This was the walk all over the place day. We clocked I think over 10 miles, starting with a temple, through the big samurai park, then to take the boat ride we didn't take the day before, and finally on to the street with many mini bars (only after getting lost in red light district). Oh and don't forget the search for the Godzilla statue and the lost camera!
Click here for total route, including one boat ride, one metro ride. Doesn't include all the wandering getting lost looking for Golden Gai or to/from train stations and mad sprints to recover items.
Before the play by play, here is my favorite photo of the day:
Click here for total route, including one boat ride, one metro ride. Doesn't include all the wandering getting lost looking for Golden Gai or to/from train stations and mad sprints to recover items.
Before the play by play, here is my favorite photo of the day:
YASUKUNI SHRINE
This is the place at which war veterans are honored, and has seen controversy over some of the WWII who are honored here. (Click here for a good synopsis). There is no denying it is a beautiful site.
The old mixes with the new in the background. Pretty impressive gate.
Carvings on the side
The grounds.
not sure what these are, but it looked cool.
THE PARK
The park in the middle of the city, this is where Kazuma was sure the big bad wolf samurai lived.
Make sure to leave your beer and dogs at home. Not allowed in the park!!
Me by the entrance wall. This wall is on the northeastern corner of the park.
A great view of the lake in the park
GODZILLA!
Ok, so when we were out with Pritham and the kids, Sandip was SURE he saw a sign for the Godzilla statue near where we walked. After looking for at least 20 minutes, we decided to give up because it clearly was not there....
Sandip made his own statue and we decided to move on, a bit crestfallen. But we decided to ask the really helpful street police and low and behold...
We found it! See how huge and awesome this statue is!
ok, kind of tiny and lame. but still worth it.
The Lost Camera...
After finding Godzilla, we stopped at a burger fast food joint and had a great burger. I said-ok let's move the camera off the table so Angie the klutz doesn't spill her drink on it. So we moved the camera to the table next to us. And promptly left the camera there as we headed to our next destination.
We walked about 15 blocks. checked out a store, were about to get on the metro when Sandip said "you have the camera, right?" Realizing neither of us had the camera, I sprinted back to the burger joint where the camera was sitting EXACTLY where we left it, camera chip in place. Only in Japan, the place of super friendly people. Actually, it could also Buffalo, NY. Those people are awesome too.
Back to the Park
So we walk back to the park from the first day, and are finally going to take the boat ride. This is the site we saw on the way:
People waiting to cross the street in the crosswalk! What an unusual/non-existent site here in Delhi!
This is one of the few pictures we took before totally falling asleep.
Weird modern building mixture across the street.
SENSO-JI TEMPLE-the big red lantern one
No we are not even close to done with the day yet.
So next on the agenda is a Buddhist temple which is huge and awesome. Kind of touristy area around it selling all sorts of cool things for the shopper. I had some tasty sweets. It is also where Sandip found the girl that used to hang from the mirror of his car in grad school. So we started the search for a replacement. We didn't find it, but got great shots of the temple, and cool gifts for the family.
Lantern at the entrance
The actual temple
Kind of creepy sculpture
It was a great time of day to see how the sun played on the colors
I really like how the design of this clock mirrors the design of the tower
TOKYO METRO GOVERNMENT TOWER-Seeing the skyline
We went to the city building where the city government towers are awesome to see the skyline. We will return to this area for the architecture tour, but saw it this evening. Nice.
Cool statue and view of these modern buildings
Skyline out the tower window
ALMOST DONE-the search for Golden Gai
So we went to a neighborhood that had the red light district, but also a place that in theory had rows and rows of back alleys with bar after bar called the Golden Gai (click here for details). That is what we wanted to find. But we found lots of other stuff first.
Sandip's secret reflexology business.
Singing and dancing fish sign
Men out on the street with 1980s Bon Jovi/androgynous hair. Yes there were also salons in the neighborhood advertising this kind of hairdo. Love Bon Jovi as I do, not the hairstyle.
OMG more street that is not where we want to be-again still in red light area. At this point I am about ready to scream my feet hurt so bad. I am hobbling, Sandip is hobbling, the place we are looking for is clearly not on the map where we think it should be. We are about ti give up.
HURRAH!! The cool back alley street with all these little bars to go into. How to choose?
You choose the one with the female bartender of course! She was really cool. We went into a second one with a guy bartender who spent time in SW America. Too random.
Goodbye day of walking!
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