Tokyo Tour By Ivan

Day 2: One day Tokyo Tour. As suggested by others, we decided to take a Tokyo day tour to hit up some major landmarks and get the lay of the land. It was a great suggestion because covering all of the landmarks on public transportation, although feasible, would have taken a lot longer.

First Stop, Meiji Jingu Shrine:

Next stop was the public gardens of the Imperial Palace.

Buddhist Temple in Asakusa:

The highlight of Asakusa was the strip of vendors that lined the street leading up to the shrine. We bought some hand roasted rice crackers. After I paid for them, I realized that we had just spent $10 dollars on 13 rice crackers. Yikes!

A fine meal of flakey black cod with shrimp or steak was included. The steak- just a sirloin cut- was one of the tastiest steaks I’ve had. Looking at the color of the flesh, I think it was aged.

After lunch, we took a boat tour through Tokyo bay and passed under the Rainbow Bridge and saw parts of Odaiba – a man made island that is home to many architecturally interesting buildings.

We then got off the boat and took a bus over the Rainbow Bridge to walk around Odaiba for a bit.

Odaiba: Home of a Mini Statue of Liberty

And Kua Aina Burgers (Burger shop from Hawaii)?? What is up with that!

After Odaiba, we were finally released and brought back to the hotel. Being the first day in Japan, and having woken up at 3:30am…I was definitely feeling the affects of jetlag. If it was my choice, I would have gone to sleep right away, but fortunately I was able to stay up and find that Soba place that I wrote about earlier.