Golden Week v2: Tokyo Finale
While it felt all too quick, today was our last day in Tokyo. Despite only spending 4 days here, I found myself scrambling a bit to make a plan for the day. Thankfully, I think it was a lovely ending to our time in Tokyo.
We had a later start to our day after our night out, but eventually we got moving, setting off for Shinjuku Gyoen, a large national garden. We stopped along the way for breakfast, well, lunch really, at an onigiri (rice ball) cafe. I grabbed a lunch set and matcha latte and happily chowed down. I’m quite the creature of habit when it comes to food, so I really appreciated that Henry nudged me to eat somewhere different almost every day.
Fueled up for the day, we started walking around the garden. I brought my family here last year, and I think I’ve developed a bit of a soft spot for it. We went through the greenhouse before charting our way to the far side of the park. The weather was quite lovely, but it was definitely starting to get warm.
After about an hour or so wandering around the park, we made it to the other side, and set off towards Harajuku. We were in the awkward spot of it taking just as long to walk as it would to take the train, so we decided to walk. We strolled through a more residential area, which was nice to show Henry.
Along the way, I started getting hungry again, so I kept an eye out for some possible late lunch options. As it happened, we ended up right by a cafe that had a lovely chicken pesto sandwich to split and some drinks to help us recharge. Our seat was right in the sun though, so as soon as we finished eating I sprayed on another layer of sunscreen.
Before long, we started to see more and more people as we reached the ever crowded Takeshita street. I’ve come through here a few times, only once seriously intending to shop. It’s a fun area, but always crowded, and I feel finding the best places to shop would require much more local knowledge than I happen to have.
We pushed our way through the crowds as we wandered somewhat aimlessly. I remembered that Cat Street was over in this area, and figured that was as good a destination as any. It’s less crowded than Takeshita street, but still has plenty of high end stores, and feels like a trendy area.
Neither of us planned on doing much shopping though, so it was more of an excuse to walk around rather than a destination we planned on spending much time at. Since I’d already led us to this area, I figured we could also knock out one place I’d never gotten around to visiting, Meiji Jingu.
While one of Tokyo’s most famous shrines, I never actually had the chance to visit. It always felt slightly out of the way, and just never seemed to line up with whatever I was doing in the area. It felt like a good landmark to see, and also, I was starting to scramble for ideas.
I was surprised how far of a walk it is from the entrance to Meiji Jingu to the actual main shrine. It feels more like you’re walking through a park until you reach the actual shrine. We spent a while taking pictures, and observing some kind of ceremony taking place, but we didn’t stick around all that long.
On our way back, we stopped for Henry to use the washroom, and I racked my brain for places to go and things to do. We’d covered a shocking amount of Tokyo, including places I’d never been before. A lot of the big districts and most iconic landmarks we had seen, and so I wasn’t quite sure what to suggest. It didn’t help that my feet were protesting pretty loudly, made more by the heat.
When Henry came back, we sat for a bit, mostly looking at our phones, before deciding to head back to our room. We could rest up for a bit, do a bit of packing, and then venture out for our final hurrah in Tokyo. By the time I got back to the hotel room, I crawled into my bed and quickly went down for a nap.
Feeling energized after my power nap, and with everything more or less packed, we set out for some ramen, and to head to a dart bar. Darts, or sport bars more broadly, always seem surprisingly popular here, but I’ve never actually played. We found a quaint little bar, probably only 8 patrons, but it had a nice atmosphere and a friendly owner who spoke good English.
We asked for some change, tried our best to navigate the machine, and played a round of 501. It was fun to play a game we were both quite bad at, there were no real stakes, and it was probably more comedic than anything. We stayed pretty neck and neck, I even managed to land a bullseye, but Henry ended up taking the game. Beginner's luck.
After a drink or two, we left the darts bar and made our way to a bar we went to earlier in the week. We had intended to just have a chill night before traveling to Osaka tomorrow, but after meeting another patron, the night quickly got away from us. When we started chatting he was already pretty inebriated, and before long he was buying us drinks, forgetting his own, and roping in other patrons to his shenanigans.
It was possibly our “wildest” night out, though we certainly weren’t the wild ones. Either way, it was a funny ending to our time in Tokyo. We laughed all the way back to our hotel room. I was sure we’d be tired in the morning for traveling to Osaka, but I knew there were plenty more adventures to be had, and I was looking forward to all of them.
