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Japan October 2004

Japan October 2004 Day 8: Asensoji, Akihabra, Shinjuku

Today was a kick back day after going full bore on our Disney days. The plan for today was to visit some place in Tokyo we had not been to before and we chose the Sensō-ji in Asakusa area which is actually fairly close to our hotel. With our growing expertise of using the metro we made it there fairly easily. We have been relying on our Japan Rail passes to use the trains in Tokyo and I have realized that we should ride the metro instead of the JR lines as they have more direct routes to certain parts of the city. The downside is that they are not covered by the JR passes. 

Looking at the shops in the Nakamise

The Sensō-ji was pretty spectacular and I enjoyed seeing all parts of the temple, especially the Nakamise which was full of little shop stalls. I managed to get some good photos and was thankful that the crowds were not too crazy. After the temple, we did a quick walk around the area towards the Akihabrara Electric Town and managed to find a mini-theme park (we did not go in) as well as one of the parking lot machines where they stack the cars and it has an automatic retrieval system to save space. 

Josh and the Gorn in front of the Five Story Pagoda at the Sensō-ji temple
Some of the gardens with a Japanese Woman for scale at the Sensoji Temple in Tokyo


We then headed back to Shinjuku to see if we were going to be able to see Mt Fuji from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Sadly, despite the relatively clear weather today, it was still a bit hazy and thus Mt Fuji remains elusive to us. Hopefully when we go on our trip outside of Tokyo we will be able to see it.

Hazy view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku

We made a stop at the Tokyo Shinkansen Ticket Office at Tokyo Station to get our reservations for our trips for the next two days. Tomorrow we will head to Himeji and then we will go to Kyoto the following day. We toyed with the idea of doing an overnight in Kyoto, but didn’t want to risk getting stranded or getting lost so close to going home. Plus we wanted that extra day in Tokyo. 

After endless walking and shopping, we finally made it back to our hotel and packed our day bag for our trip tomorrow. Hopefully, we won’t get lost in the station again (like in March!)