Tokyo - enjoying it more and more

Here we are getting used to Tokyo more and more. Today was the second day and we had a very lazy start to the day - so bad that we missed breakfast because we went down at around 10.40 only to be told that breakfast is served only till 10am.

We therefore had to make do with an American breakfast - i.e. Starbucks sandwiches. Giulia had a Frappucino with caramel and I had a good espresso - first one here in Japan - since I have been forced to drink tea by the Japanese :-).

We then headed for the Hamarikyu gardens which are surrounded by skyscrapers wherever you look. Here we went mad taking many photos - by the end of it, when we got back to the hotel, in fact the number of photos taken today was 275.

People continued to be extremely nice, at these gardens we were sitting down on a bench relaxing and a Japanese man came to us and asked me for the camera so he could take us a photo. The photo, which can be seen on www.flickr.com/photos/brincs/ was very well taken.

After a walk around the park we decided to go to a tea room but it was packed and we did not feel like basking in the sun (temperature was around 25C).

Just to prove their obsession with cleanliness, there were these three men working in the park and one of them was actually in a boat scooping out the sea-weed from the pond. Really impressive. From the park we could see the Tokyo tower - a look alike of the Eiffel tower completed in 1958. We will have to go closer to see whether its so similar when seen from closer quarters.

We then took a boat-ride to the Senso-ji temple and ate some noodles and tempura from street stalls. The place was packed with people all taking photos and bowing down to the buddhas.

The plan was to go to Ueno Park from here but we decided to leave it for tomorrow and head to the electronics quarter or Akibabara. European techies would go crazy here with countless shops selling any type of electronic equipment you can imagine. Shopkeepers were outside calling people in using a microphone and speakers - no wonder this is the land of karaoke.

Some people in this quarter were dressed like manga characters but we are noticing in general that the fashion sense here is top notch. Most people walk around in designer items and are impeccably dressed. Shopping and the department stores are simply out of this world simply on a different planet to anything else we have seen before.

After Akihabara we decided to go back to Ginza where we stopped for a tea in a cafeteria overlooking a very busy crossroads and people-watched for an hour.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel. But on the way, Giulia had noticed a sushi restaurant the night before and we decided to try it out. We had to wait to be seated as the place was full - always a good sign - and the fare was simply fabulous. We could not stop eating and the chef was very nice and even gave us a complementary portion filling our plate while his boss was not looking. Now that's what we call service!!! We think that before creating Brand Malta, the Malta Tourism Authority should have sent some people over here to learn some lessons.