The plan for today was focused on one thing… sashimi for lunch at the fish market. We headed to the Imperial Palace grounds with the plan to walk off breakfast and find a coffee along the way.
The Seimon Ishibashi Bridge crosses the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace and is one of the most recognisable bridges of Japan. It somehow remains a serene spot while also a clear ‘must-see’ for every tour group!
Everything is incredibly ordered, uniform, and in place. Looking back from the palace the commercial buildings are unique, yet eerily similar size and height… a man-made reflection of the trees surrounding the palace entry.
The block building style continued a we walked through some different streets of Ginza. They’re all built right to so their boundary lines and go straight up, regardless of the size of the block of land. It makes the streets feel very… blockish! The buildings are filled with a range of retailers, restaurants and clinical providers who each neatly promote the floor they’re on up the side of the facade.
The search for good coffee is always a priority in the morning, and we made a beeline for a coffee shop that promised a 4.9 rating. The rating didn’t mention it would be one of the most expensive coffees available. At $10.25 for a small latte I expected it to be a lot better than it was!
We made it to the Tsukiji Fish Market and found some of the largest shellfish and crustaceans I’ve ever seen. The crab legs must’ve been 50cm long (I don’t ever want to meet the crab they came from!!!) and the oysters were bigger than your hand. I have no idea how you’d eat either of them!
The Outer Markets surrounding Tsukiji had a much bigger range of dried foods and fresh food street stalls. You can buy countless types of nori (dried seaweed), dried squid and fresh vegetables in plastic packaging. For a city that doesn’t seem to want waste, it’s so strange to see so much single use plastic.
Sashimi… we found a ‘fatty special’ tray of a couple of types of tuna, salmon, and fish roe… fix complete and sooo good!
The markets were also a good source for some fresh fruit and veges and food on the run. Love the ‘ready to eat’ crabs legs and the ‘meat pie meets lamington’ wagyu curry bread cube thingy. The apples and oranges were competing against the rockmelons for size, the beans were straight from Jack’s garden! Markets are always fascinating!!!
We were also big fans of the knife shop, with sharpeners working out the front. Andrew was quite tempted to replace a couple of knives until we realised that it’d set you back $840, and get confiscated from carry on!
Yoyogi park is home to the Meiji Jingu (Meiji Shrine). It was near our hotel so gave the perfect excuse for some time in nature. As one of the largest parks in Tokyo it’s easy to forget that you’re in the middle of such a massive city! The park was established in 1920 using over 100,000 trees from across Japan.
Emporer Meiji was known for his modernisation of Japan and encouragement of industry. Along the path from the park to the shrine is a wall of sake barrels offered as thanks each year by the Meiji Jingu sake brewers association. It’s a very visible contribution, I’m not sure what happens to the contents!
The shrine to Emporer Meiji and Empress Ashokan can’t be photographed. The two large camphor known as ‘husband and wife’ in the courtyard outside are a lovely reminder of the reason the site exists.
We’ve seen cherry blossoms in the early morning, lunchtime, late afternoon… so we couldn’t leave Tokyo without seeing them at night. The Meguro River Cherry Blossoms Promenade seemed like a good way to see another part of Tokyo and they definitely provided another pretty perspective. There are so many locals and tourists out with their cameras and hopefully every part of the city is capitalising on it!
We’re getting more adventurous with our food options, and venturing into places that are off the tourist trail. This little restaurant hidden up some stairs was a great find – silver cod and a pork and eggplant meal set hit the spot, and only set us back 3 coffees! It’s up there with the best meals we’ve had so far.
Another big day featuring a lot of steps and a lot of km by very efficient train. There is just so much packed into this enormous city!!!
Love M & A xx
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