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When we arose on Sunday morning around 8am, everyone showered and attempted to come up with a plan of attack on what to do for our first day. As no surprise with three guys, everyone didn’t care what we did, haha. Finally reaching an agreement we set out to start off at the two places close to the hotel. So off to the subway we went and headed to the Zojoji Temple and the Tokyo Tower. As we walked towards the two sights we encountered our first ice cream vending machine (we had already seen a few with drinks in) as well as our first Wendy’s. and then oddly enough glancing down the street we saw our first of many McDonald's (we ate at Mickey D’s on the regular as it was cheap, quick and easy!)
Once we reached the entry way of the temple we began exploring the grounds. We encompassed a variety of monuments, statues and even a tree planted by president George W. Bush. We came across a giant sink which we later found out is to be used to wash your hands and mouth before entering a shrine. There was so much going on
throughout the grounds area. There were statues that represented graves of babies, there were memorials honoring the dead and there was an archway where you could hang a wish or prayer. It was a very extremely quiet and serene setting making the experience that much more memorable. There also was a cemetery we passed through on the way to the Tokyo Tower.
Once we arrived to the Tokyo Tower we snapped some pictures and entered to grab a snack. We hit the gift shop first since we were there to see what kind of knick knacks they had. We were greeted by some young Japanese girls who all said hello to us, I think they were on a field trip We decided to skip paying the admission to go up the tower as we were told wed be able to get a better sight of the city for free from a different observation deck across town. After we got a small snack and a drink we came outside to run into one of the two Tokyo Tower mascots. Mascots are a BIG deal in Tokyo. We got our pics with him as he was cool, a giant pink
pencil looking guy, haha. We walked around the tower and saw some hooked up mini vans, and some seriously small cars.
As we left the tower and headed to our next stop we came across a small park which was pretty tranquil. Then we stumbled upon a cool arcade place that had the best games ever (DJ Trooper, Guitar Freak 4, etc). We stopped off at Outback for lunch as Steve wasn’t feeling up to par so we wanted to play it safe. Finally we made it across town to the aforementioned building with the free observation deck, the Metropolitan Government Building. We mainly headed there for the visitor center tucked inside to score as many free maps as possible to make it around town. We did hit the observation deck which was up on the 65th floor I think. You could feel the building sway on occasion, needless to say we didn’t hang up there too long. After we snuck a peek from the observation deck, we crossed over to Shinjinku Central Park, where a small flea market/garage sale type thing was going on. We walked around the park for a while before heading off to our
next stop.
Next on the visitation list was Meiji Shrine. It was a huge shrine with a lot of ground to cover to get there. Was tucked away deep in the woods and there was a lot of people there paying the respects as well as the glorified tourists. Once we managed to see all we could see (I think we missed a treasure museum or something) we headed for Yoyogi Park, which was supposed to be a big deal on Sundays. The place was certainly packed. Some people were dressed up in “Grease” attire and even had the classic cars nearby. There were an abundance of unsigned bands (Fuzz and Lewon were among my favorites) and musicians positioned around the outskirts of the part performing. They had generators all set up to run their gear it was quite awesome to soak in some Japanese music on a gorgeous day. Once we made our way around the park we finally went inside where we came across some interesting art work painted on the bridge support. We also played in the garden leading up to the fountain and got very artistic with some pictures of flowers. The park was
filled with people of all ages, playing music, playing games, hanging out, having picnics, biking, it was amazing to see that many people in one place in harmony. After we perused the park we headed back to the bridge and proceeded to cross. Little to our knowledge on the other side was a huge reggae fest. We hung for a little while and watched a song or two. It was full of so many varieties of food and cultures combined.
As we made our way out of the park and onto the next spot we passed some more performers and musicians (several boy bands with huge crowds). We also passed the huge Yoyogi National Stadium. When we got through all that we ended up in Shibuya. We did some window shopping at Three Minute Happiness (what a great store name), Gap, Apple, Disney, etc. as we strolled down the street in search for the subway station we hit the busy crossing that’s shown in all the movies (see Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift or Lost In Translation). We were heading back towards Roppongi area for dinner at Hard Rock, but man those prices were outrageous. We settled for
buddahs footprints
pretty neat sculpture of the buddahs feet etched into stone Nathans Hot Dogs conveniently located next to the hotel, then called it a night.
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