Monday June 25th 2007 - Tokyo

On a train trip back from Kiruna to Stockholm about a week ago, I had a conversation with a railway magazine editor, and in answering my question, he mentioned Japan as one of a rare example in which privatization has been successful for public rail transportation. Today, I had an opportunity to get a first-hand experience on part of the systems.

I met up with my high school classmate at Hotel Nikko Narita where I stay. She was practically my tourist guide for the whole day. We took a shuttle bus from the hotel to go to a train station at Narita Airport. Then we took a metro train for about 90 minutes to our first stop, Asakusa.



Asakusa is the old capital, and consists of retrospective streets that bring you back to the time when Tokyo was once called Edo. You can find all kind of Japanese traditional souvenirs including the samurai swords and ninja collectible dolls. We went to a sushi-bar style restaurant called Magorobito. This place is well known for its freshest and tastiest sushi on the budget. We then walked to Sensoji Temple, the oldest temple in the city that was built in 628. Other attractions there are Asakusajinja Shrine and the pagoda. Before leaving the town, we went to a restaurant called Owaria to have a Soba noodle with prawn tempura.



We then went to Akihabara, or Electric City. It is an area with the most advanced electric products. I spent about 30 minutes on an electronic massage chair for relaxing. Then we took a JR East line to Shinjuku, a place where a lot of young people hang out. We strolled down a street to a building called Opera City for a dinner at the 53rd floor of the building. We had a 7-course meal of tofu prepared in traditional Japanese style. Yes, different kind of it. Even the desert is tofu vanilla ice cream. If you are a food adventurer, this place is a must-go, Tofuya Restaurant.