So much walking! My feet ache from four days of solid walking. But it has been worth it! On Sunday we decied to visit the Asakusa Shrine, but got quite lost on the way. First we found this great series of back streets filled with colourful shops and flags.

It was heaps of fun to explore, and we had lunch in a restaurant hidden on the third floor of a random building. There is an interesting system in Japan where you aren't allowed to smoke outside in the street unless you are in a designated 'smoking area' (usually inside a bunch of lines drawn on the road), but you can smoke inside restaurants (either inside a 'smoking area' or if the place is too small, just in the restaurant itself) or in other places where it's allowed. In the restaurant we had a guy smoking right next to us, and when we went walking through some corridors through a market, we ended up walking straight through a 'smoking corridor', where all these people were just standing and smoking together. It's a bit odd.

Once we had finally found ourselves again, we started the walk to Asakusa again. On the way they must have been holding some kind of festival, because there was an awful lot of noise and people, and someone dressed in a traditional outfit was riding a horse and being led by some kind of golden float. We tried to have a look, but I'm still not sure what it was!

We eventually managed to make it to Asakusa Shrine, and it was amazing. Such a huge structure, busy and bustling with people coming to pray.

After we'd checked it out we stopped and had some shaved ice. It was surprisingly delicious! I had peach flavoured. :)

After Asakusa shrine we walked quickly though the neighbouring markets, which were pretty cool and full of all sorts of trinkety things, and then headed off to Akihabara (electric town). It's insane how many electronic goods they have in one building, let alone all the other ones. Floor after floor of every kind of gadget you can think of, and every variety on each floor too.

On Monday we went to Yoyogi Park (after unsuccessfully trying to go to Shinjuku Gardens and realising it was closed), which was very beautiful. The air smelled clean and old, like a forest, and the gigantic trees formed a closely knit arch through which we walked.

The Meiji Shrine is situated in the middle of Yoyogi Park, and it was another lovely old complex (even though it was rebuilt after a fire about 60 years ago). We were lucky enough to see a wedding procession while we visited.

 Where you wash your hands and mouth before entering

 Close up of the bamboo ladles

 Inside Meiji Shrine

People's wishes hanging from a wall

 Traditional wedding we were lucky to see!

Me before the Shrine

We also went for a walk through the Emperor's Garden inside Yoyogi Park, including seeing a lake full of koi, a beautiful stream filled with iris flowers in full bloom, and luckily, a family of raccoon dogs!

 The Tea House overlooking the gardens

 One of the raccoon dogs we saw

 The river was full of beautiful iris flowers

 Sake barrels held commemoratively inside Yoyogi Park

On our way out we saw this random guy playing a harmonica and several instruments with his hands and feet! He was waving and giving everyone the thumbs up as he played.

We then went to Tokyo Tower, which has two observation decks, one at 150m up and one at 250m up. We went to both, but the elevator up to the second deck was a bit creepy... especially when the lift gave a great big clunk as we ascended. The view was pretty amazing though... Tokyo is so huge! Sadly we couldn't see Fuji-san though, as he was hiding in cloud. :(

 View from the 150m deck

 Standing with the view from the 250m deck!

 250m up

 Tokyo Tower from its base

On our way back to the train station we passed an active temple, which was ringing its bell and had chanting coming out through the doors. The sound was amazing (anyone seen 'Enlightenment Guaranteed'? It was exactly like that). There were also heaps of statues lined up along the edges, each with a little crocheted hat and pinwheel.

 The temple and Tokyo Tower

Buddha statue on the grounds

We headed back to Shinjuku (near where we are staying) for dinner and enjoyed the activity and buzz of the city at night. The shops in that area tend to stay open pretty late, up to about 10 or so at night, even though it's just a normal weekday!

Anyway, that'll do for now... it's almost midnight and this has taken way too long to write! Will catch up on today later. Tomorrow is Lauren's birthday, so hopefully we'll have a lovely day out. 

PS The Japanese TV is still very, very weird.