Tokyo Day 3

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This was my last full day in Tokyo. I have enjoyed my time here. It is a nice, safe, undemanding city to use as my first stop while I adjust to the time and get fully into “travel mode”. Today is a national holiday called Sports Day. I’m not sure what the significance of it is, but it has not affected my itinerary much. Some museums are closed, so I spent much of the day outdoors. My first stop was to return to Yoyogi Park. (I misspelled it as “Yoyoji” yesterday.) Today I walked to the Meiji Shrine, a place honoring the Meiji Emperor who ruled from 1868-1912 and who was responsible for pulling Japan out of the almost feudal Shogun period and changing it into a modern industrialized world power. This is a Shinto shrine and one of the observances is to approach, clap your hands (to frighten away evil spirits), and then toss coins into one of the slatted tables. Next I took the subway to Shibuya, a shopping and entertainment area that is always very busy. The main pedestrian crossing in front of the subway station can see up to 3,000 people cross at each light change. And everyone likes the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who waited at the station every day for his master to come home, even after the man died. I wandered around the area a bit and ate lunch at a noodle shop. Then I took the subway to Hibiya, a city park where I thought there might be Sports Day activities. There were some locals playing tennis and a couple of families playing catch, but what struck me was the Japanese attraction to Halloween. I had already noticed that many of the stores have Halloween displays and at the entrance to the park there is a photo-op related to it. I don’t believe that the Japanese are alone in their adoption of this very American holiday. It’s a good excuse to dress up, eat candy, and have a good time.

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