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Published: December 31st 2012
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Day 14, 15 & 16
Our final day with the tour group was a grey one. Despite the assurances of Kim, the day was dark and dreary and quite cold. We started with a trip to a temple in Tokyo, which had an impressive gate at the entrance. It was still quite early, so the boulevard of shops where not all open, meaning there was less to distract everyone. We had a go at our fortune, where you shake up a wooden box of sticks and through a small hole one pops put. On the stick is a kanji which you match to the ones on the wall and take the paper fortune of the matching one. Kathryn got very bad luck not once but twice. We tied it up, and left it there, hoping the bad luck would be left behind.
We then had some free time to saunter down past the shops, and see if there were any treasures. There seemed to be a little more choice, and less stalls selling sweets than in previous places. As we made our way back to meet the group, it had certainly got busier, with lots more groups from schools
coming in. We then walked the short distance to the river cruise we were going on next. On our way to the terminal, we could see some of the iconic art that Tokyo was famous for on the top of the Asahi beer company building - interesting!
The river trip took us under a series of bridges, all painted different colours like a rainbow, and we could also see the Rainbow Bridge we had seen by night from the top of the Tokyo Tower - not as impressive by day. We also passed by the fish market, which is very famous, but that if you want to go and see the action, you need to be there at 4.30am.
After the river trip, we got back on the coach, and headed for our lunch stop, which was again in a shopping centre on an Island made from reclaimed land. It also had a Segaworld in it, a fairground type arcade, and at the end of the island a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Land prices and property were some of the highest in Tokyo here, where it is known as Little Manhatten.
From here, we headed
to the Imperial Palace, which is set in grounds containing over 2000 bonsai trees. You cannot go inside, although we did see a group on a tour, and it is surrounded by a moat, armed guards and the police, so all you can see is the entrance gate and one of the buildings that form part of the palace complex.
The final thing on the tour itinery was a visit to the Ginza district of Tokyo. This is traditionally where all the designers shops are located. The bus dropped us off and gave us an hour to look round. Really that was too long, having already established that prices were higher in Japan than at home we were not going to buying anything. We did however go into one of the department stores, the guide having told us that the food hall in the basement was worth seeing. Upon inspection, whilst we didn't see any square watermelon, the strawberries were £1 each, and one of the melons was 10,000 yen! We also walked to the end of the road to look at the Nissan showroom, where the sports car in the window had been signed on the bonnet by
Usain Bolt and was a very nice car indeed.
After this, it was back to the hotel, and most of the rest if the group were heading to the airport hotel for the night so it was time to bid them farewell. We arranged to have dinner with one of the travellers that was left, and met him later and headed back to the railway station as there seemed to have the best options for food.
In the morning, we checked out and loaded down with baggage set off for the station to cross Tokyo on the subway to our final hotel of the trip. Once we had been helped with the tickets, we wanted to use 2 lines but couldn't quite grasp how to buy a combination ticket, we set off, and arrived at the Hyatt with all our bags. We were early, and our room was not ready, so they stored the bags for later. As we sat in reception, there was a wedding taking place in the lobby. All the chairs had been moved and an aisle set out for the bride to walk down. The funniest thing we saw was the bride and groom
standing together and coming down the glass lift -it was like something from Star Trek.
We set off from the hotel, guide book in hand, and walked through the park opposite where there was flea market going on. We had a look round, but there wasn't anything worth purchasing. We were heading for the Sword Museum, and Russ managed to get us to nearly there when we spotted signs for it. They led us on a bit of a wild goose chase in a circle, until we realised we on the next road to it. We went inside, and whilst the swords and handles were nice, we were disappointed there were none to buy. It had started raining, but not to be out off, we continued walking towards another park which had a temple in it. When we arrived we were delighted to see a wedding procession coming through the temple, together with lots of small children dressed up in kimonos of all colours - so cute.
We walked out of the temple towards the road, and passed lots of sake barrels whose contents had been donated by businesses for use in special ceremonies. We headed into the
Nade Botokesan Buddha
Polished smooth by those hoping for good luck and help with ailments shop for a warm, as the weather had significantly lowered the temperature and we weren't really dressed for it, and managed to pick up a few items to add the souvenir collection.
Finally, we headed towards a shop that was mentioned in the guide book, to see if there were some last treasures to take home, not before buying a large selection of Star Wars ice cube trays in a toyshop! In the Oriental Bazaar, we picked up quite a few bits, along with looking round the top floor which had a second hand kimono section. Having admired the ones worn at the wedding earlier, Kathryn decided less was more, and as a gift for her birthday was treated to a purple and gold robe with cream obi. The assistant in the shop was very helpful and managed to fit Kathryn into it, whilst giving Russ instructions on tying it.
All shopped out, we returned to the hotel and the knowledge that a hot shower and nice relaxing evening lay ahead with cocktails and canapés at 6.30pm.
The following day, after consulting the guide book and finding that we had already visited most of the main places,
after breakfast we headed to the Zoo. It was great, the weather held, and whilst it was chilly, it didn't seem to bother the animals as most of them were quite active including the pandas, tigers, lions and elephants. The polar bear was trying to steal the show, playing with a piece of wood which he kept jumping on, and they had a good selection of birds, in particular cranes.
After a day at the zoo, we returned and booked our airport transfer from the hotel. Once again, canapés were consumed with gusto, in particular the bread and cheese, after seeing none for a fortnight on holiday. Not to forget our time in Japan completely, we didnt let the sashimi got to waste either.
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