Hello!
Sadly, we are on the home stretch waiting for our train to the airport at Tokyo Station.
Yesterday we pretty much walked the whole of Tokyo - and it's not a small place! Once again we decided to do our own tour of the city using some advice from a friend of a friend and the usual guide books and maps. After a great buffet breakfast at the hotel we set off on the subway to the Tsukiji Fish market - famous for its tuna auctions apparently but you have to be there at 5.00am in the morning for that and we didn't fancy such an early start! We wondered around the hundreds of stalls, mostly selling fish in all shapes and sizes with lots of other tourists who had heard about its popularity too!
We then got back on the subway to our next stop - Roppongi Hills. Here we were aiming for the Mori Tower - the best place to get a 360 degree view of the city! We were told on arrival that we had to buy a ticket which included the Mori Art Museum... we weren't too fussed about this but decided to have a look around anyway - Tara had ever been to an Art gallery before. It was surprisingly very good, filled with contemporary art that was actually fascinating. Lots of the Art was created very cleverly with different mediums and Tara loved it!! It was only afterwards that we realised this was in the top ten list of best things to do in Tokyo and we hadn't even planned to do it! We then headed to the indoor city view area which was on the 52nd floor of the tower. From every angle we could see for miles and saw the iconic Tokyo Tower painted in orange and white against a bright blue sky! It was great to see the city from above and made us realise how huge it was! After spotting a few other buildings we recognised since being here we headed up a few more floors to the sky deck where we had the same views from outside. We were literally on the roof, with a helipad in the middle!
Back on the ground floor we had a coffee stop in Starbucks and then got back on the subway again to Ebisu. This was where the walking part of the the tour began as we searched for somewhere for lunch. To be honest there wasn't a lot there but we did stop at a trendy little cafe for some lunch before wandering towards Daikenyama. Again, this was a really quiet area of Tokyo, nothing like we had seen so far. Instead of bright neon lights and giant posters on every wall, this was a leafy green suburb of the city with boutique shops and many residential parts.
We continued to walk towards Shibuya following our noses instead of the map on Tom's phone which seemed to be taking us around the houses! Eventually, we reached the famous 'Shibuya crossing' near the station which is where thousands of people cross the roads all at once, coming from different directions across about 7 zebra crossings that all cross over each other! It's crazy! We stood and watched for a few crossings before being part of the crossing crowd ourselves. On the other side was a Starbucks on the 3rd floor of a building that overlooked the mayhem. We managed to get a window seat, perfect for people watching and enjoyed another coffee. It was hilarious to see the initial people crossing the roads in a hurry, followed by the general walkers avoiding tourists stopping in the middle to take selfies and then the 'runners' at the end risking everything to get across before the lights change and the traffic takes over!
After a while we headed towards 'Harajuku' through the crowded streets of neon once again. It was further to walk than we imagined and our route wasn't exactly the most direct... we got there in the end.
We walked up and down a number of small alleys in Harajuku enjoying a vibe of boutique and high street shops. Cat street was interesting, but didn't appear to have any cats on it! If we had wanted to go on a shopping spree this area would have been perfect but after a day of sightseeing we were tired, sweaty and ready to head back.
We took the subway back towards Shinjuku and reached our hotel around 6:30pm after a full day out. It was fair to say we had done Tokyo! After a quick change we decided to head back to Shibuya on the metro to see the crossing at night and get some food. We found our dinner rather easily for once in the Hikarie Mall at a restaurant which enticed us in with their meat platter and 'Girls Night Out' all you can drink deal! It turned out that Tom could also have the drinks deal so a number of cocktails and drinks followed as we ate nachos, meat and salad.
After our meal we went to see the crossing again and as the neon lights shone it was just as crazy, if not more, as during the day. From our Starbucks lookout we took more photos before getting on the metro back to our hotel as we were both shattered.
This morning we enjoyed a lie in as we didn't have to get up or check out until 12pm! Again we enjoyed our breakfast before packing up our stuff ready to fly after managing to cover the 3m square room with all our stuff.
As we sit and wait for our train to the airport before flying home via Hong Kong, it's time to end our blog.
It's fair to say that we have both had an incredible 3 weeks and that China and Japan has been everything we imagined and more.
China was where we saw many things on our bucket lists from The Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors to Pandas! China was also where we found finding food difficult and the language barrier was at times challenging.
Japan has been a mix of city and countryside, temples and onsens, beds and floors, bullet trains and buses. We have experienced many new things here and have enjoyed the culture and food. Visiting Hiroshima and seeing Mt Fuji were probably our highlights in Japan from what has been a jam packed tour!
Now it's time to head back to England to see all our families and friends and enjoy the rest of our summer holidays!
Love to all,
T&T x
Blog finished - 2:29pm

Blog continued!! - 7:29pm

WOW!! We have just flown literally right over the top of Mt Fuji! What an incredible sight! From our window seat on row 51 we were plotting the route we had flown again the landmarks we could see on the map. We guessed we were heading right for it and all of a sudden there it was! It felt close enough to touch as the summit poked through the clouds and into the sunset. What a highlight at the end of our holiday...

Until next time... x

Blog finished again - 19:32pm