Tokyo Sightseeing – Our camper tour comes to an end

After returning our Mazda Bongo campervan to Japan Campers it was time to head to our hotel for the last 2 nights and some Tokyo Sightseeing. The hotel we ended up staying at was the Sakura Hotel Hatagaya. It was well located and reasonably priced. The hotel staff were friendly and welcoming and we will always remember the hotel for the earthquake that woke us up early one morning. It was a 7.4 magnitude that struck off the coast of Fukushima and Tokyo seemed to carry on as normal.

Tokyo Sightseeing – The places

One Tokyo landmark that appears on years every must see list is the Meiji Jingu shrine. Even when there are lots of tourists visiting the place seems to have a calm feeling that you don’t get in many places in Tokyo. During our two visits there seemed to be weddings taking place which allowed for some interesting photographic opportunities.

Named after Emperor Meiji who died in 1912, the shrine is much more modern than most you visit in Japan. Located in a forest it’s also a great place to cool down if it’s too hot in the rest of the city.

Another place we were keen to visit was the famous Shibuya Crossing, reported to be the busiest in the world. It’s also close to where a statue of Haachi is located. Haachi or Hachik? was an Akita dog, famous for its loyalty. Each day Haachi would leave the house to head to Shibuya station to greet his owner from work. When his owner died suddenly, Haachi continued to visit the station at the same time every day, for another 9 years until his own death.

Most of the locations we visited in Tokyo were fairly central. One exception though was the Rainbow bridge which required a subway trip. We had seen some great photos of the bridge at night but during our visit we were unable to capture the same effect. We did take the following photograph though which features a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. This area has some extensive views back to central Tokyo and you often get an interesting sunset.

Tokyo Sightseeing – The People

Both Ewelina and I were keen to do some street photography and capture the people of Tokyo. One popular area to do this is the Karajuku area, where Tokyo’s young and trendy people like to hang out. I guess in some ways Camden would be an equivalent in London, but I hardly consider myself either young or trendy. The streets of this area were busy but we instantly knew we were in the right place when we arrived. There was no doubt that this is where people go to be seen and get noticed. The image that appears at the top of this article is from this district as are the next two images.

I would have liked more time in Tokyo, especially to take more photographs at night. To be honest by the end of this trip we were quite tired and looking forward to getting back to the UK and our dog Archie. If you happen to be Japan soon and are interested in learning more about Tokyo sightseeing locations you could do worse than visit the following website.