Back From Tokyo!

Hi everyone, Lance here ^^. Just got back from my trip to Tokyo for the holidays and I gotta say, I had a great time! This would be my second visit to Tokyo, but with family this time around and we got to enjoy Christmas and New Years together there.

Needless to say, I did get to spend time roaming the more otaku-centric areas in the city, but I also definitely enjoyed visiting the many other different attractions in Tokyo, some I missed the first time around. I'll briefly go over some which I particularly enjoyed.

The famous Tsukiji Fish Market is the world's largest wholesale seafood market and a great place to browse and purchase any variety of fresh seafood and other produce. The browsing experience and atmosphere and great in of themselves, but Tsukiji is a definite go to place if you want to try freshly prepared seafood. I particularly enjoyed having the Amazing sushi and chirashi here, this is as fresh as seafood gets, unless you have it on a boat or something. If dining is your goal here, aim to arrive no later than 6.30am to avoid the long waits for a better experience. Some of the most popular establishments will already have long queues by then, but worry yourself too much over that, as any number of the other regular establishments serve fantastic food in their own right <3

I also really liked strolling through the numerous parks and temple grounds dotted throughout Tokyo itself. It quite a nice feeling, walking out of the incredible hustle and bustle of the city into the tranquil gardens for some nice family time. One might expect the parks to be quite barren in the winter, but I was pleasantly surprised to find there were plenty of greenery to be had, and they made a nicely novel contrast to their barer neighbors and the cityscape in the background. Highlights include the gorgeous Shinjuku Gyoen and the Meiji Jingu with its lushly green surrounding park.

I also notably finally got my chance to pay a visit to the Kanda Myojin Shrine, which was heavily featured in the LoveLive franchise and famous as a pilgrimage ground for fans of the series. Pictured above is the iconic stairs the members of μ's used for their physical training. It was a pity that the temple shops for charms and emas were closed and much of the myriad of hung emas were taken down as the temple preps for the new year, but I still enjoyed the beautiful architecture and prayed at the shrine, and the booths selling other LoveLive merchandise were very much open. If you want to see the shrine in a more  busy time of the year, you may check out snwlprd's dedicated post about it.

And of course, I loved my time spent in the otaku 'capital' of the city in Akihabara, as well as other famous places like Nakano Broadway and even Ikebukuro's Otome Street. Being immersed in the myriad of stores, cafes, arcades and countless ads all featuring any and every sort of anime or gaming related goods is a very unique experience that anyone should try given the opportunity.

My sis went a little ham on the merchandise

Going to Japan also meant that there was opportunity to acquire sweet loot! This time I went a little light on purchases due to budget and luggage space concerns, but I still came away plenty satisfied. A lot of the loot this time were primarily gifts and trinkets for friends back home, but I myself got quite the lucky find.

Please look forward to it tomorrow <3

And that's it for my quick highlight of my trip to Tokyo, hope you all had a wonderful New Years and a great year ahead.