Tokyo and the famous mountain

Three days in Tokyo went by super fast, and I feel like I didn't actually do much. But I probably did; it's just that the city is so huge, so you can't see it all in that time. Let's see some photos of what we filled our days with!

Just a lot of walking around on cute small streets, discussing why it is common to have those curtains in front of the entrance. Our first theory was privacy for the people inside, but then Alex started to lean towards it being to keep the hot air inside escaping when someone enters. Oh well, it's the sort of question the Internet surely would answer in a heartbeat, but I'll just go on with my own theories for now, I think.

On Saturday, we went to heaven. That is, Kappabashi Street, also known as Kitchen Tools Street. I love everything kitchen, machines, tools, highly specific baking equipment, so it really was lovely walking around.

Just browsing the ceramics.

I was on a mission to buy a Japanese knife. I had even set my eyes on a certain store, but when we got there, there were so many people, so I skipped it. But I think it was for the better because now I've read up more on knives and what to consider when buying one, such as the material you want, etc.
I'll buy one from Kyoto or Osaka instead.

Maybe you've heard of Tsukiji Outer Market? A famous fish market in Tokyo. Up until a few years ago, there used to be a famous tuna auction held in these hoods every morning, where the restaurants would go and bid on the day's tuna catch. The actual auction moved to another place, but the market around it (the outer market) still remains. This was on my Tokyo to-do list, but it was awful! There were so many people that it was all just a giant stressor. And yes, we did everything wrong, I suppose, and if you want to minimize that happening to you, just do the opposite of what we did. (That is, do not go on a sunny, lovely Saturday in cherry blossom season!). I had some places here, including a coffee shop I was looking forward to trying, but I just gave up as soon as I saw the queues to places.

A stroll in Yoyogi Park to calm down.

In the Asakusa area, kind of where the Kitchen Tools street is, I took this ugly picture to remember where I had my best cappuccino in a long time.

It really was golden. The place is called Cherry Lab Coffee so that is my coffee recommendation for you!

Here is the famous Shibuya Crossing. I always thought this looked so cool in movies and pictures, but it was mostly just... too many people and stress. Someone walked into my shoulder really hard (or well, I suppose I walked into them equally as much), so the crossing was mostly just ouch to me.

Five to ten minutes on the subway from Shibuya is an area called Shimokitazawa. It was like its own little town with a calmer, more laid-back feeling to it, famous for a lot of great vintage shopping. I really liked it there. If I were to go back to Tokyo I would probably try to stay in this area.
I found a record shop and randomly bought three Japanese 7" singles to bring home completely based on their covers. Looking forward to giving them a listen at home!

On our last day in Tokyo, we had booked a day trip to Mt. Fuji. The initially bad weather cleared up, and we got to see this holy mountain from almost its best side.

However, as I've already stated a few times in this blog post, the big downside is the sheer amount of people. This picture really doesn't do it justice; it was so crowded. We queued for an hour to get up using the panoramic ropeway, spent maybe 10 minutes up there, and then queued for another hour to get down. I would recommend completely skipping this spot, called the Mt. Fuji 5th station, and instead go to other nice viewpoints around the mountain.

Here we are looking at it from another spot. Still crowded, but no need to wait in line for the ropeway, and I think the view is even better from here. Plus, good ice cream!

Our tour also made a stop at an Eat All You Can strawberry farm. The first few were tasty, but then my taste buds kicked in. I realised the Japanese strawberries are all sweetness and not much personality.
In Sweden (and I'm sure in other countries...), our strawberries have a bigger and more interesting profile than simply sweetness and nothing else. But they were very beautiful at least.

I recommend not using the tour we did, or any tour for that matter, when visiting Mt. Fuji. The transportation from Tokyo is great, and with some research and timetables, you can really just go around by yourself. Well, lesson learned!

The day after, we left Tokyo for new adventures!