Tokyo day tripping with Gray Line

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Raining again today.Off early.. 8am on our all day tour of Tokyo. First stop was Tokyo Tower which is Japans Eiffel tower - pretty impressive with grand views 360 degrees. Then onto Meiji Jingu shrine, its massive and was named after the Emperor Meiji who in about 1859 opened Japan to the west after handreds of years of isolation by former shogun emperors. It was also emperor Meji who handed powers to the people and set up a peoples government - he's the grandfather of modern Japan. The Shinto shrine is vast, with large gardens and massive temple and buildings - no clutter just straight lines and spotlessly clean, there was even a man sweeping the ravel streets with a bamboo broom. We had a drive past the old parliament which is now a guest place for visiting dignatories from other countries. Its like a Japanese version of "The Whitehouse" only its fences are higher. Our next stop was the Imperial Palace east gardens. The palace, is a big complex hidden away behind large walls and trees - its very private and is only open twice a year like Melbourne's government house. So we saw the very impressive moat, walls and the breathtaking east gardens. Best was the magnificent large black pine trees which are full life sized bonsais with true horizontal branches - imagine a pond, curved surrounding gardens with nicely spaced normal pine tree shaped like a Norfold Island pine but instead of jet straight outward branches, slightly curving branches - a very serene and soothing sight . The garden was full of curves, and the pond was fed by fed by a tiny creek and was pond filled with big trout sized gold fish. The pathways were lined with perfectly trimmed azaleas. It must be a sight to see in May each year in full sunlight. After a nice Japanese restaurant lunch we visited the Tasaki Pearl shop - nothing unusual to report on there, although one lucky member of our party won a pearl freshly taken from an oyster just for the occasion. Our last visit was a trip from Tokyo Bay up the river by boat to the Buddhist shrine at Asakusa. The shrine area comprised a few acres situated right in the middle of a busy suburb. It had a large pagoda and many small shrines with carved gods. That was it - and it was still raining when we finished in the dark at about 6.00pm. Bernardine and Ross arrived in Tokyo this afternoon, so we had a wine together to celebrate Maur's birthday, then had dinner at a little shop in Shinjuku station which was also interesting as at the place we chose. You pre choose your meal from those dummy look a like food plates in the window. Each meal has a number (in both Japanese and English), go to the vending machine near there, press the corresponding number, it tells you to insert the money, you get a ticket, then go into the shop and hand it to the guy behind the counter, he gives you a glass of water, you sit at the counter & bingo, your meal is ready in seconds. Another jam packed day.....getting tired of umbrellas and wet feet !..... there must be a typhoon coming !!!!!
Tomorrow its off south to Kyoto by bullet train, a trip of about 2 3/4 hours - I can't wait for this

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Photos

Tokyo Tower
A long way down, looking through the floor to the ground

Imperial Palace East Garden
Black Pine trees and clipped azealas

Japanese Birthday lunch
Not sure what's in each bowl...but tasted great !

Comments

[sarah]

did dad type up this blog?
I recon dad typed up this blog! Lots of detail and history as per usual! Girls enjoyed their walkies to the park with their new Y lead. Its funny coz Chels wants to look over all the fences and Tig likes sniffing the lawn so they keep pulling each other away from what they like doing.