In the morning, we visited the Imperial Palace. No one is allowed to go in, so we were only able to take pictures of the front gates and a statue of this one Shogun located in the park in front of the castle. Here a few pictures, including one of the Tokyo skyline.
Noontime: We visited the Asakusa Shrine and the traditional shopping district in front of it. The shrine was built when two brother fishermen found a golden statue in the local waters. On the temple grounds, there were these booths where you could buy fortunes or ill omens. A lot of Buddhist temples in Japan seem to have these fortune shops. There were a lot of people there. A lot of the shops were geared towards tourists but the further you ventured away from the shrine, the more the shops catered to Japanese natives. I bought a traditional Japanese hand towel. I also bought some really delicious iced green tea.
For lunch, we ate a kamemeshi steamed rice dish. This is the kind of food you'll never see in the US. It came with traditional Japanse tofu and ginger. It was a good meal, but light on the tastebuds.
After lunch, we visited the Ginza shopping district. This is one of the high class shoppng districts in Japan. However, the only thing we bought was Japanese jelly desserts from a department store. In addition, we visited the Sony gallery, where their latest technologies and products are on display. There were a lot of cool computer monitors in there. Alas, we didn't have enough time to explore the entire gallery.
Afterwards, we went to visit the Meiji Shrine. It was built to honor the emperor who started the Meiji Restoration. Near the shrine, there is this tree where people go to post their wishes. Interestingly, a good number of them were written in English. Each wish cost 5 yen and a monk would also pray for the wish. People were allowed to wish for many things, including getting into Tokyo U. Sound familiar, you anime otaku?
By night time, we visited the Shinjuku District of Tokyo. This district is probably the busiest area in Tokyo. In this area, you could see a lot of Japanese youth with their fob punk fashion styles. They all look so similar because they all wore the same style of clothes.
For dinner, we went to the Keio department store to buy several bento to take back to the hotel room. They sold some really good tempura and sushi. In these department stores, they sell a huge variety of bento. There was everything from hamburg steaks to sukiyaki to fish cakes to beautiful cakes.
In the hotel, I found proof of how Japanese people like to demonstrate things with cartoons.
Noontime: We visited the Asakusa Shrine and the traditional shopping district in front of it. The shrine was built when two brother fishermen found a golden statue in the local waters. On the temple grounds, there were these booths where you could buy fortunes or ill omens. A lot of Buddhist temples in Japan seem to have these fortune shops. There were a lot of people there. A lot of the shops were geared towards tourists but the further you ventured away from the shrine, the more the shops catered to Japanese natives. I bought a traditional Japanese hand towel. I also bought some really delicious iced green tea.
For lunch, we ate a kamemeshi steamed rice dish. This is the kind of food you'll never see in the US. It came with traditional Japanse tofu and ginger. It was a good meal, but light on the tastebuds.
After lunch, we visited the Ginza shopping district. This is one of the high class shoppng districts in Japan. However, the only thing we bought was Japanese jelly desserts from a department store. In addition, we visited the Sony gallery, where their latest technologies and products are on display. There were a lot of cool computer monitors in there. Alas, we didn't have enough time to explore the entire gallery.
Afterwards, we went to visit the Meiji Shrine. It was built to honor the emperor who started the Meiji Restoration. Near the shrine, there is this tree where people go to post their wishes. Interestingly, a good number of them were written in English. Each wish cost 5 yen and a monk would also pray for the wish. People were allowed to wish for many things, including getting into Tokyo U. Sound familiar, you anime otaku?
By night time, we visited the Shinjuku District of Tokyo. This district is probably the busiest area in Tokyo. In this area, you could see a lot of Japanese youth with their fob punk fashion styles. They all look so similar because they all wore the same style of clothes.
For dinner, we went to the Keio department store to buy several bento to take back to the hotel room. They sold some really good tempura and sushi. In these department stores, they sell a huge variety of bento. There was everything from hamburg steaks to sukiyaki to fish cakes to beautiful cakes.
In the hotel, I found proof of how Japanese people like to demonstrate things with cartoons.
