Tokyo & Food Tour

This morning we had breakfast with a few of the OKU hiking group before moving to a much less expensive hotel about 350 metres away. We arrived far too early to check in, so were able to launder heaps of our hiking clothes and book our bus tickets to Kawaguchi on Friday, 3/10/25. We settled into our room before check in time (we think the Reception staff felt sorry for us) and had some down time just repacking our bags and preparing for our Tokyo tours.
We were booked for a Tokyo Food Tour at 6 pm and, once again, had to negotiate the Tokyo Subway train system to reach the meeting point for the tour. We had to get off at the busiest train station in the world (fact) - Shinjuku Tokyo. We eventually found the Guide for the tour and the rest of the group (12).. We were given a wide variety of sumptuous food (with the exception of the spam in the Okinawan Salad!) - see the photos.
Being in Tokyo at night is fabulous! Such a buzz! The education by the Guide was fascinating. For example, our Guide, Will, spoke of the Yakuza (Japanese Marfia) who, even today, rule by fear. If someone is dishonourable to a Marfia boss, the expectation is that the person will chop off a finger themselves and present it to the boss (with a financial payment often as well).
We got the train back to Ginza Station and our Hotel without any problems around 10.30 pm and had to quickly prepare for our Tokyo Bike ride at 0900 in the morning.
We have gone from one extreme to another in Japan - from the very traditional Japanese rural villages to one of the biggest cities in the world. It's all just incredible!Leia mais