First day touring around- Meiji Shrine

Today was our first day exploring Tokyo. Still overwhelming and looking forward to learning more Japanese with our language program. :) The hardest part is finding things and how to get where we want to go, and obeying all the Japanese "rules" of etiquette. The people are very nice and helpful; they seem to feel committed to helping us when we ask for directions. Two escorted us all the way to the places we wanted to go, going considerably out of their way. Few know much English. We're learning to ask the police men or younger people.

With the sunny, warm weather, it was an ideal day to go to the Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine, along with the many other locals enjoying the weekend. The park is an amazing forest with 170,000 trees and over 260 different species, all donated and planted by Japanese volunteers in the 1920s. It's different than most parks in that there is no grassy area for picnics or lounging. There are two main paved boulevards that go through and around the dense forest, offering shade and tranquility just steps from crazy-busy shopping and non-stop subways. The center features the Meiji Shrine which has the temple (a courtyard really). There's a gift shop, restaurant, and cafe on site too.

Kelsi at Yoyogi Park entrance

Keri, Yoyogi Park

Meiji Shrine

Drum inside Meiji Shrine

 

Kelsi paying respect to the shrine- washing up

 Takeshita Street- busy pedestrian-only shopping street

For a snack, we ate at a sushi restaurant that had a conveyer belt of sushi and sushimi. We choose the plates we wanted as the plates rolled by. We liked how we could see what we were getting before ordering. It was delicious! Complimentary green tea powder, rice tea powder, tea cups, and an instant hot water spiguet was in front of each diner. Other condiments included a pot of pickled ginger, soy sauce, shichimi (Japanese seven-spice powder), and of course- chopsticks.

Sushi conveyer belt- yum!