Day 4 Tokyo: Shibuya, Asakusa and Akihabara

A day trip to Tokyo where we saw Mount Fuji on the Shinkansen Nozomi from Kyoto to Tokyo.

The miracle of the Shinkansen Nozomi is that at 300 km/h, this makes it not only one of the fastest bullet trains in the world, it also enables day trippers to visit Tokyo, 450km away from Kyoto, in just one day.

We bought our tickets at the JR Ticket Office at the Kansai Airport Arrivals Hall for about S$200 per person return trip. We left at about 9am and made it to Tokyo at 11am. The best part of the journey happened right up front, when we saw a snow-capped Mount Fuji from the left hand windows of the train!

Our first stop in Tokyo was Shibuya. We had lunch at a soba restaurant in Shibuya Mark City. Their eggplant tempura was particularly delish. Pen said served the best tempura she's ever had.

We later found the overhead bridge linking Mark City and Shibuya Station. It has a Myth of Tomorrow mural and was a good spot to view the Shibuya scramble crossing. Word has it the crossing can see about 2,000 people cross at the same time.

Next we went to Asakusa, which had about thousands of people all trying to take photos of themselves and the large lantern at the Kaminarimon gate leading to the Sensoji temple. I applaud the women who were bravely dressed in colourful kimonos in the 10 degree cold. The alley leading up to the temple sold all kinds of sweets and snacks. We bought and tried the matcha soft-serve.

Finally, our last stop for the day was at Akihabara. Pen's old friend Zoe had moved to Tokyo to live with her family, so we arranged to have dinner at Ginza Lion, an old timey beer hall, with her. It was good to see old friends again.

After that, Pen and Zoe went hunting for their favourite anime memorabilia while we shopped for souvenirs and toys.

Exhausted, we returned to Kyoto at about 11pm. The next day, we will take a slacker's approach to Universal Studios Japan.

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