Meiji-jingu, Harajuku and Shinjuku-gyoen

Thursday, April 06, 2017
Shinjuku-ku, Tōkyō-to, Japan
All of the travel books and websites I have read say that Meiji-jingu is not to be missed! So we started our day heading there. Meiji-jingu is Tokyo's grandest Shinto shrine constructed in 1920. It was destroyed in WWII air raids and rebuilt in 1958. The shrine itself was a bit of a let down as it was also being renovated for 2020 and was covered in scaffolding and shade cloth. But the 12m wooden torii gate at the entrance was impressive! It's made from 1500-year-old Taiwanese cypress and is huge! (I didn't get a photo on my phone - sorry!)

The shrine is located in Yoyogi Park, and is a well-known location for cherry blossom viewing so we paid our ¥500 entry fee to the Meiji-jingu Gyoen and started exploring with excitement . Unfortunately, we must have been looking in the wrong spots because we only saw ONE cherry blossom tree. Not happy Jan!

The train station near Yoyogi Park is in Harajuku. Harajuku is home to Takeshita-dori, Tokyo's famous teen-fashion bazaar where teens from all over Japan come to pay pilgrimage. It was also home to a few cat cafes! Now, curiosity killed the cat (hehe) so we couldn't help ourselves and paid ¥600 each to sit in the cafe for 30 minutes wearing cat ear headbands and patting cats of all shapes and sizes! It was insane! When in Tokyo...

We were still disappointed from missing out on Ichiran for dinner last night so we thought we'd try our luck at lunch time. When we arrived at the restaurant back in Shinjuku the queue didn't seem too bad as we were only the 2nd group of people to be lining up on the street (the line continued into the doorway, down the stairs and into the restaurant). We were told from there it would be 70 minutes . So we stayed. Oh, it was worth it! You order your ramen (noodles with broth and pork) from a machine and collect your tickets. Then, you select your choices, including how much flavour, how much garlic, how you like the noodles cooked etc and wait for a booth to become available. The booths have little doors that can retract if you're sitting with another person and there are little curtains in front of you where they serve you your food. Not only was the experience worth it, but the food was delicious!!! We will definitely be finding another one of those in our travels!

Our afternoon was spent at Shinjuku-gyoen, another park not far from our hotel. The garden was originally designed as an imperial retreat but is now a public park. The cherry blossoms were spectacular!!! So many in full bloom and all different types and colours. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

One thing that Tokyo is lacking, in our opinion, are non-smoking bars . It is really really hard to find a bar or pub to relax in and have a few drinks without having to put up with cigarette smoke. We tried a few places with no luck this afternoon and finally found one that had an upstairs no-smoking area. The smell was still pretty bad at times, but better than being right next to it. It probably didn't help my mood that they only served Chardonnay! However, I am not a quitter and I took one for the team.

After a nap back at the hotel we decided to hit the town for our last night in Tokyo. We tried our luck again at the "claw" machines with no success and then found a sushi train restaurant for dinner. My first time at a sushi train restaurant - it was very cool! A little hard to work out what you were eating but still pretty good! My favourite was the lightly seared salmon. Yum! And they served beer, so Dylan was happy!!

Tokyo has definitely been an experience. Words or even pictures just cannot describe what it's like. We didn't like all of it, but we definitely loved some of it!

Love Lisa and Dylan x

Comments

Sam
2017-04-07

Chardonnay...I'm impressed!!!
Dylan you look so cute with the cat ears! Enjoy the next part of your adventures xx

Rachel
2017-04-11

hmm I don't think i'd cope very well eating food that i'm not quite sure what it is! I am very impressed Lee

2025-02-14

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