On Thursday, Anthony, Linda and I traveled to Shinjuku to visit two "Must See" destinations, the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and the Tokyo Metro Government Building. Although we had excellent directions, upon arriving at the station, we got a bit turned around. While looking for an elevator we ended up on the opposite end of the station. You would think it would be no big deal, but the station is huge. Another factor is that, from street level, it is impossible to see any distance, so we were left asking directions. We spoke with a policeman, electrical worker and a guy from the train station. You'd think the local folks would know the exact directions, but we actually had some people give us really poor directions.
We intended to visit the Metro Goverment building first to see the sites of the city and then we were going to have a picnic lunch at the gardens, but we were so hungry that we stopped in a western style restaurant for a little snack before visiting the observatory. Really unusual that you are allowed to smoke in a large government building, with the non-smoking section being at the back near the bathrooms, and really small.
Anyway, we ate quickly and moved on the the observatory, which is at the 45th floor of the twin towers of the building.
The weather was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see some of the more distant landmarks, like Mt. Fuji. Great views of the surrounding area, including Yoyogi Park and the National Gardens. Spent an hour looking out the window, watching helicopters land on nearby rooftops, and looking at "trash and trinkets" at the souvineer shop.
Afterward, we headed toward the National Gardens. It was supposed to be about a 15 minute walk, but again, we got turned around and we ended up walking about 30 minutes. Linda and I found it funny that this landmark was on our map, but there was no indication of where the entrance was, and the locals had a hard time describing where to go (or maybe it was our lack of knowledge of the language). Wandered for quite a while until we stumbled on gate. Admission was cheap, 250 Y for adults, and the lunch we grabbed for the picnic was reasonable too. We got some mixed sandwiches (strips of egg salad, ham, and cheese sandwiches, not an entire sandwich) and some sushi, as well as some green tea and a couple Coca Colas and spread out our blanket for lunch. Soon after we set-up, the local birds started landing around us. One large Crow was really brave and came up close enough to steal a Goldfish cracker from near out blanket.
The Gardens were exceptionally beautiful and with each tree being manicured, the grass looked like a putting green, and the flowers were numerous and in bloom.
The Japanese Gardens:
English Garden Area:
1 comment:
I enjoyed all your comments and pictures of Tokyo. The ones of the National Gardens are really beautiful. Japan is a wonderful, interesting place to be and it was a treat for me to be part of their great culture.
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