Started out at Denny's again for breakfast. I decided to be a bit more adventurous today and chose the Japanese sides with my eggs - miso soup and rice. Tasty! Back to Kameido station where today's first stop would be the Meiji-jingu temple.
The torii gate was a short walk from the train station and we were soon on a beautiful shady walk with more temple buildings. One interesting sight was 100 barrels of sake wrapped in decorative straw stacked along the walk. I was also able to gather the information for a virtual cache while along the way - though the area that it brought us to was closed, the information sign, thankfully in English as well as Japanese, was outside the closed area.
Once we arrived at the main temple area, we were fortunate enough to witness a wedding processional coming from the temple. The bride and groom as well as many of the participants, were in traditional Japanese wedding kimonos. Bonus! Finally remembered that I had a Laughfest smile with me so took a few pictures with it, not only here but at the Tokyo Tower.
After the Meiji-jingu temple, we headed to Shibuya station where we wanted to see Shibuya crossing, one of the world's most busy intersections. An incredible amount of people coming from 5 different directions. It was a spectator sport for me, but Scott and Steve went into it just to take pictures. After watching the crossing for a while, we found the memorial statue for Hachi the dog, and also tried to find the nearby cache. Too many people at GZ for me to search. Got some beverages out of the vending machines. I finally tried Pocari Sweat - that's its name - which was sort of like gatorade but with more of a grapefruit taste.
Headed next to the Roppongi area where the main Hard Rock Cafe was located. Apparently the one we went to last night had the actual location printed on the glasses and not just "Tokyo" which is what Scott wanted. So while he walked down the street to get his glass, we hung out at the nearby Wendy's and had a snack/lunch.
When Scott returned, we decided that Tokyo Tower was within walking distance so off we went. Nice walk. One interesting thing we saw was a roller coaster track on top of a building. Scott found out that the roller coaster had been built but there was never permission given for the ride to operate so there it sits.
Got to Tokyo Tower and Steve did not want to go up. He sat in the lobby while Scott and I went up to the first observation level. Great views of the city, and glass floors in several places so we could look straight down. We decided not to go up to the top observation level as it would just be the same views. Did some gift shop shopping and soon headed back to Steve.
Headed to the nearest train station to get us to the Imperial Gardens, our last planned stop of the day, and discovered another temple along the way. Zojoji Temple was nice. One interesting part was seeing a tree that President Bush (the 1st one) planted while he visited the temple many years ago. A healthy, thriving tree today.
Headed to the imperial gardens area from the train that brought us there. Got there with less than 45 minutes to spare before it closed. Free admission but they had us take tickets which were slabs of plastic that we had to turn back in at the gate when we left. We took a quick walk from the gate we entered, through part of the gardens, and back out another gate. Were able to see part of the moat surrounding the castle, and some pretty areas. Overall consensus was that we weren't all that impressed though. Maybe because we felt a bit rushed and didn't get to see everything. Probably the prettiest part was the bridge to the gate where we exited. There was a cache near that gate which I was able to find. As it was looking like my last cache opportunity, I dropped one of my own trackables. Will be taking quite a few home, perhaps I shouldn't have taken quite so many on the trip but it was hard to say no to friends. At least they've been able to "travel" that far...
Headed back to Kameido and started thinking about dinner. Steve wanted to eat at McDonalds. I rebelled - we are in Japan and I'm getting tired of American fast food. Compromised - Steve got his McDonald's and Scott and I picked up food from a nearby Japanese takeout place. Not sure what I got but it had rice and beef and onions. It was good. Took it back to the hotel.
By now we were accumulating quite a bit of trash at the hotel. We knew that there was not daily maid service at the hotel and were ok with that. Nobody going into our room during the day. But what we didn't realize is that we were expected to sort and haul our own trash.
This is what we had to sort into:
- burnable trash
- plastic recyclables
- cans
- non burnable trash
There were bins for each, located around the corner and down the street, next to the hotel's parking area. I was a good girl and took care of it, even though it wasn't what I was used to. Ended up doing Scott's the next morning as well. He'd sorted it but was going to take it back home. But while we were waiting for him to bring the car I took his over as well. Scott has to sort his like that at home, too, so he's used to it. The Japanese take their trash seriously, I guess.
We are packed and ready to roll in the morning. Everything fits into the suitcase but it's going to be heavy...thought about checking it but it's not packed for that. Oh well.
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