Harajuku area, grabbed some lunch and headed to Yoyogi Park, one of the largest in Tokyo and adjacent to Meiji Shrine. It was a beautiful park and luckily a sunny day - it was just a shame that the park was all walkways and large trees rather than big open spaces to enjoy the sunshine! 

Barrels of Sake Offered Every Year to the Enshrined Deities to Show Their Deep Respect for the Souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken

Washing Your Hands And Mouth Before Entering The Shrine

Meiji Shrine

We then explored the area a little and began a long walk down Omotesando Dori, a posh shopping street, towards Roppongi Hills. Some of the architecture along this avenue is incredible, with each designer brand trying to outdo the others with their eye-catching shops.

Cartier On Omotesando Dori, With Chloe Behind And Prada On The Right

Looking Out From The Escalator Of A Shopping Centre In Harajuku

Tokyo Is Littered With Fascinating Little Places Like This

Cute Little Statuettes Outside A Shrine Wearing Little Hats And Carrying Pinwheels

Roppongi Hills

We finally reached Roppongi Hills with the help of Google Maps, city maps that are dotted around Toyko, and heading towards any skyscrapers we spotted. Roppongi Hills is a 'mega-complex' opened to the public in 2003. I was built to allow people to live, work, play and shop in one area to reduce travelling time, and it also includes the famous Park Hyatt Hotel, which many people would recognise from Lost In Translation. We then realised that Tokyo Tower was not far from where we were, so we wandered towards it and found a nice park nearby to have a rest in. 

Tokyo Tower

We were exhausted after all that walking, so we caught the subway back to our hostel and allowed ourselves a small rest and a shower. After that, we were ready to head out again for our evening's activities. We actually planned to go to a very famous tempura restaurant in our area, but it was a little elusive... i.e. we couldn't find it. However we came across this shrine on our travels which we had seen in the daytime, but it was far more beautiful and less tourist-ridden at night! We were starving after our lengthy search for the tempura restaurant and this detour, so we popped in to a nearby eatery and had pork and prawns. 

Asakusa Shrine