Hello Tokyo

Our stopover on this trip was Tokyo, where we had a relaxing day amongst the trees and gardens of the city.

From Shinjuku Station - the world’s busiest, with around four million people passing through a day - it was an easy walk to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, or at least it would have been, had it not been over thirty degrees and steamy.

We enjoyed the garden, though, especially the beautifully groomed Japanese section, and after a light lunch we sweated our way over to the Meiji Shrine.

Located in 170 acres of parkland with about 120,000 trees, it was awash with people there either to worship or to have a day out.

The shrine dates back to 1921, and commemorates the rule of Emperor Meiji who died in 1912. The allies bombed it to bits in the war and it was rebuilt in 1956.

We took a few pics of the shrine and the barrels of French wine and saki on display - saki barrels are a common shrine decoration but the wine casks symbolise Emperor Meiji’s innovative embracing of foreign concepts and influences - before walking down to the station to get the train back to our hotel. Well, actually, we caught the train back to the airport, because we got on the wrong one. Otherwise, though, we had a great - if stifling - day in Tokyo.

Our local area was quite picturesque, too.Read more