After a quick shower to freshen up, it was off to explore the sights of Tokyo. First stop, trying to work out the public transport network. With some help from Yoshi and his new guide book, we soon found our way on board the TCAT, on our way to see the Imperial Palace.
To get to the palace, we had to cross a lovely wide and lush patch of beautiful soft grass. It was too soft to merely walk on, so we decided that it was time for a rest.
To get to the palace, we had to cross a lovely wide and lush patch of beautiful soft grass. It was too soft to merely walk on, so we decided that it was time for a rest.
Eventually, we dragged ourselves away from relaxing in the shade of a twisted pine to go to the Palace.
After a wander around the outside of the Imperial Palace, we decided it was too hot to walk any further; after all it was 35 degrees and way past lunch time.
A short taxi ride took us to Ginza where we had lunch and continued exploring. We found a Metro train station, and then discovered that even if you can find an English version of the subway system, it is unbelievably huge and confusing.
Eventually we found the train that we were after and made our way to Asakusa for a relaxing wander through the market and shrine. It was here that I saw my first pretend Geisha.
After wandering aimlessly for an hour or so, enjoying the sights in all the local (not touristy) shops, we realised that once again, we had no idea where we were. We couldn't find where we were on our map (there were no street signs anywhere) and had to get a local who spoke some English to give us directions to a Metro station.
The station we were directed to was near a huge park in Ueno. The park was amazing, and home to hundreds of homeless people and even more cats. I say homeless people, but really they have a home, it just happens to be in a park, under a tarp! Often the homeless homes have more luxuries than you would expect in a temporary accommodation - a washing area, a kitchen (albeit communal), warm bedding and also room to store clothes and personal items. The people were friendly and clean, not at all like the homeless people in Melbourne!
It was in this park that we saw our only bit of police action - a couple of teenagers riding toy motorbikes through the park, successfully avoiding the police car that was following them! We only had a chance to explore a tiny corner of the park before it was time to head back towards home.
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