Akihabara and Shibuya

Laurel wanted to visit Akihabara to check out the anime and electronic stores. I have read about the area, and while I am not an anime fan, was curious enough to tag along. It was very easy to take the local train to Akihabara. Our first rush hour ride on the local trains; it was super crowded, especially at the transfer stations. The major stations have lower levels with stores and restaurants. Over our stay in Tokyo, I found some delightful restaurants and food markets under the train stations. We arrived in Akihabara before 10 am, and found that many of the stores were not open. Walked around a bit but found nothing of interest to me. The area was probably more interesting at night when it was supposed to be all lighted up and full of shoppers.

Next, we decided to go to Shibuya to check out the famous Shibuya Crossing. I got a few photos of it from the walkway out of the Shibuya station. It was quite difficult to take any photos while in the middle of the crossing, I did not even try it. The crossing at that time was not as crowded as I have seen on videos. We would go to Shibuya again a few more time on the later part of our trip. In the evening, it was shoulder to shoulder crowded as people scrambled to dodge others trying to make it to the other side before the traffic lights change. An interesting experience, and so reflective of how crowded Tokyo was.

We walked around Shibuya quite a bit, looking for the Nintendo store. Google Maps was not very useful, taking us around in circles. I finally asked a traffic guard, he understood enough to tell us that the Nintendo Store was located on the 6th floor of the building next to us. It was a very big store, again quite crowded. Laurel shopped while I waited at the terrace cafe with a nice view. The nice thing about Tokyo is that there are cafes, especially Starbucks, everywhere and they let you sit for hours and use their wifi.

We ended up having a late lunch special at this awesome little restuarant which specialized in matcha desserts. We had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table. We shared a noodle dish, and really splurged on the desserts, so very good!

After returning to the hotel, we did some research for a place nearby for dinner that was also open late. We settled on a izakaya (a pub, with small dishes, like tapas) that had great reviews. The somewhat hidden, hole in the wall Izakaya Shandur (name did not display in Google Maps) took a bit of time and effort to find. We had been warned by reviewers to remove our shoes before entering the restaurant, so we did, except we did not know that we were supposed to put shoes on shelves to the left of the door. We ordered a variety of small dishes cooked fresh by the owner(?) behind the counter, including the highly recommended ribs, steamed eggplant, fried poached eggs and shredded cabbage. Everything tasted very good and was beautifully presented. I thought I had taken photos of the food, but could only find one (below). The reviews on the link above had some photos of the dishes. I had the local beer while Laurel had shochu, a sweet potato liquor. I would have loved to go back to the Izakaya again to try the other dishes but we never made it.

First Morning in Tokyo

We started our first day in Tokyo by having the breakfast buffet in the hotel. It was a bit pricey but we did not feel like spending time to scout for breakfast places and wanted to try the special Chanko breakfast.

The restaurant was very nice, rather quiet with not many people around. There were prints of sumo wrestlers all around the walls. The Chanko (above) was a soup with vegetables and fishballs, tofu, etc. already cooked and mixed. It was quite tasty.

There were a lot of little dishes, mostly vegetables, tofu and soft poached eggs, small portions of smoked fish and chicken; all very healthy. I tried the fermented soybean (on the right) for the first and last time ever, I could not get past the texture nor the smell. I knew then why it was covered with plastic wrap on the buffet! I did not feel bad at all for leaving all of it on the tray. In general the food was somewhat underwhelming, subsequent Japanese breakfasts later in our vacation were much better. We went to MacDonalds the following day and enjoyed our breakfast there.

Tokyo bound!

We started our 3 week vacation to Japan this morning. Our neighbor gave us a ride to the New Carrollton station where we took the metro train for the Washington Dulles Airport (IAD). The ride took less than an hour, with a transfer in East Falls Church. With just a carry on suitcase each, it was easy to take public transportation to IAD. We had a direct flight from IAD to Haneda Airport.

Upon arrival in Haneda the next day, we made our way to the 7-Eleven ATMs. Having watched numerous videos, we easily located the ATMs and withdrew yen notes to buy prepaid Suica cards, which we needed for public transportation throughout Japan. We could only get the Welcome Suica card that was meant for short term visitors; the regular green Suica cards were not sold at the airport. The kiosks took credit cards and there was an English speaking customer service rep who helped me buy two Welcome Suica cards with 5,000 yen loaded on each.

We had downloaded a couple of apps, NAVITIME and Japan Transit Planner, to help us navigate the Tokyo transit system. Later, we found that Google Maps actually worked much better than either of these apps, giving us more accurate data on trains, transit time, departure bays, and transfer stations. We had to make two transfers from Haneda to get to our hotel in Ryogoku. By the time we got there, it was dark. The Ryogoku View Hotel was just across the Ryogoku station; check in was self-service on a kiosk, with support from the very polite staff at the reception. The area around the hotel had a lot of little restaurants and a few convenience stores. This hotel would be our base for exploring Tokyo over the next 6 days. The Sumo stadium is located in this area which has a lot of Chanko restaurants, catering to sumo wrestlers and their fans. And, the last photo above is that of a sumo wrestler outside of our hotel, with MacDonald's in the background (we had breakfast there the 3rd day of our stay).

The hotel was very nice, modern and surprisingly spacious. After looking at a lot of videos, I had expected tiny rooms, but our room on the 11th floor had enough space to put our luggage. There was no closet nor wardrobe, just a rod with a few hangers. That was the pattern in most of the hotels we stayed in. But the bathrooms were something else. State of the art toilets, with heated seats, bidets, and a lot of buttons that I was afraid to press! They provided disposable hair brushes, single use toothbrush with toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. Wish I had taken more photos of our room.