Day 3: Dynamic Tokyo (photo heavy!)

My apologies for taking so damn long to post day 3. I think I got overwhelmed with the actual "work" involved in uploading all the photos from this day.

On our third day in Japan, the juice company made arrangements with the Hato Bus company for their full day “Dynamic Tokyo” tour.

We lucked out weather-wise, as this day was the nicest day so far this year, from what we were told. I was grateful that the weather in Tokyo welcomed our visit, especially since our first stop was Tokyo tower.

Here's a view of the tower from the Sumida river.

Upon going up to the main observatory deck (which is not all the way to the top, because we couldn't go up there with the number of people in our tour group, but it's still high enough), we got a panoramic view of the city.

With a city that inhabits over 12 million people (!!!), this city goes on..

and on...

and on.

It's really amazing to see how big this city really is. You truly feel like you're just a speck of dust on this earth.

Now this picture below, is a portion of the floor in the main observatory deck looking down. Definitely gives you a different perspective of how "up there" you are. Even if I was certain that it was structurally-sound, I couldn't get myself to stand on it. Even taking this photo virtually gave me vertigo, heheh.

Our next stop was at
Happo-en (click on English at the top of this site's page for more info), to take part in a tea ceremony and then take a walk through the beautiful grounds of this little sanctuary in the middle of a huge city.

After enjoying our delicious green tea and some Japanese sweets, we were let loose to explore the grounds on own own.

The garden here was breathtakingly beautiful and I went crazy taking photos to remember how tranquil and refreshed this place made me feel.

One of my fave photos below:

And another personal favorite:

They had many bonsai trees hundreds of years old. I think this one was around 600 years old.

They had huuuuuuge koi in the pond. Huge enough to look scary at times, hehe.

This creamy golden coloured koi was my favorite. He kinda poked out his head to greet us, or wanted food, probably the latter.

And this one seemed to be striking a pose just for the camera:

After we enjoyed the gardens at Happo-en, it was time to enjoy lunch at
Chinzan-so . As we walked towards the restaurant, we got to enjoy the scenery around this area too.

Lunch consisted of grilled pork and beef with various veggies on a cooktop that was lava rock that came from Mt. Fuji .

After lunch, we strolled the grounds some more.

They had stone carvings of monkeys.

and stone carvings of buddhas with tilted heads. He looks content and happy nestled amongst the spring flowers, doesn't he?

Next stop:
Imperial Palace

Now at this point of the day, due to people in the tour group not returning at the scheduled time that the tour guide gave to us, we were running out of time in order to make the river cruise scheduled later that afternoon. The tour guide has a deadline to meet, so the area around the Imperial Palace was shortened

a bit.

The moat goes around the entire perimeter of the palace. I wished we were in Japan a week or two earlier, as we just missed the full bloom of the cherry blossoms. The area of the palace grounds that the public can access would have been beautiful to walk around, surrounded in blushing pink and the soft fragrance of the cherry blossoms.

I liked this photo of one of the guard towers of the Palace, with the cranes building more high rises in the background. The past is preserved, but the future is moving fast forward. You get old and new smooshed together in Tokyo.

Our tour guide got us to our next stop in time after shaving off minutes from the Palace. We were now off to view Tokyo from the water with the
Sumida river cruise .

That's Rainbow Bridge which was completed after I left Japan.

It's great to see the city from a different angle, such as from the water.

I didn't realize how many little canals there are in Tokyo - it made me think of the canals in Amsterdam.

This photo below is of the Asahi beer building, which appropriately looks like a tall, foamy mug of beer. To the right of that building was supposed to be this golden flame rising above, but due to its construction or structural-engineering-whathaveyou, with concerns of damage in an earthquake-prone country, it laid flat instead and is now affectionately referred to as 'the golden poop.'

And our last stop of the day:
Sensoji temple and nakamise-dori

The river cruise dropped us off in Asakusa, where Sensoji temple is located within walking distance. This was one place I was looking forward to, as it was a place I never did get around to visiting when I lived in Japan.

At the beginning of the entrance to Sensoji temple is a narrow pedestrian walkway called Nakamise-dori, which is lined with little shops carrying souvenirs of every kind.

parts of the temple grounds

The famous red lantern at Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate):

The main temple:

I forgot to take photos, but shortly before walking up the steps to the temple, there is a big, bronze urn covered by the billowing smoke of burning incense. You waft the incense smoke over your body as an act of purification, but people also believe in the curative powers of the incense smoke by rubbing the incense smoke towards parts of your body that you wish to have cured/improved. I directed the incense towards my (lack of) bosoms - LOL just kiddin. I wished to improve my memory, since I seem to be forgetful these days, so I directed the smoke towards my head.

There's another stop to purify yourself prior to entering the sacred grounds of a temple, which is at the water fountain, where you ladle some temple water to purify your hands and mouth. You wash your hands by taking a ladle to rinse your hands, then ladle some water into the palms of your hand to take into your mouth, then spit out to cleanse.

Upon entering the temple, Bear saw this beautiful painting above us:

Here's one of many Buddhist statues found around the temple grounds.

This statue was located behind the temple of a famous Kabuki actor playing one of his famous roles. I loved the expression on his face.

And that, my folks, is the conclusion of day 3. Thanks for all of you who read and viewed all the photos from this day.