Tokyo (1), Japan 🇯🇵 2024

Date: 14-15 October 2024

Travelled: 7800 kms from Sydney to Tokyo, Japan  

Visited: Tokyo Fish Markets, Meiji Jingu Shrine and Tokyo Tower

Stayed: MyStays Gotanda Station, Tokyo  

Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day

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Japan has been on our bucket list well before Covid in fact we had booked for Japan back in 2019 obviously only to have it cancelled. This 20 day tour popped up on Trip-a-Deal some months ago so we jumped in. Six months later we pack our backs and open up the Uber app and head for the airport.

Our flight is via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific departing at 10.30 pm. Pam was asleep well before the seat belt sign was off and she managed a record breaking 9 hours sleep for an 8 hour and forty minute flight. We transferred on to Narita arriving about 30 minutes late and head into the afternoon traffic to Tokyo.

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We find ourselves sharing a transfer shuttle to the hotel with Peter and Annette. A Trip-a-Deal tour is a bit like a box of chocolates as Forest would say, you never know what you’re going to get. We landed on our feet, Peter and Annette come from Campbelltown and we chat away for two hours for the 60 kms journey to the hotel. MyStays Gotanda Station is nothing special but the rooms are spacious enough and Pam loves the fancy toilet.

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Gotanda Station, 環状六号線, Nishi Gotanda 1, Nishi Gotanda, Shinagawa, Tokyo, 141-0022, Japan

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There’s no daylight saving here in Tokyo so it gets dark quickly come 5.30. A quick shower and we head off to explore Gotanda. The further we walk the more cosmopolitan there area presents. Numerous small restaurants, bars and 7/11s on every street.

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We enjoy a nice meal at a small restaurant with drinks for about A$40. Then heading back to the hotel and an early night. Up early we take a walk around the area once again, some pictures follow.

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We have an included tour of Tokyo on today but find a notice on our door telling us the bus will pick us up at 12. So with the morning to spare we decide to get some experience on the local rail network with a trip to Sendagaya and the Shinjuka Gyoen Gardens.

The train system is easy enough to negotiate, it’s just the mass of people using it that gets a bit of getting used to. We arrive without a problem only to find the garden closed today, no explanation.

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After an excellent coffee at a cafe in Sendagaya, we head back to Gotanda and our bus tour.

Our guide Serena introduces herself checks off our names or rather group number and where on our way. First stop is the Tokyo Fish Markets or Tsukiji Outer Market which would be more accurately be described as the tourist fish markets but the place has a buzz about it.

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The market covers an area of maybe 500m by 500m dissected by numerous small laneways lined with vendors and small restaurants. Although its temping the seafood is expensive and it’s mostly a stand and eat arrangement so we eventually find a corner sit and relax till its bus time.

Our next stop is the Meiji Jingu Shrine, set in heavily wooded parkland in central Tokyo. Serena goes through the bowing, hand washing, bowing again with two claps of the hands making an offering and bowing on the way out (not sure that’s it but I got away with that).

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Despite all the people the shrine is very beautiful and the surrounding grounds make a lovely walk.

Then it’s back to the bus and on to Tokyo Tower. For some reason it’s compared to Eiffel’s Tower in Paris as it’s about the same height and similar in style but I thought it similar to Blackpool Tower having a bit of a theme park feel. I’m probably being hard, but it does provide some great views around Tokyo.

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It’s been a long afternoon with the Tokyo traffic but we are back in Gotanda by 5pm. After a long shower and a relaxing beverage we settle for a takeaway of dumplings and sushi from some local vender and back to our hotel.

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Michael + Pam