Saturday, October 31, 2009

Day 2 - Meiji Shrine, Harajuku and Shibuya

On our second day, we walked from our hotel down to Yoyogi Park to see the Meiji Shrine. These are offerings of sake to the late emperor and his wife outside of the shrine. As we were walking around Shibuya, we were getting a bit tired, so we headed into the nearest arcade to wake up. The noise and chaos in any arcade, any day, at any time are enough to wrench the jet lag out of you.

We've become obsessed with this drumming game, and playing the claw-game to win a Nyampire doll (so far no luck with that one).

We also went through the Shibuya crossing multiple times during the day.

4 comments:

Katya said...

Nyan Nyan Nyanko as a vampire?! OMG I NEED it!! Eeek. Have you seen all the Nyanko stuff where the kitty looks like various food items?
http://www.shopkawaii.com/San-X-Nyanko-s/21.htm

I am such a sucker for all that kawaii Japanese stuff...

Katya said...

Are you planning on going to the Tsukiji fish market? Although I have heard they have closed the tuna auctions to the public.

The shitomachi museum (which is a museum of late-1800 life) is great. You can actually walk into recreations of a sweets shop and an apartment to get a feeling for what life was like. That was the best museum we visited.

Also there is a park near Shinjuku where the teens all gather on Sunday afternoons, sell random stuff, and parade around in colorful outfits. I had a blast people-watching.

Anonymous said...

Is the street leading to the temple is small and filled with little shops?
I have been to two temples - one in Tokyo (the picture you have looks very familiar) and one in the mountains near Tokayama. One in the mountains was much wilder and my Japanese friend took me to the the huge bell and said that I should ring it, so I will come back one day. I still hope she was right and I will come back one day.
Olga

Anonymous said...

the street isn't small at all... it's one of the main ones that goes down from shinjuku... inside the park there are some small stands, but they seem more touristy rather than authentic.

L