Category: JapanGuide

Until recently Hamarikyu Gardens was my favorite green spot in Tokyo. Lately I have been going often for walks to Shinjuku Gyoen park; I already knew the park for the beauty of its cherry trees during Hanami and the blossoming of its chrysanthemums in November, but I still hadn’t explored all its corners. Some of the spots of Shinjuku Gyoen are so charming that it has become now my favorite park in Tokyo, and one of the places where I like to relax and take pictures.

When Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of Japan after Sekigahara battle, he divided the country in around 200 “fiefdoms”, each one of them controlled by a daimyo (feudal lord). The western part of Edo’s castle was assigned to the Naito family, whose residence was established in Shinjuku Gyoen park. During more than 250 years it was the home and the gardens of the Naito family but during the Meiji restoration they lost the ownership of the gardens and they were given to the Emperor. The area was renamed to Shinjuku Gyoen (新宿御苑), that literally translated means “Imperial Gardens of Shinjuku”.

Nowadays the garden is owned by the government and even though you have to pay 200 yen to go in, it’s really worth it. You can walk and relax for hours, and take great pictures (detailed map). It opens from 9:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m all days except Mondays and you can easily reach it from Shinjuku Gyoen station in Marunouchi line or from Sendagaya station in the Sobu line.

That’s me taking pictures at Shinjuku Gyoen!

Odaiba is an artificial island located in Tokyo Bay where people usually go for a day trip. It’s not a “mandatory” visit if you visit Tokyo, but if you’re at least 15 days in Japan it could be a good option to spend one day. It is an island where most of the buildings have been built not long ago, there are many museums, research labs, etc. As a whole, you can feel a really modern and high-tech atmosphere. Odaiba is also the island where the cult classic Takeshi’s Castle was recorded.

To get to Odaiba one of the most interesting options is to go to Shimbashi station using the Yamanote line. Once you are in Shimbashi you have to take the Yurikamome line; but before I recommend you to try some great ramen at the first restaurant just out of the north exit.

The Tokyo Monorail, is a line that operates on a special elevated line; during the ride you will see large business buildings and if you are lucky you will see the Shinkansen pass by. The last stretch of the line consists on crossing the famous Rainbow Bridge.

Rainbow Bridge. On the right you can see the Tokyo Tower, and on the left the tallest building is the Mori Tower.

Once you are in Odaiba you will be offered many leaflets with information about the island and advertising of the different places to spend your time. If you like technology and science you can visit the Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, where you will be able to see the Honda robot Asimo in action.

One of the most spectacular buildings is the Fuji TV building. Fuji TV is the television channel that broadcast Dragon Ball for the first time and that currently shows One Piece. The building is really easy to recognize, thanks to the enormous spherical structure that is attached to it. There are free access areas for visitors where you can take a picture with the TV channel mascot; and where you will be able to buy merchandising of Dragon Ball and other TV shows.

That’s an old pic of me and the popular blue dog, the mascot of Fuji TV.

Just in front of the Fuji TV building there are two buildings with shops. The most interesting ones are the Sony store that occupies several floors and the Osamu Tezuka shop where you can find all kinds of stuff related to Osamu Tezuka, the so-called father of manga.

Osamu Tezuka shop.

Right next to that building there’s another building with a Sega park, called Joypolis; it’s a huge arcade with the latest Sega arcade machines, but there are also attractions using 3D cinematographic and audio-visual techniques, those where the seat starts to move while watching a movie.

In Odaiba there’s also a replica of the Statue of Liberty of New York. On the picture you can see in the foreground the replica and in the background the Tokyo Tower, a replica of the Eiffel Tower of Paris.

Tsukiji fish market has been recently on the news because it has been temporarily closed to the public. I visited Tsukiji fish market for the first time when I just arrived to Japan in 2004. These were my impressions when I visited Tsukiji at the time, which I wrote in my Spanish blog:

Tsukiji, in Tokyo, is the largest fish market in the world. Beside being huge, it is worldwide known for its really exotic variety of species like huge tuna fishes, whales, blowfishes or mussels the size of your head. We went to Tsukiji early morning (at 7:30 am) when it’s the most crowded; there we found many people driving around with some kind of carts that move really fast. If you don’t pay attention, one of those carts will run you over, they just don’t care if there’s people around.

Tsukiji fish market

We were really looking forward to see how they cut 300 kg tuna fishes (maguro in Japanese language, very important word in Japanese restaurants). In no more than some minutes they cut a whole fish and prepare it to be frozen; they have really developed a perfect technique to do it as fast as possible. If you want to practice cutting fish, there are arcade machines in Game Centers to practice your fish cutting skills with a plastic knife. There are also arcade games where you have to go fishing in a small boat in the sea and other similar games. As you can see, there is a great passion for fish-related stuff in Japan.

Cutting maguro in Tsukiji

After seeing the maguro cutting, we were given some chopsticks and we ate some fresh raw maguro with a little bit of soy sauce. Amazing breakfast!!

To conclude the post, a small Japanese language lesson. The kanji that we are going to learn is very useful when you are trying to look for a restaurant that serves fish. Fish is “Sakana” in Japanese, it is written using the following kanji:

Kanji of fish = Sakana