Japan: Day 3 - Tsukiji Fish Market, Ginza, Akihabara, and Shinkansen

Day 3 (early morning)

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

The Tsukiji Fish Market is a unique place that I recommend visiting.

Early in the morning, 5-6am?, they held the world famous Tuna auction. The recommendations I read said that it's good to be there before 5am in order to get a visitor pass. It seems that they only give 140 visitor passes per day. In any case, it's a small number, so I started walking at 4:30am to get in. It's winter and the weather is cold but bearable at this time of day. The temperature probably was about 5 Celsius, not too bad. Also, Tokyo's weather is dry this time of year.

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

One of the reasons I picked the Ginza Hotel Capital Main is that it's quite close to Tsukiji, less than 10 blocks, a 10 minutes walk. It was all good, until I got into the market and was told that the Tuna auction is closed to visitors all December until January 23rd... bummer. Having to wake up so early during vacation was kind of a torture, but well, part of the market is still open at this time, and I spent about an hour walking around and watching the huge number of small shops, each one with its own character.

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

 There are lots of small restaurants, offering every kind of sushi and fish dishes.... I'm used to just a cup of coffee and some bread in the morning; I had a breakfast at a tiny and nice coffee shop around the corner on Harumi Dori Street (cross street is Shin-ohashi Dori). The cost of a cup of coffee plus a small pastry was Y500 (about u$6.5).

Tsukiji Fish Market - Tokyo

Day3 (morning)
After checking out from the hotel, we used the free shuttle they offered to get to Tokyo station and leave our carry on bags on lockers.



There are 3 types of lockers, small, medium (Y400, u$5.1), and large (Y600). The medium size will easily fit a standard carry in luggage plus a couple small bags. The large size would fit a big bag, or two carry ins. But all the large lockers and most of the medium ones were already occupied. There are many lockers in Tokyo station, you can see them identified as a small green square in the station map.
I don't know how long does the locker stay closed, but after it is opened, it can't be locked back unless the fee is paid again.
BTW, the free shuttle runs every 20 minutes or so until 9:50am. I don't neither know at what time it starts or whether this is available the whole year. I just noticed that it was available on a poster inside the elevator, while going down to the lobby to check out. I was lucky with this one, as I didn't know it was offered by the hotel. Also, notice that the shuttle (they call it Group Bus to Tokyo Station) leave from the Annex building, two blocks away. The staff from the Main hotel called the Annex, asking them to wait for us.

Day3 (afternoon)
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the Ginza area, visiting stores and malls, and had lunch at a bar called Pronto, located outside in Yuraucho station. I'm mentioning it here because they have a low cost meal: Spaghetti with meat sauce for only Y630 (u$7.79).
Afterwards, we took the JR train to Akihabara (electronic town), where manga (comics) and all kind and sizes of electronics shops can be found. Some buildings had 4 floors full of arcade games, with lots of young kids playing. In one floor, a kid was jumping on one of those dancing games, his photo camera fell out of his pocket, and he didn't even look where it fell. I put the camera close to him, and he barely moved the head to thank me. He was submerged in the game all the time... this is perhaps what some call computer game addition.
After an hour in Akihabara we took the train to Tokyo station.
Tokyo station is huge and crowded. We played safe and got back one hour before the train departure. This gave us time to pick up the bags from the locker, buy some dinner sandwiches, and visit some stores. Tokyo station is big and looks as a very big shopping mall.

Tower at Kyoto Station

Remember that trains depart on time to the minute. Also, they arrive when planned. The next hotel was the Hokke Club Kyoto, located very conveniently just across the arrival place, Kyoto Station. Literally, just across the street. The hotel front door isn't too big, you'll see small restaurant on the first floor and escalator that goes to the hotel lobby. Google map showed the hotel wrongly, two blocks away, so be careful. We found it only after asking in another hotel of the area.

Hotel Hokke Club Kyoto

The staff at the Hokke Club Kyoto is friendly. The hotel is small, but nice. The room is also small but looks quite new, good bed with firm mattress, quiet place, includes free wired broadband internet, high definition TV (paid movies and free Japanese channels), small fridge, water heater and tea bags, the bathroom isn't great but the shower is good, toilette with bidet. The room lights are turned off/on with a remote. Also, the heater/air conditioner is controlled via a remote. The remotes are in Japanese, but AC English instructions are given at the time of check in. Hints: Blue button turns cooling on. Red button turns heater on. Green button is the humidifier. Bottom left button is the temperature control in Celsius.
Something that I found really helpful is that the hotel prepared 5 walking tours and left the maps on the lobby (close to the elevators). They also give photocopies that guest can take with them. This is a big time saver in case somebody -as I- didn't get to Kyoto with a well defined tour plan.
Outside the hotel, within a block, you'll find coffee shops, french bakery, and some fast food restaurant. Starbucks and MacDonald are close (we go to Japanese restaurants for a full local experience, but it is good to have some backups). Also, lots of food places are available inside the Kyoto train station.

Tips & Tricks

• Before leaving the hotel, ask for directions at the lobby to avoid getting lost and wasting time. Many street signs are in Japanese only! Still, you can find people on the sidewalks and Japanese are very helpful with directions. In my experience, most of them can help even if they speak little English.
• Go directly to the Fish Information Center, located on a corner of the market. This is the only place where you can get the (free) visitor pass. I think that they might have maps of the market, but I already had one and didn't ask here.
• Inside the market, you can ask the guards for direction. Some of them have very good maps of the area. They will give it away for free.
• Be careful with vehicles inside the market. Small and big trucks, bikes, and others drive on every direction, too close or even on the pedestrian trail (which is practically on the road).
• Trash bins aren't available in every block (or every other block) as in other countries. You need to take your trash with you (water bottle, candy paper, etc.) .... but Japanese actually use them. The convenience stores, such as Family Mart, have recycle bins on the front or inside, close to the entrance.