Wednesday April 2nd - This is Tokyo











 We were woken by our alarm at 7am and after a powerful hot shower, began to feel much more human, even though we hadn't had much more than 3 hours sleep. Our hotel is a large, modern, international  style hotel Qand although the bedrooms are a little dated, we found they were well stocked with toiletries, multiple chargers and even stylish stripy cotton bathrobes.

We were warmly welcomed into the huge breakfast area, where the politeness and incredible helpfulness of all the staff was immediately apparent. Our grumpiness and terrible experience in immigration the night before was soon forgotten and we took great pleasure in discovering what was on offer. The range of choice was quite amazing, from traditional English style hot and cold breakfast choices, European style cheese and cold meats, American style sweet cakes and multiple hot and cold dishes of Japanese breakfast choices.Everything was immaculately presented with staff quickly on hand to replenish any dishes that were running low. A highlight was to suddenly spot a little robot trundling around taking away the dirty dishes!

Sadly, we didn't have time to linger as we had a full day in and around Tokyo, beginning with a trip to the famous Harna Riku Gardens, which featured in Monty Don's tour of Japanese gardens a few years ago. From the many photos taken here are a few to give you a flavour of this beautiful space and its immaculately trained trees.





It really was a wonderful oasis in the heart of the city.

Our next stop was at  Sensoji temple, the coach journey introducing us to the maze of flyovers and underpasses that make up Tokyo's major routes through the high rise buildings - you can see all 3 levels here and even the river right at the bottom!


Our lovely Japanese tour guide Hero gave a very informative running commentary along the way, her excellent English making us smile with the occasional mispronunciation or forgotten word for with she profusely and charmingly apologised.
The approach to the temple was thronged with tourists and locals, all keen to sample the various food and gift stalls along Nakamise shopping street and after the profusion of high rise office blocks and apartments it was quite odd to view these ancient buildings.As well as it being a busy tourist sight, we did get the feeling that for people of the Bhuddist faith it was a very significant place to come and offer their prayers, always finishing with 2 little bows ( no photographs were allowed inside however)



As it was lunchtime, we were encouraged to go off and discover something for lunch, so feeling a little apprehensive we set off back down the long line of street food stalls and small restaurants finally deciding that on our first day, we didn't yet feel confident enough to try anything properly Japanese, so mstead ventured into a little coffee shop, where we discovered several of our party  had also had the same idea! Trev's first Japanese meal out therefore consisted of a ham sandwich and a glass of beer! Everyone was so incredibly polite, helpful and keen to welcome us, demonstrating far better command of English than my feeble attempts and Japanese ( limited to hello, thank you and goodbye!)
Returning to the coach, we encountered the sight of Japanese officialdom in action with uniformed street marshalls controlling our group as we waited on the pavement for the coach to pull up. Rather like the stern officers at immigration, there was no arguing with them!
The final stop of the day was at Meji Jingu Shrine, an impressive site amongst a tranquil forest. 




The densely wooded area effectively blocks out the sights and sounds of Tokyo, enveloping visitors in an environment of zen where they can clear their minds and immerse themselves in the shrine's architectural beauty and Shinto practices.
Our busy day was still not finished as we were recommended to join tour guide Trevor in the sky bar on floor 45 of our hotel for pre dinner drinks. The views were amazing, hopefully the pictures do them justice.






It looks on this last picture as though you can see Mount Fuji in the distance,  it it's just a reflection of something!

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