Tonight, we felt the Jetlag for the first time for real. We both couldn't sleep until 2AM. Either way, we woke up at 9AM to get used to the Japanese Time. The Sun in Japan rises before 5AM and sets shortly after 6PM, so there is not much time to enjoy the daylight if you get up too late.

Check out an interactive Map of the places we visited here. I will update this map as we continue our Journey. This post is about Day 3.

Today was a public holiday. In most of the city, not much was going on. In other areas, everyone was shopping. I tried to reflect that contrast with the pictures I selected for this post.

It had been raining the night before. This created a nice atmosphere in the city.

A man cleaning up in front of a supermarket.

A park ranger patrolling at a Japanese Playground. Coming from Germany, it is quite bizzare to see people at parks and playgrounds whose only job it is, to keep the vicinity of the park safe.

We had breakfast and coffee at Blue Bottle coffee in Roppongi. It used to be very hard to find places where you can enjoy food and beverages outside… Now I saw way more shops in Tokyo where you can eat and drink while also sitting outside. Quite the nice change, if you ask me. Anyway, Blue bottle Coffee was always one of the coffee shops, where you could sit outside. It is a hipster place with hipster prices but I quite enjoy the surrounding area and the calm and quiet right next to otherwise busy areas of the city.

Since it is now golden Week in Japan, the longest stretch of public holidays in a row, there are a few festivities associated with these occasions. These fishes are called Koinobori and are flown for Childrens day in Japan which is at May 5 this year. Childrens Day marks the end of the public holiday season that is Golden Week.

I just love cityscapes like that. Here you can see, how few cars were on the road today.

Our destination of the day was Chazawa-dori in Sangenjaya, a shopping street that is closed for car traffic on Sunday. It is lined with pretty shops, restaurant and cafés but also traditional stores, local stores and just regular fruit and vegetable stores like this one pictured here.

For some reason, there is a giant King Kong Figure, picking up a small girl hanging from the side of a building. Check the scale of the people compared to the statue!

Small shops like this (in this case a coffee shop) are the reason I love Japan so much. Just look at all the details!

At the end of Chazawa-dori, you can find Shimokitazawa, a very popular area that gained a lot of popularity since I first visited Japan in 2014. This area is known for second hand clothing and furniture and also has a lot of restaurants. As you can see, it was packed! Everyone was using their day off to do a bit of shopping and catch up with friends.

There was a tournament of Shogi (also called Japanese Chess) held in the streets. It was quite interesting to watch. Bystanders were very engaged with every move the players did.

Beautiful mess of colors, Wabisabi (beautiful decay) and technology.

This traditional japanese wooden house is close to our hotel and stands in stark contrast to the rest of the surrounding, which is super modern.