I did a lot of travelling on my own after returning from Mt. Fuji. On the first day I decided to make good use of the nice weather and trekked to Odaiba. I think it took almost an hour and a half to get there. I took JR to Shimbashi Station, then changed to the Yurikamome to get to Daiba Station. The view from the train was beautiful as we passed along the Rainbow Bridge. After arriving at the station, I immediately headed over to the docks, where you could overlook the harbour. I took a few photos of the skyline and also of the (minature) Statue of Liberty. Then I walked over to the Fuji TV building directly across the street.

The Fuji TV building was already amazing to look at just from the outside. I bought a ticket to go up to the observation deck, which is located in the centre ‘sphere’ of the building. It was really neat looking down at all of Odaiba from the top. After spending a good chunk of time walking around the gift shops, I headed over to Aquacity and Decks Tokyo Beach to do some shopping in the malls.

A lot of the spaces in the malls are connected, so I walking in and out through the buildings without really paying attention to where I was going. Some of the highlights there included the Little Hong Kong, as well as the Showa Station. The shops were really cute and quite affordable, so I really had to restrain myself from using all my money there!

After spending the majority of the day on the one side, I crossed over and spent some time at Venus Fort and Palette Town. There was also a Toyota exhibition on the other side and the cars on display looked really cool. Venus Fort was really nice inside, as it was made to resemble 17th century European-styled streets. I ended up staying there for the rest of the night and had dinner at an okonomiyaki restaurant. The okonomiyaki looked beautiful when it came, but all I could taste amidst the seafood and the sauce were the onions (my mortal enemy). At least I could say I’ve tried it!

*****

The next day I had to get up early for a tour of the Imperial Palace. I somehow managed to make it out of Tokyo Station and raced to the entrance at Kikyo-mon with a minute to spare. After registering with the guards, they led us into a waiting area where we were handed brochures and English listening aids. There were quite a lot of people sitting around waiting for the tour to start. At around 10:15am, they got everyone outside to start the tour of the grounds.

It was a really nice day for walking and the tour covered 2.2 kilometers of the palace grounds. I was having problems figuring out what numbers to press for the listening aid because I was half following the map and half trying to listen to what the guides were saying in Japanese. Every now and then I would manage to catch a number, then I would realize that it didn’t correspond to the location of where I was standing.

Useless device!

One of the highlights of the tour was seeing the Emperor and Empress drive by in their car. It was a frenzy at the beginning, since all of a sudden the massive group of people in front of me stopped walking and all the guards were trying to move people out of the way. I had no idea what was going on, but people were busy getting their cameras ready, so I did the same too. When the car drove by, the windows in the back were rolled down and I could see a smiling Empress waving at us. It was very cute!

The tour ended an hour later so I headed over to the East Gardens. I was surprised that so many people were out enjoying the gardens on a weekday. As I made it to the other side, there were a lot of joggers running on the outer perimeters of the gardens.

I found a subway entrance as I was wandering around and took it to Shinjuku. I haven’t really seen Shinjuku much, except for inside the station, so I did some exploring around. It was getting close to lunch so I decided to stop and eat. I saw a restaurant with a really nice display of food outside, so I tried my luck and went in, hoping there were pictures on the menu I could point to. To my horror, there weren’t any pictures on the menu! AND, there wasn’t an english menu either! NOOOoooo!!

So I did what I think everyone would have done in that situation – I dragged the poor shop owner outside and pointed to plastic replica of the dish I wanted to eat! As ridiculous as that sounds, it did the trick and I had a very delicious lunch! =)

The rest of the day I went and explored Kichijoji. The park was lovely and there were so many couples and families out enjoying the weather and renting these little swan boats. After resting for a bit, I headed to Ikebukuro for dinner at Sunshine City.

Sunshine City looked the same as I remembered it. Most of the shops were closed by then, so I grabbed dinner quickly inside the mall, hoping to make my way to Namja Town for ice cream. By the time I finished and got to the entrance, I noticed that last admission time was for 9:00pm and it was already 9:05pm! How cruel it is to be denied ice cream TWICE in a row.

Anyway, the remainder of the night I went and explored the streets of Ikebukuro, stopping by Libro along the way, before making it back to the station. I’m still bitter about the ice cream but I think I’ll survive.

*****

Onto Thursday. I started out the day at Shibuya Station. After gettting off the trains, I headed to the Hachiko exit so I could take a picture with the statue. Afterwards, I followed the crowds across the street and started exploring on my own. I stepped inside Shibuya 109 briefly, then made my way back towards the station and headed to Harajuku.

I had a hair appointment at 2:30pm that day and I still hadn’t figured out where the place was. I was trying to follow a little map I had drawn out, but the side streets were a little confusing. Luckily I managed to find it and I had time to grab a quick lunch in the area. I stopped outside a restaurant that served terriyaki. Since I couldn’t read the menu, I once again prayed that there would be pictures on the menu inside. Unfortunately for me, the ENTIRE menu was in Japanese. Since the restaurant was up a flight of stairs, so it would be impossible for me to drag someone down and point to the plastic replicas. This was another disaster waiting to happen.

Looking at the menu, the only word I knew how to read was ‘beef’. I didn’t really want to order, but since I was in a hurry, I ended up picking a random beef dish and hoped for the best. Luckily, it turned out to be what I wanted, so all was not lost. =)

I got my haircut at Tony & Guy and it was perfect. Donna had gotten off early and met me there, then we explored a bit of Harajuku together. Since we were hungry, we stopped by a place that served hamburgers. I should mention that ‘hamburgers’ in Japan are not exactly the same as we know it here. The hamburger at this restaurant consisted of only the beef patty, but the neat thing was that it came on a sizzling plate. We had to cook it ourselves following the instructions printed on the menu. It was yummy! (But it tasted like any regular cow to me…I don’t know what this ‘black cow’ was suppose to be.)

Shopped for a bit more at Takashita Dori before heading to Shinjuku to pick up my sister. Her train arrived exactly on the minute, but we were having problems trying to find this supposed ‘south exit’ at Shinjuku Station. After walking in circles, we gave up and got onto a taxi, which took us to the hotel in under two minutes. Apparently the south exit does exist!

We grabbed a quick dinner at a kaiten sushi place. I got an extra key at the hotel and went off with Donna to retrieve my suitcase from her place. By the time I got back to Shinjuku Station it was almost 12am and knowing me, I totally got lost trying to find the hotel again. Hehehe…made it back in one piece and went to bed immediately since I’m off to Osaka tomorrow!