Day 2: Tokyo - Sunday in Yoyogi Park, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shinjuku, & Shiboya

We started our day at the top of the Tokyo Government Building - Observatory on the 45th floor - where we enjoyed a birds' eye view of the city - you can see the capsule building here in Shinjuku - the one that is bullet shaped!

Tokyo skyline

Park Hyatt Hotel where the movie Lost in Translation was filmed with Bill Murray.

Then we walked and walked and walked to Meiji Shrine south of the government buildings in Yoyogi Park. The walk was beautiful, we enjoyed several different neighborhoods in the area and even discovered a Sega store on our way where there was a huge arcade. We went in to put up our feet for a minute and watched this guy beat on the taiko drum game. Kind of like garage band, but for drums! He brought his own sticks and we had a great time watching him. Thank goodness the staff there could speak a little English and they did a lot of pointing to help us find Meiji shrine!

We found the shrine set in the middle of this beautiful old forest.  

Since it was a Sunday there was a lot going on. There was a traditional wedding processional with the bride and groom followed by their family across the courtyard. There were also lots of small children  and their families celebrating shichi-go-san where 3 and 7 yr old girls and 3 and 5 yr old boys come to the temple for a blessing.

Katie and Trevor in front of Meiji Shrine

Beautiful fall color at Yoyogi Park

Japanese Rockers - they were so fun to watch

This is Takeshita Street - famous for Harajuku girl sitings - especially on a crazy Sunday afternoon.  We didn't see too many Harajuku girls, but there were LOTS of people in a very tiny street!

Thank goodness Google Maps helped us find this small Gyoza shop in Shubuya -
thank you Tony and Shelley Cannon for the great heads up - gyoza here are oishii!

Now that are bellies are full of warm gyoza, rice and soup we head to Shibuya crossing!  This was an amazing experience - when the walk light turns green there are literally seas of people crossing into this intersection - I don't think you can see one open square inch of pavement as everybody converges into the middle of the street and then disperses their separate ways.

We took the subway back up to Shinjuku to look at the Christmas illumination located adjacent to the station. It was a beautiful winter wonderland, complete with a Krispy Kreme donut shop selling donuts for 180 yen a piece! and that was for the plain glazed :)  But that was a little cheaper than the 3500 yen pizza hut pizzas we saw the other night!

Sayonara!