Destination Tokyo

Alright ladies and gentlemen, the much anticipated Gitarelle tour of Asia starts now! I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats for a year and a half after the conclusion of my European adventure just waiting to see what I'll do next; well strap in because you're in for a treat.

The flight here was not as long as Europe of course, but had its own set of up's an downs. I didn't sleep as much on the flight as I normally do; as a result I wasn't in much of a mood for photography when I arrived. The next day however was earmarked for the usual stroll around the city to get oriented. Well - Tokyo is the largest city in the world by population at the moment and so you can't just stroll around in a day and see everything it has to offer.

The first destination I headed for was the Imperial Palace, since it's fairly prominent on the Google Maps page, this involved navigating the Tokyo train network, which was just a hint at how massive the greater Tokyo area truly is. Here are some of the photos of the journey and the short walk around the Imperial Palace park.

Unfortunately the Palace seems require a guided tour booking so it wasn't meant to be. Instead I consulted with the brains trust (which in this instance was a friend of mine from Australia who I was able to rope into the first leg of the trip) and it was decided to head over to Shibuya to wander around there and do the famous Shibuya crossing.

As you can see at the end there we were able to find some food and a craft distillery with a friendly little Pug. Turned out he was the owner's Pug and we had a great chat with his human about the Gin. His human was very flattered by our compliments and interested to hear that we sought him out because of craft distilleries in Australia.

The shopping here is just insane - it's overwhelming and like going to an alien planet where you can buy anything you want. Overall we're off to a great start. Tune in next week for more adventures in Tokyo as we start to unpack the neighbourhoods that make up this sprawling cityscape.