Tokyo: Day Five

I woke up early and finished packing my bags ready for Seiji to collect me with our rental car ready to go exploring for the day.

I headed to the supermarket to get some baked goods as I was too lazy to go the full distance to the bakery. I ended up with weird pancakes with goopy stuff in the middle and little sugared raisin toast squares. They were nice but very sweet.

Seiji was waiting for me when I got back and we hit the road. First stop Yokohama. Took a while to get on the motorway and I noticed all the trees looked a but weird – all stumpy. After the earthquake they cut off all the branches because they all fell down in the middle of the road and blocked it. And I thought they were just trying something interesting!

Once on the highway it was an easy path to Yokohama just a few toll stops. Yokohama is about an hour out of Tokyo and a really popular place to visit and live.

Seiji took me straight to Chinatown and his fave park. Chinatown stretches out about 5×5 blocks. It’s huge! Seiji couldn’t even understand anything as they were all speaking Chinese. We walked the streets trying different food and watching all the people. Eventually Seiji found somewhere he thought we should eat – a tiny place with 850¥ ($8.50aud) set meals. The plates just kept coming! Starting with some kind of weird thing that tasted like mustard, then Chinese Gyoza, fried rice, pork noodle soup and a coconut jelly & fruit dessert. I loved the soup, beautiful broth. So cheap!

With a full tummy we grabbed Starbucks to walk around the park. This is Seiji’s fave park and its a beautiful area. It was built from the rubble after a big earthquake they had in the 1950’s. We were so full we didn’t last long walking around so we went on a driving tour then back to Tokyo.

Shibuya was the next stop. After finding a park (they do valet parking for 300¥ an hour in the city!) we went for a walk to a shop Seiji knew was good for gifts then tried to walk to Harajuku. We went by a huge old park but decided to go around it to get to Harajuku with more time. We got lost. I really enjoy getting lost when I don’t need to be anywhere. It’s fun. You see things you wouldn’t usually.

Harajuku meant shopping so I had a look around while Seiji chilled outside. He doesn’t like stocking shopping that much for some reason? Lol.

Back to get the car to drop it off in Shibuya before a casual dinner and to take my bus to the airport.

This is about the time I realised I was about to miss my flight and I had the most intense and crazy taxi ride of my life!!! Read more HERE