Travel Blog

Today, we embarked on our full day tour of Tokyo, first starting with views of the city via the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower; Japan's slightly taller and less heavy version of Paris's Eiffel Tower. As the Tokyo Tower is surrounded by other high-rise buildings, it doesn't stand out as much as the Eiffel Tower, though it does have more practical uses, beaming digital TV/radio and analog signals.

Next stop was at Happoen Gardens for a traditional tea ceremony, where we got to try some green tea. It's chock full of vitamins and caffeine, giving me a much needed fix to press on (still feeling a bit jetlagged). At the garden, we also got to see 300 year old Bansai trees - very cool and the garden was also very tranquil.

We then visited the gates of the Imperial Gardens and then headed off to the Chinaznso Garden Restaurant for a delicious Japanese Stone BBQ meal. I asked our tour guide what was his favourite beer to recommend was and he said he drinks Guiness. Lol :) So, I then asked what was his favourite Japanese beer was to which he replied - Asahi Super Dry, which wasn't a bad drop.

Next, we took a boat cruise on the Sumida River to Akakusa for some shopping and also to see the Kan-non Temple. The company, Canon, derived their name from this national icon.

The tour concluded at the expensive Ginza district, where we saw all the designer labels (think Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue) as well as a poster for Die Hard 4. We then successfully navigated the subway system back to our hotel, it's much like London's Underground, but busier.

For dinner, we picked up some cheap McDonald's and then did some more shopping at the Tobu department store with it's 7 levels of shopping nirvana. I was in heaven at HMV, which had lots of CDs that were $20-$30 AU dollars cheaper than they are in Australia. I've also picked out a nice sushi restaurant for tomorrow night.