Yokoso! Japan Day 7 - Tokyo

Tokyo Metropolitan Building, Harajuku and Tokyo Tower

We have planned to meet up with my friend Mark, who works in Tokyo, today. Before meeting him, we decide to go up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building near Shinjuku Station. The place offers a view of the surroundings at no cost.

While at Shinjuku station, we bought our train ticket to Hakone the next day, before walking over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, a good 15-20 min walk from the station.

It was pretty early when we reached, and the building was not open for visitors yet. We went searching for breakfast first, and in the end there was only Mac's that was open at that hour. After breakfast, we went up to the observation decks.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (東京都庁舎 Tōkyō Tochōsha), "Tocho" for short, or Tokyo City Hall is the location of the headquarters of the government of not only the 23 wards that people think of as the "city" of Tokyo, but also the cities, towns and villages that comprise Tokyo as a whole. It is also the tallest building in Tokyo at 248m, and the second tallest structure after Tokyo Tower.



Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions then, it was too foggy for us to see any view outside the observation deck at all. Kinda disappointing.

View from Tokyo Metropolitan building

Around the Tokyo Metropolitan building:









Us waiting for Mark to join us. I'm wearin a new top that i bought from H&M the previous day at Ginza:



Our first stop after meeting Mark was Isetan, Shinjuku. Joey wanted to get her Burberry Blue Label bag there; Zhenzhi also bought herself an Agnes B. bag. Me? I looked on and gave suggestions, but yar, didnt get anything for myself.

Next stop was Harajuku. Here you can find the latest youth fashion in Takeshita-Dori, and young girls donning Gothic Lolita-style here. There is also shopping in Omotesando, and historic experience at Meji Jingu Shrine in the vicinity.

The Harajuku station:



Our first destination: Takeshita-Dori:





The clothes here were definitely not cheap. One dress that we saw many Japanese girls wearing costs at least S$50, and it definitely did not look the price! We could have bought it in Bugis St. at probably one-third the price, or even less.

We "invaded" the 100 Yen shop here, however. There were many good finds, such as eyebrow pencil, mascara etc. Also had ourselves some ice-cream crepes at Takeshita-Dori.

Before heading for lunch, we went to shop at H&M. Initially we wanted to check out the Forever 21 that has just opened in Tokyo in April, but we were shocked to see lines and lines forming outside the shop. There were at least 40-50 pple from what i can see, very astonishing indeed!

Lunch was at a Tonkatsu Ramen shop in the vicinity. We had been craving for some ramen since the last one we had at Umeda Sky Building. It did not disappoint. The soup and noodles were very yummy. It was a pity, however, that the egg was hard-boiled style.



After a satisfying lunch, we decide to go to Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Yoyogi Park, adjacent to Harajuku station and near Meiji Jingu Shrine:





The Harajuku bridge that leads to Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu Shrine. You will also find youths donning the latest, rather outrageous trends gathered here, hoping to be photographed by magazine photographers, and are willing to take photos for tourists as well.



Entrance to Meiji Shrine:



There is a 15-20 min walk to Meiji Shrine through the park. It was a very relaxing and cooling walk, given the vast amounts of shade that shielded us from the sun. As we had walked alot for the past few days, we really took it easy today at a slower pace, enjoying the fresh air and scenery.



Meiji Shrine:



Meiji Jingu Shrine is a shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. It is said that it is pretty common to enshrine the defied spirits of rulers and/or important personalities in Shinto religion.

Meiji Jingu Shrine was constructed mainly with Japanese cypress from Kiso. It appears that Japanese cypress is a very commonly used wood in the ancient times in Japan.

Being an active Shinto shrine, it is not uncommon to see traditional weddings held here. In fact, we saw three wedding parades when we were there.







Besides the grooms and bride donned in traditional wedding clothes, Shinto priests and shrine maidens, you also will see a big wedding party with women wearing pretty kimono:



A very big tree in the Meiji Shrine grounds. I wonder if there is a significance/history to it:



There were also some bonsai displays in the shrine. These colorful ones with flowers caught my attention:



Thereafter, we went off for more shopping, or rather mostly window shopping at Omotesando. Checked out the UT (from Uniqlo), and bought some nice T-shirts.

Last stop of the day was Tokyo Tower.

It stands tall at 333m, 13m taller than its model - Eiffel Tower of Paris. It was completed in 1958 and serves as a symbol for Japan's rebirth as a major economic power then. Today it is a television and radio broadcoast antenna and tourist attraction.

Seen from a distance on our way there:



Tokyo Tower from the base, with all lit-up glory:



Tokyo tower is usually lit in orange, but it changed colour after some time. During the promotion for Matrix movie, the Tokyo Tower was lit up in green light. I wonder if it was lit up in red and green, or white for Xmas?



We decide to have dinner at one of the restaurants found in Tokyo Tower.

The Unagi-don (plus hot soba) set that me and Dear had. This delicious, succulent piece of unagi definitely satisfied my earlier craving for unagi. The portion was very huge as well, pretty good value for money (cost 1,000 yen ~S$15).



After finishing dinner, we headed back to our hotel, saying goodbye to Mark at Shinjuku station.
It had been great catching up with him in Tokyo, seeing that he is doing well here.

This marks the end of Day 7.
Next day (also last day in Japan): Hakone.