As we know, Tokyo is a huge city, with many Shinto shrines,
Buddhist temples, castles, shopping malls and so on; one cannot cover all the
areas in one day. So we chose to visit only the important landmarks. First we
visited the Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine. Next on the list was, the Imperial
Palace East Garden.
On the way, we have seen Ginkgo plants on both sides
of the road. Our guide said, these plants are very hard to catch fire. They
even survived Hiroshima bombing. And in summer, the leaves are green which turn
into yellow in autumn (in October).
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Ginkgo plant. Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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Our guide was saying that the Tokyo University and
the Parliament of Japan are on the way to the Palace; but we haven’t stopped
for a visit (because of security reasons? Oh, I don’t know!).
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Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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The palace and the large garden area were surrounded
by moats and earthquake-proof walls. I was not excited as my interest in plants
was close to nil with a few exceptions. My mother, she was happy as she loved
flowers. Anyway, we weren’t disappointed as there were many types of flowers in
so many colours. I was impressed as well, but my interest was still lacking.
All I could think about was the distance between us and the guide whose
identity prop, a pink pompom was bobbing up and down as she quickly hurried
along.
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Imperial Palace moat, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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The Imperial Palace garden however let my
imagination wander. It wasn’t hard to imagine the Emperors walking by silently
and it gave me a nice word play to ponder on. The history also enticed me after
the garden and the palace had survived the world wars.
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Imperial Palace garden, Tokyo, Japan.
Apr. 29, 2014
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I also heard that the Emperor lived there and his
family would come to the garden every Monday and Fridays on which the garden
would be closed to the public.
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Tokyo Railway station. Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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After this, we proceeded to Sensoji Buddhist temple
at Asakusa. On the way, we have seen the Tokyo Main Railway Station building
from the bus. Our guide was describing about the designer of this building and
how he designed. I am lucky to have a chance to visit inside and see outside of
this building, I would say, it’s spellbound!
The Sensoji Buddhist temple is the most significant and
oldest in Tokyo, having a history of 1300 years. Impressive was all I could, not
of the temple but of its history. The temple did have a nice feeling to it,
though the feeling of a long worn history!
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Sensoji
Buddhist temple, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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But even the history couldn't wake me from the bored
slump I was in, even my parents weren’t interested. As a result, we found
ourselves near the bus sooner than the appointed time, and seeing this, my
parents started taking pictures. But fortune shone on me and the guide came
soon after.
We had lunch at Pastel tei - Panoramic Tokyo view
restaurant which was at the top of Seaside Hotel Shiba Yayoi. We enjoyed the delicious
western style food, watching the panoramic view of Tokyo.
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Lunch
at Pastel tei - Panoramic Tokyo view restaurant,
Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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Following this, we went to the harbour for a Tokyo
Bay cruise (the hotel we stayed was on the other side of the Tokyo Bay). The
Symphony Classica was a beautiful ship with a restaurant.
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Tokyo
Bay cruise. Rainbow bridge at the backdrop.
Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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Never knew I could
enjoy a city cruise; but, since I got good photos it would explain my
happiness. But even without my camera I feel that I would have still enjoyed it
especially the beauty of the city. Most of the buildings were tall and the city
itself in some way resembled New York, what made it different was the Rainbow Bridge,
which seemed to arch over the building tops framing it.
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A
Panoramic view of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, Japan.
Apr. 29, 2014
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The last stop of the day was Aqua City at Odaiba.
Odaiba is a manmade island, with shopping malls, cinemas etc. One can see the
complete panoramic view of Tokyo Bay from Odaiba. There was a miniature version
of the Statue of Liberty of New York.
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| A miniature version of the Statue of Liberty of
New York at Aqua City, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014 |
The guide, when we reached Odaiba told us that
whoever wanted to remain there could and that she would leave us. Much to my
misery, my mom decided that she wanted to stay so that she could shop and that
was what we did after informing the guide.
Odaiba turned out to be an important place to me, but
that I realized only later. You see, in 2013, there was an exhibition where the
Thousand Sunny a real life ship model from ‘One Piece’ was displayed. Thus this
place was important to me until I realized. Alas, I was completely disappointed
after I discovered that the ‘One Piece’ exhibition had moved; it seemed that the
exhibition was only for a temporary period.
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Aqua City, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014
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After spending more than 1 hour, my mother ended up
buying a pair of chappals for remembering Tokyo, she said!
And the final factor which wore me down was the
travel to the hotel all the way from Odaiba to Maihama. A warning to choose a
hotel within the city as ours was far away so it always took us long to reach the
Maihama station and then again by monorail to our hotel.
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| Aqua City, Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. Apr. 29, 2014 |
Wiped out would be the word to describe me in the
hotel that night. Well, at least I was able to sleep well..!
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