Tokyo Sightseeing

After the fish market, we walked a little ways to the Ginza district, which is known as Tokyo's Fifth Avenue. They had quite the large displays like you might see in Times Square. They also featured many high-end stores like Gucci, Prada, and one called Wako. It was very uncrowded. On the way we passed a really cool Kabuki theatre. In all, we weren't really all that impressed by the Ginza district, which boasts some of the most expensive real estate in the world.



We took the subway to Hibiya, and found a statue of Godzilla! Of course, I thought it would be huge, but it was in this little out-of-the-way courtyard. Here he is:


Godzilla vs. Brian!

We then took a short stroll to the Imperial Palace, which is where Japan's royal family lives. It is mostly off-limits to the public, so we walked around the gardens a bit (not all that great), and got as close as we could to take this picture, which was about all you could see:



There was a gate with two guards standing in front, perfectly still, but they were quite a ways away as well. In all, the Imperial Palace wasn't all that impressive, and we overheard others say similar things (including a mother and son from Australia that we met at breakfast this morning).

After Hibiya, we went to the coolest stop of all on our Tokyo trip: Shibuya. This is more like what we expected from one of the world's biggest metropolis areas. There were people everywhere. This is also the place that the young, hip Japanese go. It is definitely the hub of modern Japanese fashion! We have never seen so many mini-skirts with boots in our lives! We also got to see first-hand the cool hairdos for men and women. It is quite the busy spot as well. We spent a little time at the 6-way intersection just watching the mass of humanity coming and going. They have these really huge television screens going, too, including the one on the Q-Front building, with a screen that covers most of the skyscraper.


The six-way intersection - crossing chaos!

We found the statue of Hachiko, which has an interesting story to it. There was a professor in the 1920s who would take his dog, Hachiko, with him to the train station at Shibuya every day. The dog would wait at the station for him to return each day. One day, the professor died while at work. The dog went to the station anyway to wait for him. The dog continued this for 10 years after the man died. Once the dog died, the locals dedicated a statue to the dog, honoring his loyalty. Even today, over 70 years later, people still go to the statue to pay their respects. It is also a popular meeting place for people in the Shibuya area.


Wendy with Hachiko - don't get jealous, Ellie!

Brian wanted to try out the Pachinko machines, but after watching people play, he realized there was no way he could understand how it worked (trust me, it is much more confusing than you think it might be). It was also maddeningly noisy in the parlor, and we were still carrying our travel sickness headaches from the previous day. So we found a drugstore and were able to communicate with a pharmacist. He helped us select some travel sickness medicine, and we were on our way. Then we ate at a Yoshinoya Beef Bowl-style restaurant. That was some good food, but we over-ordered. The soup bowls were huge! We also had some gyoza (pot stickers - the best we've ever had!) and some edamame (soy beans). It was all very good!

Apparently, the travel sickness medicine also makes you drowsy, so when we got back to ryokan at 3:30, Wendy went right to bed, and Brian stayed up for about another hour before he crashed. Wendy woke up at 9:30PM, then went back to bed after about an hour. Brian stayed asleep until 3:30AM, when both of us woke up again, ready to face the day! Jet lag probably had a little to do with our sleeping schedules as well.

So this morning, we will do a little more sightseeing in Tokyo (there is an amazing temple, Senso-ji, which we are going to explore), then it's back to the airport (hauling too much luggage again), and off to Beijing!