A short visit to Tokyo

A Short visit to Tokyo

Our ship arrived in Yokohama so we decided to travel up to Tokyo. We will be back in less than a week but with such a short stay planned we decided to make a start on the Tokyo sites.

We travelled by train and subway to Shinjuku. Our first stop was the hotel that we booked as if we didn’t like it we had free cancellation. It was fine so we sat and caught up on our emails and our China blog.

There is as local shrine nearby that is worth a visit so we visited the Hanazono Shrine. The was moved to its current location in 1648

                                                     Gail at the Hanazono Shrine

                                                       

                                           
                                                             Yes Rob was there!

We wandered around looking at the skyscraper district of Shinjuku. From memory they first build high rise in this district due to the underlying geology and the risk of earthquakes. The modern architecture certainly impresses.

For the best view we went across to the Tokyo Metropolitan Offices and up to the observation deck on the 45^th floor. From here you can see the skyscrapers all around the district.

One of the interesting things was a donated grand piano decorated by the artist Yayoi Kusama. It is available for anyone to play and there were impressive performances some by very young children.

                                                 The Shinjuku skyline

                                                       These kids could play!!

We travelled around on multiple trains and the metro and walked and walked until we even caught the metro for a single stop. I think we walked as far to catch the metro as if we had stayed above ground and walked direct!

Eventually it was time to make our way back to the port and the shuttle back to our ship

 Tokyo has lots of major events in the near future. The Rugby world cup and next year the Olympics