Tokyo Ginza district and tower

All alarms were turned off this morning so we could have a lazy start to the day without any rush to catch something or to do anything by a certain time. Bliss.

We did a load of washing before we went out. Craig also discovered a good/bad thing depending on how we look at it. Bad = we are not flying out from Tokyo but rather Osaka so we need to catch a Shinkansen at about $170 each early Friday afternoon for a 9.45pm flight home. Good = we discovered that today rather than rocking up to the wrong airport on Friday!

The plan today included a fair bit of walking, with the first destination being the Imperial Palace Gardens about 4km away. About 5 minutes down our street though Craig comments on a giant building which I look up and it is the Ryogoku Sumo Stadium, which explains all the people lined up. And just as we pass it, we comes across three actual sumos in the street dressed in the their mawashi showering off under a garden hose on the footpath!!! Wow! I demonstrated great restraint to not stop and ask for a photo. Kate on the other hand refused to even cross the street because she didn't think it was proper to walk past near-naked men on the footpath. She is strange sometimes.

When we got to the palace, the entire precinct is closed for the week. All this enabled was for Craig and Kate to add a sleeping swan and a new duck to their bird list. Next stop, Itoya, the multi-level stationary story in the Ginza district, but on the way we had to walk past the Tokyo Station, which in fact just invited us to go in and have lunch in one of the shops in the vast underground shopping malls underneath the station.

When we got to Itoya, we left Craig on the third floor in all the fountain pen buying craziness to enquire about the Platinum (brand) ultra fine nib pen he has been eyeing off, and Kate and I ventured up each floor to floor 7. This shop sold all sorts of beautiful papers and pens and stationary stuff I didn't even know existed. It was beautiful, but also very busy. Too many people for Katie, so she was happy to get back outside again. Craig was successful in his pen purchase, getting it tax free, and discounted for an end-of-the-line pen, so he was a happy camper. We continued along the very expensive shopping street full of Louis Voutin, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Valentino, Tag, Rolex etc.

We were going to head to the fish markets, however by now they would be close to closing, so we scratched that idea and headed to Tokyo Tower instead.

Kate and I think we eat more sushi in Australia in a week than we have in Japan and decided that this needed rectification, so I searched for sushi restaurants near our accommodation. Kate wanted a train, so I found a place where it is made to order, and delivered on a conveyer belt. We decided to walk home first, have a bit of a rest and then walk the 1 km to the sushi restaurant. However, on the train we worked out if we just stayed on it for a few more stops we would more or less be at the restaurant, so did that instead. And what a find! OMG I think we ate our body weight in nigiri with velvet fresh sashimi tuna and salmon. Kate counted 22 dishes between the three of us, and including drinks it was $58. I feel like I have died and gone to sashimi heaven. In addition, the sushi restaurant was right next to the giant golden sweet potato we saw when we arrived in Tokyo yesterday (which is actually the Asahi HQ building), so we were able to see the sweet potato at night.Read more