Thursday 21 February 2013

Tokyo - city of lights and color



Tokyo - city of lights and color

I am writing a small travel journal for ourselves about our trip to Australia and New Zealand via Tokyo and Singapore. I will post this journal or memoir if you wish, here as well because it might be of use to someone going to those places. I write these posts in English as that way they can serve more readers, but otherwise the main language in my blog remains Finnish. Hopefully some of you find these helpful and/or inspirational :) 

Here we go!

We started our trip in Tokyo. There's over 13 million people living and movin' about in Tokyo. It's crazy how many people there are. That means every place is crowded and rooms and spaces such as hotel rooms tend to be really small. The funniest thing is that you never know what you can find when you enter a building - for example we just went in to one building - hoping to find food - so we pressed a number on the elevator and when the doors opened in the 5th floor there was a small Asian restaurant. Next floor can be a comic book store and then again the next one another restaurant. 

The best tip about accommodation in Tokyo in my opinion is to pick one with good metro and/or JR line connections. Understanding the public transportation system is a bit of pickle, but once you get used to using it, it serves well. Finding places in general is tricky as there are no street numbers in addresses. Buildings have three numbers one of which, if I understood correctly, tells the order when the building was built. So basicly two buildings next to each other can for example have numbers 3 and 27. Great! Needless to say we had a little bit of trouble finding our hotel... ;) We stayed in Shinjuku area which is the colorful Tokyo you normally see in pictures of Tokyo. 

The best views of the city are from Mori towers Tokyo city view, which is in Roppongi. The night time city view images are taken from there. We also went check out the city views from Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices building (45th floor), but that was during the day and the views aren't as good. Mori towers is definitely better, but also costs (if I remember correctly) about 10-20€. Metropolitan government building is free. 

I used Timeout Tokyo when planning our trip - which is quite a helpful site. You can get hold of a handy Timeout map for example from Tower records store in Shibya. More about Tokyo in the next post :)

16 comments:

  1. Voi kun iski ikävä! Ja miten nuo värit nyt tuntuu niin kirkkailta, vaikka siellä ne oli siinä missä no se harmaakin. Oih ja voih...kiitos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kuvat on juuri siinä parhaita, että tuovat muistoja ja vievät eri maisemiin hetkeksi. Kiva jos toi tunteita pintaan :)

      Delete
  2. oooh, i've been dreaming of going to Tokyo since i was a little child! thanks for writing this, i hope i'll use it one day x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure you can make it happen and go there - it is definitely an amazing place!

      Delete
  3. Hienot kuvat ja hitsi mitä värejä!

    h.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Siellä ei tosiaan väreistä ole puutetta. Saa kivoja värikuvia ihan väkisin :)

      Delete
  4. Oii ihania kuvia. Pystyn täysin uppoutumaan tunnelmiin näitä katsellessa. Tuo talonumerokuvio olis mulle katastrofi... Miten ihmiset ylipäätään löytää tuolla perille? :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No ei siellä löydäkään perille ikuna! Mulla on normaalisti hyvä suuntavaisto, ja kartanlukutaito, mutta siellä olin niin hukassa niiden satojen pikkukatujen ja numeroiden ja ei numeroiden kanssa ;) Se on ihan mahdoton systeemi!

      Delete
  5. Heippa! Ollaan lähdössä kans mm. Tokioon, Ausseihin ja Uuteen-Seelantiin syyskuun alussa reissaamaan, joten postaile ihmeessä niin paljon matkakertomuksia kuin jaksat ainakin mun puolesta :D Ihanaa reissua ja kiitos Tokio-vinkeistä so far! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Voi kuinka ihanaa!! Kerron oikein mielelläni mahdollisimman paljon! Tiputtelen näitä reissupostauksia sitä mukaa kun kerkeän käydä kuvia läpi - niitä on PALJON ;)

      Delete
  6. PAITSI että hokasin just, että tehän ootte varmaan jo tulleet takaisin? :D Blondi!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heheheheh ;) Joo takaisin ollaan jo, mutta kiitos kuitenkin ;)

      Delete
  7. Incredibly full of colour! Crowed of colour and light and letters...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wau! Jonain päivänä mäkin vielä suuntaan itään :) Kaverit asu Tokiossa enkä koskaan käyny edes niitä kattomassa ja nyt ne muutti jo takasin. Saamaton olen :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hei joo sinne kyllä kannattaa mennä! Muu Japanikin on varmasti kiehtova, mutta Tokio on ihan über makee :)

      Delete

Related Posts with Thumbnails