After a late arrival to Tokyo last night, searching for somewhere to stay from the free WiFi zone in Tokyo Station, and then walking around in circles around our hotel with all of our stuff… it seemed like our Tokyo adventure would never start! But that was quickly put aside to take in this MASSIVE city. We say massive because we have seen population numbers as high as 38 million people for the Greater Tokyo Area, and let me tell you… we could definitely tell. Tokyo Station is always packed with people. It’s a great place to relax, take in some air conditioning, and people watch. However, if crowded train stations aren’t your thing, head on over to Kaneiji Temple!
Although the temple is great without any crowds whatsoever, the real reason we came to this temple is for the below monument.
This is a mushizuka. This monument was erected by Mashiyama in 1821. The reason? To commemorate all the insects that had been killed to write the Chuchi-jo, an anatomical study of insects that Mashiyama requested. Super cool!
Then we left to look for a statue of Hachiko. We were so close; how could we not stop by? Hachiko is a dog that would go meet his owner at the train station every day after work, until one day his owner did not step off of the train. Hachiko waited nine years after this before he as well died. It’s a great story that has even been made into movies. So… we searched and searched and searched… without luck. We asked here, asked there, but could not get our point across or they did not know where the statue was. Finally, with a huge rain and lightning storm quickly closing in, we decided to give up and move along.
We decided to go to Yoyogi Park to see another temple. Were we prepared for the rain? Of course. We always carry around a poncho. Had that poncho been out of its plastic casing since we were poured on in Chita? Not at all… Not a smart choice.
The following pictures may not be the greatest. I was getting wet while posing for these pictures, and you can see everyone else is well prepared with umbrellas, but not us. But, welcome to Yoyogi Park!
As you enter and approach the temple, you pass by this gigantic wall of straw wrapped sake. These are offerings made to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, both of whom are enshrined at this temple. In return, the people of the temple pray for the continuous prosperity of the sake industry and all industries continuing traditional Japanese culture, as well as being grateful for these tokens towards the emperor and empress, of course.
Continuing on through the huge trees and rain… we arrived at the temple itself. It seemed very spread out, and for such a rainy day, it was pretty full of people.
The highlight for us were these two trees. They are camphor trees that were planted at the same time as the enshrinement of Meiji Jingu in 1920. Since then they have grown under the protection of the deities and are considered sacred trees. Since they were planted together, they are now known as “Husband and Wife”. There were loads of couples taking pictures beneath them while others prayed.
Can you tell that I am trying to stay out of the rain by staying away from the open courtyard? It could only last so long… because we decided to do a quick lap of the park behind the temple. Very worth it. Just walking completely alone in a forest of huge trees with the humming cicadas all around. All of this while knowing that the world-famous Harajuku neighbourhood is all around us. Can you guess our next stop?
To us, this is modern Japan. We can’t explain why, really, but it is. Maybe because many pop stars and famous people embraced the style, trends, and fashion that Harajuku is famous for while we grew up? Who’s to say.
But if behind Yoyogi Park was empty, this was anything but. It was absolutely PACKED.
But I still managed to pose for a picture with a local!
As you can see, the rain has now stopped. Good thing we bought an umbrella about 30 minutes ago, hehe. Within the neighbourhood was another little gem. This one is called Alice on Wednesday.
It is a store that is completely Alice in Wonderland themed. Every floor. So many things to look at. And to get in you have to go in through a small door, just like in the book and movie. I didn’t even notice the size difference, but my friend had to completely bend over.
Of course we took the whole store in, but the highlight for me was the Queen of Hearts chair. I obviously had to grab a picture when the opportunity presented itself.
Then we thought to ourselves “oh, the next train station is pretty close, let’s walk” and “there are some geocaches on the way” and set off walking towards the next train station. Well… we eventually got to Yoyogi Station from Harajuku Station. But before you go and look on a map, we did not walk in a straight line. We wandered a lot. Mostly through residential areas without much to look at, in the dark. But when we got off of the train at the following station, Shinjuku, it made us appreciate the lights so much more. This place was actually crazy.
People absolutely everywhere. Wherever you looked it was PACKED. But no one really seemed worried about the guy that was watching over all of those people. Let’s see if you can spot him.
Right at the back of the picture is Godzilla! Perched up on the Toho Building, the Japanese studio behind the Godzilla franchise. Fancy seeing him here in Tokyo.
We got so scared that we went back to the train station to call for backup. Our other travelling companion had gone back to the hotel to rest and plan how to return home (we still did not have tickets home) but we thought that he couldn’t miss this. So up he got and jumped on a train and met us at Shinjuku station. Where we showed him all that we had found. SO MANY LIGHTS.
Well I’d say that was a pretty successful first day in Tokyo. Now back to the hotel to rest up for another busy day. (And we should probably figure out how to leave the country soon). Goodnight from Tokyo!