Family Visit: Downtown Tokyo

Tuesday was our last full day in Tokyo before our mini-holiday within a holiday to Kyoto. This was the day when we wanted to see the bright lights and big city that Japan has to offer.

During the day we visited my Gaba school in Omotesando, and because there weren't any lessons going on my family could come in and see the booth where I normally teach and meet some of my colleagues. I was a bit worried in case they couldn't come in but we got more than I expected!

After that, we walked up the road (it was lovely sunny day) to Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park and saw the largest wooden torii in Japan (and I guess the world).

Then we walked into Harajuku for lunch, and weirdness. We saw a few Harajuku Girls wandering round through the crowded backstreets. The one road which I think is the best is called Takeshita Doori, which goes from Harajuku Station back towards Omotesando. I took videos last time I visited.

Then we took the train to Shibuya to see the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. It was just before rush hour so it wasn't as impressive as I would have liked.



Shibuya station was very busy but we found our train and took the Yamanote line back past Harajuku and into Shinjuku, for rush hour!

Shinjuku is the world's busiest station (not the largest, that's in Sendai, north of Tokyo) and it has over 60 exits. It's ridiculous trying to find which exit you want but our destination, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (much easier to say in Japanese - 東京都庁 - Tokyotochou), is clearly signed.

We walked through the impressive Skyscraper District after taking a 'Moving Walk' down a looong dark passageway under the city. My family had fun "following the Yellow Brick Road", which was in fact the strips of studded pavement designed to help blind people navigate!

There was a huge queue for the lift up to the 45th floor Observation Deck, and I was really worried that it would be so crowded we wouldn't be able to get to any windows. The queue moved very quickly and when we actually got to the top it wasn't crowded at all! I'm sure the other lift must have taken the passengers to some sub-basement.

You can see pictures from my previous daytime visit here, but the following are twilight and night shots.

This time I could actually see Mt Fuji! Yay!
Shinjuku park in full sakura bloom.

The blue you can see dotted between the trees are the mats people use for hanami (blossom-viewing) parties. The Tokyo Park Hyatt.

Sorry about the glare on some of these shots, glass reflects!
Sprrrawwwll...


The Skyscraper District.

As the sun faded, artificial lights flickered and burst to life across the city.


Such bad reflection!
The Empire State Building and Tokyo Tower in the background.
Beautiful, beautiful city...

This video goes on for a bit but it gives a good impression of what it's like to be there.

We bought some souvenirs (surprisingly cheap for a touristy place), and my mum got a miniature sign of my local subway station for her mobile phone.

We were all quite tired after everything we'd done that day, and we had an early start to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto in the morning.

Kyoto baby!