Japan: Part 2

On Tuesday, which was my 2nd full day in Japan, Elaine and I took a train to Tokyo. Most of the travel we did was by train and subway. Much cheaper. Seems that most people in Japan also use public transportation. Anyways, by train, we were only about an hour from Tokyo. We stayed at a very nice military hotel there.

Once we got settled into the hotel, we headed out to start our touring. First on the list, Hibya park. This is a beautiful park where many people go for lunch, resting or artwork. There are lots of these public parks in the downtown areas. Elaine referred to it as Tokyo's Central Park.

One of those tourist that gets their picture with the sign.

A view of the water. If you look at the larger view, you can see the turtle on the rock. Lots of turtles!

Pretty fountain in Hibya Park. I really wanted to get in b/c it was so hot, but Elaine didn't want me to visit Japanese jail.

There was some kind of modeling photo shoot going on. Of course, I had to take a picture.

Near Hibya Park was the Imperial Palace. There is an emperor and emperess of Japan. It was kind of disappointing though b/c all you could really see were the gates leading up to the palace. No view of the palace. Very heavily guarded.

A couple of stops away was an area called Hirajuku. This is the shopping district for high school age girls. Lots of crazy jewlry, socks and more. Very busy! I actually did get some crazy looking socks here. They definitely have some different styles.

Nicer shopping area around Hirajuku.

Yes, the store is called Condomania. Think we went in?

Andof course, we did have to check out Tokyo Gap. I thought it was a bit fancier than American Gap. It had more of a Banana Republic feel and definitely more expensive. But Tokyo altogether is more expensive as well.

That ended our long day of touring. We cleaned up and visited a nice Japanese restaurant for dinner. I actually managed to eat with chopsticks! I was alittle surprised. I ate alittle sushi, but only the cooked kind (imagine that!). Then it was off to bed to get ready for an early start the next day.