July 28, 2016

Today began the day of our last tour with E & C and one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. I had booked this tour from Hawaii and it was by Sunrise Tours JTB.

The meeting location was also very convenient. We met just outside of Shinjuku train station. Actually, now that I think of it, this may be why I chose this particular tour but it turned out to be serendipitous as it was really good.

We piled in to the bus and were taken to a city bus stop where we waited for 45 minutes until our tour bus came and picked up our group. So the start of it wasn’t that great, but afterwards more than made up for that time.

The first place we stopped at was Tokyo Tower located in the Shiba-koen district of Minato, Japan (according to wikipedia). If after seeing the pictures, you think it resembles the Eiffel Tower, you would be correct in your assumptions, as it was inspired by the design of its French counterpart. Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 and aside from it’s orange-red and white color, does resemble the Eiffel Tower. It is 333 meters tall (1092 feet) and was the largest building in Tokyo until it was superseded by Tokyo Sky Tree in 2012. Not a lot of people realize that it is also a shinto shrine and a telecommunications tower. There are two observatory decks, one mid-way up and the other near the top. The mid-way observatory deck includes two stories and a glass floor where you can stand (if you dare to!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A funny thing happened in 2012. There was a construction team that had been renovating the antenna at the top of the tower and discovered a baseball in the base. To this day, no one knows how or why the baseball got there. The ball, dubbed the “mystery baseball”, is now on display on one of the observation decks.

Afterwards, we travelled to a garden in the city famous for weddings, called Happo-en, where we got to experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. For many people on the tour, including me, this was our first tea ceremony. The formalities of the ceremony were explained to us to make sure none of us made fools of ourselves. This was made all the more amusing by a Japanese pre-teenager and her visiting Finnish homestay guest who couldn’t put their smart phones down. At least the Finnish girl had enough respect and tried to. And as we were placing the sugary traditional Japanese treat into our mouths, as per the custom of the ceremony, the Japanese youth made a face and her grandparents reprimanded her saying it’s “tradition” after she questioned it.

 

 

 

 

Then we got to wander and explore the park complete with a Bonsai Tree display and unknown lizard species (at least to us).

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop was Chinzanso Tokyo Hotel and Garden where we had a delicious Japanese BBQ lunch in the style of teppanyaki but with the added luxury of being grilled on a slab of lava stone called yougan. This style of cooking is called yougan-yaki and it was delicious. The meal consisted of tenderly grilled pork and beef, lotus root, asparagus, onions, and sweet potato, green salad, and houjicha (or a roasted Japanese green tea) that has a distinct flavor, almost like roasted rice.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we had plenty of time to wander the hotel garden grounds which included a wooden pagoda and a fair share of cicada-populated paths.

 

 

 

 

Next, we were taken to the Imperial Palace Park where, you guessed it… the Imperial Palace is located. The grounds form a public park that is maintained with the capital and care of a royal budget. So needless to say, the lawn on the park was impeccable. We were able to walk up to the moat and main gate of the Imperial Palace, but not further. We got there just in time to witness the changing of the guards. Exciting to witness but not as impressive in the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop after this was a cruise up the Sumida River from its mouth near Yokohama. This was a nice and leisurely trip up the river with the city of Tokyo whizzing by on both sides. The boat had glass along the sides and top so you really got a good view all around.

We sailed under several bridges and it was nice to see the park along the river’s edge where people were bike-riding or just walking their dogs on a sunny Thursday afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boat tour finished in Asakusa and we all got off and made our way to Sensoji Temple. Because E, C, and I had already explored this temple a few days beforehand, we decided to skip this part of the tour and went souvenir shopping in the open-air shopping lane that lines the front of the temple.

 

 

All in all this was a great day and totally worth it for the deal we got for the tour ($75 per person).

 

 

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016