Sabbatical 2023

What an immense, giant, bustling, crazy, kawaii place this is! A shortage of superlatives to describe Tokyo. Our base is not far from Shibuya, famous for its Scramble Crossing: on average 2.4 million pedestrians cross here daily with an average of 2500 people per crossing. Nearby Shibuya station has around 3 million passengers passing by every day and a few stops further Shinjuku station is the busiest station in the world with 3.5 million passengers passing, 36 platforms and 200 exits!! To compare, Gare du Nord in Paris is Europe’s busiest station with less than a million passengers.

We explored some of the areas for just a tiny bit because everything is just huge: skyscrapers, shops, malls, advertisement screens, anime, neon lights, crowds.

Harajuku: known for its extreme teenage culture/fashion styles from punk rock to kawaii to lolita and extremely crowded Takeshita street where you can find crepes filled with strawberries to slices of cheesecakes, rainbow colored croque monsieur cheese, animal cafes (from hedgehogs to owls to snakes).

Akihabara: started being the Electric Town to buy discounted electronics but now more famous for anime, gaming and manga fans. Fun to see how enormous this culture is.

Kappabashi aka Kitchenware Town: dozens of shops selling stuff for the restaurant business: knifes, pans, cooking utensils, lanterns and also the plastic/wax food samples showed in their windows by almost all eateries.

Shinjuku has it all, restaurants, izakaya’s, high end shops, nightlife and the famous Robot restaurant. But who cares if you can visit the Tokyo Whisky Library….. Around 1200 whiskies, I rest my case.

Ginza is particularly famous for its high end shopping from large department stores to small boutique shops, all the international upscale brands have a shop in one of the most expensive areas in Japan. And this area is home to impressive architecture, wherever you look at there is some cool building to stare at. Also home to once the biggest fish market Tsukiji (but recently moved after only 50 years of discussions) where tourists would queue up in the middle of the night to ascertain a spot to watch the action of the fish auction and start the day with a fresh sushi bowl.

What a shame to leave this fantastic city and country (our wallets think otherwise though 😅) but no doubt we will come back, so much more to explore.

Arigato and till next time!Lue lisää