Japan - Tokyo - Day 2

-Friday, October 2nd 2015 -

No rest for the wicked! I'd set the alarm for 7, but we're up at 6:30.  Showering, grabbing our western style buffet breakfast with strange apple juice and rice with packets of flavoring, we get ready four our busy day.

At 9am we have an appointment for four hours with our tour guide, Ms Atsuko Inuzuka, aka Anne.  Anne was awesome, she spoke good English and taught Emma and I a lot about navigating and our surroundings, what things meant, and some traditional things.  She came prepared with her own IC card so we didn't have to pay for anything travel wise for her!

We hit the ball rolling, meeting her quickly and heading to Shinjuku Station (pointing out Godzilla on the way there) where she took us to our first stop; Asakusa.

All along the way you'll be seeing pictures of me randomly fangirling, I like Anime.  I like seeing anime in random places. Totoro is very popular.  And look! A vending machine!  They're everywhere! Selling Beer, soda/tea/HOT coffee, and cigarettes most often.

Anne was awesome and took plenty of pictures of Emma and I along the way.  This was as we were heading into Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Street. A crazy busy strip of tourist shops and nick-nacks everywhere.  Anne was very good at keeping us together while worming us through the sea of people.  She also explained about the guardians on either side of this gate, one had their mouth open and the other closed.  Beginning of life and end of life, pretty  neat to learn WHY something was the way it was. 

I snapped a shot of a cute charm shop, as I'd soon learn they were everywhere! While walking we got hit by a very tasty scent.

This shop was making fresh Taiyaki (i guess?). Though not always in the shape of fish, it seemed to be Taiyaki.  Red bean paste inside, and pancake batter on the outside.  Cooked in front of us, Anne bought a bag for us all to try it fresh!  I really liked this version, and didn't again buy it this fresh, but the things on the shelf didn't taste nearly as good.

Follow the cut for more~ 

We finished the street and went onto Asakusa Shrine.   You can see one of the guardians in this picture.  On the other side of this gate there was a massive shoe.

Massive shoe is said to ward off demons, hoping to frighten them away as there had to be a creature to fill the shoe!

Incense burning to heal you. People waft it onto themselves. It's believed to be a 'cure all'

Continuing on past the burning incense, there was a .... I forgot what they're called.  Well? Purified water area where Anne took us past.

We opted to go further down to a much less busy one.

The shrine was lovely, and beyond it continued more pretty areas with older buildings.

People purchasing snacks at this one.

This is the well that Anne taught us how to purify ourselves.  With your right hand you lift the ladle with water in it, rinse your left, then take it in your left hand and rinse your right.  Back in your right hand it goes, to fill your left with water and rinse your mouth.  Then tip the cup towards yourself away from the water and pour it out.  Tada!  She also taught us how to pray (claps and all) at this Shrine.

The first of many many Tori Gates we'd see.  Lovely things.  I learned they're associated with the Shinto Shrines, which are much more barren than the Buddhist ones.  Inside the shrine is rarely much, inside the Buddhist shrines there's a LOT of decorations!
At that point, we headed back to the train station, popping up on traditional dancers.

 Anne knew we wanted to stop at Akihabara on our way home, so she detoured to show us the stop and how to get there, which really wasn't necessary, but it was kind!  Totally got me excited for the rest of the day.

Anime, anime everywhere!

The only part of the tour guiding experience I wasn't a huge fan of was the fact she took us to the Imperial Palace, knowing it was closed and not too much to see.  I wouldn't have minded going elsewhere if I knew that was the case. 

Still, the water garden on your way there was lovely.  Apparently the Imperial Palace is only open two days a year, I think I remember reading it, and the gardens further in were closed on Fridays.  Again I kind of wish she didn't take the time to bring us there, and could've taken us somewhere to teach us more of the culture and customs.  I didn't do very good at brushing up on my history before going, and knew less Japanese than I thought I did!

Pretty sure this was one of the guard gates at the Palace.  It's right along a main walk way.

Gates!

This is about as close as we could get to the Palace itself.  Unfortunately.  Still, it was pretty what we got to see, even with all the algae.  Apparently it was hotter than usual so the algae just grew like mad.

Peeking through the trees.

I really enjoyed this random slice of greenery in otherwise a pavement heavy city.  Tokyo is massive, the spacious gardens were really nice and a breath of fresh air.  Again, even if the actual garden wasn't open, still was pretty.   Also, you can view Asian tourists in their natural habitat in this photo, complete with selfie sticks.

The bridge everyone takes a photo of, so I had to do the same.

Then Emma and I in front of the bridge, because we're tourists.  This was before I gained 10lbs of delicious no regret weight.

heading out

Gates on our way out. There were bigger ones, but these were prettier.

We said goodbye to Anne, giving her some Tablet that Emma had prepared as a thank you gift and headed off to Akihabara to find lunch!

This was lunch.  A very inexpensive sushi place.  The only sushi place we ate the entire time, it wasn't that amazing.  But it was simple enough.  Other tourists were there, and a helpful maybe local? who taught us how to do everything.  It was very much serve/seat yourself with drinks, food, and everything else!  Never have I eaten sushi for that cheap.

NERD LAND!  We did go through the Sega store. We also went all the way through a Pachinko arcade without realizing it.  And I gambled away money and failed at getting anything from the damn claw machines.  I don't actually remember buying TOO much, but I do think we came out with some things.

On our way back to the train station we saw some cute themed cafe's.  Including this guy;

GUNDAM CAFE! hehe.  For dinner we headed back to Shinjuku.  Dropping off the spoils of our day and taking a brief break before heading out to Odakyu area. Which has a bunch of shopping things.  We were on a mission to find something and utterly failed I do believe.  I can't remember when we did find the 100 yen shop, but we did eventually.  Either this day or the day after.  But we did get there eventually.
Then went for dinner, finding something that said "Alice" on the wall and following it down the steps until we found the "Alice Cafe".  Couldn't figure out how to get in.

Picture stolen from Emma.

Eventually we watched another customer go in, and followed them in.  BEST decision ever, food was delicious, waitresses adorable, price was fair and the environment was amazing.

Photo from Emma

I mean, check out this adorable menu!

Photo from Emma

 I can't drink alcohol in America without allergic reactions and guessing games.  Overseas I don't have much of an issue, so it was a ton of fun to try cocktails.  Awesome decision and super cute place was adorable.  We even sat at a table in the shape of a giant heart!
After that we headed back to  the hotel for bed.  Another day of adventuring awaited us tomorrow!