On Sunday, we got up bright and early (5am) and headed out. We wanted to go out to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo because they close the streets on Sunday and allow joggers and bikers the right a way. Its 3 miles around the palace, so we decided to go walk a 5K and get some good exercise. But first stop...the bakery, where I fell in love with this bear roll....
And then I ate him!
I loved the trees that are in the Imperial Palace area.
Since we have been to the Imperial Palace before, we didn't go into the main section, but instead walked around the outer walls. Heres Rick in a gate thingy.
Here I am posing in a ANTM pose. Yes, I'm a dork!
The moat of the palace has HUGE fish, geese and even turtles!
I really liked all the decorative cement blocks we found periodicly on our walk.
Moat geese.
One thing we found very interesting was all the runners and bikers would leave their belongings on a park bench. Water, wallets, bags of food etc. PERFECTLY SAFE! No one touched other's stuff and it was perfectly safe for them to go do a lap or two of the palace and an hour later return to their stuff.
My sweetie
Pretty flowers and plants along the walk.
Along the way, we found a small park that had stretching benches at it. I used the sit ups bench while Rick just enjoyed elevating his legs.
Where are our kids when we find a fun park? Its funny how even when your kids aren't with you, you still keep your eyes open for kid friendly places.
The moat around the palace. Isn't Rick so cute?
I don't know what this building is, but I think it looks neat. Its across the street from the Palace.
Rick standing outside one of the gates.
A jogger running through one of the Imperial Palace's gates.
A ground's keeper.
We thought this was so sweet. This guy is carrying the umberrla v
As we were leaving, we saw some rollerbladers speed skating by.
I kept thinking of all my running and bking friends. You guys would have been in heaven running and biking around this beautiful area.
Afterwards, we hopped aboard the Yamanoto subway line and went to Harajuku. Every Sunday, the streets of Harajuku are PACKED with young Japanese girls who come dressed in costume--most look like little bow peep and other "girlie" costumes. Last time we came, we saw A TON and I even had my pic taken with a few of them. So cute. But this year, we didn't see as many. :(
The streets of Harajuku are VERY narrow and there are A TON of people!
Mmmm...crepes with chocolate ice cream and strawberry slices in it. Mmmm... My favorite!
Heres Rick inside the cockpit of an airplane inside a VERY teen bopper store called PINK.
Right next to Harajuku street area is a very high-end shopping area. We first went into Dolce and Gabana (D&G). I have a bunch of fake D&G stuff and I thought I was a "fan", but the attitude of the people inside turned me off. It was still exciting to see the real clothes and bags and shoes, but its just not my thing. Next we went to Louis Vuitton. The store people were way more friendly and *GASP* didn't freak out if you wanted to touch a bag or scarf! LOL I actually had a lot of fun in the LV store and gained a lot of respect for the history and handman ship of the products. After LV, we went into Channel which surprisingly had a very party like atmosphere. I enjoyed "shopping" in these stores---
After Harajuku, we headed to Shibuya. We think everyone should go to Shibuya at least once to enjoy the craziness of crossing the street with 100,000 other people (no joking.) but Rick and I just don't like the vibe there. Here he is petting the statue of Hachiko the dog.
Heres ALL THE PEOPLE. Its totally crazy and people cross the street in all directions at the same time.
We found a cool grocery store in Shibuya and enjoyed seeing lots of new products.
It was a very long and hot day, and I got sunburned, but we had a blast. AND we calculate that in addition to the 3 miles we walked at the palace, we also walked a good 6 more miles. PHEW! Thats a lot of walking!
--Super Angie
3 comments:
You guys look good, glad your having a good experience so far....
Later, we saw a few hundred posters at the Fuji Building on Odaiba for a movie about Hachi, the faithful dog, who went to the subway at the same time to meet his master for like 20 years, 10 of which his master was dead for. Anyway, of all the choices possible, it appears as though Richard Gere will play the "Schrödinger's cat-like" professor.
That many people would make me crazy!
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