Tokyo: Day 3

Although we had sped through Shibuya previously, we thought it would be nice to walk up the 305 from Shibuya station to the Meiji Shrine. The promenade is fringed with the best representation of all the top high street brands. My favourites were, perhaps unsurprisingly, North Face & Victorinox.

After seeing the pinnacle of modern culture, we headed North (probably) to the v. traditional.

The approach to the is somewhat extensive, but it does build excitement / anticipation for the Shinto shrine drop. There are men raking leaves from the approx. 12m wide paths gravel paths… I can only imagine they persevere until autumn.. before throwing in the rake.

Half way along the gravel access road is a sake display. I assumed the barrels contained capture souls, but the sign noted differently. The sake barrels are wrapped in straw and painted; below are our favourite barrel wraps.

On reaching the shrine if was customary to rinse your hands / mouth in a delightful spiritual water feature. I refused based on the assumption that it wasn’t Volvic, or similarly naturally filtered mineral water from the Clairvic Spring, France.

Brimming with excitement as we stepped over the shrine-hold we held our breathe as we took in the scene. Facing us was a scaffold adorned with a large format print of the religious wonder.

In reality, they were simply replacing some worn areas of the copper roof. Fantastic that they are reinstating this feature as it really tops the shrine off.

Much like with the temple yesterday there was a level of visitor participation; in this instance you could write something nice with a sharpie on a shaped slice of wood.

Following the shrine visit we headed South-West, stopping for a quick bite to eat in a French inspired restaurant. The speciality was pancakes with savoury fillings; we opted for cheese, topped with a fried egg.

Lunch would not be complete without a sugary treat (awaiting FDA approval) for this we dived into the cavern that is Japanese confectionary.

On route to the Imperial Palace, for a quick gander, we took a pause in Wadakura Fountain Park. Like with many of the green spaces in Tokyo the contrast between nature and the built environment is so vast; we find this to be quite refreshing after the high impact hustle and bustle. The seating in the park was well suited to performing the classic Homer Simpson chiropractic technique, see below, perfect for realigning the vertebra after extended periods of walking / standing. (don’t try this at home, Ed.)

The Imperial Palace is fairly well boxed off from public view; moat, big wall etc. but the gate houses are quite spectacular, as are the glimpses of various features within the gated compound. Hunger again suggested that we proceed with the eating portion of the evening. For this we headed across to Spring Valley Brewery, a well renowned craft brewer established 150 years ago by an American-Norwegian in Yokohama, a city just South of Tokyo.

Thats all for today folks.

James