Up early again. I think this is the only trip I have done so far where I found the need to wake up early everyday. This time is such that I can reach Tsukiji Fish Market (somewhat) earlier. Tried asking for a late check out to no avail, so duly checked out early in the morning and left my luggage with reception because I didn’t think I’ll be back in time for check out. 

9am is not early enough for Tsukiji though. Plenty of people already. Spending some time queuing for a coffee fix first doesn’t help matters though…so by the time I got my coffee and a few sips in…the rain came. It wasn’t very heavy to be honest, but it was brought about by a windy weather which persisted throughout the day so while I immediately ducked into the nearest combini to buy my transparent umbrella…a huge gust of wind snapped one of the supports within 10minutes. Zzzz so much for bringing it back to SG. 

And the rain did absolutely nothing to dampen the crowd, so there’s queue everywhere. Forget about sampling fresh seafood from different shops, this is just about finding one that have short-ish queues and just going in. And to be honest I think everybody’s seafood is fresh anyway. 

Didn’t see too much point hanging around and queuing for sushi restaurants, so left for my next destination. In my quest for sweets I found this fruit sando recommendation which was sort of 顺路 for me (I was heading towards Harajuku/Shibuya) so decided to make a stop. But I hadn’t realize that this neighborhood was famous for Sakura too. So it was a pleasant surprise..one of the joys of solo unplanned travel IMO. Even if the wind and drizzle, and the fact that we are really at the tail end of the bloom period makes the photos less impressive haha. 

Off to Harajuku! I remember being impressed by the neighborhood the last time I was here. Spent some time hopping between sneaker shops, was close to buying a pair but ended up not buying anything because I decided that i didn’t like it as much as I thought. Meanwhile Takeshita Street was just wayyyyy too crowded so literally just walked through it. 

Back to hotel, collected my luggage, and short ride to my next hotel. Got impressed again, because I booked it a while ago and I had forgotten that I booked a room with nice view. And got wowed by it all over again.

Rested a bit and head out for early dinner again. Apparently there’s usually a two hour wait, but perhaps the combination of rainy weather and early timing meant that there was no wait at all. And I think it may well be my favorite meal of the entire trip, I kid you not. 

Off to Shibuya next! One of my must-go areas when I am in Tokyo. Though I ended up not buying anything again, not even at the Mega Donki coz I thought I could just settle at the branch next to my hotel so that I don’t have to lug groceries around. 

And that’s the day!