After the walking tour we made our way back to the metro to go to the stylish shopping area of Ginza

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View at Imperial Palace Park, Tokyo. After an action packed first 3 days in the mega city that is Tokyo, we had another 3 to go. On Day 4 we were up early as we wanted to visit the World Heritage town of Nikko, 2 hours/135km away by train. We left the hostel at 7.30am to get the 8.10am train from Asakusa one way car rentals washingtonstate station nearby, and after purchasing the World Heritage Nikko day passes for 3600 Yen (about £31) each we were set to go. It's worth getting this pass if you don't have the Japan Rail (JR) pass as the train journey to Nikko alone is 2640Yen return one way car rentals washingtonstate PP (around £21) and the temples are between 500-1000 Yen to enter each (around £4-£8) and there are atleast 5 of them. It also includes the return bus from the train station in Nikko to the temples which saves a few more ££. If you do have the JR pass, you can buy a combo ticket for all the temples for 1000 Yen in Nikko.
Meiji Shrine Gate - Harajuku dazzling shrine Tosho-gu, which is World Heritage listed and features famous carvings one way car rentals washingtonstate of the three ''Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil'' monkeys, which represent the three major principles of Tendai Buddism (we thought it was just the name of a funny film until we got here!) . The decorative Rinno-ji and Futarasan-jinja temples are also a major attraction of Nikko, all of which are surrounded by beautiful forests and mountains.
The town itself is nice enough and small with a few shops and restaurants, but the real beauty lies within the temple area at the top, about 10-15 minutes away. The temples/shrines were built back in 1617 and, aside from the hordes of Japanese school kids on day trips, the setting was very peaceful and remote with stunning scenery. We wandered around the temples one way car rentals washingtonstate and shrines for a good 3 hours taking it all in, finding corners of tranquillity here and there, and spoke to some Japanese school kids to help them with their English, before making our way back to the train station for a bit of lunch. Today we had Ramen noodles for the first time since arriving to Tokyo (like a noodle soup
Good times in Tokyo with big bits of meat in them) and they were delicious! We then jumped on a train back to Tokyo and slept the whole way before arriving back in Asakusa at 5pm after another brilliant day out.
When we got back to the hostel Scott wanted to visit the local Onsen (public bath) again so he did that while Vic washed her hair for the first time since arriving 4 days ago (getting into traveller mode already!) and that is when she found out that her hair straighteners one way car rentals washingtonstate do not work in Japan as the voltage is different! Cue a ten minute devastation episode and a 20 minute fight with the hairdryer before giving up and realising that she would have to have rubbish hair for the next 2 weeks!
That evening we were pretty tired after our early start so decided on a quiet local dinner near the hostel of Tempura (battered/fried) prawns and vegetables, as well as a shared chicken Katsu curry and rice (our favourite Japanese dish so far) before doing some computer stuff, having shots of Japanese Whiskey with some other people from the hostel one way car rentals washingtonstate (as you do) and calling it a
On day five we had to leave the hostel we had come to love (as we had only booked for the first 4 days and they were full) and were faced with the dilemma of staying in another one in the same area, saving money and a bit of time but not being able to go out properly one way car rentals washingtonstate that night (as the bars/clubs are on the other side of town) and still being in bunk beds in a shared dorm room, or moving to a proper hotel on the other side of town, costing more but enabling us to be close to the nightlife for our last night in Tokyo, and also share a bed for the first time since arriving…the latter option won and we quickly booked a hotel online in the Shinjuku area of the city, excited about a night out in Tokyo and also having a bed and a room to ourselves!
We checked out and loaded with our backpacks, made the journey on the subway to the new hotel, which included changing trains three times, not easy in 25 degree heat, with 15kg each on our backs and another
Tosho-Gu 7kg each on our fronts (we have sooooo overpacked!), all the while being stared at as if we were crazy by the local people! We got to the new hotel in about 40 minutes and it seemed nice, we left our bags with reception and then rushed back to the metro to central Tokyo, as we wanted to join a free walking tour of the Imperial Palace & it s gardens which we had heard about that was starting at 1pm – it was now 12.40 and a good 20 minutes by metro to Central Tokyo – as usual we were in a rush! But we made it just in time and joined the walking tour, which was given by Japanese volunteers one way car rentals washingtonstate who are practicing one way car rentals washingtonstate to be tour guides.
The tour, which a few other people from our hostel were also doing, took us around the well maintained outer gardens of the Imperial Palace, which is home to the Emperor and his family, and occupies a vast chunk of the Central Tokyo area. You can only enter the inner gardens of the Palace on a pre-arranged official tour twice a day which needs to be booked a few
Ramen time! weeks in advance, apart from on the Emperor's Birthday (23 rd December) and January 2 nd , when it is open to the public. Back in the 17 th Century the Imperial Palace was the location of Edo Castle, which burned down in the early 1900's, but the gardens are still a good way to spend a few hours learning about some history. Again, old mixes with new here, and the historical gardens and Palace are against a backdrop of modern one way car rentals washingtonstate skyscrapers and buildings which make up the financial area of Tokyo. During the tour Scott got to dress like a Ninja (!) for 5 minutes and Vic had a practice with some chopstix, just so the guides felt we knew all aspects of Japanese life.
After the walking tour we made our way back to the metro to go to the stylish shopping area of Ginza. One thing to note about big metro stations here is that the walk from when you enter the station until you get to the actual platform below can be really long and this one took us over 15 minutes and was about 1km! When changing lines within a station you can walk for quite
Views from the top of Govt. Bldg a while as well. Anyway, a couple of stops later we arrived in Ginza, not to shop as the area is known for, with designer and boutique stores lining the wide streets, but to see the Sony building/centre. We thought it was going to be full of strange gadgets but aside from some musical stairs, which played different notes when you walked up them, creating one way car rentals washingtonstate a tune, it was just full of normal Sony TV's, phones, music systems and such like. The one aside from all this technology was a large room in which there was a Michael Jackson tribute going on, with his music playing and photos of him everywhere and his videos playing on a large screen, to celebrate 25 years of his 'Bad' album…we were a bit unsure why this was such a big thing in Tokyo, but the Japanese one way car rentals washingtonstate people were loving it!
It was around 4pm by this time so we decided to move on back to the Shinjuku area of the city to go up to the Observatory Tower, which sits on top of Tokyo Government Building, as we had heard it offered some amazing panoramic views of the city. Shinjuku
Harajuku CosPlay Fashion station one way car rentals washingtonstate is huge, and if you come out of the wrong exit you could walk for an extra half an hour just to get to the correct place, so we couldn't find the Government building at first and surprisingly none of the local people knew where it was either…another observation here, is that even if you are trying to go somewhere 5 minutes away from where you are, most people won't know what you are talking about, even when showing one way car rentals washingtonstate them on a map! We eventually found the building and took the lift up to the 45 th floor where we were greeted by clear views over the city which looked even more widespread from a height. On a really clear day you can see Mt Fuji apparently but typically it was cloudy in that direction. We hadn't eaten all day and fatigue had caught up with us by this point, so we didn't stay very long and headed one way car rentals washingtonstate back down to make our way to our hotel. As we left the building, which is surrounded by other large corporate buildings, we were surprised to see a man (we think he was homeless) sitting on a chair by the side of
Arty shot at Nikko the road, with about 10 ginger and white cats in boxes and on leads, one way car rentals washingtonstate which seemed to be his…imagine walking out of Liverpool Street station and seeing a site like this…just another one way car rentals washingtonstate mental Tokyo experience!
We made our way back to Shinjuku one way car rentals washingtonstate station, one way car rentals washingtonstate where we exchanged our JR pass receipt (which we had bought at home) for the JR 7 day pass to start on Sunday, one way car rentals washingtonstate and started to walk back towards our hotel. We got a bit lost but came across a Katsu curry shop (with vending machine), and as we were starving now and we love this food we went in and ordered like pro's before wolfing down the best Katsu curry & rice we have had so far. We didn't know exactly the way to our hotel so jumped on the metro 2 stops and checked in to our small but modern room, where we had a much deserved rest and got ready for our last night in Tokyo.
Forest tree tops from below we went out around 9pm. We headed to an area of Shinjuku called Golden Gai where there were lots and lots of tiny bars in narrow streets which we thought one way car rentals washingtonstate would be busy, especially with it being a Saturday night, but it was quiet so we carried on walking into central Shinjuku to find a bar or two. After a while of looking around we didn't one way car rentals washingtonstate see anywhere we fancied so jumped one way car rentals washingtonstate on the metro to Shibuya where the nightlife is supposed to be really good. Again we wandered around looking for bars but they must be really hidden as we literally one way car rentals washingtonstate couldn't find any…probab