Japan Tour Part 2: Tokyo

Wednesday, March 18: DIY Tokyo Day

Today was an entirely free day in Tokyo, so we took advantage of not having any time commitments to sleep in a bit and have a more leisurely breakfast. Our priority destination was Gotokuji Temple aka the Lucky Cat Temple. Our Tokyo metro tourist passes were only valid for part of the trip there, so we had to pay a fare adjustment when we got off to switch to the Setagaya line, which is one of the few remaining trams lines in the region. A friendly staff person helped us with purchasing Passmo cards for this train line, and we totally lucked out with our timing by getting the special cat-themed tram for the trip to the cat temple!

Once we arrived at the right stop, we followed other folks towards the temple to revel in the hordes of lucky cats on site, some of which were tucked into fun spots throughout the temple grounds.

I'm very appreciative of Mr. E for indulging my cat love and spending part of our day visiting this site! When we headed back to Tokyo, we decided to visit the famous Shibuya crossing but had a bit of a challenge actually finding the right location. I have to admit that it didn't seem quite as impressive as I had expected, given other images and videos we'd seen of it prior to our trip.

We found a Starbucks for coffee and pseduo-lunch (not many options for me, and why is there mayo-based sauce on everything???) but weren't successful with visiting the nearby observation deck because all of the tickets for the day were sold out. On our way back to the hotel, Mr. E took a side journey to the Ginza area to procure a new Rimowa carry-on bag and I finally found the right type of ATM at the train station to get some more cash.

After resting for a bit, we decided to check out the Tokyo Tower, which was in walking distance from our hotel. We picked a perfect time since it was still light as we went up to the top and gradually got darker as we enjoyed the view, so we got to see the city panorama from different perspectives as the sun went down. 

We decided to take the outside stairs down for a different experience, which also gave us a view over the low-level rooftop pickleball court that's part of the building at the base of the tower!

Once we returned to the hotel, I had a spring roll from the grocery store for dinner while Mr. E tried a local pizza spot. Then time to pack and turn in for the night in anticipation of our transition the next morning.