Day 9: Spent the day at Tokyo. Overnight at Tokyo.

TOKYO... we are finally here...

Our First stopped is the Sensoji Temple. We bought the daily ticket ( ¥1000/adult) for the Metro and Toei Line (Subway) which allowed us to use all of the Tokyo Subway for the day.

We had to take the Subway to the Asakusa stop. Right outside the station, you'll see lots of people gathering outside the entrance to the Sensoji Temple. Some were Japanese, while others were tourist like us.

After you enter the entrance, you'll see a whole stretch of shops selling food, souvenirs and other local things. We bought some clothing (Kimono style robes) as well as other Japanese souvenirs. We had earlier bought Japanese souvenirs from a wholesale shop, saving us easily 30-50% off the retail price here. Will post it in another post. While the Mrs was busy shopping, I was as usual, hungry and tried more local food.

In the area foyer area outside the Sensoji Temple, there was a large gathering of locals, visiting the temple as it was a famous place of worship. We tourist was also there to soak up the atmosphere and capture for photos as a reminder of their trip to Japan. Like the shrine we visited in Sapporo, we are suppose to cleanse our self before entering the Temple. There were also places where you could buy tokens or charms. Some were burnt, while other were used like lucky charms.

Directly next to the Sensoji Temple, there was a Shrine known as Asakusa Shrine. We paid our respect at the Sensoji Temple and Asukusa Shrine before heading off.

By recommendation from our friends Jeremy and Shirlene who were also in Japan about 2 weeks prior to us, they told us we had to try the famous Sushi Dai (their blog post here). We were walking around the area that they had marked on their Map, but couldn't find the shop. After a few rounds of the area, we decided to ask the locals, and they directed us here. This is also called a "Sushi Dai". Maybe its a general term given or something to these type of restaurant. I will post a separate post on our Sushi lunch.

We then headed off to the famous Tsukiji Market which was round the corner. No we didn't manage to see the famous fish auction that normally happens at like 5AM. We just had a walk through the area to soak up the atmosphere. Most of the stalls were already closed by the time we were there. We were hoping to see those gigantic frozen tuna or something, but nope.... not of those sort.

You can catch a glimpse of what really goes on at my friends blog. He had the opportunity of visiting the actual auction and have some beautiful photos to go with it.

The next stop, Tokyo Imperial Palace. Situated in the middle of the city, the area surrounding the Imperial Palace is like a huge park. All around the Imperial Palace ground is modern high rise buildings.

 The place is huge, and just walking to the entrance of the palace is probably close to 1km away...

 

Beautiful city skyline could be seen at the outside of the Imperial Palace grounds. A huge park, with city as the background right in the centre of Tokyo city, one of the busiest city in the world!

Here is supposedly the entrance to the Imperial Palace. There is a bridge across a moat to the Imperial Palace ground.

And on the far end, above the hill, it seems to be the actual palace. Can't confirm it, but it sure looks like it as its the highest point.

By now, my legs feel like a tonne of bricks. I have been walking non-stop the whole day, and yes our tourist activity is finally over.... Now take me to Tokyo city, and let's do some window shopping!

We roam the streets of Tokyo, like a kampung boy in a big city. The place is really dense, with lot's of shopping centre to visit in a small area. Everything seems to be built upwards.

We had no idea what to try for dinner tonight, so we randomly walked and decided to try this place. Purely random.

It is called Tsukemen (dipping noodles). Basically its cold noodles that you dip into hot spicy soup and then you eat. Read our full detailed posts here.