Tsukiji market - free
We started our day with the visit of Tsukiji which is worldly know for its food and seafood. We did not go at 5am as we had been told it was a bit of a tourist trap - there are so many tourists going that this has become an auction show for tourists basically. When we went mid-morning, it was crowded, but totally expected! What else for such a famous food market! Plenty to see and to taste around! For us, it was a little bit too early to taste fish and seafood mid-morning. But if you come close to lunch time, this can be great!
Traditional breakfast in Japan is not very different from any other meal, therefore you will often end up being served ramen or rice for breakfast. This was the meal we found to hardest to adjust to. Therefore, we usually ended up having grabbing breakfast at Starbucks!
Hamarikyu garden - 300 yens
After our (almost) daily Starbucks, we headed to the very beautiful Hamarikyu garden, located 10 min away from the market. This is probably one of the finest garden you can find in Tokyo with a lot of very nice trees. In the middle of the garden, you can find a little island with a tea pavilion.
Ginza district
From the garden, we walked throughout Ginza district towards Tokyo station. Ginza district is a wealthy commercial area, with all the famous luxury stores and upper brands. Nothing to do with Tsukiji market! This is a great stop if you have a generous budget to shop.
We then continued our way walking to the Imperial Palace.
Imperial Palace gardens - free
We entered the Imperial Palace garden through the Otemon Gate and walked towards the East Garden, the main park of the palace. It was pretty but we found it extremely pretty; fishes were particularly impressive.
The Imperial Palace, formerly Edo Castle, is still surrounded by its original innermost moat. We have not visited the Imperial Castle itself but note that there are tours organised for it and reservations can be made via the website up to one month in advance.
Exiting the park, we then took the direction of the Nijubashi bridge (double-bridge). Behind the bridges rises the Edo-era Fushimi-yagura watchtower.
Tokyo Station - free
After the tour, we came back to Tokyo station which is a pretty re-brick building. We recommend you to have a tour in the commercial area inside the station and visit Character street. You can find all sorts of funny stores, all cliches!
Korean dinner at Okubo
Back to Shinjuku area, we went for dinner to a Korean restaurant called Itaro, located in Shin Okubo Korean Town (1-chōme-16-29 Ōkubo). They were a little bit surprised to see tourists and asked if we were speaking Japanese or Korean, always a good sign I suppose! Lots of people were waiting so we put our name on the list and in the meantime, I went to a Korean beauty shop in the corner across the street to buy a few beauty masks. The food was good, they has a large selection of BBQ-style dishes as well as other traditional Korean dishes.
Don Quijote shopping
On our way back to Shinjuku, we made a stop at the famous store called Don Quijote. You can find plenty around Tokyo, and you can really find a lot of random things there! Again, better to know what you are after before going!
Evening playing arcade games!
Back to Shinjuku area, we had a fun night playing arcades at the local Sega center. A must-do! In order to play, you would need to use coins, but there are plenty of machines inside the game center to get some change.
A typical game will cost you about 100 yens. You will find multiple types of games.
1/ Crane Games - probably one of the most profitable game for the game center - although it seems that the machines are not rigged and it might be easier to get a prize in Japan than in other countries!
2/ Rhythm games - guitar-heroe, dancing-game, drums, etc. I tested the dancing game and I looked ridiculous next to a local 16-year old local boy!
3/ Fighting/Shooting game
4/ Racing game including Mario Kart multi-player. We loved this one!
5/ VRs (Virtual Reality games)
6/ Purikura photo booths - usually costs 400-500 yens - if you want to have a good laugh and great souvenirs, just go for it! This is a revised and fun version of the photobooth where you will be able to tweet and pick a theme for your pictures! They are all different. At the end, they all got printed on stickers.
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