i dream of tokyo

Tokyo has got to be one of my favourtite cities in the world. I stopped flying for many years because of anxiety but when I finally decided to do it again, the first place I chose to visit was Tokyo.

I visited Tokyo in December 2012 and spent a week there. Personally I don't think there's ever a bad time to visit Japan, but it can get hot and humid in summer. In winter, the weather was really quite perfect for me, aside from being a little chilly. I was there for a week and I think it only rained on the last day I left. It was clear blue skies for almost the entire trip!

The view from Park Hotel with Tokyo Tower in the middle and Mount Fuji in the distance

I stayed at Park Hotel Tokyo, which is in Minato-ku. It's located near in the central business district surrounded by news stations and big ad agencies. Because Tokyo is so densely populated, this hotel was actually built on top of the 25-storey Shiodome Media Tower.

Park Hotel Tokyo is a hotel geared towards businessmen and every morning when we had breakfast in the lobby lounge, I could hear the American businessmen talking about their deals. One of them said that if we can see Mount Fuji on a clear day from Tokyo, it's a sign of good luck.

To give you an idea of the area I was staying in was like, here are some photos I took while walking to the train station every morning. As you can see, we were surrounded by towering office blocks. It may not be the most picturesque place to stay in Tokyo but I loved staying here! There was an energy that I like about this area that just made me want to wake up every morning and explore the city.

I wasn't kidding about them blue skies!

Catching some rays in winter

There are so many reasons why I love Tokyo; the Japanese are so polite, service is always excellent, food is great, there's a vibrant arts scene, loads of shopping from street wear to luxury boutiques. I can't capture all the reasons why I love Tokyo in one post, so I'm going to split it over the next few days.

I won't be focusing on shopping or some of the prominent tourist attractions. I'm sure there is a lot of information online already but for me, I wasn't there for the shopping or sight-seeing. I just wanted to go somewhere very different from Singapore.

View of Tokyo at night from the 50th storey of the Mori Tower

More about Tokyo will be up on the blog tomorrow!