Day 12-Mt. Fuji and Tokyo
I made my final trip to Tokyo. That means that this trip is coming to a close soon! How odd!
I got my shinkansen ticket from Osaka to Tokyo, but first I got an iced matcha latte. Why are these things so addictive here? It feels like the matcha is completely different than what you get in the US and doesn’t taste like grass to me. May or may not have bought myself a big canister to bring home. Sorry Greg…
I realized that I never took pictures on the shinkansen going to Kyoto, and that is because I got nauseous from the speed. This time I took a Zofran to help combat the nausea before boarding and now have a few pictures of the train and the countryside.
You know what else I got to see on the train to Tokyo?
Mt. Fuji!
The picture quality is not the best (trying to take pictures going 200 mph is hard) but I got to see Mt. Fuji from the train! I didn’t get to see it on the way down because it was a little cloudy in the area, and it was also cloudy leaving Osaka and I was convinced that I would not see it at all this trip. But I was wrong, in the best way possible!
Once I arrived back to Tokyo, I explored the new neighborhood that I will be staying in for the next few days. This neighborhood, called Hiroo, is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Tokyo, housing foreign dignitaries and several consulates. It also was the neighborhood that the former Empress of Japan grew up in after the war! Besides it being ultra safe to wander around in (much like the rest of Japan), there are so many bars, restaurants, and shops to visit. I ended up going to a yakitori (skewers of chicken bits) restaurant that I discovered through a chef on Chef’s Table, Ivan Orkin, and it was some of the better yakitori I’ve had in the country. The surprising star of the show? Grilled chicken skin. It was so crispy and had the best flavor!
After my delicious yakitori, I wandered to the downtown area of Hiroo and found myself at a natural wine bar. I didn’t think wine existed terribly much in Japan (hardly found any in Osaka and Kyoto) since it’s more of a beer and sake culture, but I found the one place in the one neighborhood. It was dark, moody, and had some great wines to try!
After a good nights sleep, I made my way to the Tsukiji Outer Market to go on a tour I found through AirBnb. I had the BEST time! We got to see some of the more famous shops (famous because of Instagram) for sweets, walked around the wholesalers shops that supply quality fish to the top restaurants in Ginza (another high end neighborhood in Tokyo), and got to see the Nariyoke Inari Shrine that is specifically for the Tsukiji Market.
So far, my experience in Tokyo is vastly different than when I first arrived to the country. I don’t know if it was the jet lag or the neighborhood that I originally stayed in (or both, if we’re being honest) but I am starting to enjoy Tokyo a little bit more.
