Wawa's Ramblings

We had a choice of breakfast in our Tokyo hotel and for both mornings, Co chose to eat alone in the hotel coffeehouse as the rest of us opted for the Japanese breakfast set in Shimizu restaurant.

Today was our last day at Tokyo and thankfully, we did not have too much trouble packing in all the goodies and foodstuff into our bigger suitcases last night. My new Samsonite four wheeler was such a breeze to carry compared to my previous wobbly suitcase which overturned so many times while I was lugging it through the busy streets of Shinjuku and train stations during our last trip.
We visited the Asakusa Kannon Temple, Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple in Asakusa.

The temple also has a shopping street, Nakamise stretching for about 200 m, lined with shops selling Japanese souvenirs and foodstuff like osenbei (rice crackers) and mochi. The temple grounds also had nice gardens with chrysanthemums in full bloom.

We bought a Japanese doll, a sakae set, a pink dumbell (chook chook) for the boy and a kimono for our little girl.

We were thrilled to find the chook chook as we have been looking for his favourite toy all over the pet shops back home and imagine finding one on the streets of the temple!

I think the little girl would rather have a toy , but we just couldn't resist buying the kimono.

We wished we had more time to browse through the shops and explore the temple grounds but had to leave for our final destination, the shopping district in Ginza.
Ginza is Tokyo's most famous upmarket shopping, dining and entertainment district. Ginza also has the most expensive land in Japan where one square metre of land costs more than 10 million yen (>S$129,000). Two of the more upscale department stores in Ginza are Mitsukoshi and Matsuyakaya.

We visited the food halls as usual and oogled at the fanciful pastries and cakes, which all looked too good to be eaten. We also did something unconventional in Japan, i.e. ate our bento sets along the side streets and drank Sapporo beer. I noticed the local Japanese women curiously staring at us but then, they must have concluded we were tourists.
All too soon, it was time to leave for Narita airport for our 5.50 pm flight back to Singapore. At the airport, we happen to pass by a shop in an obscure corner selling frozen Hokkaido king crabs for 13,000 yen ($166) and decided to buy a box for KT to try.

We also did more shopping at the duty free shops and bought at least 6 month's worth of Shisheido skin care. A couple of days after returning home, we have started planning for our next trip to this fascinating country.

Labels: japan, tokyo, travel