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Tokyo

A city where everything and everyone breaths technology. Neon signs, J-Pop blasting from speakers, arcade game sounds everywhere, sky scrapers and huge department stores.

By Ellen

November 29^th, 2014

AKIHABARA Electric Town

Our hotel was just a couple of train stops away from Akihabara Electric Town, a shopping district for video games, anime, manga, computer goods … and houses numerous maid cafés. We won big time at a claw machine in the Club Sega arcade, bought some Gundam models at Yellow Submarine Hobby Shop and basically just strolled the streets in awe of everything around us.

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SHIBUYA

In Shibuya we paid our respects at the Hachikō Statue. Hachikō was an Akita dog who greeted his owner at the end of each day at Shibuya Station until the owner died, never returning to the train station. Each day for the next nine years Hachikō awaited his return, appearing precisely when the train was due at the station. We crossed the famous crossing, ate some street food and wandered around Loft, a department store that sells everyday commodities.

Piss Alley

We ate at the ‘best yakitori restaurant’ (according to the sign) in Piss Alley. The narrow alleys are lined with small shops stuffed as tightly as possible. It is named for its early years, when it was a shady destination for criminals to get their drink on. The place wasn’t very built up back in those days, so instead of using a toilet, people just relieved themselves wherever they could. Bon appetit!

Sumo

We were lucky to be able to attend a Sumo match at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan. We didn’t sit out the retiring ceremony of Koto Usho though, the cutting of his hair took ages!

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Gundam Statue

Although it was a bit out of the way, we had to check out the 1/1 real size scale Gundam statue in Odaiba. It is 18 meters tall and truly impressive.

Public Transport

We mostly travelled on JR trains with our Japan Rail Passes. Sometimes it would become overly crowded, especially on weekends, starting on Friday night.

Food

The Japanese are masters of the breaded deep-fry, delish! The yakitori we ate in Piss Alley. And we had superfresh sushi for lunch next to the Tsukiji Fish Market.

Drinks

We were amazed at the amount of vending machines, you’ll never go thirsty. Your choices are hot or cold drinks, we even came across some Jell-O in a bottle.