Breakfast included
Walking down to the subway station
More creative drain lids
We met Michelle and her delightful 8 month old son at Hamamatsucho subway station. Michelle was a primary school friend of Ashley, our daughter. Michelle works in Tokyo and has married and settled in Japan.
We walked towards Shiba Park, crossing the canal and with Tokyo communication tower always prominent on the skyline.
Shiba Park, not in its best condition today. The winds from the typhoon on Sunday night have uprooted many trees.
Pre-school children playing in the park
In the grounds of Shiba Park is the Zozjoji Temple, founded in 1393. It became the family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate.
The wooden gate was built in the seventeenth century and has cultural heritage status.
Sculptures in the grounds
The main temple
There is a shrine dedicated to children with hundreds of dressed child sculptures lined along the perimeter of the temple precinct
Leaving through the gate
It was another extremely humid day so we took the metro to Shinjuku, where there is a huge department store..with air conditioning and many cafes and restaurants.
We investigated several floors of the Takashimaya store
Everything was beautifully displayed. There is even a garden nursery that people sit in, despite no food being served, to keep cool and to feel they are in a more natural setting.
Lunch in one of the small restaurants
Very formal lift operators - highly professional but a little robotic as well.
The top floor had traditional Japanese outfits, fabric and clothing.
The Food Hall in the basement was as impressive as Harrods in London
Connor enjoyed the outing as much as we did
Then Michelle dropped us off at the Metro and we negotiated our way back to the hotel.
After a thunderstorm we ventured out to a restaurant nearby tonight, dragging myself away from the sumo wrestling finals on TV.
Masuya, the corner restaurant, was filled with locals - always a good sign - the meal was tapas style - small tender helpings and absolutely delicious
Tokyo Tower at night
M&M
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