The (...not so...) Grand Tour: Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo as shadows of our former selves. Travelling for such a long time had taken it's toll and I think the lack of sleep on the plane from Amsterdam to Tokyo had pushed us over the edge. We were in one of the coolest cities in the world and all we wanted to do was go home to Australia. We were done.

It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you though! We woke up early the next day buzzing. Alice as per usual did her magic with the plannning and pretty soon we had a rough itinerary for the week. We ummm'ed and ahhh'ed about whether to go to Mt. Fuji or Kyoto at some point but in the end decided that we'd spend a good amount of time seeing the rest of Japan next time.

For the most part we shopped. Whether it's electronics, souvenirs, clothes, shoes, furniture… Tokyo has it all. We spent our time mainly in the areas of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku and Ikebukuro (we're we were actually staying). For months we had made a conscious effort not to buy anything we didn't need to to cut down on the amount of stuff we had to carry with us. But knowing that Tokyo was our last stop it was a no-holds-barred week long shopping spree :)

During the last few months we had done so many museums and art galleries that this time around we decided to just do one museum to get a basic understanding of the city. We also managed to see the Imperial Palace, a couple of really cool parks and a Bonsai garden which was awesome!!! Very hard to find but well worth the effort.

In summary Tokyo was fun, exciting, interesting, full of friendly people, a photographer / techno-geek's dream, stimulating (to the point where you find it hard to sleep!!!) and just an all-round amazing city. I'm looking forward to heading back there soon and also spending some time in other places around Japan :)

Edo-Tokyo Museum:

The models were very intricate!

Tokyo at Night:

Right before the lights changed at the famous Shibuya Crossing - were lots and lots and lots of people cross the road in all directions!

A few seconds after the lights changed.

Yoyogi Park (near Harajuku):

There are vending machines roughly ever 10 metres in Tokyo. They even have them in the park :)

Random Shots Around Tokyo:

Awesome camera store chain with about 6-7 floors of stuff!

They had lots of these trucks promoting various artist's album with the music blaring out of the back.

For some reason this Chinese tourist asked for a photo with Alice and I. I said "sure, if I can get a photo with you" haha

Yes, those dogs are wearing sunglasses.

During a parade through Harajuku

The Burton Store, Tokyo.

Statue of Hachiko the loyal dog. He waited at the train station for his owner every day after work for 1 year until the owner passed away. Unaware that his owner was alive, the dog kept showing up and waiting for him at the exact time his owner's train would have pulled in. This happened for the next 9 years. I'm guessing this is where the Futurama episode featuring Seymour (Fry's dog) came from.