Started the day with a breakfast at the hotel . It was a pretty normal but sufficient. Whu's gonna be having continental breakfast when ur in Tokyo anyway right. The morning feels so good. Off we go with the maps of the city. First stop on the itinerary is of course to get a bird eye's view of the city.
As we're walking along shinjuku, there is way too many distractions that stopped us from going straight our destination. The shopping places are not opened yet, so that saved us from wandering off too much. Haha. For a moment I was lost. Serve me right for not bringing out the correct map. But the clulessness lead us to the Odakyu counter where we can get our passes for our day trip out of Tokyo. Hehe.
Stopped by a ramen shop to have some noodles. We were so hungry after walking round and round tryin to decide on what to eat. In the end it is the budget coupon style ramen shop that got us. Its a pretty cool concept in which you select the meal u want from the coupon dispensing machine, pay for it, hand the coupon to the chef and tell him the noodle u want. Its all self service so they can really save. There is like only 2 person running the whole place. Smart!
After so much digression, we finally end up at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gov Building. Had a great time fooling around the foyer area. Hehe. The weather was so wonderful that day. All shinny and not too chilly.
There is actually 2 towers that one could visit. A north and a south. I forgot which one we went to first but of course, being the me whu wanna try everything, I dragged him to visit both the towers. Lol. The view upstairs was really nice. So glad that it is kinda clear that day. We did not manage to see Mount Fuji though. I spent the whole time ogling at the view while John as per normal is busy browsing all the kawaii products. Did i mention that the entrance is free? :D
Rushed off to Harajuku using the very very massive train network. Reminded me of the time back in Seoul when I first encounter this. It turned out that the trip made to the Meiji Shrine is very refreshing. A huge beautiful park in the middle of all those concretes. Once inside the park, the whole cityscape just disappears.
Silly me made John took so many photos of me and the shrine gate outside for I thought there is only one of such. As we stroll around the park to the shrine, we see more of those with the most impressive one right in front of the entrance to the shrine. *Blushes*.
Tried out the Japanese way of cleansing one's mouth and hand before entering the shrine. The water is so cold! Haha. There is so many people writting their wishes on the wood blocks. No I didn't spend on this. Rather have another Japanese meal. :p
Totally luved the inside of the Shinto shrine it is all so peaceful and quiet. There is no incense as well as this is not a Buddhist temple. So my eyes and lungs did not need to suffer from the smoke. Got some very precious cute souvenir there. It ended up that it is the only souvenir that I got for myself from this trip. Keeping it safe wif me. We were lucky enough to catch a wedding going on at the place too. It was all solemn and quiet just like the temple. No huge celebrations.
Headed on out to shop at Harajuku right away. Did not really like the things at Takeshita Street. The guidebook recommended it but totally preferred Harajuku Street instead. It have more cute small little stalls which sells more appealing products to me. Takeshita just seems messy to me. Even the 100yen Daiso here seems very messy and disorganised.
By the time we are done with Harajuku, both of us are so tired. But being the stubborn me, I insisted on heading on down to Shibuya to see one of the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. The crowd wasn't as thick as I expected it to be. So yea, it was a lil disappointing. We did not manage to get a seat at the starbucks to people watch either. Sigh. Went running around the crossing to take photos. Hehe. It was fun!
Spent the rest of the night figuring out the place. We're just walking around in circles tryin to get food. In the end we settled for Macdonalds. Lol. Ironic isn't it. Decided to shop a lil but we ended up wandering into basement of some departmental stores ogling at the wonderful food and dessery they sell. But man they are all so expensive. :(
If u think this is the end of the day, you're so wrong! There's one more stop to go. Back to the Metropolitan Gov Building for the night view. Really need to thank John for bearing wif me all these shit. I should really learn to be more relaxed at holidays. Think I'm still too accustomed with the backpackers way of travel. :p The night view from the top was good but definitely not one of the best. Guess after u been to NYC, everything else looks inferior. Having said that, I still think Tokyo trumps NYC when it comes to city light from the ground.
That's the end of the day. Man I never knew exploring can be this is exhausting..........
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