Really huge
From Kyoto we continued our journey again with the fast speed train Shinkansen, this time towards Tokyo. It´s really fun to take this train, it very punctual, clean, quiet inside and really fast, just cool.
It was planned to make a stopover at the city Fuji to take some nice pictures of the most famous mountain of Japan, the Mount Fuji. But unfortunately when we arrived, Mount Fuji was covered by clouds. Also the further days should be similar, cloudy around the Mount Fuji according to the weather forecast…what a disappointment. We continued our journey and made a stopover in Yokohama. There we went to the harbour area and passed the downtown area. Finally we arrived in Tokyo around late afternoon.
Well, what should I tell you about this city? It´s really huge, somehow I have the feeling this city has no ends, especially if you are standing on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and looking in all directions of this city. Compare to other metropolitan cities around the world, Tokyo has not only one main city centre, in fact Tokyo has different hotspots. But still I don´t have the feeling that it is hectical or the people are stressed out.
In Tokyo we visited the district Shibuya, Akihabara and Shinjuku, went to the National Museum of Nature and Science, walked through the Ueno park and I visited the headquarter of the company Yonex to meet some people.
During my student time and also after graduation I worked for the company Yonex part time for more than 10 years, mostly as a badminton stringer for an international tournament. It was a very long time and I really enjoyed it. I was very touched, happy and it was a big honour for me to meet Mr.Hirokawa again after more than 10 years. He was the former president of Yonex Germany before he moved back to Japan. We went together for lunch to a Japanese “Schnitzel” restaurant, it was so delicious, crispy and fresh. In the evening I met Taiji and Toshi, also working for Yonex. We went to a traditional Japanese Restaurant and had Tempura, noodles, and many other delicious dishes. It was so tasty and the evening was very funny, really nice. The day was gorgeous, it was really perfect :-)
Next stop is at the Okinawa Island…to be continued…
