We had plans to met our friend, K, at Tokyo station at 9:30 am. She was going to spend the day with us and show my family around Tokyo. My family was excited to see her again because when she studied in the US, she spent a weekend at my house. Lars didn’t have time to eat breakfast because he was so slow in getting up, so while waiting for K, we decided to stop at a bakery. K joined us and stopped at a yummy bakery on the way to the Imperial Palace where I ate a cranberry muffin. After the quick snack, Papa wandered around taking photos of a fountain and we moved on to the outer moat and walls of the palace. We walked over to the East Imperial Gardens entrance. It was hot out so we tried to stick to shade. The hydrangeas were blooming wonderfully.

We exited the gardens and took the subway over to Tsukiji fish market to get some lunch. The tiny alleys were jampacked with people. I think my family found it pretty interesting to see all the different kinds of fresh seafood and the prices. We ate at a sushi bowl place, sushi donburi, as they had enough space to seat us five. It was my first time eating prawns, the large shrimp, raw and I wasn’t a big fan. Too slimy. Sea urchin was good though! Lars freaked out while deshelling them because of the brain juice haha. Right outside the restaurant, something was going on. They had two of the transportable shrines, one filled with three guys playing the flute and drums. It was great that my family got to experience something so Japanese.

We walked along the main road over to the Hama-rikyu gardens. It’s located along the water and has salt water ponds! It smelled like the ocean and you could see the effects of the tide. It was a large and beautiful garden. The tea house located in the middle of one of the ponds was stunning, and a popular building to sketch. There were like twenty different people painting and sketching it! We caught a water bus, aka boat, from the gardens to head upstream to Asakusa. The ride took about 45 minutes and we passed under so many different color bridges. It was the closest I’ve been to the Sky Tree as well. After disembarking, we went to Starbucks for an afternoon wake up call, before stopping by the atm, and entering Asakusa temple area.

Sadly, the entrance gate was under construction and covered up. The old style shopping street that lead to the temple was filled with food stalls and souvenirs. Very tempting to buy many things. We passed through the main gate into the temple grounds. It was quite impressive and beautiful. We got there after 5 pm so I couldn’t get the seal stamp in my book, but wandering around the grounds was very satisfying. We saw lots of koi, some really funny ones sticking up through a waterfall, trying to eat algae off the rocks.

We decided to get dinner by Shinjuku station. My one request was something very Japanese and K fulfilled it with yakitori! We ended up a tiny winding alley near Shinjuku station. I later found this is called Piss Alley… I did see a rat run across a sign overhead. It was chock full of tiny restaurants, all selling yakitori. The smell of barbecued meat and smoke was everywhere. K asked in a couple places if they had room. Most of the downstairs areas were tiny, stool seating, but some had larger seating upstairs. We managed to get a spot in one. They even had an English menu! The food was amazing and delicious. The best yakitori I’ve had yet. My fav was the grilled leek with bacon wrapped. Yum! After dinner, we went to the government building and up to the free observatory. The line was intense! But we managed to see sprawling Tokyo at night. We said goodbye to K at the station and took our weary selves back to the airbnb.