July 9th, 2007 more Tokyo

Today my parents and i went on the Tokyo half-day tour. The shuttle bus came to pick us up around 8am and took us the the central tour bus stop area in Tokyo. We then left around 9am and went to Tokyo Tower, then to Imperial Palace, drove through Ginza, attending the Sensoji Asakusa Temple area, and ended at the pearl factory in Akasaka. I might note that we didn't spend a whole lot of time in each area, but the best tour if you want something fast and cover a lot of areas. To me it was ok, and i have seen the Asakusa Sensoji temple twice before, and this was my third visit. The front entrance of Sensoji temple leads through the Nakamise area, which has 90 different little souvenir shops, that sells anything from red bean pastry, little cellphone trinkets, keychains, paper lanterns, porcelin japanese dolls, and other souvenirs. I would say this is a must-see for any tourist coming to visit Japan. I do believe that Sensoji temple is the number one tourist attraction in Tokyo! After the tour, we went to Isetan, one of many big huge shopping malls throughout Tokyo and of Japan! In each mall, they have an underground or basement area where they will sell a lot of food, anything from pastries, fruit, fish, seafood, to sushi, and other foods you can think of. A term that i have heard that depicts these markets are "depachika", and the japanese know of this term well. The night time in Shinjuku is fantastic! and it reminds people from the movie, "Lost in Translation". My family and i finally chose a place in downtown Shinjuku at an Indian restarant. I would say the food was so delicious! Then i went to Kinokuniya to get buy some photobooks and look at other magazines. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel around 9:30pm.