Our last day in Tokyo was probably more enjoyable than either of us expected in that it did help us understand Tokyo a bit more, see different areas and different cultural aspects. We had to get up early to get breakfast before the buffet ran out!!!!! That was a total exercise in futility. The breakfast was, as you’d expect, rather revolting. It left me feeling vaguely yuk!! So we went back to our rooms to shower and pass time for a bit until we went out. Our target today was the Harajuku area. The Too cool for school area of Japan where the young, the beautiful and the not so beautiful strut their stuff in all sorts of out there fashions…much of it very eye catching and eccentric. The whole area is full of the fashion boutiquey shops and trendy cafes, focused around a street called Cat Street. Everywhere there are people lined up waiting to get into a shop or a cafe…some of the queues going for 100s of metres. All very fascinating and great for people watching. The best part for me was having the second best coffee I’ve had in Japan, predictably in a cafe called Luigi’s!!
But I’ve run ahead of myself. The first thing we did was go to the Meiji-Jingu temple, a massive Shinto shrine destroyed in WWII air raids and rebuilt circa 1950. It is large and impressive but sadly much of it was under scaffolding as it is being restored. But the best thing once again was the gorgeous garden in the grounds. The Meiji-Jingu Gyoen. We both really loved it. It had a heavenly Iris garden, a pond full of water lilies etc. For the last time the Japanese know how to do a great garden. We walked from there up to Cat St. and the circular narrative goes on.
From Cat St we walked down to Shibuya Crossing, which can be equated to the Times Square of Tokyo. When we finally got down there in the heat Rose took one look and said right we’ve seen that!!! Well actually I agreed with her but would have dilly dallied a bit more before pronouncing it!! We came back to the hotel to regroup for the night and around 6 we set out to find a restaurant nearby we’d read of. Tonkatsu!! Like every night the maps tell us it’s 200M away but by the time we’ve walked around and around its a mile before we find it, this time with the help of a local store owner. This is a busy, busy area full of stalls, shops, street food and a red light element to it. A great area in short. Anyway the food was terrific and we basically headed home after the meal and a wee street desert on the way.
Thats it for the last time until we are home. Plane tomorrow night and we are bot so much looking forward to seeing you all.