ENGLISH
I arrived at the Tokyo Narita airport on Wednesday October 8th and one first thing impressed me: you can use a luggage airport trolley even down the escalators! I've never seen such a brilliant solution in Italy where you have to quit your trolley before entering the escalator and then looking for another one at the end, before moving ahead. Japan is an effective country!
I passed the first 3 days and the last 2 days of my short vacation in Tokyo.
I found a place to sleep at Taito Ryokan. This is one of the cheapest solution in a very pleasant area, Asakusa, centre of the old Shitamachi. It's a very little ryokan where you can sleep for 3,000 yen per night in small rooms for 2 or 3 people (http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp/).
The first and the second day I explored Tokyo by bike, rented for just 300 yen for 3 days. Starting from Taito, I went west, through Ueno and then south to Akihabara, the electronic town. Very impressive place! Lights everywhere, thousand of electronic goods stores and many “otaku” (technology addicted). I then continued down in Yasukuni-dori to visit the sporting goods neighbourhood, near Ogawamachi station. Here I found everything for climbing a mountain or snowboarding in Japanese powder in 5 floor stores. After changing my JR pass voucher in the official JR pass (http://www.japanrailpass.net/) at Tokyo station, I biked back to Asakusa passing in Edo-dori to see the wonderful Japanese dolls in Yoshitoku store. They call them “ningyo” and this store is the oldest one: it is managed by the same family that opened it in 1711. At the end of this first day, I did my training in Ueno Koen and then I relaxed a little bit in Jakotsu-yu Onsen (if you understand Japanese: http://www.jakotsuyu.co.jp/), just to try for the first time the Japanese bath experience. This is one of the hottest onsen in Tokyo. It has a natural spring source of 113 °F - 45 °C brown water full of minerals. Wonderful!
The second day was really demanding. My alarm clock rang at 3:30 a.m. and at 3:50 a.m. I was on the way to Tsukiji fish market. The first auction sale is at 5:00 a.m. and the first subway too. So, you can reach the market in time either by taxi, which is very expensive, or by bike, as I did. I arrived at 4:40 a.m., perfect time to explore the market before the auction. It’s absolutely wide. Bigger than any other market I visited. And it’s like friends told me: no smells! You can see different auctions: frozen tuna fish, fresh tuna fish, live fish. This last one is not known by tourist and is a little bit different, more concentrated in a small arena. Beside the fish market is the vegetable market, undoubtedly less interesting.
At 7:00 I was back at Taito for a short sleep and then, again on my bike to explore the western Tokyo. I first headed for Ikebukuro. Here I visited Seibu department stores. It’s really huge and it’s funny to dawdle in the “depachika” floor (food floor). You can even have lunch without paying a yen, just by tasting everything! Another funny place in Ikebukuro was at the 8th floor of the Tokyu Hands store. It is called Nekobukuro and is a cat city. You can access to it by paying 600 yen and you can stay with a great number of cats just for fun. I guess this odd place is for people who loves cats but for some reasons can’t live with them (no space, no money or no time). After Tokyu Hands I rode my poor bike to reach Shinjuku, some kilometres south. Shinjuku has 2 souls: on the west side of the subway station, a very modern district with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices (designed by Tange Kenzo), where you can enjoy the view from the 45th floor terraces, Shinjuku NS building and other skyscrapers. On the east side a completely different atmosphere: Kabukicho, the red lights neighbourhood, and Golden Gai, a bar-district of about 2,000 square meters (21,520 square feet) full of little bar for 5 or 6 customers and a typical 70’s ambiance.
The last day in Tokyo was for Harajuku, Aoyama and Shibuya. To me, these three areas were the best of the all city. I went there by subway because my legs were paining after 2 long days by bike. I started in Omotesando going east to see the fantastic Prada building in Aoyama, designed by top architects Herzog and De Meuron in 2003. Then I went back heading Harajuku subway station. I visited some very nice stores: Kiddyland, a toy department store, and Oriental Bazar. I turned left in Aoyama district, full of flagship stores (Burton, Patagonia, Adidas, Oakley, DKNY etc) and then back to Omotesando. On the other side of the road I walked down Jingumae district to end my visit in the unique Takeshita-dori. This one of the trendiest street in the whole city, one of my favourites. 1 subway stop and I entered in Shibuya. Here I walked up the Love Hotel Hill, full of daily hotel to stay with your girlfriend just for some ours, and then back down to the best crossroad I have ever seen in my life: Shibuya Crossing. During this day and even during my last day in Tokyo 8 days later, I spent some hours standing in one corner of the crossroad and looking at people going from one side to another. Thousands of young Japanese crossing the streets horizontally, vertically and diagonally. It was amazing!!!
I arrived at the Tokyo Narita airport on Wednesday October 8th and one first thing impressed me: you can use a luggage airport trolley even down the escalators! I've never seen such a brilliant solution in Italy where you have to quit your trolley before entering the escalator and then looking for another one at the end, before moving ahead. Japan is an effective country!
I passed the first 3 days and the last 2 days of my short vacation in Tokyo.
I found a place to sleep at Taito Ryokan. This is one of the cheapest solution in a very pleasant area, Asakusa, centre of the old Shitamachi. It's a very little ryokan where you can sleep for 3,000 yen per night in small rooms for 2 or 3 people (http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp/).
The first and the second day I explored Tokyo by bike, rented for just 300 yen for 3 days. Starting from Taito, I went west, through Ueno and then south to Akihabara, the electronic town. Very impressive place! Lights everywhere, thousand of electronic goods stores and many “otaku” (technology addicted). I then continued down in Yasukuni-dori to visit the sporting goods neighbourhood, near Ogawamachi station. Here I found everything for climbing a mountain or snowboarding in Japanese powder in 5 floor stores. After changing my JR pass voucher in the official JR pass (http://www.japanrailpass.net/) at Tokyo station, I biked back to Asakusa passing in Edo-dori to see the wonderful Japanese dolls in Yoshitoku store. They call them “ningyo” and this store is the oldest one: it is managed by the same family that opened it in 1711. At the end of this first day, I did my training in Ueno Koen and then I relaxed a little bit in Jakotsu-yu Onsen (if you understand Japanese: http://www.jakotsuyu.co.jp/), just to try for the first time the Japanese bath experience. This is one of the hottest onsen in Tokyo. It has a natural spring source of 113 °F - 45 °C brown water full of minerals. Wonderful!
The second day was really demanding. My alarm clock rang at 3:30 a.m. and at 3:50 a.m. I was on the way to Tsukiji fish market. The first auction sale is at 5:00 a.m. and the first subway too. So, you can reach the market in time either by taxi, which is very expensive, or by bike, as I did. I arrived at 4:40 a.m., perfect time to explore the market before the auction. It’s absolutely wide. Bigger than any other market I visited. And it’s like friends told me: no smells! You can see different auctions: frozen tuna fish, fresh tuna fish, live fish. This last one is not known by tourist and is a little bit different, more concentrated in a small arena. Beside the fish market is the vegetable market, undoubtedly less interesting.
At 7:00 I was back at Taito for a short sleep and then, again on my bike to explore the western Tokyo. I first headed for Ikebukuro. Here I visited Seibu department stores. It’s really huge and it’s funny to dawdle in the “depachika” floor (food floor). You can even have lunch without paying a yen, just by tasting everything! Another funny place in Ikebukuro was at the 8th floor of the Tokyu Hands store. It is called Nekobukuro and is a cat city. You can access to it by paying 600 yen and you can stay with a great number of cats just for fun. I guess this odd place is for people who loves cats but for some reasons can’t live with them (no space, no money or no time). After Tokyu Hands I rode my poor bike to reach Shinjuku, some kilometres south. Shinjuku has 2 souls: on the west side of the subway station, a very modern district with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices (designed by Tange Kenzo), where you can enjoy the view from the 45th floor terraces, Shinjuku NS building and other skyscrapers. On the east side a completely different atmosphere: Kabukicho, the red lights neighbourhood, and Golden Gai, a bar-district of about 2,000 square meters (21,520 square feet) full of little bar for 5 or 6 customers and a typical 70’s ambiance.
The last day in Tokyo was for Harajuku, Aoyama and Shibuya. To me, these three areas were the best of the all city. I went there by subway because my legs were paining after 2 long days by bike. I started in Omotesando going east to see the fantastic Prada building in Aoyama, designed by top architects Herzog and De Meuron in 2003. Then I went back heading Harajuku subway station. I visited some very nice stores: Kiddyland, a toy department store, and Oriental Bazar. I turned left in Aoyama district, full of flagship stores (Burton, Patagonia, Adidas, Oakley, DKNY etc) and then back to Omotesando. On the other side of the road I walked down Jingumae district to end my visit in the unique Takeshita-dori. This one of the trendiest street in the whole city, one of my favourites. 1 subway stop and I entered in Shibuya. Here I walked up the Love Hotel Hill, full of daily hotel to stay with your girlfriend just for some ours, and then back down to the best crossroad I have ever seen in my life: Shibuya Crossing. During this day and even during my last day in Tokyo 8 days later, I spent some hours standing in one corner of the crossroad and looking at people going from one side to another. Thousands of young Japanese crossing the streets horizontally, vertically and diagonally. It was amazing!!!
