About a year after my last trip to Japan, I'm going again. This time for almost two and a half months. Celene will be with me for the first 3 weeks. It's her first time in Japan so it will fun to show her what I know and see it through her eyes.
We arrived in Tokyo in the late afternoon on Saturday, May 9, very tired from the flight. We made it to the hotel near the Akasaka area, went straight to bed and slept for several hours.
With jetlag we were both up by about 4am, and the sun was rising, so we went for a walk along the moat of the Imperial Palace. It was very nice to see central Tokyo so quiet, and we had the area to ourselves except for a few early morning joggers. We made is far as the south end of the palace garden, and then to Hibuya park with its beautiful rose garden, before heading back to the hotel.
We had breakfast, took a nap, then headed out again. Our first stop was Takeshita street in Harajuku.
As I expected, Celene loved the quirky shops, puppy cafes, and seeing all the young people in their fashions. It was crowded but we found a quiet cafe down a sidestreet for a break.
The next stop was the Meiji Jingu shrine, a short walk from Harajuku. It was Celenes first visit to a shrine, and she wrote on one of those wooden offerings to hang there.
While we were at the shrine a wedding procession was taking place, which for a prominent shrine like Meiji Jinggu I assume is a rare event.
We'd already done a lot of walking, so we decided to head back to the hotel for another nap.
Afterward we went to Shinjuku and the Omoideyokocho, a couple of very narrow walkways full of small old places selling grilled meat on skewers. Like going back in time. We went to a couple of them for dinner. Then we headed over to Golden Gai, about a kilometer way. We passed through the shopping area with the big Godzilla head poking over a building. Celene was amazed by the life and the variety of things to see in Tokyo.
Golden Gai consists of a few narrow walkways full of tiny bars, most of them fit less than half a dozen people. We went into one where the owner loved music from the 70s and 80s. There were a couple of people there when we arrived. One was a real character of an elderly Japanese man, and young Japanse guy. From what I could follow of the conversation it was mostly about music. A young British woman entered and Celene talked with her while I tried to join the Japanese conversation with the others.
By about 9pm or so we left for the hotel. A very long and busy day for our first day in Tokyo.
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