Tokyo Trip: Day Two
On the second day of our trip to Tokyo, we had a late breakfast followed by a trip to the Imperial Palace Gardens. It was
very hot. The gardens are pretty expansive, so we took an hour or two wandering around and taking in the nice scenery. Unfortunately, you can't really see the Imperial Palace from the gardens, but it was still pretty impressive.
After that, we went to a the Tokyo Sword Museum, and saw lots of very, very old swords (though they still look shiney and new). Apparently one was by a mega-famous sword-maker, though I don't know much about swords. Alex was pretty impressed, though. No pictures allowed, though!
In the evening, we went to Akihabara and Harajuku. We managed to navigate ourselves to the busiest part of Akihabara, this time. There was lots of neon, crowds, and music blasting out of shops. Alex found it all a bit irritating, but I thought it was cool, at least just too see. It would probably be more interesting to people who had something in mind to buy. Harajuku is a youth fashion district, which is also something to see. Not as many crazy outfits as I was hoping for (although I've probably become a little immune from my time in Japan), but I did see at least one girl dressed up as a kitty/maid.
Tokyo Trip: Day One
I finally, finally made a trip to Tokyo earlier this month! Alex and I took the nightbus out of Nagoya at 11:30 pm on Thursday night (it was really surprisingly roomy, I'd recommend it), and arrived in Tokyo before 6:00 am on Friday morning.
Friday was definitely our most successful day (probably because we got started so increadibly early!). After we got off the bus, we got on the subway that we thought would take us to our hotel. Turns out, though, that we needed to switch lines, and instead we ended up at Haneda Airport, the end of the line. Still, we managed to get to our hotel before 8:00 am. We couldn't check in, but they took our bags for us, and we had a nice breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel. Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, and um, salad. Lots of decliciousness! Plus salad. Breakfast salad.
Our first stop was Sensoji Temple (aka, Asakusa Kannon), a very famous Buddhist temple. There was lots of nice architecture, and a million little souveneir shops. (Though you'll be proud I bought nothing more than disposable cameras.)
After Sensoji Temple, we took a walk through Ueno Park, a very large park in Northern Tokyo. Inside the park is Tokyo National Museum, which we went to. Lots of Asian artifacts, like swords from the 16th Century and sculptures from the 4th Century...
This picture is Alex and I in front of Tokyo National Museum. Pictures with both of us were hard to take -- I think the camera was sitting on a water fountain here, using the timing function.
After having some post-museum lunch, we went to Tokyo Tower, iconic location seen in so many anime. It was overcast and a little hazy, but we still got to see a pretty cool view. I had read that paying extra to go to the second stop (there are two viewing decks, one higher than the other) was a rip off, but we went up anyway, and I was pretty fun. You can't see the scenery very well in these pictures, but maybe it will be better once I get my film developed.
(Very difficult to take good pictures together, as you can tell!)
After that we checked into the hotel and had a nice rest (we were pretty worn out). The hotel was quite nice for the price, I think. Swanky-looking lobby, clean rooms. Not very spacious, but we did ge yukatas (Japanese cotton robes) provided.
We had some late supper then went out to Akihabara, Tokyo's huge electronics district. There wasn't much going on, so we went to Shinjuku, the entertainment district. Tons of neon! Unforunately, my pictures of that aren't developed yet, but I'll have them soon.
I'll go on to day two and three (which weren't quite as busy) in another post. Until then...
On the second day of our trip to Tokyo, we had a late breakfast followed by a trip to the Imperial Palace Gardens. It was very hot. The gardens are pretty expansive, so we took an hour or two wandering around and taking in the nice scenery. Unfortunately, you can't really see the Imperial Palace from the gardens, but it was still pretty impressive.
