Tokyo first Day

We arrive just before 6 pm in Narita airport on Friday September 26 after a 20 hour travel day, that started 9 am on Thursday, during which we crossed the dateline, making it somewhere halfway, long before our Norfolk clocks chimed midnight, already Friday.

Since Sandee conceded to travel with carry-on luggage only, we breeze thru border and custom control to be almost an hour early for the last "friendly hotel limousine" that should bring us to the hotel front door in 60 plus minutes. (It actually toI ok 85 minutes). Missing that last bus would require schlepping our luggage by train or taking a 200 dollar cab as we are quite a bit out of town. I would have dreaded the conversation about money, which we now, lucky for me, did not have to have.

Smoking booth on sidewalk

First impression: it is already dark at 6pm and the airport is quiet, thus most planes must be in and only few are still expected, before the airport can completely close down till tomorrow.

Ferris wheel

35 million people live in the largest city in the world in high rise after high rise. No smoking outside, a lot of smoking inside. Always ask for non smoking floors otherwise your nonsmoking room will smell smokey just because everybody on the floor around you smokes.

City night colors

Tokyo is not pretty, but at night many buildings are lit up in colorful ways. We see an Eiffel Tower replica, a Lady Liberty replica and the London large ferry wheel is copied here, or is it the other way around.

Eiffel copied badly
Last night the magic was: staring out of the window of our 33rd floor hotel room

What we saw last night from our hotel window

Early morning Saturday we venture out and visit the nearby famous Tsukiji fish market. A few square miles of fish stalls at 10am are loading vans with today's fresh catch to be delivered around town as a result of the 5 am auction. Amazing that we hardly smell fish, walking thru all that future sashimi, sushi or fish soup material for tonight's dinner tables. Let the pictures tell you what we saw and let me tell you, I would not be able to list many of the names of the sea creatures that are going to be served. The picture show may help.

Awaiting sashimi transformation
Tuna artist at work
Info wall that did not help me
Police officer bowing for me

Next a train trip exercise to Tokyo central station to change our green pass vouchers into a green pass ticket for the next 7 days. We got lost a few times in underground passageways trying to find the right train riding in the right direction.

Street art crowding passerbys
Street art

After completion of that task we finished our first Japanese lunch from a picture menu in a 3 table booth in a cellar under a high rise just outside central station, washed away with beer, trying to figure out what proteins were stashed in the fish pot served

We saw hall after hall like this one
Sandee in shopping mode
Lined up to be loaded

Later this afternoon we are going to a social of locals, who practice their English while drinking: a solid concept in my opinion. Loosening tongues while imbibing alcohol is something even in the USA is working well as a concept in communicating. The meeting group name is Happy Tipsy English. Japanese who want to try using their school English hope to mingle with foreigners like us and alcohol will allow them to not worry to much about proficiency. I wonder if we have to carry them home afterwards.

Van loading in full action
They use lots of ice here

Tokyo is as most of you know by now the first stop in our tour around the world, a trip that will lead us to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh, the Mekong delta, Singapore, Jakarta, Yokjakarta, Menado and Tomohon, Sydney, Perth, Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Guangzhou, Hongkong, Lhasa and back to Amsterdam for Christmas

I was once bitten by one of these
Pay booths
Tell me what these are?

Any of you who want to contribute ideas on what to see or do while on any of above named places, please feel free to chime in as we love to experience any stuff not found in travel guides.

Turtles for soup or shashimi?
Well this picture speaks for itself

I realize more and more that traveling unlike vacationing is based on the principle of curiosity: what might I find or see around the next corner?

Oversized gold fish
What are these?
A "chopped" show favorite
Carefully removing pin bones

And any "wow" that somebody found on their travels will be beneficial for those of us that have no agenda, when arriving "somewhere never been and seen before".

Haven't had these yet

Till tomorrow

 

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