We headed to Shinjuku. This area is basically the "downtown" area and looks a lot like any downtown area in the U.S. We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building where there is an observation deck on the 45th floor. It was a very smooth express elevator ride all the way there. We got up there and saw the entire city. The one thing we were disappointed in was that the sky was not clear enough to see Fuji from there. (On really clear days you can see it.) There are shops where you can buy stuff, so we looked around before heading back down the elevator.
After this we walked around downtown a little while heading toward the Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum. This little museum houses dolls and clothes from some of the royal families. Christy and I both enjoyed this, but didn't think it was worth the money we paid for it.
Next we headed to the Japanese Sword Museum. We got lost trying to find it, mostly because they don't have street signs everywhere. Then we met 3 Australians who were looking for the same thing, so we walked with them until we found it. (It took 2 Americans and 3 Australians to find the Japanese Sword Museum. Ha!) Again, it was neat to see all the swords, but not worth the money (or getting lost).
Then we went to the Meiji Shrine, a Shinto shrine built in the middle of a forest that was planted about 88 years ago. While there we witnessed a wedding procession and got some good pictures of the bride in her kimono.
We had lunch at the lunch counter in the park there before heading on. Christy really enjoyed her noodles which had some vegetables and other stuff in it. In fact she said, "I don't know what it it, but it's good." We finished off lunch with green tea ice cream. Christy's was a swirl with vanilla.
After lunch we went to the Shinjuku-Gyoen National Garden. It seems like this is the national botanical garden. This was a very peaceful place and very beautiful. While there we had tea at a traditional Japanese tea house. The "sweet" was not very sweet, and the tea was bitter and frothy. It was different but interesting.
To finish our day we went to Tokyo Disneyland. (It just wouldn't be a Kevin and Christy vacation without something Disney, would it??? And it's their 25th anniversary!) We didn't get to do much while we were there. It was very crowded! In fact the "big" rides, like Space Mountain, had lines with a 2-hour wait. The first thing we did was the Enchanted Tiki Room, where Stich was lost and took over the Tiki Room. All the songs were sung in Japanese, but we recognized the tunes of the songs and some of the words, like "aloha" and "ohana". We rode Pinocchio and It's A Small World, which was pretty much the same but the finale was sung in Japanese instead of English. We then had "sausage" and mushroom pizza in Tomorrowland (the "Sausage" was really just cut-up hot dogs) for dinner. We finished up the evening with a ride on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, which was an interesting take on the movie, and the Electric Light Parade was coming to a close when we got out of the ride.
We headed back to the hotel and ended up coming out of the wrong exit from the metro station. So we got lost again trying to find the hotel, but we got back on track.
February 7, 2009
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