So we set out nice and early, first visiting this mini glass pyramid like the one at the Louvre in Paris. It was about a block away from our hotel in Shinjuku, and we'd walked past it many times on the other side of the street but had never had time to cross and actually look at it.
We'll chalk that up to being yet another famous icon that the Japanese have decided to replicate.
So, having begun our day with a little taste of Paris, we joined Tokyo again and headed towards the train station along that same street.
Tom just couldn't resist showing these couture-dressed mannequins in a shop window how it's really done. I can't stop laughing at this shot. They look like just like they're gazing at him in disgust.
We saw this Empire State Building - esque building...
And once we reached the train station, the entertainment didn't stop. Can anyone figure out the nuances behind this advertisement? It's just so obtuse!
It was a very short train ride from Shinjuku station to Shibuya, which was our first quick stop of the morning. Shibuya is known for two things...
This little statue of a dog called Hachiko is very close to the station, and is apparently a well-known meeting spot. Hachiko's owner apparently died suddenly one day, leaving the dog waiting for him at Shibuya station. For nine years, Hachichko returned to Shibuya station to wait for his owner's return. The little dog became famous over the years, and two movies have been made about his life (including a recent one in 2009 starring Richard Gere).
The other thing that Shibuya is famous for is this.
The Japanese equivalent of Times Square! Even at about 8am the place was still bustling, although most of the shops were still shut.
We hung around just long enough to cross the scramble interesection and then cross back again,muck around with some other statues...
And pet one of the dogs on the giant mural at the train station, before moving on.
Our next destination was also only a very short train ride away. Harajuku!
As we emerged from the train station we were met with this extremely warm welcome at the entrance to Takeshita Street, which appeared to be the main street in Harajuku.
Because it was still quite early... around 9am... most of the shops were still closed, and there was hardly anyone around. At least it gave us an opportunity to admire the beautiful paving on the street itself!
And we had free reign to enjoy the fantastic shop names. Like Nudy Boy. Do you think they sell clothes there?
I think I was more interested in the window display than the name of this store. How cute are those little dresses?!
This one though... is that the best shop name ever or what? Donald doesn't look too happy about it.
We wandered slowly to the end of the street, wondering what time things would actually start happening. Everything was still mostly deserted.
Although the Takeshita Street Maps on offer did give one of us a giggle.
We wandered around the surrounding streets for a while, but eventually decided to take refuge (even at that time of day it was HOT!) in a Starbucks we found just around the corner from Takeshita Street, to wait for things to get a bit more exciting.
When we emerged a little later, I got very excited when I spotted my first Harajuku-ish girl in a fast food store.
And as more shops had started opening and there were more people around, we resumed our wide-eyed appreciation of all of the shops.
I couldn't figure out what to look at first in this shop!
According to Prisila, "no wig, no life". At least I know that now.
We spotted more amazing outfits...
And I got serious moustache envy...
And unfortunately we had to make our way back to the train station before the street really got interesting, if we wanted to collect our bags from our hotel and make it to the Shinkansen in time.
We returned to Shinjuku station...
And marvelled at the extremely low ceiling...
We exhibited how obedient we can be as pedestrians...
And we admired the fancy buildings along a different route to our Shinjuku hotel. The Gakuen Cocoon Tower is on the left, and part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is on the right. Someone had recommended to us that we should catch a free elevator up to the observation area in the Metropolitan Government building, and we'd been intending to do it for days, but never managed it when it was still open. But because our schedule was so tight, we just didn't have the time. I practically had to drag Tom away kicking and screaming to prevent him going up though, that man is ever the optimist when it comes to time.
We got our luggage successfully back to the train station in time, and were able to admire the footwear of our fellow passengers at our leisure.
It was a bit of a rush at the end to make it from the ordinary train platforms to the Shinkansen train platforms, so we were a little frazzled by the time we actually made it to the correct platform. But we made it, and that was the main thing!
Although we were in need of some serious rehydration though!
Our Shinkansen zoomed into the platform...
And we were on! I was very impressed with the leg room in the Reserved carriage. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but I had my bottom on the very edge of my seat and my legs stretched straight out. I was almost sorry that the trip wasn't going to be longer, so that I could really make the most of it! I'm not sure what we were trying to communicate with the shot of Tom holding our Mt Fuji Climbing Stick. Perhaps he's just showing his readiness to attack anyone who might consider stealing our luggage?
We had a brief stop to change trains along the way, and because the train platform was completely un-airconditioned, we spent it underground in the main station. And here's where I need to take a short break in the narration to point out something ridiculous. This was my view whenever we were moving our luggage from one place to another.
No, that isn't a turtle, it's my husband. Instead of having an ordinary suitcase like everybody else, he brought a backpack. But not just any backpack, one that had masses of pockets all over the outside, meaning it was ridiculously bulky. In an effort to compensate for that though (I'm not sure exactly how), he also brought that white fabric drawstring bag to cover it over and protect it. And this is how we traveled.
Thankfully, I think I reached my embarrassment limit years ago, so my reaction was limited to alternating between shaking my head sorrowfully and laughing at him. He was certainly the target of a few open-mouthed stares and pointing and laughing from everyone we passed!
Anyway, back to our story! On our first train, we spotted a few locals pulling out little Bento boxes to enjoy. We were quite jealous, so at our little stop between trains, we decided to remedy that, and bought our own.
Once we were on board, we eagerly tucked in, having had no lunch.
We arrived in Hiroshima in the late afternoon, had a chat with the tourist office, and found our way to our hotel, quite uneventfully (so uneventfully that I didn't think to photographically document the process), and set out to explore the streets near our hotel in search of dinner.
We weren't sure whether a bar promising to make your "hart jump" was a good thing or not, so decided to forgo it...
And I was pretty impressed with this giant crab above this restaurant... but we passed it up...
We even came across a group of people sleeping. Just randomly on the footpath.
We eventually settled on a little traditional-looking Japanese place, and enjoyed a lovely little dinner. When we spotted it on the menu, we just couldn't resist a Japanese style steak tartare! After all, it was Tom's favourite thing from Europe!
It was quite good. And extremely vibrantly coloured!
I guess that's an extremely good thing about Japan, huh? We didn't even think twice about whether we should trust raw meat, and we didn't have a single issue with anything we ate, the entire trip.
Dessert was green-tea jelly thingies and ice cream. They were good!
So that was our first night in Hiroshima!
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