MONDAY 8TH MARCH - LAST DAY IN TOKYO

We met our tour guide and tour group this morning. All very nice people. The tour group are a group of 20 Aussies (10 couples of a similar age) so there is nobody who have yet exhibited any irritating habits.

We stated the day with a visit to the fish market. It was much more intriguing than it sounded. The range of product available for sale and the conditions in which they are sold are quite incredible.

 

The staff run around in a vehicle which is a cross between a utility and a dodgem car.

 

From there we went to Ginza for a brief exploration of the shopping precinct. Again, it doesn't sound particularly captivating but we only had time for the partial exploration of one complex but again, it was quite incredible.

 

Lunch was a banquet of Japanese food in a very smart restaurant. Very well done. Most of us managed the delicate food with chopsticks but a fork was available.

After lunch, we visited two venues that we had previously visited, the Skytree and the nearby Buddhist Temple but today's experiences were quite different.

 

The view from Skytree was very restricted because of the smog. Much more so than yesterday so we were very glad that we saw it yesterday. The view was, of course, nothing like the promotional photo.

 

We skipped the temple complex itself this afternoon and focussed on the associated shopping precinct. Well worth exploration in its own right.

Tomorrow we head for Mt. Fuji and Haneda. We will pass through Tokyo again at the end of our trip but there won't be any time for exploration. While we have only had three full days here, we feel that we have learnt an awful lot and are well equipped to handle this incredible city should we get back here in the future.