Japan, The Desert Island

I had to wake up early today. Like 8am early ugh. Well technically it was supposed to be 7:30am early, but of course that didn't happen. We eventually made it to Tsukuba Center and the train station by 10. I remembered my DS and Pokemon game this time, so the ride wasn't boring ^__^ I like that it's not weird to play DS in public here.

I forced Tori to walk right through Akihabara to the station this time. She wasn't very happy with that :P We went to Tokyo Station first and then walked to the Imperial Palace East Garden, which is open to the public for free 7 days a week. I always thought that was cool. Many employees and tourists and such come there during the week for picnic lunches. We walked around for a bit, and ate a snack in the shade, cause it was really hot today. I found out my camera's battery died just after our lunch/snack, cause I'd forgotten to charge it the night before damn it. Oh well, I just stole Tori's camera and uploaded her pictures to my computer.

We stayed in the gardens for about 2 hours and then headed back to the station. Next we went to Harajuku Station, which is right by Meiji Shrine, our next destination. It's completely hidden in a forest so there was lots of shade which was nice. We were still hot and tired though so we stopped and got some ice cream.

Eventually we made it to the shrine. We walked through the shrine and said a prayer in the uh... the really holy part of the shrine where you pray. We were going to head back after that, and just before we noticed a wedding procession coming through the shrine. I'd never seen the fully traditional Japanese white bridal kimono in person before. Basically, the women wear this many layered white kimono which is elaborate and beautiful and takes hours and many helpers to put on. We didn't see the actual ceremony, I don't know whether they'd done that yet or not, but we saw them march through and then pose for a wedding photo within the trees. It was a large party, and it took the attendants forever to make sure everyone's clothes looked fine. I wonder how expensive a wedding at such an important shrine is. We also saw a wedding in a building in the Imperial Garden. These people must be loaded.

After we walked through Harajuku for a bit, which is a very crowded shopping area pretty much. We didn't stay there too long and eventually returned to the station and made our way to Ueno Station. Ueno is a big park within Tokyo, famous for its abundant cherry blossom trees. Two years ago I got to see it when the trees were in full bloom. A truly beautiful sight. We bought dinner at the station and ate it there. A stray cat apparently decided we looked nice and proceeded to sit quite near and stare at us during dinner. We were feeding it half because it was cute and half because we wanted it and its fleas to go away. It kept ignoring the food I threw it though and only eating what Tori threw. Ungrateful cat :( Although it ate one of the things I threw in the end. I guess it can afford to be picky. We saw at least 10 cats, and they were all fat from all the people who feed them.

We walked around a bit after eating, and stumbled across a baseball game. I don't usually like watching baseball, but it's always fun to watch live. I don't think it was serious league game or something for school. It seemed like a recreational thing. We watched for 20min or so, maybe more, then we decided to go home. The sun had set by this point and for some reason Tokyo seems to be on desert weather, cause even though it was boiling this afternoon (felt like in the 90s, but that may have just been the humidity), it was in the low 60s at night and freezing. We stopped by a store before the station and wandered in there for an hour or so. I bought kitty stickers for my cell phone :)

Everywhere we went today I'd been before, two years ago. It was kind of cool that I still recognized everywhere we went, and knew where to go. It's nice seeing these places again. We stopped at the same rest stop near Meiji Shrine that we visited two years ago, and I found this awesome bread bakery in Ueno Station where we ate lunch once, but I couldn't remember what station it was in till today. The store near Ueno Park we went to was the same one I bought a game at two years ago too. Although, even though I remember where to go most of the time, it's still nice to have a map :)

The ride back was fairly uneventful, except that it was freezing cold. I soaked in the bath again after showering, which made me feel so much better. We also watched tv for a few hours as usual. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we were planning to go to Mt. Tsukuba. Maybe Tokyo again Tuesday?

Between Tori and I, there are at least 100 new pictures from today. I'll upload most of them on facebook eventually, but for now these will have to do. First 3 are of the Imperial Palace. Next is Meiji Shrine, followed by the wedding party photo. Then one of the cat that "shared" dinner with us and lastly, the streets of Ueno at night.