Ponds, towers and sushi

Is it possible to explore Tokyo in a day? Yes. Although my feet are now throbbing from the 12 hours of walking. We started our day in the Ueno district, taking in street markets and the beautiful shrine in Ueno garden, which is also home to a giant pond and a zoo. After walking round the pond a few times (technically got a tad lost as the map shown in the garden had south as upwards) we headed south towards the imperial palace. 

This is probably a good time to mention our friend we made. Pretty sure he's called Fernando (don't want to be rude and ask again) and he's from Chile but lives in New Zealand. Fernando tagged along with us all day as he's travelling alone but didn't talk too much. I think he may have been in his own little world but he seems very sweet. 

We walked round the palace gardens and we walked all the way to South Tokyo to see Tokyo tower. If you don't know what it looks like just picture the Eiffel Tower but white and red instead. We saw all the touristy stuff basically. Tokyo in the day time isn't at all what I thought it would be. It's quiet and there aren't any bright lights. However, I think it was at about 5pm that the streets just became swarmed with people and as the sky got darker the lights got brighter. It was like Times Square but with Japanese signs that are impossible to read. 

Enough about sights, the food was far more exciting. For lunch we found a little shop that sold ready made food in containers. I went for what I think was a deep fried pork ball with noodles, rice, potato cake and pickles. A lot of carbs. It was good though. I also decided to be adventurous and try out a fancy drink. I've named it weetabix juice. It was disgusting. 

For tea we were in the shinjuku district. There was far too much choice so after about 20 minutes wandering aimlessly we chose a sushi restaurant. One with a revolving bar. I'm always apprehensive about sushi as I think of it having a hefty price tag but I had 5 plates and unlimited green tea (there was a hot water tap at the bar so you helped yourself and added the green tea powder) which all came to under £5. Bargain. Two people next to us did get through 26 plates though. That was maybe pricey. But I t was all delicious and made in front of you. The sushi was probably the highlight of my day.