Our last stop on this six week Asian trip was in Tokyo. I had found a relatively cheap flight from Singapore to the Japanese capital, and from there we could use our Aeroplan points with ANA (star alliance) to get back to Vancouver.

Tokyo was cold and rainy, which is to be expected in February, but one doesn’t come to this city for the weather so it was fine. Since this was Ally’s first trip here, we split our time between Taito and Shibuya to cover large chunk of the city. We landed at Haneda and trained to our first stay which was K’s House Hostel near Asakusa station. I had stayed here once before and it was as I remembered it, quiet and clean with super friendly staff. Definitely not a party hostel but it’s a good place to rest up.

The whole Senjo-ji shrine area actually proved to be pretty sleepy mid-week. Considering it was the middle of the winter I’m not sure why I was surprised, but we made the most of it nonetheless. We explored around the temple and hit up some good restaurants in the area. We then moved across town to the Cerulean Tower hotel in Shibuya, which was a major upgrade. This is probably one of the best hotels in one of the best neighbourhoods in the world, so the price is justifiable in my opinion. Once there, our Tokyo visit ramped up, with solid nights in Golden Gai, Harajuku and the surrounding areas. It was a great way to end a memorable trip to South East Asia. As usual, here are some random photos in no particular order.

Great Italian spot in Shibuya. You can basically get the best of any type of food in Tokyo and this meal was no exception. I actually forget the name of the restaurant (I’m a terrible food blogger) but it was a little whole in the wall that almost had a cave-like vibe. We sat at the bar and dummied pasta and wine.

For those who know ramen they may recognize this bowl as Ichiran, the famous Japanese chain known for their vending machine ordering system (and delicious broth/noods). We grabbed this bowl while shopping in Harajuku. The line-up was about 30 minutes long, which is  fairly standard for this place and completely worth it in my opinion.