Tokyo - Emperors palace, Asakusa and Ginza (Day 3)

It was December 23, the emperor’s birthday, a national holiday and one of two days of the year when the inner palace garden is open to the public and we missed it! We missed it because we tried to enter the palace by a closed entrance and all the guards didn’t really speak English, so instead of going directly to the only open gate we walked from one to another just to learn that the next one was closed too. At least we had a chance to take a look at the regularly open gardens later the day. The garden of the palace is not overwhelming and there are for sure more impressive gardens in the world, but it has some nice details and even end of December it surprised us with some colors.

Tradition meets modernity once more

Fall is still greeting

Bamboo

Reflections

Camellias blossom in wintertime

We spent the afternoon in Asakusa, where the quarter close to the Sensoji Temple (also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple) was very populated that day.

Popular Sensoji Temple

Traditional clothes are not so rare here

Colorful Tokyo

City signs. Tokyo is full of colorful signs and banners, advertisement, directions, ...

Tokyo – Fish Market and Nikko (Day 2)

We started the second day in Tokyo with a visit at the Tsukiji Fish Market, which is the biggest fish market in the world. The access is open to everybody, you want to be there early in the morning. The fish auction starts around five in the morning and the markets business continues ‘til 10 o’clock or even longer. From the Tsukijishijo metro Station or Shimbashi train station you can easily walk to the market. Before you enter the actual fish market, you will pass some small streets with stands that offer everything from fruits and vegetables to household goods, in between some sushi places. We selected one of this sushi places after visiting the fish market for a sushi breakfast, which was excellent.

The fish market is unbelievable busy and as a visitor you should respect the people and their work, it’s not a show, it is hard and serious work!

Some rules that you should obey

• Waer closed shoes, its slippery and wet.
• Be there early.
• Do not enter areas restricted to authorized personnel!
• Do not obstruct traffic!
• Do not take flash photography during the tuna auction!
• Do not bring small children or pets!

Selection of all kind of seafood

Blocks of ice…

…are crushed with this old machine.

These carts might hit you!

Tuna deep frozen…

…and freshly prepared

Strengthened with the sushi breakfast we went to the Asakasa train station to hit a train towards Nikko. The city of Nikko offers a group of beautiful temples which are protected as a UNESCO world heritage. And a Japanese saying is “don’t say awesome, before you have seen Nikko”. Nikko is about 2 hours north of Tokyo. Unfortuneatly it started to rain on the way to Nikko and the temperature droped by some 10°C.

Impressions of Nikko, due to the clouds and the rain, the pictures are by fare not as colorful as the reality.

One of the famous Nikko masterpieces: the three apes