We had finally arrived in Tokyo! We checked into our ryokan for the night, and found it was a really nice mix of old and new; concrete floors, wifi, a jacuzzi on the top floor, great use of hidden space, and then traditional mats for the bedrooms. Here's our room.
We were only staying here for one night, so we set off to explore the local area, Asakusa. And to our joy, the main attraction was a five storey pagoda!
There was also this temple there, which was pretty cool though. We had our fortunes told by picking sticks from a tin, and then going to the appropriate draw to get our fortune on paper. Mine was neither negative nor positive...the "carry on with what you're doing, you're awesome" stick. Jane's told her that misfortune was around the corner, and not to make any major life decisions with regards to job, love, or property. Stupid stick.
We left that area and found ourselves in a tourist market (or as I now call them, 'tat market', as we found in India that the same 'unique' stuff is sold at each for vastly varying prices). This one had a dog hat stall though, which I have to admit is actually fairly unique.
We moved on again and tracked down 'kitchen alley', a road that's dominated by every conceivable kitchenware, appliance, cutlery set, or ice cube tray imaginable. Just wandering through the shops is incredible, and you come out with some great ideas!
My favourite bits were:
- dinosaur ice cube tray.
- bento box Tupperware.
- all the sake sets.
- a shop only selling chopsticks (the only thing we bought here).
- the earthenware cups.
- the coffee machine shop that had giant coffee cup balconies down the side (see below).
Next we headed to Akihabara for the world famous 'Robot Restaurant'. Akihabara is a neon metropolis, where it seems you can get 24hr roadside fancy dress!
To see the Robot Restaurant, you decend through some of the craziest stairways and corridors I've ever seen, but it still doesn't prepare you.
I can't really explain what the Robot Restaurant is, other than there were robots, girls, drums, girls riding giant robot spiders and our first introduction to sake in jam jars....the last of which definitely helped.
All in all, a great first day in Tokyo!
Chris
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