Japan is a destination I have wanted to get to for many years and finally, we are here! We left home after lunch on the 12th for our evening flight to Tokyo, but due to the time difference, we didn’t land until yesterday evening. Despite a long overnight flight, I think the excitement kept us going to the hotel.
We had a guide booked for the first day, and he was there to meet us at the airport to help us get to the hotel and to discuss any plans we had for our first day in Japan. It turns out that booking a private transfer from the airport to the hotel was absolutely the right choice as it left the thinking to others whilst we looked around in awe. We settled into our room and crashed for the night soon after.
View from breakfast
The morning brought us the first views of Tokyo in daylight including cherry blossoms outside the breakfast room window. What followed was a fascinating whistle-stop tour of a couple of the main sights of Tokyo. One of the other things to do in Japan that we learnt about before coming was to collect Eki stamps. These are special stamps that are located at a large number of the eki (train stations) and chikatetsu (subway stations) across the country and are a favourite collectable item for both foreigners and Japanese people. Unfortunately, the station closest to the hotel didn’t have one, but we did find one at our first stop of the day.
George stamping his Eki book
Asakusa Station Eki Stamp
Starting in the Asakusa area, we worked our way along the Nakamise Shopping Street to the Senso-ji Buddhist Temple and the Asakusa Shinto Shrine which were right next to each other at the end of the street. Our guide, Henrik, showed us the traditional way to purify yourself before praying at each of them and explained the differences in the method of praying or reflecting between the two religions. The Japanese Buddhists adopt a more minimal approach to praying when compared to the Tibetan/Mongolian approach that I’m used to. The Temple itself was an impressive structure, with the first of many pagodas towering into the sky above. This was where we got the opportunity to collect our first Goshuin, or red stamps. These stamps were a bit special compared to the Eki stamps. Firstly, you have to buy one of the special goshuin stamp books from a temple or shrine, then the book is stamped and a calligrapher will write the date, the temple name and sometimes a prayer or other relevant symbol in beautiful Japanese calligraphy across the page. We even saw our first geisha (actually not real geisha, but tourists dressed in traditional dress that could be rented from any number of shops lining the streets around the temple).
The next stop was a tranquil forest nestled within the high-rise buildings and busy streets between the Shinjuku City and Shibuya districts. The forest was home to our second Shinto shrine, the Meiji Jingu shrine. Once we were off the streets and through the opening Torii gate, the calm of the forest seemed to drown out the noise from outside, although it had already struck us that it was remarkably calm and quiet despite the number of people living in Tokyo. It was a long walk through the forest giving people the chance to centre themselves before reaching the shrine itself. We turned the final corner to see another beautiful gateway structure nestled within the trees leading to the shrine. Inside it was full of tourists, yet also felt very calm. It was not something you would expect this close to the center of a major capital city. We made an offering at the shrine and collected our second goshuin before heading to our next destination.
We got the train down to Shibuya, collecting some eki stamps on the way and stepped out of the station on the edge of the world famous Shibuya scramble crossing. It is a lot smaller than it looks in films! The main activity here was a visit up one of the towers to the Shibuya Sky viewpoint for views across the city. This was recommended by the travel agents, but we were not sure about it before coming. However, we were proven wrong. The Shibuya Sky is on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the area so the views across the city were amazing. We could even see the scramble crossing from above.
As we neared the end of our guides time, he helped direct us one the rest of our evenings plans before showing us the statue of Hachiko, the worlds most loyal dog who supposedly waited for his owner to come back for ten years. Our evening then continued in Harajuku where we visited the 3D cat billboard, a Godzilla head on top of a building and finished up at a recommended revolving sushi restaurant called Kura. George thought this was amazing as we could pick what we liked off the conveyor (just like Yo Sushi back home), but if you ordered from the tablet the food was delivered at high speed direct to your table along a different conveyor. They even delivered drinks in this way. The best part was that there was a game of chance included with the meal. When you finished each plate, it was put into a slot on the table that took it to the kitchen, but once you had deposited 5 plates, there was a chance of winning a prize. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky on this ocasssion, but it added another level of fun to dinner time 
.
We finished the evening outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where Tokyo Night and Light show is projected onto the building. The show brought back fond memories of our time in Hong Kong. Although the light show was very different here, it was still very good and we were glad we were able to see it.
include some pictures here and the strava map if possible