It turns out we’ve arrived in time for the very best of weather that Tokyo has to offer. Last week it was raining. The week before it was snowing. This week has been 23/24 degrees and sunny every day. How good is that!!
We started the day slowly, somehow not managing to leave the air bnb till gone midday. Our first port of call was Sengaku-ji, a Buddhist temple near Shinagawa. The temple is beautiful, especially when surrounded by the cherry blossoms. It was such a peaceful place to just sit in the sun and meditate.
In the grounds of the temple are the graves of Asano Takumi and his 47 rōnin (masterless Samurai) who vowed revenge on their master’s honour, beheaded his mentor and then committed seppuku (hara-kiri) through loyalty to him. Look up the actual story, it’s a lot more interesting than I make it sound. The graves have been standing since 1703 and to this day people still burn incense offerings and leave them on the gravestones as a sacrifice to the samurai. They also leave cold drinks, because I guess the rōnin probably get kind of thirsty from all the incense smoke. The atmosphere of the graves and the temple was of absolute serenity and I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life.
Once Saf had dragged me away from the temple, we headed across to Tokyo Sea Life Park in search of the tanks of giant tuna. We were absolutely not disappointed. The aquarium appeared small from the outside but once inside went on and on, with tank after tank of something amazing. The absolute peak was the tuna – they’re huge!! But there were also some great displays of marine life including a penguin enclosure – Saf’s fave. As a post-fish-viewing snack, we found some takoyaki – MY fave.
Eventually we left the tuna to it and moved on to Palette Town. By this point we were running short on time as we were due to meet Saf’s colleague at the Tokyo TransRe office at 6.30 and we were already pushing 4pm. However, even a short stint in Palette Town was enough to be fun. Inside the shopping centre, the mall is designed as a Venetian Piazza, complete with giant naked-lady fountain – a little different to the bright lights of Tokyo city outside.
We wandered through the shops before coming to a set up of classic cars and alleys designed to look like 1960s Tokyo. There were views into houses with TVs showing the Olympics, cafes and shops, and the odd car garage. There was also a display of vintage cameras in the wall where my own Olympus Pen met its granddaddy from the 60s.
By this time, we were running late, so we dashed off to the metro to a sky high office in Marunouchi to meet Saf’s Tokyo colleagues for a drink. Apparently the 29th of the month is “Meat Day” or Niku, due to the fact that the Japanese words for 2 and 9 are Ni and Kyuu, so meat was definitely on the menu.
We had made plans to visit Tsukiji Fish Market VERY early the next morning, and hopefully to get entry to the famous tuna auctions, so we headed home to try and get at least a couple of hours sleep before we had to be awake again. Wish us luck!!
Claudia Bow 