Marunouchi (丸の内) is an upscale commercial district in Chiyoda (千代田区) ward between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. It’s the center of Japan’s financial industry and is packed with glistening skyscrapers and identical-looking men wearing dark suites. After a night of heavy rain I visited on a bright Friday morning and wandered through the business district to the outer edges of Tokyo Imperial Palace (皇居).
I was very pleased to be asked by Ctrip’s China Travel blog to be interviewed as part of their Blogger Spotlight – check out my ramblings about life in China here (embarrassing picture included)! A big thanks to Aimee Groom for making this happen.
I thought I’d take a break this week from relaying my travel tales to bring you some useful info for anyone planning a trip to Japan themselves. For me the planning part is as much a part of the holiday as the time spent travelling itself – there’s something innately enjoyable about working out where you want to go, how to navigate your way around and where to stay.
If you ever want to experience the worlds busiest train station then head to Shinjuku (新宿区) in Tokyo which handles a staggering three million+ passengers a day with 35 tracks and over 200 exits! Around rush hour you’d be lucky to ever find your way out the station such is the labyrinth of passages leading in all directions. I visited the area a couple of time during my trip and below is a roundup of some of the sights I encountered…
Harajuku (原宿) is an area north of Shibuya (next to Meiji Shrine) which is renowned as the center of Japan’s extreme teenage fashion styles where young people gather on Sundays to socialise and show-off. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to visit on a Sunday but I did wander around the adjacent shopping district and came across a few interesting places of note.
Tokyo’s urban sprawl appears almost endless when viewed from the Metropolitan Government Offices except for one oasis of green in the south. The forest here is home to the Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) which is dedicated to the first Emperor of modern Japan and it was here that I went on my first afternoon in Japan.
After arriving in Tokyo my first port of call was the area where I would be staying; Shibuya (渋谷) in the southwest on the city on the Yamanote line. If you’ve ever watched a travel documentary about Tokyo before then you will have undoubtedly seen the iconic “scramble crossing” directly outside the station with its enormous video screens and neon advertisements.
Arriving at Haneda airport on a slightly overcast Wednesday morning was not the most auspicious way to enter Japan for the first time but even in my severely sleep-deprived state there was still a sense of excitement in the air. I had made it. Finally after literally years of false starts I was in Tokyo and ready to lap up the experience.
For the last few weeks in Shenzhen we’ve been experiencing bouts of torrential rain almost daily and when you add to this the occasional typhoon then you’re in for a fun ride. As an Englishman I’m not usually caught without an umbrella but on the odd occasion I do forget there’s not much to do but find shelter.
I was having lunch at Jin Yue Xuan 金悦轩 dim sum restaurant in Futian (Shenzhen) recently when I noticed something unusual out of the corner of my eye; all the chefs were women. The world of professional cooking is traditionally dominated by men, you only have to look at the celebrity chefs on TV to see the unequal proportions, and in China even more so.