The fun continues (2004-03-19)
After a long day running around town all day Saturday, we hit the
sack as soon as we arrived home and slept in Sunday morning.
Fung visited Meiji Jingu Shrine (
) alone and we met up for lunch in
Shibuya (
). We wandered aimlessly looking for a place to eat and
stumbled upon a little restaurant called Kirin City. We decided
to eat there because the replica display outside the restaurant looked
appealing. We each
ordered a set lunch and shared a side dish of prawn spring rolls.
The food was very good and inexpensive (about US$7 per lunch
set). All the dishes on the menu have a picture and English title
making ordering easy. I'll definitely go back next time, if I can
find it again.
After lunch we walked back to Shibuya station to take the subway
Hanzonmon Line (
) and got off at Otemachi station. Our destination
was the Imperial Palace. It was my very first trip inside the
Palace garden because I never found out how to get inside the Palace
all these years. What do I know? I've only lived here for
four and a
half years! Anyway we had to take a plastic card upon entry which
we returned on exit. The garden is spacious and all the plants
are neatly maintained. I liked the well-trimmed pine trees, they
generate a serene ambience throughout the garden.
We left the garden after about an hour and walked a few blocks to Tokyo Station. The station is sprawling with several shopping streets crisscrossing each other. It is easy to get lost inside, but the many English signs may help one find his bearings. There are a lot of shops selling food omiyage (souvenir/gift). Japanese people always bring their friends and family omiyage after a trip. Since Tokyo Station serves as the hub for long distance trains, people returning from their trip can just get a gift at one of those shops. We didn't buy any presents, but we did eat sesame ice-cream and bought some bagels.
Fung wanted to see the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa (
), so we hurriedly
left Tokyo for Asakusa before it became too dark to take photos.
What we saw when we got there was its door closing as we were
walking towards the
steps leading to the Temple. So unlucky! Fortunately there
are still a lot to see besides the temple, so we wandered the zillion
of
souvenir shops and took a bunch of photos. When we left Asakusa
it
was fully dark. We took the subway and went back to Shibuya for
dinner.
We had ramen for dinner at a small shop called Oomichi which is located in a narrow street that lies perpendicular to the cylindrical 109 Building. You have to pay for the food by buying a ticket from a machine before taking your seat. The noodles turned out to be very good, we left the shop satisfied.
We accompanied Fung back to the hotel and stayed for a little while. We had fun today but I was totally beat again.
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