We didn't. The alarm went off, we groaned, and we reset it for a more reasonable hour. We had arranged a few days earlier to join a morning bus tour of Tokyo, for which we had to be at a certain hotel (we'd chosen one near the Fish Markets) by 8am. So, we got ourselves up, breakfasted, and on a train towards the fish markets by 7am.
Obviously it was still a little early for the guys sitting next to Tom.
At first, we walked straight past the actual entrance to the fish markets, because it looked just like a giant driveway, with a tiny little pedestrian walkway on the side that we only spotted once we'd turned around and were coming back the other direction.
At least the warning signs were easy to spot and understand! Hehe.
Don't Touch Any Material!!
Once we'd giggled enough at the cute little cartoon warnings, we kept wandering down the little walkway...
Admiring the neatly packaged cartons of fish...
And the little vehicles that were basically a barrel with a motor inside, and a tray on the back.
We wandered around for a little while, they had some little laneways of shops and restaurants, and then had to make tracks towards our hotel for our tour pickup.
We got a chance to wave at the Hamarikyu Garden on our way past, but couldn't spare the time to actually go inside.
We did admire the little boats in the moat, though.
And the tall buildings, just on the other side of the street to the garden.
In typical fashion for us, we ended up cutting the timing too fine, and had to run to actually reach the hotel in fine. It didn't help that we needed to cross over to the other side of what seemed like a motorway, and had to go about 1km down one side of it (in the opposite direction to the hotel we needed to be at) in order to just get an opportunity to cross. Nevertheless, we arrived just in time, breathless and dripping (even at 8am the temperatures and humidity were ridiculous). And we were very grateful to be on an air conditioned bus.
Our first stop on the tour was Tokyo Tower, a replica of the Eiffel Tower.
It was quite pretty.
And I took too many photos of it.
Being on a tour certainly has its advantages. We got ushered in through the group entrance, lined up for literally two minutes while our guide bought our tickets, and then we were in! We did manage to snap this photo of me with a mini version of the tower in the foyer during that time before I scurried back to our place in the line.
They crammed us all into the elevator extremely well, we were all jammed in there like sardines (thankfully I didn't have to wonder if its weight limit could handle it for long before we were up and out). The elevator itself was pretty fancy! This was the light fitting on the ceiling.
And then we got to admire the 360 degree views of Tokyo.
It's enormous. Buildings as far as the eye can see, in every direction! Apparently you can even see Mt Fuji on clear days. We didn't mind though, we'd seen enough of Mt Fuji.
As always, the alternate viewing options seemed a lot more exciting than the boring ordinary windows. This was a glass window in the floor.
Once we'd had our fill of gazing out at the smoggy view, we headed down to the bottom floor where there were souvenir shops and food outlets. We did some marvelling at the plastic food displays.
It's amazing how realistic the beer and waffles look!
We grabbed ourselves some real coffees, and then, like the obedient little tourists we are, we made our way outside and back to the bus by the designated time, stopping only for a quick unflattering upwards shot of Tokyo Tower along the way...
Our most thrilling experience happened once we got back on the bus and realised that the coffee cup lids were designed with a little hollow in them perfectly sized and positioned to accomodate a nose! Genius!
The next stop on the tour was the Meiji Shrine. Here we are at the gate.
Our guide taught us the procedure for cleansing your hands before entering the main shrine complex, involving pouring water onto one hand, then the other, then rinsing your mouth, then pouring the rest of the water down the handle of the ladle to clean it.
And then we could enter the main courtyard.
I can't ever get enough photos of the ceilings of these places. They're amazing.
The juxtaposition of old and new. Love it.
They had all of these little pieces of bamboo arranged artistically around the place.
They all had candles inside. Wouldn't it all be beautiful lit up at night?
We made our way back to the bus, and Tom and I sampled our first Japanese snacks of the trip - Peppermint Pocky. The box says "Stick to Fun! Pocky!". They were good, too!
We did a drive by the Asakasa Guest House, which was apparently modeled after Buckingham Palace...
And the National Diet Building (which is their parliament).
And then we approached the Imperial Palace.
You can almost feel the heat looking at this shot of one of the guard towers.
We hopped off the bus near the East entrance, and made our way through it...
This is a statue of a Shachihoko, a mythical creature that is half fish, half tiger. They are usually positioned at either end of the ridge line on the roof of a building, and are thought to protect the building from fire (since the fish is obviously symbollic of water). Apparently they're not very effective though, since the palace was burned down a couple of times in the past.
Once we were inside, we had that great juxtaposition of old and new again...
Our main destination was the East Garden. It was very pretty.
And the shade near the little creek was certainly very welcome!
A big part of Japanese garden planning is creating "vistas" apparently, where your perception of the garden changes dependig on your viewpoint.
I want one of these!
We managed to spot a carp in the little lake...
And then started making our way back out again. Donald was in full operation again, of course.
We even unwittingly managed to catch this glimpse of the top of Tokyo Tower without even realising it at the time. I just thought that roofline with the orange leaves was pretty.
Just near the exit was this sign saying "Don't Stay Here". I wish I'd actually thought to widen this shot, because standing right next to it was one of our tour guides.
One last shot of old and new combined as we were leaving...
And then we were back to the modern world again, well and truly!
The bus drove us around Tokyo a bit more, with our guide pointing out various areas of interest, and then dropped us off in the Ginsha district, to do some exploring on our own. More to come on that shortly!
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