A good night’s rest after the long flight from San Francisco was just what we all needed to kick off our first day in Tokyo. The plan for our first full day was do some cherry blossom viewing, a stop at Tokyo Station for lunch and heading up to Ueno Park and Ikebukuro!
Excuse the poor lighting in some of the pics. Most of the day was overcast or drizzling so it didn't make for good lighting!Yasukuni ShrineThe first stop of the day was
Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine that is dedicated to those who lost their lives in service to the
Empire of Japan. It was a quick walk from the Kudanshita Station.
One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Yasukuni was that it housed
Tokyo’s representative cherry blossom tree! When the first bloom opens up on this particular tree, the cherry blossom season has officially started in Tokyo!
The representative cherry tree wrapped up and blooming!It was my first time seeing cherry blossoms so it was pretty exciting! The temple grounds also had a Japanese military and war museum, Yushukan, as well as its main worship hall.
The main worhsip hall of YasukuniSome gratuitous cherry blossom picsAfter snapping quite a few more pictures, it was time to hop over to Tokyo Station for lunch at one of my favorite spots to eat,
Rokurinsha!
Rokurinsha is located near the
Yaesu Exit of Tokyo Station in the famous
Ramen Street area of the station's underground mall. It's known for their
tsukemen which is dip ramen.
You order from this vending machine and give the ticket to the worker! Efficient!The line is often quite long but it moves fairly quickly considering how many people are in it. I think we waited about 35 minutes this time. Once you are seated and give your tickets to the worker, you are brought your food in moments!
Yummy yummy tsukemen!FYI: There is a gift shop right across from Rokurinsha that has the biggest selection of Kit Kats that I saw on the trip. Take a look:
Next on the cherry blossom tour is
Ueno Park. Only a few trees had started blooming when we visited so I can only imagine how gorgeous the entire park,
lined with sakura, would be if we were there during peak bloom!
Enjoy some of the pics I managed to get while there. For more, check out the full post
HERE!
Ikebukuro & Dinner in Shibuya!We headed up to Ikebukuro which is a big shopping and entertainment district. One of the main reasons we hopped up here was to visit the large Pokemon Center. We all grew up watching, collecting and loving the series and it was amazing to see that the love is still going strong for it here in Tokyo.
We also made a quick stop at
Tokyu Hands department store to stock up Dr. Grip pens that I use on a daily basis.
Also found these cute Disney ones to send back home as giftsLater that night, we headed over to Shibuya and some sightseeing, the famous crossing and the Hachiko statue! After walking around, it was time for dinner at
Han no Daidokoro Dogenzaka, a yakiniku restaurant that serves premium
Yamagata beef.
This would be my first time trying this sort of meat and boy oh boy was it delicious! I can only imagine what real Kobe beef will taste like now. I guess that will be on the list for the next trip!
After a
veryyy filling meal and several rounds of beer, we rolled our way back to Ebisu and called it an early night. Our next day would be an early one as we tackle
Tokyo DisneySea! Stay tuned for Part 5!
For the full post and more pics, check it out
HERE!