A Full Day in Tokyo

NCL Jewel 21-Day Transpacific Cruise Tokyo to Seattle

May 4, 2018 (Friday)

Today, we have a full day to explore some interesting sights in the city of Tokyo. TC will be our guide since he has visited Tokyo many times in the past. It's nice to just follow without having to deal with figuring out all the routes and making decisions. 

We went down to the Marble Lounge for breakfast around 8:00. The place was already quite packed so they took us to St. George's Bar adjacent to the Lounge which was a little quieter and calmer. By the time we finished breakfast, there was a long line of people waiting to get into the breakfast buffet area. Word of advice, go early!

There were a lot of food choices, including western, Chinese, and Japanese offerings. Some were made to order like the noodle station and the omelette station. Everything was fresh and delicious! They also had the Hokkaido yogurt that I enjoyed when we were on the Princess cruise in 2015. It was like meeting with an old friend again.

Change of Itinerary

After breakfast, we met the rest of our group at the lobby at 10:00 and started out on our day adventure of Tokyo. It was at this time that we received the email from NCL telling us that Shimizu port was canceled from the original itinerary on this cruise. Instead we will overnight in Yokohama after embarkation so we will have an extra day there before actually sailing out. NCL will give $100 per person non-refundable OBC to compensate the inconvenience. No more closer look at Mt. Fuji, and no tuna feast in Shimizu, but a longer stay in Yokohama. Not a bad thing since we did not have any tour booked for Shimizu. How are we going to spend that $100 on board now that we have already pre-paid our gratuity?  We'll soon find out.

View of tall buildings in the neighborhood from our room at the Hilton. The brown building is the Hyatt Regency where TC and JoC were staying. The tower behind that is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and the Observation Deck. All very close by, just a short walk away.

Walking past the Hyatt Regency Tokyo as we head over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Observation Deck.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Looking for the entrance to get inside.

It's Golden Week holidays so the downtown area was unusually empty and quiet.

After going through security check, we were waiting for the elevator to go up to the observation deck in the South Hall. The line was short and we quickly went up to the top on the very fast elevator.

View of Tokyo with Sky Tree in the distance on one side.

Mt. Fuji on the other side. 

After about 40 minutes, we came back down to the empty lobby.

From there, we took the Oedo Line with a station right under the Metro Government building to the Tsukiji Market. We knew it was going to be crowded here as our train got more jammed as we approached nearer the market. It turned out to be ridiculously packed everywhere we turned with people filling all the alleys and walkways. The actual fish market was closed but many restaurants and shops were still opened on this day. I would love to try some of the food here but all the restaurants and vendors had long lines of hungry people waiting to get in. After making a circle around the less crowded parts of the market we decided it was good enough for us. Back at our meeting place, I went inside Lawson, the convenient store, and got a cold drink. I was hot and thirsty and the plum-flavor drink just hit the right spot.

Some stores were closed for the holidays.

Lines at all the restaurants.

A store selling ceramic wares.

Back at our meeting place in front of Lawson.

Ginza
Our next destination was Ginza where DC wanted to go to the Toy Park and SC wanted to find the French pastries shop that Mel recommended.  Ginza is just a short walk from the fish market and it was quite an interesting walk and a change of pace. A little parade of kids with music and drum were near the corner of the Kabukiza Theater but they stopped as soon as they reached the main street. Not close enough for a good picture.

Kabukiza Theater

I believe this is Chuo Dori in Ginza, closed off as a pedestrian street. 

The Hakuhinkan Toy Park is just around this corner on the left.

Row of restaurants in the Ginza Corridor area. Thai, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, American restaurants all available here.

I thought that was very cute! I mean, that little pig above the door.

We found the French pastries shop Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki at the Shin Kokusai Building near the Imperial Theater. Oh mine, everything was expensive and we just couldn't see ourselves spending that kind of money for a piece of croissant or a piece of cake there.

But, DC did get their delicious green tea ice cream with half a macaron on top for all of us. It was very good and refreshing!

We also took the opportunity to 'visit' the very clean restrooms inside the office building. This is one nice feature when traveling in Japan, one can always find clean restrooms in office buildings and department stores.

Then, we continued our walk towards the Imperial Palace.

At the moat near the Hibiya Station at Hibiya Dori.

The Seimon Stonebridge in front of the palace. The bridge behind the stonebridge is the Seimon Ironbridge. This stonebridge is commonly mistaken as the (二重橋).

These 'oldies' were tired after the long walk.

With tall buildings and pine trees in the background across from the palace on Uchibori Dori. Beautiful weather!

Lots of pine trees.

Near the Sakashitamon.

This is called 巽櫓 at the very edge of the moat.

Asakusa

Our next stop was the Asakusa Sensoji, the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
It was crazily crowded, like the whole world was there when we reached the Kaminarimon Sensouji on the subway. It was impossible to get a good photo of that most photographed lantern under the gate. OK, let's move on...

The Nakamise Shopping Street lined with souvenir shops and confectionery shops.

I am sure they had a good business day with non-stop customers flowing in from all over the world.

As for us, we found a place to relax and people-watched after 10 minutes of pushing through the crowds.

We didn't even get to the temple area which I imagined would be totally jammed since everybody was heading that way.

We got a good glimpse of the Sky Tree on our way out at 4:30.

Waiting at our meeting point across from the main gate.

These young people in black and white were trying to get tourists on their ricksaw tours.

Wako Tonkatsu

We were all very tired and decided that it was enough for the day. DC and MC already left us as they had to move over to Yokohama tonight. The nine of us took the subway back to the Shinjuku station and with TC guide, we found the Wako Tonkatsu for dinner. Wako Tonkatsu is a famous restaurant with many branches all over Japan. This one is right on the 12th floor of the Odakyu Department Store above the station.

We only waited for a few minutes for them to set the tables. 

The huge sign posted outside the restaurant were the specials.

Specials--pork loin with scallops and shrimps from Hokkaido. The meal set included all you can eat rice, miso soup, and cabbage salad. Prices very reasonable.

 special mustard

sauce

meal set

Fried pork loin and scallops.

Miso soup with clams.

small clams inside the miso soup

I will certainly come back to Wako for the great food in the future. BTW, the waiter was fluent in English, making it much easier for us to place our orders.

After the wonderful dinner, we took the shuttle back to the hotel and had a relaxing and restful night inside our rooms. Tomorrow morning we will head over to Yokohama.

"You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn."                 Psalm 18:36