Tokyo Tidbits

On the way to Mt Fuji, we stopped by Tokyo for a couple days, stayed in a hotel at Shinjuku.

The first impression of Tokyo was that most buildings show their ages. 

crowded old buildings view from the train sky liner from Narita to Jinshuku

Public transportations have good coverage of the city. But there are multiple companies run the railways, buses. The subway stations are like a maze, for visitors, it is not easy to find the right exits, or transits. Most annoying part is that most buses, trains don't accept foreign credit cards. Metro cards, such as Suica when used through Apple wallet, can be tied to US cards. Not all metro lines accept the metro card. Visitors need sufficient amount of cash to use public transportation.

The buses, subways are quiet, even with the presence of middle school students

Cartoons are everywhere. In one of the subway stations, there was a mural on the wall advertising new cartoons. Many Japanese stopped to take pictures.

When walking in the busy district like Shinjuku, few were out and about during the day. A whole lot more people at nights. The streets were quiet almost all the time, even at nights, even at the famous Shibuya scramble crossing, when hundreds of people crossing the intersections at the same time!

Shibuya Crossings

There are many small restaurants at Shinjuku. Most restaurants accept foreign credit cards. Most common food include sushi, grilled beef and raman.

A ramen restaurant, which is quite popular

The Japanese seemed to only wear black and white cloths. Most man wore white shirts, black pants to go to work, walking quietly. 

Most shrines in the communities are cemeteries.

The national gardens are elegant, and big. We only went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

There are many museums. We visited Tokyo National Museum, which focuses on Japan and Asian art.

Meiji Jingu is a shrine honor Emperor Meji and Empress Shoken. We were at Meiji Jingu on a weekend. There were many Japanese visiting the Jingu, some wore formal traditional costumes.  It was so quiet from Japanese, all the noise came from tourists - mostly westerners. In addition to torii, temples, another eye-catching landmarks are the barrels of Sake

torii at Meiji Jingu

the road inside Meiji Jingu

temples are closed to visitor - tourists can only view inside from the doors

Barrels of Sake

Barrels of Sake

The sign by the Japanese barrels of Sake read "These sake barrels are offered every year to the enshrined deities by members of the  Meiji Jingu Zenkoku Shuzo Keishinkai (Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers  Association) including the Kotokai, which has made offerings of sake for generations,  as well as other sake brewers around Japan wishing to show their deep respect for  the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. "