Day 7 - Fukagawa, Midtown and Shibuya

Another sunny day, another early wake up.

Deciding on a route is easy as you have a few more pages of some touristy guides to follow and see where it leads you. Go to the station, select a nice cafe in the area and ride to Kiyosumi-shirakawa

Find the coffee pretty quickly after crossing some industrial bridges and canals, it looks modern, and probably too "european" for my own sake

Time to head to the first few museums and parks on the way... after a few parks with nothing much except playgrounds and spaces for dogs, I end up on an older street, full of people selling knick-knacks for a few decades ago.

On that street is also a temple, that's unfortunately being rebuilt and an Edo period museum, I don't expect much from it, as from the pictures I thought there were tiny models of houses during the Edo Period.

I was wrong.

I enter the museum, which goes down 2 floors into a big hangar, with huge ceiling. The roof is covered in automatic blinds that open and close every 15 minutes to simulate day time or night time, the hangar is filled with about 10 full replica houses, some cut in half to show the inside, some with realistc doors. A full village, with gates, merchants, watch tower. As I go down the first flight of stairs, someone points out that there's an Engish tour happening, I guess as it was 10AM they do it on regular intervals.

I join the tour , an old Japanese man, in a good mannered english explains the story of each type of persona living in these days, although Edo period was only 400 years ago, you learn a lot about current technology they had. And strangely enough the lack of some things like water or wind powered mills to help in agriculture. Amongst other things, but the techniques of storage, and house construction rules were already in place since early days. Everything is optimised and gets assembled and disassembled for everyday life.

Every house has specific things to the profession.

There's a house for every type of profession, merchant, farmer, lumber, music teacher, fishermen and just peddlers, a river on the edge of town with a market and a few stalls. The tour is great for some trivia, like Portuguese brought Tobacco over to Japan, 80% of population was a smoker, the laws established back then about house construction still exist to this day, to prevent earthquake/fire. And so on...

I exit the museum a bit more enlightened, look on my map and there's another museum nearby, the prices are always pretty cheap, about a coffee or less for a ticket.

This other museum called MOT, Museum of Contemporary Art, isn't really up my alley, but since I'm nearby, why not... it has a Christian Dior exposition, which I avoid as its 4 times the price the normal entry, and as you look through the gift shop later, you discover it's basically sketches and photos.

Leaving the museum, I only have a few shrines to see and find a place to eat around. Shrines are becoming less and less impressive as you've seen a lot in Yanaka or you've seen the biggest ones in central Tokyo.

But you still enjoy another photo of a good shrine. So I go and take a few.

For lunch, there's not much choice, I find a small chinese soba place, next to the shrine and sit down translating the menu, I overheard someone ordering "china soba, shoyu" I decide on the same.

Simple and inexpensive meal, about 5Gbp worth of soupy delights.

As I head to the station, a hipster coffee catches my eye, full of bikes hanging outside and inside, so I have to stop by and have at least a cup. It's one of those coffee places where the owner has pride in his bean selection, and goes through a lenghty discussion on what country coffee would you like.

I settle for a simple coffee and a pudding as it was the only item on the menu, but also it looked amazing from the side.

Time to get to work, but instead of doing it from the hotel, I think it's best to go around and find a new spot.

So I do and after a few walks, I'm rewarded with a bookshop, full of interesting books, you pay a flat fee of about £5 and enter for as long as you like, have free coffee and some snacks.

The place closes at 8PM so you do need to move, and still have another meeting to attend. You do at the hotel, and your Line starts pinging, people who are out shooting are inviting for dinner... You don't think too much and grab an uber.

Shibuya is always buzzing, everyone still taking pictures, but as two friends become hungry, they suggest a yaki niku place nearby.

After a nice meal shared by everyone, we still go around looking for a dessert place, but unfortunately everything after 11 that isn't a club, is a no go.

We end up in a supermarket buying some ice cream with red beans and enjoy it on the curb-side, until the last train, and last Uber for me.