Chūō Ku

Today was always going to be a kickback, cruisier kind of day. Time to recover from the constant go, go, go, of Disney.

The weather was listening and it has been raining since I woke up this morning, which my plan doesn't really allow for, as I had booked the Tokyo Hop on/Hop off bus tour for today.

That's perfect you'd think, until I tell you that the bus is open topped, and they state you can't use umbrellas on the bus, however, raincoats will be provided.

This did not reassure me very much, especially when the temperature today is a brisk 13 degrees.

Well, I've come all this way, and rain won't stop me, so I headed to the nearest JR station and caught the Yamanote line to Tokyo station. From there it was a short walk to the Mitsubishi building (the bank, not the car) where the main depot for the bus is based.

Upon seeing the bus my concerns were allayed, they have a cover for the top deck. Excellent. In fact, even better, because now it looks like the biggest, tallest convertible in town.

We rode the Blue Line first, which took about an hour, and passed the national parliament, Imperial Palace, Tokyo Tower, Tsukiji fish market, Ginza and the Ryogoku Kokugikan, which is the home of sumo in Tokyo. We then transferred to the Red Line, which was much more my style. This took in the Tokyo SkyTree, tallest freestanding tower on Earth, Ueno, Asakusa, home to the famous Senso-ji Buddhist temple, and the area I was excited about, Akihabara - Electric town.

Up until this point the ride was exclusively Hop-On, but when electronics hove into view I couldn't get off that sucker quick enough!

This tour was just a sighter, so we can identify places we want to visit and spend time at over the next five days, but I had to spend a little time here. It would have been sacrilege not to!

After a rushed hour of looking through the 8+ floors at Yodobashi Camera, we boarded the Yamanote line and headed on back to our hotel, where I am currently sitting on the window seat in our 36th floor room, looking down on Shimbashi station. Watching the trains go by every couple of minutes is hypnotic. In one pass I counted 6 trains going in various directions, including two Shinkansen.

Tomorrow the rain is due to stop, then I can really get out and explore. Ikoo!Leer más