22 Days in Japan, Day 2: It’s 4:03 and I can’t sleep

Day 2. Tokyo, Japan. I wake up around 4 am and can’t get back to sleep. Jet lag is a real, real pain. And believe it or not, the sun’s already poking out. Land of the rising sun indeed.

I buy a milk box and a “meron pan” aka melon bread, at the 7-11. The bread selection is simply astounding, with all kinds of wacky pastries for sale. Good stuff. I walk to the train station satisfied with my first breakfast meal in Japan.

It’s now around 6:30 am. I head over to Ginza, one of Japan’s ritziest shopping districts. Basically lots of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and whatever other luxury names you can think of. In hindsight, there’s definitely better shopping to be had in Omote-sando, and at 6:30 in the morning, Ginza is dead (like most of Tokyo unfortunately).

But the reason I stop over here is because it’s within walking distance of the Shinbashi train station, the meeting point for the Tokyo Great Cycling Tour. The Tour is a six-hour bike jaunt through some of the major sights in the Tokyo bay area, like the famous Tsukiji fish market, the island of Odaiba, Zojyo-ji temple, and the Imperial Palace. At 10000 yen, it’s hella pricey, but it also covers your two guides, a decent bento lunch, some sushi/mochi/ice cream, and a water ferry ticket back to the mainland. You could say tip is included too. It’s not too grueling, although there are some major hills and bridges that you need to ride up. I made it in one piece even though I haven’t ridden a bicycle in over ten years.

The only problem with the tour is that it’s limited to the number of bikes they have on hand, which is like 10-12. Reservations need to be made in advance, and there’s two different tours. I luck out, considering I reserved my spot at 5:00 am, but only because one of my fellow tour-people had his own bike. Lucky!

The tour starts at the area around Edo Castle, and weaves in and around the streets of Tokyo. We hit the Tsukiji fish market at about 12:30 pm, but by then the place is already semi-deserted. If you really want to see the action (or is that auction?), plan to get here by 5 am or so. Yep, 5 am. It’s probably a good place to hit on your first day considering you won’t be sleeping much.

We stop for a picnic lunch on the island of Odaiba, a man-made isle that has a beach and a lot of other random man-made attractions, like one of the world’s tallest Ferris wheels (it was the tallest in 1999 anyway) and a hot spring/spa. It’s a relaxing point and a great place for a picnic. You can’t go in the water, though – swimming is prohibited.

After the tour ends, I join a group of Malaysian guys and we go over to Omote-sando to have a look around. We have dinner at a second-floor Italian restaurant on one of Omote-sando’s side streets. I learn another fun fact about Tokyo: pizza is hellishly expensive here. And small.