Japan In-depth 2025 – day 30 – Sun 27/04

Warning – you will need your big boots / pants on to wade though today’s incredible adventure. 

It’s ironic that our last days is possibly one of the most clement we have had all cruise, so we breakfast on our veranda overlooking the Hammerhead terminal where it all started 28 days ago, and of course where we had our tourist-day in Yokohama 14 days ago. 

Today, our driver is waiting to take us away. These Toyota Alphard minivans are gorgeous – incredible luxury and a huge space. A fellow traveller took these from the tower near to Quest.

I’m a bit bowled over by the route, quite different to the last two times, today we take the tunnel underneath Tokyo for almost it’s entire length of 23 km, before emerging a few km beyond our hotel. It’s a phenomenal way to traverse the city, a super efficient saving. It’s quite amusing that SatNav continues to work in the tunnel, presumably they have created some form of replication – I haven’t t got my head around the maths yet, but I get the concept. Talking of SatNavs it’s quite funny our driver has the car talking to him in Japanese and his phone speaking Chinese!

We arrive at our hotel and drop the bags into safekeeping. We are amused by the robot room stewards – when it calls a lift, it paces back and forth waiting just like an impatient customer might!!

We then head off on our day’s adventure. Firstly bemused by the queues all around us for goodness knows what. Initially we assumed it was just food – we’re perplex that people will queue to get into a restaurant, but it seems to be quite the accepted thing here. Anyway we think that these people are all queuing to get onto some gaming system?

We continue to head south, past a railway station and then a fire station, to get to Meiji Jingo shrine, and inner garden. The latter is a gorgeous cultivated gardens where royalty used to relax. Then we visit the shrine, and are pleased to capture a wedding taking place. 

We complete our walk around this beautiful area before heading further South, watching as a go-cart tour passes by – our not-nephews did this recently but it’s probably not for us! 

Next up is the iconic multi-way pedestrian crossroad known as the Shibuya Scramble Crossing. It is said that over 3000 people cross here at each rotation of the traffix lights, we can certainly believe this! 

Next up is the tranquil house of Kyu Asakura, a notable man built early 1900’s it remains very traditional. 

Our final venture southward is to Nakameguro which is an affluent area. Here we find a fabulous sculpture park, at first all women although we find a second area with abstract concepts. 

We take lunch in the beautiful riverside park, before commencing our return. Walking accross Tokyo is like being in a 2-dimensiónal ant‘s nest. There are people coming at you all the time, from every direction, but somehow there is hardly a crash nor cross word. The rule is keep left, but this can be rescinded without notice when it suits!

Our last pace of call is: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a truly spectacular place where if felt like half (the ones not shopping!) of Tokyo is. From Azalea Hill to the formal gardens, from the greenhouse to the Korean pagoda, there is much to see. 

The area around our hotel is certainly fascinating, and very probably quite naughty at night! It was a good walk.

We finish up dining at our hotel, where we are pleasantly surprised to find a six-course tasting menu which is quite exceptional. Japanese potato and cream cheese, snow crab with avacado tartare and white balsamic sauce, asparagus with poached egg and Pecorino Romano, fennel and sea bass fettuccine, beef thigh (rump?) and finally Sakura and strawberry vacherin – wonderful!