I’ve just about mastered the train by now and combined with a lot of walking, I saw the Harajuku neighborhood, the Shibuya neighborhood, the Shibuya crossing, the Hachiko Statue of dog, the Meiji Shrine, and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden at peak cherry blossom time. I lucked out.
Today was the reason I was training for lots of walking before I left. The most I walked in Green Valley before I left was 3 miles. Today I walked 13.4 miles. That’s sightseeing in a big city even with a generous amount of public transport.
Needless to say, I’m exhausted. I saw a few things this morning, then went to Ueno Park and the Ueno Zoo. Then at about 2 pm, I decided to go to the Tokyo Sky Tree for the view. Well, that took hours. Everything takes a long time here because there are just so many people. I was making a private joke that the translation for Tokyo is actually, “just get in the line”.
I waited an hour to buy a ticket to ride up to the tower an hour and a half later.. I visited an absolutely awesome food market below the massive Sky Tree. Finally, I shuffled around with a zillion other people and saw the view of Tokyo from very high in the sky.
My fortune at the Meiji Shrine, written by Emperor Meiji, was a Haiku poem:
Much like bamboo
That just keeps growing
Upward joint after joint
We as people can become
Splendid in our many ways.
