to-kyo-to-kyo-to

For our last day in Tokyo we decided it best to just chill out and re-visit some of the places we had been, as well as hitting a few new spots.. you know, to mix it up a bit.. This place is so good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) for shopping - so much cool stuff such as little dangly figurines, lovely Japanese-y artifacts and knickknacks, fluffy toys, tapestries and neato superheroes (e.g. my guy at the moment, Anpanman, the bread-based superhero) - we just had to buy some!

Firstly, though, we wanted to see some Sumo action and so took the subway to an area called Ryogoku, where Sumo tournaments are held at various times throughout the year. Unfortunately for us, we are here at the wrong time of year, yet we did manage to check out a ring where the Grand Tournaments are held. The rest of the daylight hours were spent walking and shopping about Ueno (where we also got Purikura done - the fancy photos which you decorate) and Ginza. The evening hours were spent in our "home" area of Shinjuku and we managed to squeeze in an hour or so on some of the neat machines in a very colourful and loud game parlour.. We won 2 plush toys! Yay for us!

To top the rapidly cooling night, and our time in Tokyo off we each enjoyed an extravagant icecream from the biggest icecream chain in Japan, Baskin Robbins 31 (the 31 is the number of flavours they have on offer at any one point in time).

Sleep was quite important that evening as the majority of the next day was spent on local trains travelling from the new capital, Tokyo (meaning east capital), to the old capital, Kyoto (literally meaning the capital of the capital). Ten and a half hours, 9 train changes, a conflicting combination of much lovely undulating terrain and modern urban sprawl, awesome views of Mount Fuji (Fuji-san), and countless micro-sleeps later we arrived in Kyoto at around 2030hr.

Photos:

1. Hello Kitty!

2. You don't say..?

3. Maybe they can't read Japanese?

4. Sumo ring

5. Purikura!

6. Taxi anyone?

7. Fuji-san!