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Day 2 the Harajuku District
By stunder | May 16, 2008
The next Morning Alicia and I get up at the crack of dawn. See the thing about Japan is their timing is like exactly different from ours. Meaning during the day light or working hours here (in the US) it is afternoon/late night hours for them (in Japan) and viceversa. So to give you an idea of the view from the hotel here is a couple of shots.
So we get to the Shinbashi Station in the Ginza district of Tokyo. This is the closest station to our hotel and we use it several times while in Tokyo to get to other areas.
So Alicia and I are starving and wanted to grab something to eat. We wanted something quick but didn’t want to stop at one of the 1000s of McDonalds (God Bless the Big Mac) in Japan instead we wanted local food. So standing around in the area pictured above we noticed a guy purchace a ticket from a vending machine. He then took the ticket into a small noodle shop and they gave him a bowl of noodles. So Alicia and I walk up to the machine and find a picture of something that looked good the toss in like 600 Yen (about $6.00 US).
So then we are off to the Harajuku District to see the sites for the day. First of all Alicia takes us to the Meiji Shrine which is pretty much across the street from the shopping district. Which was really cool for our first trip back into Japanesse history.
So we made it to the Shrine it was actually very impressive for the first shrine we visted. It is in the middle of a bustling city and still pulls in crowds of people.
So we make it back out of the Shrine then cross the bridge over to the Harajuku shopping area. You will see some of the wildest things ever with the young Japanese crowd there. It’s like they wake up in the morning and tell their friends to pelt them with 30 different color paint balls and then toss a hand full of glitter on themselves. It was for sure a busy area packed with people. I quickly figured out Japan was way more busy and packed than any other large city I have been to (LA, London, NY, Seoul).
So we took off from the Harajuku district to head back to Ginza and we noticed they close the street down for several hours at noon on the weekends. It was cool this street Ginza is very busy on an average day and they close it down just so people can walk down it and do some shopping. To bad every store happens to be a high end store.
After quite a long walk Alicia and I find a Garden/Park area close to our hotel called Hama-rikyu Gardens. It is about 300-500 Yen to enter. This was my first walk into a traditional Japanese Garden/Park area. It was really interesting to see all of the trees and how they were grown. There were 300 year old pines that do not grow like here in the US as you can see in the photo across the pond.
So this photo is of Alicia and I on some park benches that were located with the skyline and the lake behind us. After taking the photo I read a placard about the site it was where tea house had once stood before WWII it was destroyed in a bombing run.
Here is another view of the sky line from Hama-rikyu Gardens in Tokyo’s Ginza District.
There was also a very small but quite Shrine in the Hama-rikyu Gardens. It was nice to just set back here and reflect on how people used to live here in Tokyo.
So we get back to the hotel and just had to find our email 
Topics: Alicia and Me, Just Eric |