It’s been 9 months since we visited Tokyo and I still think about going back almost every day! It was such an inspiration for coming up with new ideas and I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially for anyone who’s a fan of experiencing new things. There are so many amazing places to go in Tokyo and I wanted to focus on the places that inspired me the most in different themes. The first theme focuses on Tokyo at nighttime and the incredible sights - check out my list for 4 top things to do at night!
1. Walking around at night
The city at night is perfect for someone who likes colour and bright lights. We stayed in two main areas – Shinjuku and Shibuya. Shinjuku was our absolute favourite part of Tokyo – I think that has a lot to do with it being the first place we went to when we arrived and the incredible lights at night. There are some many amazing things to see and food to eat – especially if you’re open minded!
Here are some shots of the streets at night in Shinjuku and Shibuya - we spent a lot of time walking around the streets and taking it all in. Shibuya Crossing (above) is a great experience - it's as busy as it looks as every time the lights turn red they all turn red at the same time in every direction and everyone scrambles to get across. As many as 2,500 people cross every time it turns red in rush hour!
2. Robot Restaurant
One of our highlights was the Robot Restaurant - imagine robots playing saxophones, oversized robot wars 5 meters from your seat, and people riding on the back of robot sharks and you're getting close! Here are a few shots from the show. If you're heading over to Tokyo I highly recommend it (www.shinjuku-robot.com).
3. Visiting arcades
We spent a lot of time wandering around the streets and popping in and out of the arcades. Japan appears to have a great culture of acceptance around gaming – arcades are hugely popular and people seemed to play games to an incredibly high standard with pride. We were amazed by the skill in the arcades - I'll never look at Dance Dance Revolution in the same way again after seeing a queue of middle aged Japanese men waiting to play - their feet moved so fast we couldn't see them!
4. Golden Gai
This unassuming area of Tokyo might not look like much but its six alleyways are filled with over 200 bars. Each bar seats between 8 and 10 people on average and most of the buildings are 3 bars high! It might be tempting to bar hop but be careful about the entry price - this is charged at start along with your first drink so it's best to stay in one place and soak in the atmosphere from there.
Thanks for reading - watch this space for part two of the Japan posts!