Day 1:
We arrived at Haneda International Airport on our flight from Beijing around 9 PM. After clearing immigration, we purchased Limobus tickets to Shinjuku area (where we were staying in Hilton Tokyo). Since there was not much traffic, so we reached our hotel within an hour.
Day 2:
It was raining and foggy early in the morning and we scrapped our plans to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Building because of poor visibility. Instead we took the subway to Asakusa. Arriving at Asakusa we walked towards Senso-ji Temple which is very close to the subway station. After leaving Exit 1 of Asakusa subway station you can see the Kaminarimon gate which leads to the very busy Nakamise dori which has small shops on both sides of the streets selling from souvenirs to food. We slowly made our way to the main temple entrance.
After spending a couple of hours at the Sensoji temple we got back on the subway and switched lines to arrive at Shinjuku-Gyommae station which lies beside the Shinjuku Gyoen (garden). The entrance tickets to the garden were only 200JPY per person and we ended up exploring the garden for next 2 hours.
By the time we returned back to the hotel, it was around 5 PM and we called it a night as we were fairly tired from all the walking.
Day 3:
We started the with our visit to the most famous fish market in the world, the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. We obviously are too lazy to wake up 5 AM in the morning to line up to visit the Tuna auction and only made our way to the market at 9 AM. However, the small restaurants serving fresh sushi were so crowded they all had a huge line in front of them.
After Tsujiki market we took the subway to Akihabara (Akihabara subway station). Akihabara is known as the “Electronics city” where you can find camera, gadgets stores as well as being a haven for gaming enthusiasts.
We also saw a few “maid cafes” on the way.
We returned to the hotel for an afternoon nap. In the evening, we decided to explore Shinjuku area.
First up was Omolde Yokocho – a small neighbourhood of narrow alleys with small restaurants on both sides.
Walking around Shinjuku we arrived at Kabukicho – the seedier part of Tokyo.
We walked around for a couple of hours and then returned back to the hotel.
Day 4:
This was our last day in Tokyo so we wanted to visit some of the highlights of Tokyo that we had missed on our trip so far. We started with a visit to Meji Jingu Shrine. The Meiji-jingumae subway station is right next to this attraction.
After spending a couple of hours in Meiji shrine, we decided to explore Harajuku. I had read online that this area is better visited on a sunday to observe Harajuku fashion and culture. We walked on the Takeshita Dori, a very busy street in Harajuku area surrounded by teen fashion stores.
After walking around Harajuku we took the subway to Shibuya.
Getting off of Shibuya station, our first order of business was visiting the Hachiko statue right outside the station. Seeing the statue of this faithful dog brought tears to my eyes as I wondered how it felt when it was waiting for its master for over 9 years at this specific spot.
Then we walked across the “world’s busiest crossing” to Starbucks across the street.
Luckily we got a good vantage point to see the “Shibuya scramble”.
Next we took the subway to Sengakuji subway station which lies close to Sengaku-ji temple, the location of the graveyard of the famous “47 Ronins”.
This temple is located in the middle of a residential neighbourhood and a very short walk from () station.
It was time for us to return to our hotel and grab our luggage and head out to airport. Our trip however was not to end without a very interesting incident. While we were wandering around in Asakusa Mitsuke subway station to catch our train to Shinjuku, a Japanese gentleman approached us asking if we needed any help. While talking we came to find out that he was a member of Japanese American association and his dad was actually an acquaintance of the great Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, an Indian freedom fighter who is revered in India (and even more in West Bengal, a state where I come from) for his contributions in Indian Freedom movement. He showed us letters his dad received from Netaji.
We parted ways in Shinjuku station. We took the limobus back to Haneda airport for our next flight to Osaka Kansai Airport.