Post Four: TOKYO!

February 4^th 

The Idaho Burger

TOKYO! Grandpa Dennis you would be proud of me, I had Japanese McDonalds today! There is a special called “the Big America” series which runs from early January to mid March, there are four burgers and this month was the “Idaho Burger”. Masa and I tried them, and it tasted pretty much like any old fast food except there was a little tiny bit of sauce that tasted like soysauce with a little fish…Japanese zest to the “big america”. After this traditional Japanese lunch we visited the Meiji Shrine and the garden close by. This shrine was not particularly old, but the Torii (gate from the profane to the sacred, normal to spirit world). At one of the entrances is the largest in Japan, made from Cypresses that were 1,500 years old. Quite impressive! The garden was peaceful, I think the park was incredible in that it was right on the edge of Harajuku Tokyo, the fashion/hip streets, and yet one really couldn’t hear much except the crows and the other birds. Before locating the shrine, we wandered into this park looking for it. Neither Masa nor I am very good at directions, so we were quite proud of ourselves for finding the trail map and consulting it very carefully before continuing on…little did we know that the shrine was actually just around the bend and if we had looked up instead of consulting our map…we probably would have seen it and found it with no trouble…ah well.

Meiji Jingu

Jingu Garden

Our walking then took us to Takeshita street, a walking street with lots of ‘young people’ shops (hip hip clothes, puma shoes, etc.) and one perfume store that we went into and sniffed pretty much every single perfume. Our noses were so full of scents afterwards that we were smelling perfume well into dinner.

Our day ended with a spectacular show by Cirque de Soliel. It is really beyond words, I cannot describe it enough without taking days and days. Suffice to say it was amazing and filled with music, acrobatics, clowning, and visual effects that were astounding.

Lastly, on our ride home, one of the trains had been delayed and there were hundreds of people attempting to ride our trains. I did not experience the pushers, but I think this was as close as I could get! We were lucky enough to get a seat, but it got very hot in that train for sure!

Happy first day of spring!!!!!