The Cordinas all were jetlagged and woke up early (somewhere around 4:30am with the sunrise). Melanie and Charles were the first ones up and explored the 7-eleven convenience store and took a walk. Then Matt, Belinda and Lily joined them for 7-eleven breakfast and smoothies. Then we all went on a walk to Shiba Park, Maple Valley Park and walked to the base of the Tokyo Tower. Matt continued on and took a couple mile jog which randomly took him by the heavily guarded US embassy.
We met back up at the hotel with MoJo and started the day by going to the Meiji Jingu shrine. In the park, there was a large forest of very large trees, an ornamental wall of sake barrels and the beautiful shrine. The torii gates were at every entrance and exit to the shrine and towered over us. Charles was excited to perform the hand washing purification ritual we learned in our Youtube video research.
We took the train to Mitaka and since we were early for our Studio Ghibli museum time, we stopped into a Don Quijote and bought some snacks and souvenirs. This included Strawberry KitKats, a pair of Japanese nail clippers, a 2 liter bottle of Fanta for Charles and some energy drinks. Then walked through a park to get to the Ghibli Museum. It was a surreal building that had exhibits of how the animation was created, a lot of original sketches, and an exclusive film about a water spider befriending a water walker spider. Unfortunately the museum did not allow photographs inside the museum. Before we left the museum, we had lunch at the Straw Hat Café.
After the museum, we walked back to the train station in a slight drizzle and went to Shinjuku to find the Onitsuka Tiger shoe store. Lily. Melanie, Matt and Jo all got new shoes. Lily got the famous yellow “Mexico 66” version that were designed for the 1966 Japanese Olympic team and predominantly displayed by Uma Therman in Kill Bill.
Charles was bored of shoe shopping so he and Belinda went to a claw machine arcade and won a sticky seafood toy.
Once we had our fill of shopping in Shinjuku, we still had time to kill before the Shinjuku food tour, so we stopped in at a Starbucks. Matt and Melanie went on a city hike through the sprinkles and rain, while the rest had an afternoon pick me up and some much needed sitting.
We then met Ken at 5:15 for a great night of experiencing the city with a local. Ken was super friendly early 20s college student starting a graduate degree this fall in English education. He was willing to answer all our questions and teach us how to remember Japanese words. Like “Itadakimasu” in english is “Eat a duck, key, mouse”. This phrase is said before starting to eating to express gratidude. We also learned Kampai to toast- we also had our first sake of the trip. First stop on the food tour was an Okonomiyaki restuarant where you sit at low tables with griddles and make savory pancakes. Okonomiyaki(includes egg) and Monjayaki(no egg) – always includes cabbage, amazing spices, plus meats and seafood.
Included in the food tour was a stop at an arcade to experience life on a Friday night for a Japanese teen- photo booth time!
Next stop was a Yakitori restaurant(skewers). All sorts of chicken on a stick!
An our final stop- although we were getting pretty tired at this point was a dessert only place which included a candy buffet bar where we could try many different nostalgic japanese candy. Ken walked us back to the Shinjuku train station after a very full day of Japanese culture.
Nice pics! Looks like fun and lots of food!