It was cool to see such a big park in the middle of the city - reminded me of Vancouver and Stanley Park. But to put things into perspective, I looked online (so this might not been 100% accurate) but Shinjuku Gyoen Park is 58 hectares whereas Stanley Park is a whopping 404 hectares!
I also really wanted to get a jumping shot of the four of us while in the park, and after several failed attempts, we asked some other foreigners from Germany to help us out. This is one of the better ones we got.
Afterwards we found ourselves in Harajuku which is an artsy shopping area. We walked down crowed streets and looked in various shops. What I liked about Japan is that you can be exactly who you are, individualism and self expression is encouraged and you really saw it all in Tokyo.
Although everyone else had already been to Shibuya, we made a special stop for me so I could experience Shibuya crossing. This is a 6 way (I believe crosswalk), all of the lights turn red at the same time and the intersection is packed with people. This crossing is in a lot of movies, most notably, Lost in Translation and is compared to Times Square in New York. We stopped and took some pictures, dashing in and out of the street as the lights changed.
I would suggest looking up aerial pictures of the crossing to get a better idea as it does look quite cool.
From Shibuya, we made our way to Akihabara which is the "electric town" full of electronics, games, and anime. It was cool to walk around here, but not necessarily my thing. We did however find Purikura machines! These are Japanese photo booths where you take pictures with your friends and can draw on them digitally before printing them out. We did this and had so much fun with it.
A picture of Akihabara:
Lydon was given the name to a really good ramen place in Akihabara from another couple who were staying at the hostel. After a bit of looking and asking for directions, we managed to find it and it was delicious!
Some coworkers of mine went to Japan during the summer vacation when I first arrived and they recommended that we check out a robot show while we were in Tokyo - I really wanted to do this but unfortunately it did not work out. From Akihabara we headed back to Shinjuku for the robot show. I only knew the address to the place, so after getting out of the subway station, we had no idea where to go. I approached three guys that were standing around and looked to be around our age. They were so nice! They pulled up Google maps and tried to explain how to get there and eventually they stopped and said "You know what, let's go" and they walked us the entire way. How generous! But we got there and the show was already sold out! :( If I return to Japan, which I hope to do, I will make sure to reserve tickets in advance. But this shows how truly friendly and kind people were in Japan. As this was not the first person we stopped to ask for help and everyone was exceptionally helpful. It truly amazed me how kind people were. While it was a bit of a disappointment, we headed back to the hostel to enjoy some drinking and chatting as usual.
Japan is also known for their themed cafes - we thought about checking out a maid café (where you go enjoy coffee, but the place is decorated and the staff are all dressed as maids) but the cover charge (yes, there was cover) was $60 and we didn't feel like it was worth it. There was also a big Sumo tournament during the time we were there, but again you either had to have tickets in advance OR get there super early to get a ticket, so that didn't happen either but would have been a neat experience as well.
The next day we basically made the trek to the airport. In the morning we checked out, ate at the bakery again and decided to make one last stop in Nippori to check out some temples. The area also had tons of graves which were all very pretty. We did some walking there before getting to the airport which marked the end of our journey.
I really liked Japan. There is also so much to see! We were there for five days, in one city and there is still a lot I would like to see. For instance Roppongi, the foreigner district (which some people from the hostel went out to but I was too tired after getting back from a day at Disney.) As well, I'd like to climb and see Mt. Fuji and see other cities like Osaka and Kyoto. Five days was excellent but I want more! Looking back I wish I would have known that Tokyo Disneyland was a carbon copy of Disney World as I would have skipped it in order to have another full day of sightseeing in Tokyo. That's not to say I didn't enjoy Tokyo Disneyland though. As well, it's too bad that I do not enjoy seafood as I feel like I didn't get to experience truly authentic Japanese food during my trip. Come to think of it, I didn't really eat much at all and what I did eat was pretty American. Everything at Disneyland was American, and other than that, I had Japanese pork cutlet and ramen. Sorry sushi lovers!
Ah yes, one last tidbit - because the trains get so packed there are some train cars that are for women only during certain times of the day. I thought that was pretty awesome.
And finally a shot of the sunset on the plane:
<3
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