Japan, Day 7: Pretty things in Tokyo

Today more or less made up for yesterday not being very fun for me. Bobby took the day off of training and we went to Tokyo to do some tourist-y stuff. We started at the imperial gardens. The palace has many gardens, and you could spend a whole day just walking through one of them. We spent a good portion of the day in the east garden of the imperial palace. (More pictures coming soon!)

Pink bicycle and pink flowers

Entering the imperial garden

Me in a bamboo forest

Bobby in a bamboo forest

A view of a garden

Garden path

Trees and flowers

Gnarled trees and more flowers

Pretty yellow flowers

Koi and sakura

Looking out over the pond

Another view of the pond

Pretty ferns

One of several turtle-y friends we found in the pond

After that, we went back to the park we were at earlier in the week viewing sakura, and we took a rowboat out on the moat to get closer to the trees. Bobby did the rowing, and he even serenaded me, like you see in those old-time movies. The only thing missing was me wearing lace and carrying a parasol.

After that, we decided to see if we could get to Tokyo tower. Much like the Empire State building in NYC, you can pay to go up to the top of it and look out over the city. It was pretty dark by the time we got there, though, and we decided it wasn't really worth it to go up and take pictures at night. It's still a pretty cool building on its own, though. We stopped at a McDonald's on the way there, just to see what Japanese ones were like. We got teriyaki burgers, which were actually more like sausage patties with teriyaki sauce on them and a little bit of lettuce, and also mayonnaise (which I wiped off), because they like it on everything. We didn't try the fries or drinks there, but based on their definition of “burger”, I wouldn't really think they'd be too good. Not that I expected much, but you kind of have to try it just for the novelty factor.

Anyway, it was late and were were tired by this point, so we hopped on the subway and went back to the hotel. The subway systems there are pretty extensive, so you can get to a lot of places without a car, which is nice when you're visiting. Some of the stations, though, are so huge and complicated. To get from one line to another line in a few of the stations, it involves walking underground for a mile or more, going up and down stairs and turning around so much that it's a wonder you didn't wind up back where you started.