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  • Day 2

    Imperially Speaking

    August 10, 2016 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today was our first full day in Tokyo.

    We headed up towards the Emperor's Palace to look around at the gardens to see what we could see. First thing we noticed was the moats and walls around the Palace. The moats were about 50m wide and only 50cm or so deep but the walls were quite high. The intention here of course was to keep out those pesky Ninjas and other undesirables that might try and mess with the Emperor. These gardens are in the centre of Tokyo just near the main train station, about a 15 min walk from the hotel.

    We wandered around a bit and were impressed by the buildings and the gates. Of course the Emperor still lives there so the grounds aren't open to the public BUT as luck would have it a very helpful man came up and gave us some tickets to a free tour of the gardens that was happening in an hour's time. A bit of big deal as they limit the numbers so we tagged along.

    The then Emperor moved here in the late 1800s, prior to that Kyoto was the capital of Japan. The Palace and grounds were originally set up by the Shoguns but of course there have been many wars and fires so there have been a lot of changes over the centuries. The Palace was destroyed in WW2 so the current version only opened in 1968. A number of gates and keeps were also destroyed so it isn't as spectacular as it once was but still it is very cool.

    While we were wandering through there was a reception for a visiting dignitary as all the motor bike escorts, police cars, and a big limo turned up. We couldn't get very close so couldn't really see who it was but I think it was Beyonce and Oprah. Maybe not.

    Anyway the photos below show what the Palace and Gardens are like.

    After the Palace we decided to get a bit more contemporary and caught the subway over to the very trendy area of Harajuku. There is a lane called Takeshita-dori which is where you go to get your pop-culture fix. This means there were Pokemon on t-shirts, pants, cups, etc etc as well as Japanese pop stars, cartoon characters, all kinds of food, and anything else. And the place was packed. A few more Westerners but still definitely a minority.

    We headed up a street called Omote-sando where there were more Ginza-style up market shops and then headed down to the next suburb along from Harajuku, Shibuya.

    Shibuya is very famous for 'the Scramble'. This is supposed to be the busiest crossing in the world and I can see why, even on your average Wednesday afternoon there were thousands of people crossing the road each time the lights changed. There are a few photos below.

    We then caught the train back to Tokyo Station and headed back to Ginza to find somewhere for dinner. As they say, when in Japan eat like the Italians ... yes we found an italian restaurant and it was actually really good.

    Tomorrow we nick off to Nikko!
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