Last full day in Tokyo, so our goals were to fit in a little more culture, last minute shopping, and of course, ramen. From Vancouver, we had booked a tour of the Imperial Palace and Friday morning was the only time we could get for this popular attraction. While it was interesting to hear about Tokyo and Japan's history during the course of the tour, we found ourselves a little underwhelmed by the Palace grounds. There were some beautiful structures such as the lookout post pictured below, but most of the buildings on the grounds are actually fairly new due to the older buildings having been destroyed during wartime. So let's just say it was no Buckingham Palace!
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| Imperial Palace grounds |
The Imperial Palace is within a close walking distance from Tokyo Station, known for being the busiest terminal in Japan in terms of number of trains per day passing through, but more importantly for us it was home to Ramen Street.
Ramen Street is primarily frequented by business people stopping for a quick bite on their way to and from train stops. I am in awe of how quickly people can slurp down a bowl of ramen in Japan. Their lips must have no feeling anymore, after all the lightning hot noodle eating. So while we got in line with a bunch of black suits, it actually moved really fast as seat turnover is every 10 minutes or so. Jeff and Jer went for traditional ramen, while Dave and I tried tsukemen for the first time. Tsukemen differs from ramen in a couple ways: the noodles are served at room temperature separately from the broth, and the broth is much richer because it functions as more of a dipping sauce for the noodles. I loved the strong broth, so tsukemen was a great experience for me. Dave didn't like the broth as much, so I think he still prefers traditional ramen. In any case we all fondly enjoyed our farewell bowl of ramen.
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| Ramen Street in Tokyo Station |
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| The boys waiting with the salary men |
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| Tsukemen |
And so ends the Tokyo leg of our trip. We definitely packed it full, but I feel like there is so much more to see and I would want to come back to spend time in the city as well as in other cities like Kyoto and Osaka. The people and the culture of Japan are fascinating, there is so much more to explore. Until then, here are a few of our favourites:
Favourite food: Ramen, 7-11 food (only sort of kidding)
Favourite drink: Hibiki 21 year Whisky (Dave); Shochu mixed with anything (Viv)
Favourite experience: Sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market (Viv); Baseball game (Dave)
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| Modest mannequins |
On Saturday morning, we left our Tokyo crew and headed for Haneda Airport. Next stop: Singapore! We were pretty exhausted, and looking forward to a bit slower pace in S'pore (if due to nothing else, the paralyzing heat and humidity). One last sushi meal at the airport and a really cheap upgrade to premium economy had this next stage of the trip starting out pretty strong!
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| So tired! |
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| When have you seen airport sushi like this?? |
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| Had to stretch to touch the wall! |
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| Dave trying out his in flight moistening mask |
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