Welcome back to Tokyo and our tours around this amazing city, in this blog we are going to take you to the weird and wonderful Shibuya, the CBD of Nihonbashi, cycle you around Sumida and a visit to the more traditional areas of Kagurazaka and Yanaka. A lot to fit in, so let’s get going!

渋谷区 – Shibuya

Shibuya makes the simple exercise of getting across the road a tourist attraction, with its famous crossing that has thousands of people traversing its intersecting roads at all angles. To experience this unique crossing, throw yourself into the masses making the crossing and then follow up with an aerial view from the Starbucks that overlooks the area.

Surrounding the crossing are a warren of the pedestrianised side streets of Centre Gai with all its fashion, lights and crazy sights. Going further up the hill it gets a bit seedier with less salubriuos love hotels and information booths that carry an 18+ certificate. Shibuya is also ramen central and our favourite of all the chains is Ichiran, you can find it all across Tokyo, but you always remember your first which for us was at the Shibua branch;

here you will get to experience the unique way to order and consume your ramen – first get your name on the list with the hostess, then to the voucher dispenser where you select what you want from a 70’s machine that will give you paper token for your order, take your seats along the counter, hand the tokens through the hole in the walls and magically in a few minutes some hands will pop through with the most delicious ramen and creamy beer!

With your tummies full you will be ready to head up Meiji Dori, along with the Mario Carters zipping along the roads to the Cosplay centre of Takeshita Dori.

You’ll also find out what is in fashion here by just seeing how long the queue is to get some of what is being sold; when we were in town it was Garrett popcorn that had queues so long that it would make a Brit proud! It’s super hectic here, and once you have had your fill of cat cafes, hedgehog cafes, Mario carts, popcorn and candy floss

then a bit of respite an be found in the peace of Yoyogi park and the shrine of Meiji Jingu,dedicated to the emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken.

You’ll get to see some traditional weddings proceeding as well as practicing your own shinto rtuals to purify yourself at the water trough near the entrance, make offerings, buy charms or write your wishes onto an Ema.

It is also a bit of a wedding factory here which makes for a very nice sight.

墨田区 – Sumida

To give our feet a bit of rest we decided to take a bit of a bicycle tour around this part of the city, joining Tokyo Biking Tours with our guide Noel.

In a land where everything is ordered, rules are to be followed and being considerate and polite is paramount then biking here seems to go against all of that…there are few bike lanes and people spend their time cycling along the sidewalks of the streets, scattering pedestrians and leaving a wake of dismay as they pass….still, it beats walking!

This tour took us in and around Sumida, starting at Tokyo Central station – the site of two presidential assassination attempts; the Imperial Palace on the site of the old Edo castle and primary residence of the Emperor;

Ueno park – cherry blossom ground central (when in season) and containing the world’s father of all gingko trees; Senso-ji – a Buddhist temple and Tokyo’s oldest whose entry is dominated by the thunder gate

and its massive paper lantern that is decorated to give the impression of thunderclouds and lightening. On the day we visited it was the biggest festival of the year (Founder’s Day) so the place was packed with devotees dressed in what looked like small nappies and short shirts. We threw some coins, clapped hands and snacked on whatever was on offer – octopus balls, chocolate bananas, smoked fish on a stick.

Across the river to the Sky Tree – supposedly the safest place to be in Tokyo during an earthquake owing to how it will rock and roll with the quake.

On to the Sumo Ryokogu, which we’ll say a more about in a little while; and then finishing at the Kiyosumi Gardens – classic Japanese, peaceful, calm, sculptured with a pond, tea house and hungry open-mouthed koi swarming around anyone that was dropping food in the water.

相撲 – Sumo

Coming back to the Sumo Ryokogu, if you want to see a sumo tournament whilst in Japan then check here before you arrive to see which city the tournament is in and to pre-book your tickets to make sure you get a ticket (as it does sell out).

You can choose from the ringside mats to be in the thick of things or up in the cheaper seats where we were.

But along with a solid zoom lens on our camera to keep us in the loo what was going on.

You can also pick up a free radio that has broadcasts in English to give you a running commentary on the action and what all those slapping moves actually mean as what you’ll see is a lot of salt throwing (to purify the ring), arm lifting (to show you are not armed), leg lifting (to ward of demons), posturing (to posture) and various other shinto rituals and then in less than 10 seconds the slapping, pounding, lifting and pivoting is all done and the match is won!

We thought we would just pop in and check out a few matches and be off, but the whole theatre around the bouts was so fascinating that we ended up spending the whole day.

After a morning of preliminary bouts you will get the Juryo (2nd division) entrance and bouts, the Makuuchi (top division) entrance to form an impressive circle around the ring in their decorative kesho-mawashi (belt);

the Yokozuna entrance with the special ceremony that marks these champions appearance in the ring. After all the bouts the day is ended with the bow twirling ceremony that see one of the lower ranks nimbly spinning and posturing around the ring in a beautiful dance. There is a great restaurant onsite where you can get some yummy noodles and still watch the action live on the tv screens.

日本橋 – Nihombashi

The central business district of tokyo, home of the stock exchange and the bank of Japan. Probably not the first place that comes to mind for tourism but on our first visit to Tokyo, this is where we squeezed ourselves into the tiny but perfectly formed room of the well-priced Hokke Inn.

It’s actually a very nice place to base yourself as you will get to experience the contradictions of the city with big offices, professional workers and formality on the big streets and then the incongruous Ningyocho with its classical small two story restaurants for soba, izikaya, sushi and so many tasty foods. You know you have found the right place to eat when there is a queue outside

just don’t expect much english to tell you what is actually being cooked inside (or even to figure out the name of the restaurant!), so it will be a big pleasurable surprise on what you get.

神楽坂 – Kagurazaka

The old Geisha quarter of Tokyo is a peaceful, low rise part of town that is well worth a few hours to visit; although don’t expect to spot any geisha here, you are more likely to spot a beret, baguette, or Camembert as this is home to many of France’s expats. The main street of Waseda Dori climbs gently up a hill and is lined with lots of french stores and bizarrely you may also hear piped french music as if you were strolling along Montmartre or at least Disney’s rendition of it!

Getting off the main street (peel off to the left as you walk up the hill) the vibe will revert to classic traditional Japanese, with narrow cobbled alleys, bamboo and more traditional looking houses and restaurants. It is particularly picturesque in the evening when the way is lit with subtle lighting and lanterns from all the restaurants. This area is one of the gastronomic centres of Tokyo where you will find the traditional ryotei where businessmen are dined and entertained. You will also find plenty of kaiseki restaurants

which serve multiple courses of small sized perfectly-cooked dishes…we were very fortunate to be taken to one of these by our friends Willem & Christian where we spent an evening of food heaven at Kohaku. Here the menu has exotic things such as Pufferfish Milt, Monkfish Liver, snow crab broth and the chef’s secret jelly; save your travel pennies and go here for an extra special occasion.

谷中 – Yanaka

Another quiet suburb of Tokyo that is worth a bit of a trip out to. Known as the cat capital, but we didn’t see so many of these denizens, rather the cats appear on the stalls and shops that line the streets in all forms – statues, t-shirts, socks, hats, you name it. This is another area where a couple of hours of exploration will make a nice diversion from all the big lights and high rises of the centre of town.

A lot of the area is given over to the Yanaka cemetery which is also very restful to explore, although the punctuation of the silence with the clacking of the tohba (wooden memorial boards) can be a bit on the creepy side when no one else is around you!

So, that finishes up Tokyo for now although this is one place in the world where we will definitely go back, so do expect more blogs on this in the future; for now get your tickets booked, your bags packed and enjoy!