Days One and Two in Tokyo: the city and Nikko

For my first Day in Tokyo, I toured around in a mostly unplanned fashion with Emily. The weather was perfect (warm, but not hot, sunny, and dry) so we decided to walk from her hotel to the Imperial Palace to see the grounds. We saw about half of the sights there (though I didn't discover this until much later) because was missed the entrance into a large part of the gardens. In any case, we then made our way to the subway and headed to Shibuya, where we walked around the neighborhood of very high end shops before and after stopping in the Oriental Bazaar, where I picked up a few more things for myself and finally got some inexpensive little gifts for some of my friends. We then went to an organic restaurant in the basement of a children's toy store, and were surrounded by mothers and their crying (but still cute) babies all through the meal. After lunch headed to Meiji-jingi, the best of the shrines in the central Tokyo area, and then walked around the park that surrounds it, Yoyogi-koen. After that we walked to a nearby sword museum, which was small but interesting. It had a great description of how swords are made. By then it was time to head back to our hotels and get ready for dinner. Later, I met up with Emily, Seth, and John again for dinner, and this time we went to a French restaurant nearby their hotel. My food was excellent, though the waiter had perhaps mastered the whole French thing too well, as the service to us gaijin was slow and diffidant, whereas the service to the surrounding Japanese customers was brisk and efficient. I didn't really mind, though, since I wasn't in a rush.

The next day, Emily and headed to Nikko. The ride there took about 2.5 hours from my hotel. The weather was overcast, but it never more than sprinkled so rain wasn't an issue. The flat light made taking good photos really hard though. The shrines and templers were nice, but most of the grounds were packed with tourists, largely ruining the experience. Kyoto and Kamakura were, in my opinion, better trips, though in the case of Kamakura, the shrines and temples were less ornate and objectively impressive. One really nice part of Nikko, though, was Taiyun-Byo, which was almost deserted, and nearly as ornate as the main sight of Toshu-go. The huge five story pagoda on the grounds of Toshu-go was really cool though. After about two and half hours, we have covered the sights, and we both needed to eat something. We headed into town and ate at a little yakitori place called Hippari Dako. It was quick, cheap and very tasty. By this point, it was time for us to head back, and so we walked back to the train station and caught the next train back into Tokyo.

For dinner I met another friend, Nancy, who is working in Tokyo (on a temporary assignment). I was meeting her at 8 pm at the Ebisu Garden Place, and just as when I was trying to meet Emily for dinner the first night, my attempt to navigate my way to an unfamiliar place was a disaster. I got caught by every trick the subway system could pull, ending up spending about 800 yen on the trip and showing up a half hour late. However, Nancy and Ron, one of her coworkers from the states who was here on a business visit, were still waiting for me, and we then headed up to the 38th floor of the Ebisu Garden Place Tower for some delicious shabu-shabu and a breathtaking view of the Tokyo skyline at night. Since we started quite late, we finished dinner rather late, and I headed back to my hotel immediately afterwards.