Hi, everyone! I hope you are enjoying my Tokyo posts so far! I’ve had a lot of fun going through all of the sightseeing pictures I took on my trip and picking the best ones for my posts.

Day 2 was our only full day in Tokyo. Breakfast was served between 7 and 9. The food was laid out buffet style, similarly to how it is in hotels in the US. What was different was the food served. Instead of the typical American breakfast food (waffles, cereal, bacon, orange juice, etc), we had many vegetable dishes to choose from, chicken, and soup. There were also different kinds of bread that you could toast if you wanted to. The bread I ate had pink swirls in it. Turns out it was strawberry flavored, and delicious. I also ate a bunch of vegetables and a cup of miso soup (my absolute favorite!).

After breakfast, we headed back to the subway and towards Asakusa. When you get to Asakusa, you pass through Kaminarimon Gate, which is guarded by two protective deities, Fujin and Raijin. Keep in mind that you want to get here early if you want to get pictures with as few tourists as possible in front of the gate. We got there around 7:45 in the morning and there were already many tourists present.

Past the gate is the Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Street (ANSS). Since we were there so early, many of the shops were still closed or were just starting to set up for the day. All of the shops should be open by the time you are done sightseeing at the Senso-ji Temple. ANSS has plenty of small souvenirs for those who don’t have a lot of room in their suitcases. I bought a keychain of the Kaminarimon Gate. There are also plenty of shops with bags and other larger souvenirs. If you are ready for a snack by the time you are making your way back towards ANSS, I suggest trying a few different flavors of hot bean buns. I’ll insert a few pictures of the shop we stopped by. Vanida and I ate the flavors “Standard” and “Monja”. Both were delicious!

Once you get past ANSS there are a few other sights to see, including the second gate and the water statue. I’m not sure of its technical name. At the water statue, you can fill up a cup with water and make a wish while pouring the water onto your hands. I was also told the water brings you good luck.

Senso-ji Temple sits beyond the water statue. The temple was absolutely beautiful. The paintings on the ceiling were my favorite part. I tried to capture all of them as best I could. You are not supposed to take pictures of the innermost part of the temple, but of course, I didn’t see the sign until after I had taken 10 pictures. Oops.

There is a smaller temple past the Senso-ji Temple. If you walk behind the main temple towards the bathroom, you should have no problem finding it or any of the other sights.

After Asakusa, we went to the infamous Skytree. I was really excited for this because I love birdseye pictures of cities. Seeing a city captured from this angle always amazes me, because it shows you just how small us humans are in this big world. To get to Skytree fast, you can buy a ticket for what I believe is just called the “Skytree Line”. The ticket costs less than $1 and takes you right up to the Skytree building itself. The signs to the ticket counter are very easy to follow if you can read Japanese or English (or just follow the arrows). Vanida and I opted to only buy a ticket for the lower deck, called Tembo.

You take a quick elevator ride up to Tembo Deck. Be warned that if you go during the day, the deck will be very bright. I wore my sunglasses most of the time we were there. Tembo Deck is completely indoors. We got there around 10:15AM and it was already crowded. Be prepared to be patient and to wait your turn to get pictures with the views. Tembo deck does have photography areas set up where a worker will take your picture for free.

After you explore Tembo Deck, do not take the elevator. Follow the stairs down and explore each level before you take the elevator down the rest of the way. My favorite area of Skytree was down a couple of levels. Like in many famous sightseeing buildings in major US cities, Skytree has a small area of glass flooring where you can see down to the streets of Tokyo. I tried to take good pictures, but they don’t do the experience any justice. This area can get crowded, so wait patiently for it to clear up and you can take your time getting the best pictures possible.

We ate Korean food for lunch and did some more exploring of the city, a few stops down in Tsukiji. We had heard from one of Vanida’s friend that there was a large fish market we should check out. Naturally, I didn’t get any pictures at the market, but I did get some pictures around the area.

After exploring, we ate more food and headed back to our hotel. We were tired and jetlagged, so we had to call it an early night, even though we didn’t want to.

I hope you enjoyed this post! I will see you guys next week with Day 3 in Tokyo!

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

Check out my other Japan posts here, here, and here as they are posted.