May 4 - Big City = Lots of Walking

Instead of spending lots of money today on trains, I decided that we could make a nice Yamanote walk from Shinjuku all the way down to Shibuya. We started off by taking the underground tunnels from Shinjuku station all the way to the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building. When we got there it was open thankfully. My parents had no idea what to expect. When we stepped into the elevator and I said we were going to the 45th floor, they just stared at me with jaws open. The view from the top was pretty cool although a little cloudy. The building did not have anyone working because of the holiday, but there were a ton of tourists eyeing the city. We went to both the North and South towers as they have different views of the city.

From the top of the building I pointed to where we were going to walk to the rest of the day. “You see that big green area? We are gonna walk through that!” We stopped by a convenience store for sandwiches before heading off. The walk was rather nice. I led us in the general direction if Meiji Jingu and finally ran into a road that I had traversed earlier with Sheung Sheung. We entered the back way and ended up at the temple. It was really cool because there was a wedding going on. This meant that a lot of people were wearing the traditional Japanese style clothes. I forced my mom and dad to make a donation and pray so I could get their pictures. I also made my dad do the omikuji, but he did the English one and got a poem instead of a fortune. Lame.

We walked out of the temple and to Harajuku. Deciding against seeing Yoyogi park, we instead checked out all the girls cosplaying on Takeshita-dori. Honestly, it was the first time I had ever seen it. The clothes were very gothic and very out there. I figure it is mostly high school girls who are tired of wearing the uniform all the time so they buy crazy clothes and flaunt them on the weekends. Takeshita-dori was packed with people, not that it is a bad thing. The parents kind of get to see rush hour. We once again just looked at all the stuff and did not buy anything.

From there we went down Meiji-dori to Shibuya. Once there I took them to the station and visited the Hachiko. After that we passed 109 and went towards the NHK building. We got a little distracted with a flower festival right outside of the building and ended up not being able to enter. It apparently closes at 5:30. At the festival I got some dango which I made my parents try. They did not like it too much. The mochi was too chewy for them.

Back at the station it was starting to get dark. I decided to take them to Kudanshita one because there is some cool stuff there and two because the Toei-Shinjuku train goes there. We walked some more and eventually went home. I plan on going back there first thing in the morning when it is daylight and the imperial palace is open.