There’s no denying that Shinjuku is one of Tokyo’s most colourful districts, in so many ways. It’s famous for its extravagant shopping, the busiest train station in the world (with over 3.2 million people passing through on any given day). Its immense crowds thronging day and night. It’s crazy technicolour neon-bling and 3D billboards. It’s…
Tag: tokyo
Out & About in Ameya Yokochō & Harajuku
Ameya Yokochō is another of Tokyo’s lively eat streets which runs alongside the railway tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi Station. Originally this district was packed with wooden tradesmen’s homes but during WW2 the entire area was carpet-bombed and burnt to the ground. However, almost immediately after the war had ended, rebuilding began with shops and…
Lost In Translation
Gosh, Tokyo is massive. You start to realise just how big the world’s largest city is (37 million at the last count) when you delve underground and tackle the monstrous and overly-crowded Tokyo subway system (no surprises then that Tokyo has the world’s busiest subway), which is daunting at first, but sort of manageable after…
Tokyo Skytree – “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”
As a complete contrast, we were drawn to the towering Tokyo Skytree. How could we not be, it looms over the Sumida River from Asakusa at some 634 metres, making it the second tallest structure on the planet (depending on which website you look up of course). It seems debatable, but Skytree is really, really…
Park Yourself In Ueno
Ueno Park is one of Tokyo’s most loved and visited city spaces and the epicentre of culture and recreation. The park houses the Japan National Museum, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the Ueno Zoo – amongst other notable buildings, but I guess it’s the Sakura Matsuri Festival that draws the most crowds, when millions…
Home Away From Home in Downtown Asakusa
We’ve escaped the building ‘wet season’ of Cairns – the heat, humidity and increasingly heavy rain and headed to the frozen north (again). This time, a couple of weeks in Japan. One week in Tokyo, then a week via the Shinkansen up to freezing snowy Sapporo for the Ice Festival. More on that later. In…
Travels With My Ant 