Sunday was cold, cloudy and occasionally rainy but that did not keep the crowds out at Harajuku. We braved the weather and crowds and made it to Starbucks to warm up after deciding the day was pretty much of a bust. We decided to go the Meiji Jingu shrine before leaving to the Nakano apartment. We had to go through this crowd. The crowd was was going into this store, all day long. We stopped by the park to see what it was like and saw these guys. It was not a nice day so not too much was going on so we went over to the Shrine a few 100 meters away. We got in as it was closing, so we did a 15 minute tour and saw a wedding procession on a ceremonial walk to the vows. We were politely told the shrine was closing and we walked out to watch the ceremony before catching the train back. From outside the shrine gate we began chatting with a Japanese man next to use about the ceremony. We strolled out of the shrine grounds together and he ended up taking us on a 6 hour tour of a couple of the wards in Tokyo. He was interested in architecture so he showed us some of what we thought were some futuristic buildings.We stopped for tea at his favorite cafe and quized Hikaru on his profession as a acupuncturist, moxibustionist and bone setter. We did not get back to the apartment until 11. Our latest night out on Tokyo town.
(This is a test of the blogging post procedure to be done from inside the Golden Wall)
November 23, 2009 at 4:59 am
This is a great blog! Thank you George and Ann for sharing..
November 23, 2009 at 5:33 pm
George — that was fantastic that you got someone to give you their personal view of the city and what it has to offer. Did I miss the story about the guys with the big teased hair?
November 24, 2009 at 3:10 pm
No you did not miss the guys in the Park. You would think 3 weeks in Japan would be enough time to do all that needs to be done, but we have been on the go from morning to night, hardly enough time to eat let alone blog and we woke up today in Hong Kong for a 2 day stay. I hope the guys in the park get blogged tonight.