First off, we would like to apologize to Norris that though we did see meido yesterday, we goofed and didn’t bring our cameras. We’ll get those pictures to you in two days or so. (:
That aside, we’re here to bring you the best of your today and our yesterday. Here’s the latest from our trip: a hike up to the Imperial Palace, the Meijijinguu Shrine, and the Tokyo Tower. AKA, three tourist spots we picked from our handy dandy Tokyo Metro Guide. Since we went to three different places at different bus stops, this is going to be a little image-heavy. Oh, and we suddenly become camera-whores (mostly because my parents encouraged us to give evidence that we’re actually here.< -I guess they didn’t know we’d already shown our swag.)
As a bit of a background, the Imperial Palace is set in Nijubashimae, right in between Otemachi and Tokyo. Once you arrive at the C-10 stop and walk out of the station, everything looks terribly city-like until you look far into the distance near the mountains. My mom somehow knew what the palace looked like, so we spotted it pretty easily after walking down the street for a bit. It’s not as far as it looks either, so it makes for an okay visit.
See, the Japanese have the right attitude. They know how to keep a park clean.
This isn’t actually part of the palace grounds, though there were outer gardens that looked
pretty similar to the park.
Our destination. Once you memorize the building’s look,
you should be able to find it easily from the sidewalk.<3
The palace building and the bridge connecting to it. Since you’re not allowed to go in,
you can only guess as to what the whole palace looks like beyond the entrance.
My dad said suddenly informed us that he was in fact the king of the Imperial Palace.
It came as a surprise, but we took a picture anyways. Mostly because we were too busy laughing.
I think our king got a little tired, but he was still generous enough to
let us take a picture with him. (:
Chris was convinced that he had to join in the fun, so he barged onto the scene.
As you can tell from the picture, he gutted me right before a passerby snapped the shot.
(Yes, I’m kidding, though that’s not too far from what Chris usually does.)
Yeah Chris, KEEP OUT. Jerk!
There’s actually a soldier marching once in a while like in England, without
the silly teasing us commoners like to give.
My mother and father looking like they’re on a postcard.~
That girl that owns you completely. WaPOW.
So after we had our fun at the palace, we decided to head out to our next destination: the Meijijinguu shrine. This was Chris’ place of choice–my parents decided to opt out because they were getting tired. With that, Chris and I decided to start our trek from the Meiji-jingumae (C-03) station towards what we thought was the road that would lead us to the shrine (little did we know it would be the exact opposite way, and sadly enough for us, to the immediate left of the station.) Meiji-jingumae, by the way, is between the Shinjuku and Shibuya areas in terms of location. Meanwhile, my parents stayed at a coffee shop at the top floor of the building below.
Snoopyyyyy~Peanuts love.
Want a piece of that Kit Kat..drink?
We still haven’t seen any strange vending machines: all our eyes are catching
are drink and cigarette machines.< -Don’t smoke, kids.
The entrance to the temple grounds.
Aren’t they so pretty? I really like the water design to the very left, towards the top.
Where are you taking me, Haku?
(Yeah yeah, I know there aren’t any pink flowers and that’s obviously not a direct quote.
I have to say though, this road totally reminded me of it.)
The explanation for below:
It’s a really cute tea house, but the main doors kind of seem eerie imo.
Explanation for:
Somehow, I think birds violently attacking each other for a spot on the water
would have been more interesting to watch.
The explanation for:
I know it looks like an empty pan/bowl, but the water’s clear enough that you can
hardly see it overflowing. It’s kind of funny that this little dripper makes that huge south pond
in the earlier picture.
The temple entrance!
Before we could go in though, we were informed by a sign that said that we
apparently had to cleanse ourselves before entering. Out of courtesy and curiosity in how people
actually felt doing this, Chris and I followed the sign’s instructions.
It was harder than we thought.
Even though the buildings are fairly old, you have to marvel at people’s lasting craftsmanship.
I mean, come on. Hax much?
I’m going to take a gander and say those are wards.
But really, I have no idea.
A close-up of the shrine. If you look closely, there are some people in traditional clothing.
And though I don’t mean to kill the whole religious mood,
the women are really, really pretty.
We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some event that was going on to the side of the main temple.
Of course, to a foreigner like me, I could only assume it was a wedding, but again,
I have no idea.
So Chris and I decided it would be a fun idea to get a block and write out our prayer wishes.
We shared a block; I think you know who’s who. (If you don’t, Chris is the inspirational writer type
and I’m just being silly. You know I mean it, though. (;)
Ours is on the main wall facing the picture, very top, second to the rightmost column.
We saw some pretty interesting ones, including one from the Random Ninjas (who I wouldn’t doubt
are the very same ones we saw performing at AX. Small world.) We also saw some other interesting
ones, where someone was praying for another guy to pass his exam, and where a kid was praying
for a unicorn I think it was. Definitely some fun reads.
Look kids, I’m at Tokyo Tower!
Tokyo Tower is in Kamiyacho (H-05), near Roppongi. It’s still in the Tokyo area, though.
I think Chris and I compared this to the Eiffel Tower, except red-orange/white and smaller.
Still, we thought it was fairly pretty.
Here’s a view from as top of the tower as we could be by elevator.
I’m sure we could’ve gone higher by stairs (I saw an open stairway leading higher,)
but we were all pretty tired. I didn’t think too much of it.
This was really random: I wanted to take a picture with one of the guides so bad,
since their uniforms are cute. (: I finally asked one of them at the top of the tower,
though my mom didn’t include her grey skirt. It really looks nice together, and
the hat matches perfectly.~
Okay dad, I’m going, I’m going. xP
We went back in the elevator to go down, when we realized we were dropped off
on the fourth floor (probably as an advertisement to go see the museum too.) We opted out,
since we weren’t too interested. Instead, we decided to go the freebie path into a glowy
history tunnel.
The question/answer game of despair. Basically the game is this: the black box in the middle
serves as a random question picker. It flips through questions and chooses one, and then
you’re given time to think of an answer before it shows you some multiple choice answers (a, b, or c.)
There are three blue buttons on either side labeled a, b, or c, and you choose your final answer.
Whoever gets the right answer gets a point and a light flashes onto the bar. Whoever gets the most points by the end of four(?)
questions wins the match. Since we had no clue what the questions
were asking us, Chris and I just randomly guessed our way through.
Needless to say, I won.
A height chart was posted on the wall, and my dad figured he would compare himself
with the puny commoners. Obviously, he was taller than entire chart.
Me, on the other hand..well, let’s not go there.
While we were in the taxi heading to a Korean restaurant, since my parents wanted to relax
with our real culture. :P Forget Pirates–look at that kickass bunny angel mural in the back.
And this pink dinosaur, which triggered Chris into singing some dinosaur song from DDR.
The first few notes sounded more like Schindler’s List to me, personally speaking.
I think another day seeing what Japan has to offer besides temporarily curing our unhealthy obsession with anime and games is in order before we head back to our Akiba homegrounds. And knowing us, we’ll probably be able to find entertainment in anything.
