We left Kyoto very early in the morning so that we can arrive Tokyo early, and maximize our time here in Tokyo. We only have, technically, 1 and a half days in Tokyo.
DON’T do this. I meant, don’t spend only 2 days in Tokyo. We were crazy to be trying to fit the whole of Tokyo in 1 and a half days. All the cities that we went around Tokyo was just a touch and go experience, a “been there, done that” kind of thing. I wouldn’t recommend it. If we had more days, we would have stayed in Tokyo for maybe 3 or 4 days.
Caught the earliest Shinkansen, 6.30am, from Kyoto, arrived Tokyo, got ourselves a daily train ticket (unlimited rides), dumped our bags at our hotel, and off we go on our crazy journey through Tokyo.
When we arrived at our first destination, we were pretty surprised that the roads are so empty. Not only because it’s a Sunday, they were having a cycling day of some sort.
1. First stop, Imperial Palace. We can only walk around the Imperial Palace Gardens. Visiting this gardens in September is not a very good idea. It’s extremely hot, and there are no flowers in sight.
I’m melting
We didn’t spend a long time in the Imperial Palace.
See the roads… so empty… I would have loved to join them in this cycling event.
2. Second stop, Asakusa. This is the most photographed gate in Asakusa, Kaminarimon. This place is just flooded with people. We were actually abit hesitant whether we wanted to go through this place. The crowd of people is just incredible.
As we approached the gate, miraculously, an empty space appeared in front of me so I could at least take a decent picture of this giant lantern at the gate.
Just look at the crowd! This is a long stretch of “street”, both sides mostly selling souvenirs. When you walk through this crowd, you can feel that you are running out of oxygen. I don’t know how to explain it in english, in chinese it’s very “kuk”, like can get “sua” if you walk through this crowd. When we left this place, we heard an ambulance coming, somebody must have fainted from heat stroke or something.
We arrived Asakusa during lunch time, which is probably a bad idea, because everybody is looking for lunch. Every restaurant/cafe we looked in is full, and long queues waiting outside. So we found this particular restaurant away from the crowded area, and we didn’t have to wait long to be seated. We soon found out why.
We ordered Gyoza. Gyoza normally comes in the shape of mini dumplings. This restaurant served it in the shape of a rectangle. This tasted alright.
I ordered the Tempura set. And it’s not nice 
The tempura was soggy.
Mat ordered Chicken Katsu Set. His too, is not very nice. The chicken seemed overcooked. Now we know why there weren’t that many people eating here.
After lunch, we managed to walk through that massive crowd again.
For keepers! Aiya… honey… look at the lens!
After Asakusa, we went back to our hotel to check in. And to rest for awhile. I took a 30 minute power nap before going out again.
This is the hotel that we stayed in. It’s called Hotel Asia Center of Japan.
After my power nap, let’s move on.
3. Akihabara. Welcome to the world of Manga and Anime! If you love Japanese Manga and Anime, this is the city to be in.
It felt really daunting. Where to go, which one to go in, etc…
So out come the iPhone to save the day. We searched for recommended places (building), to go in to see the manga and anime selections.
First one, the Tokyo Anime Center. When you arrive at this place, you’ll be terribly dismayed at the size of this center. We expected to see tonnes and tonnes of anime characters and merchandise. But we were greeted with a miserable size and collection.
Well… at least there’s a recording studio 
(that didn’t help solve our disappointment).
Next, we went in this building called Animate. This building has like 7 floors of manga and anime, and characters. But don’t expect to see characters like Doraemon (the characters that we are so familiar with when we were younger), because those animes are longggggggg outdated. We weren’t familiar with the new animes, so all we did was just browse through the 7 floors.
Walking along the streets of Akihabara
Took this picture while I was crossing the road
A Cosplay character?
The queue outside Gundam Cafe
Endless crowds outside Akihabara Station
If you haven’t noticed, Mat loves visiting universities. Our next destination, Todai, Tokyo University!
We took the subway there. When we arrived at the station, Mat noticed a very funny station name. Alot of Japanese characters are actually chinese characters, just that they are pronounced differently. This one, according to Mat, the direct translation is “Soup Island”, which I found really funny. I wonder what they have there… soup?
Soup Island
A very empty looking station
While walking to Tokyo University, we saw a procession celebrating something, a festival of some sort. We have no idea what it is. And they moved very slowly. In 5 minutes, they only moved about 1 foot. And they kept chanting and shouting.
4. Welcome to Todai, Tokyo University. The BEST university in Japan. The pride of the nation!
Mat at the engineering faculty building
Mat showing you that this is the Faculty of Engineering… feel like he’s studying there, and giving me a tour.
Some scenes around the uni
Some scenes around the uni
The uni’s main gate
The famous Red Gate of Tokyo University
5. Time to look for dinner. Our next destination, is most probably one of the worst ideas to find dinner. Roppongi Hills.
This place is like Star Hill in KL. Everything is expensive.
View of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills
Roppongi Street
Roppongi Street
Was about to witness one of the coolest technologies in Japan, the automated car park. You drive you car in there, get out, and go. Then the “security” man will press a button, and your car will be parked somewhere inside that building, automatically. Unfortunately, all this happens behind “closed doors” …. there was a group of tourist about to take a video of the whole thing, but when the “security” man pressed the button, the door closed
After looking for a reasonable place to eat, we ended up here:
Yoshinoya. Yeah… those of you who comes from Singapore, you can go ahead and laugh. But hey… they originate from Japan.
These beef bowl chains is still one of the most satisfying places to eat actually. Cheap and satisfying.
6. Tokyo Tower!
Daddy… if you’re reading this, and if you ever go to Tokyo…. please… don’t try and walk to Tokyo Tower, like how you tried to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge in US.
This tower is massive! It looks near from a certain point, so you think you can reach there by walking. It looks near because the structure is HUGE! Take the subway.
Just some facts about the tower. The height is 333 meters. Special Observatory is at 250m.
Who wouldn’t want to go up after coming all the way here? Of course we went up. We went to the Main Observatory which is at 150m.
The Tokyo Tower is taller than the 320m Eiffel Tower in Paris. It weighs 4,000 tons, much lighter than the Eiffel Tower, which weighs 7,000 tons, this is a strong, lightweight steel tower. Opened in 1958, the year that Brazil won its first soccer World Cup and that instant ramen was introduced.
Would recommend if you have a tripod or some stable container for your camera to take clear pictures.
I had many many attempts in trying to get a clear picture of Tokyo from up here. All I could use at that time is the Lonely Planet book to stabilize my camera.
Tokyo Tower in a different colour
Six different “cities” in one day! Even we think ourselves as crazy. Who would do that? (Well… we did it )
Back to the hotel at 9.45pm.
We’ll call it a night.
Daddy had cheated me twice.
From the hotel we could see the Golden Gate Bridge of US, he said let’s walk there. At the end we did not manage to reach there.
From the hotel we could see KLCC, he said let’s walk there. At least we managed to reach there but regretted to listen to him.
this part of the trip sounds like a marathon, flo.
It did feel like a marathon. Because we only had 1 and a half days, we just wanted to cram everything into one day, which is not recommended. Leg really nearly patah.