Tokyo 2019: Along the Sumida River

My stay in Hakone had come to an end and it was time to return to Tokyo for the final few days of my 2019 journey across Japan and Korea. First I rode a train to Odawara and there I boarded a train heading up to Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. My Japan Rail Pass had expired, so instead of boarding a shinkansen (bullet train) I bought a ticket for the slower but much cheaper Odakyu Line. It took a little over 90 minutes to get to Shinjuku Station and then I took a subway to the neighborhood with my hostel, which was a bit east of Shinjuku.

After settling in I headed across town to Asakusa and exited the subway at a station along the Sumida River. At this point it was already after sundown and the lights of Tokyo were shining bright. I had hoped to get a decent shot of the Tokyo Skytree but thick clouds meant that I could only see part of the tower. The storm that had dumped so much rain on me in Hakone was still working its way through Japan and I wouldn’t see that much blue skies during these final days. My desired photo had been denied but I still had a pleasant stroll as I walked northwards along the river towards Sensoji Temple. Time was nearly up on my 2019 journey and I would try to savor the remaining days as much as possible.