Started the day with an early morning run along a walking path beside the Sumeda River - very picturesque & lots of other runners and dog walkers out an about.
Amazing just to stand and watch, which I was happily doing when I was nabbed by a TV reporter from the Nippon TV morning news show, Zip!, for an interview. The reporter's shaky English and my highly dodgy Japanese made for an interesting interview - it was something about why foreigners like Japanese dumplings, even though these dumplings originated in China! It was a bit of fun and laughs, but I suspect I may have been stooged as a 'dumb' foreign tourist who doesn't know anything about Japanese food (which is mostly true, actually)!
We were aiming to walk through Yoyogi Park but instead, in search of some bento boxes for lunch, we ended up in Harajuku. Tired and hungry, and searching in vain for bento, we ended up having Korean BBQ - which was very tasty, if not authentic Japanese food (but what do I know about Japanese food anyway).
we walked to the Meiji Jingu temple. This Shinto shrine honouring Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, was built in 1920 and is surrounded by a planted forest of 100,000 trees. Shinto is the ancient religion of Japan and deeply rooted in the Japanese way of life - it has no founder, holy book or concept of conversion but rather values harmony with nature and virtues such as 'sincere heart' (magokoro). Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), and the Empress, certainly had sincere heart, being the father of modern Japan - opening up Japan to world and promoting friendship with other countries; he embraced Western knowledge while highly valuing Japanese tradition and identity. (We did wonder what might have happened if he had been Emperor in 1939!)
After breakfast we ventured out on the Tokyo Metro to see some Tokyo sights further afield from Asakusa. At first glance the Metro rail system is a confusing 'bowl of spaghetti' and this is overlaid with a subway system that connects the various underground train lines at many stations! But never fear, Joel's problem solving abilities had it quickly sorted and we were navigating the line and station number codes and sorting the subway transfers, and popping up to ground level at exactly the right exits!
First stop the Imperial Palace; Joel had us there in next to no time but sadly the Palace gardens were closed on Fridays - grrrr! So hopefully we can squeeze in another visit to the Palace later in our time in Tokyo.
Not to be deterred, we headed back into the subway and off to Shibuya. The scramble crossing outside the Hachiko exit of Shibuya Station was just what you would expect Tokyo to look like - neon signs and massive video screens on the sides of most buildings and people everywhere!
Anyway we walked the scramble then stopped off in Starbucks - only because you could have your coffee by a second story window while watching the comings and goings at the scramble crossing.
Wandering through the streets of Shibuya we came across an old-style vending machine that dispenses trinkets and souvenirs - Kerryn had to have a go, to much eye-rolling from Joel!
After this late lunch and checking out some robots at the Soft Bank (telco) store in Harajuku
Back on the subway, we tracked over to Akihabara and back to modern Japan again. This is "geek-town" where it is all about gamers, electronics, manga and anime. Ben was in his element as we went from shop to shop looking at games, DVDs, graphic novels and figurines. Interesting at first, but it was all a bit too much for the rest of us and even Ben was soon over it, as everything was in Japanese and expensive (compared with the pocket money he exchanged for yen before we left home).
So, promising to find the Pokemon shop before leaving Tokyo, we headed back to our hostel, on the packed peak hour Metro trains, via Ueno Station so we could pick up our JR rail passes.
After a busy day, it was good to get back to our room, which is traditional style - shoes off at the door and futons on the tatami mat floor (not quite as comfortable as our inner-spring mattress back home) and after a busy day of sightseeing I'm sure we will sleep well.....
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