LittleSandyBeach

The next place we visited in Tokyo was Shiba Park which is built around Zojo-ji temple. The park is very popular for dates and picnics as it offers great views of the famous Tokyo Tower. The park has also been used in many television shows and movies.

Tokyo Tower itself was built in 1958 to provide communication to the whole city. It remained the tallest tower in Tokyo until the Skytree was completed in 2012. The tower’s lattice structure was inspired by the Eiffel Tower and was painted white and orange to comply with air safety regulations.

The next day we went to yet another popular shopping street called Takeshita. It’s 350m long and is known for its vibrant fashion boutiques and huge selection of quirky street foods.

We explored some of the very unique shops and then did some window shopping. Some unusual animals can be found such as Otters and Micro Pigs!

Just around the corner was Tokyu Plaza, a shopping complex that has become popular for its modern design and double rooftop terraces looking at each other across the crossroads.

On our way to the next location we came across Tokyo Coffee Festival. There were around 30 different coffee stalls selling coffee from all around the world. Also there was a small farmers market with stalls selling lots of different fresh fruits and vegetables.

We then made it to the famous Shibuya crossing which is the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing with up to 3,000 people crossing every time the light turns green! On the most busiest days it can reach up to a staggering 500,000 people crossing!

The following day we went to the world’s busiest train station, Shinjuku Station. With over 3 million (over 1.1 billion people a year!) passengers a day its by far the busiest station in the world. The entire complex including the underground and overground has over 200 exits…. It’s a maze to get out!

Just around the corner from the station we went to see Memory Lane. It’s a narrow alley with more than 60 tiny bars and restaurants that can only sit up to 10 people at a time.

Surprisingly in the area the most famous attraction is ‘The cat of Shinjuku east exit’. It’s a huge 4K curved screen which displays the same 3D cat in different scenes every 15 minutes and has become a major crowd pleaser.

Then we went to see another very Japanese attraction, the Godzilla Head. It was installed in 2015 on the terrace of Hotel Gracery and became an instant landmark. Godzilla is very popular across the whole of Japan and can be seen everywhere. It was first created in 1954 and was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons following WWII. Japanese people see it as a reminder of the dangers of nuclear weapons which still pose around the world now.

On our last full day in Tokyo we went over to The Centre for the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. It mainly focused on the firebombing of Tokyo on March 9th & 10th in 1945 which killed approximately 100,000 people.

There were many items on display including a model of the US B29 bombers, a Hitataki (fire beater) and also a model of a E46 Cluster Incendiary Bomb.

The museum also had a section on the history of air raids all around the world from the very first in human history to the most recent and how it has changed warfare.

Yesterday it was time to leave Japan and go to our next country! We checked out of our hotel and got the metro for 45 minutes to Tokyo Haneda Airport at around 11pm.

Our first flight was to Singapore which took 7 hours. Then we had a short 1.5 hour layover there before getting on our flight to Sydney, Australia that took 7.5 hours!

We landed in Sydney at 7pm and had a very smooth time straight through immigration and onto the metro just for 15 minutes to our hotel.

We’ve got 5 nights to explore Sydney and see all the main highlights in the biggest city down under!