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When you come to Shibuya Station and leave through Hachiko exist, you find yourself at the famed Shibuya Crossing. When the lights turn green, hundreds of people cross the street in perfect harmony. Kind of like herds of fish or birds who swim or fly without bumping into each other. We too joined in on the crowd a few times.

Shibuya Crossing

The crossing has a very nice atmosphere with lighted billboards on the buildings and with its vibrant crowd. It’s best to come here in the morning. There are a lot of shopping centres here. Shibuya 109 is an interest shopping centre. It only has clothing shops and there are two separate buildings, one for men and another for women.

Women’s side of the centre doesn’t even have a children’s store. As a person who doesn’t enjoy shopping on vacation, I left immediately after I was unable to find a gift for my little niece. Stores are usually more expensive near airports and tourist locations but this isn’t the case in Tokyo as far as I can tell. So it’s best to buy what you see no matter where you see it, not forgetting that you’d have to carry the stuff around all day.

When you enter Imperial garden through the Ote-Mon gate and go up a small slope, you come across a large area. When we saw the tree with white blossoms, we were inclined to go towards it like many other people there. All three of us noticed that we felt very energised when we went near the tree. If you happen to be near, I strongly suggest you visit it and get recharged after a long day. Sky tower is also in this region, although we didn’t visit it.

Photos usually come out more vibrant than the actual places a lot of the time with the use of Photoshop and different filters. But whenever we came across a wonderful natural scenery and photographed it, our reaction was:

“The real thing looks much better than the photo!”

After spending about 10 fun minutes like children, we went on with our garden tour. The garden is very large so we left for Imperial Palace without seeing the entirety of it. Because the sun sets behind the palace, sunset is not a good time for taking photographs. If you have the opportunity, I recommend that you visit early in the morning.

Ginza is a shopping street reminiscent of typical European cities where you can find luxury stores one after another.

Most of the stores were closed at the time we visited the street. I think this is the place you can spend the least amount of time in Tokyo. But if you come here at a meal time, you can kill to birds with one stone and check out this place as well as have something to eat.

 Luckily we stumbled upon a very nice restaurant called Bar ZERO. It was the only place that I took a card from in this trip.

Great cook, great food!

After a 15 - 20 minute walk from Ueno Park, and passing through the Yanaka cemetery, we reached Yanaka Ginza. We also say the Kaneiji Temple on our way, built in 1625.

The cemetery is like a gateway to a parallel universe. In an instant you find yourself in a completely different place and time period.

Besides souvenir and tea shops, there are also places for a quick snack. It’s not a big street but it’s enough to give you a nostalgic Tokyo feeling.

Just a little side note, Yanaka Ginza and Ginza are separate places. Conceptually they are two opposite places. As modest as Yanaka Ginza is, Ginza is very luxurious.

The closest subway station near Yanaka Ginza is called Nippori. We got on the subway there and went on with our journey towards Imperial Garden and Imperial Palace.

Kaneji Temple, Yushima Tenmagu Shrine and Ueno Onshi Park cherry blossoms…

In Tokyo starting from the airport, it’s possible to see cherry blossom (sakura) trees everywhere. But Ueno Park is like a Sakura heaven.

Even though this little baby started crying the moment I took a photo, her handsome brother offered us some food.

Passing through the park and walking for about 20 minutes, we reached the ancient province of Yakana Ginza. With food and souvenir shops aplenty, this place gives you the feeling that you went back in time.

Sensoji Temple

In the morning, using the Ginza subway line, we went to Asakusa to see the famed Sensoji temple, built in the 7th century.

Nakamise Street

The temple can be reached through the shopping street called Nakamise. I bought a lot of souvenirs from there. You should definitely check out a few stores on the street.

We came across this fun scene on our way to Ueno from Asakusa. :)

First we arrived at the Hamamatsucho train station from Tokyo airport via train and then we arrived at Prince Park Tower, located next to Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple with a cab in 5 minutes. The hotel in on a great location, has very large rooms and is quite comfortable. They even gave us a suit because we decided to stay there on return as well. There are 3 different subway stations near the hotel. (Hamamatsucho, Daimon and Akabanebasi) You can reach about anywhere in Tokyo through these stations. Tokyo Tower is a five minute’s walk and Zozoji Temple is basically on the hotel’s backyard. Cabs cost 730 yes up to 2km and it increases by 90 yen per 280 meters.

Japan has left turn traffic. The most important thing to take care about cabs is waiting for the driver to open the door. The back door opens automatically and they don’t like it when you open it yourself. We got quite an earful before we learned this. Then we learned to wait like a stone.

We settled at the hotel and went right to Zojoji Temple. Lucky for us, a ceremony started right when we got there.

For dinner, we went to the Roppongi region from Akabaneshi station. It’s a Taksim-like place with bars and restaurants. While we were looking for a place to have our first sushi, we realised a small detail that struck us as good at first but we came to enjoy quite a lot. When you enter the restaurant, you take off your shoes and place them in a locker. There are sections divided by drapes or folding screens. Waiters don’t stand near your table but they come immediately when you ring the bell on the table. On our first time, we had to wait a little bit before we discovered the bell.

For those interested, Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo is in Roppongi. It was closed when we passed it by.

Then we got on the subway from Roppongi and went to Shinjuku which has a more vibrant nightlife. It wasn’t very crowded even though it was Friday. We went back to our hotel after a few drinks. Interestingly, it’s forbidden to smoke out on the street in Japan. It’s only allowed in certain designated areas. Passersby won’t even lend you a lighter because it’s forbidden. Even though you can’t smoke outside, it’s allowed indoors in restaurants etc.

I would highly recommend that you check the prices for Aeroflot’s Tokyo flight with transfer in Moscow. The flight takes approximately 14 hours. It’s cheaper than half the price of transit flights. Drinks are served half an hour before and after meals so you can’t drink anything while eating but despite that, the service is pretty good.

If you plan to visit a few cities in Japan that you should definitely buy a “Japan Rail Pass”. You may buy it directly from the agency behind Nova Baran plaza in Sisli or have it sent to your address. After taking the necessary document, you take it to their offices in Tokyo airport, fill out a form, and you obtain the card that will be your best from during your travel.

The JR office that you will retrieve your card from

The card is immediately put to use on the way to central Tokyo from the airport. We used this card while traveling in four cities including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. Besides, when you’re in Japan, you just have to get on their famous train, Shinkansen. You can use the card unlimited times in all these trains.

Shinkansen Fast Train

Besides interurban trains, we had use for the card for some trains in the city, as well. We couldn’t use it on our way back because our Jr Pass was for 7 days and our travel took 8. We returned with a Limo Bus with the ticket we bought from our hotel. We were able to easily reach the airport in little over an hour with the bus whose ticket cost 3100 yens.