Normally, I hate tours. I hate how long you have to sit on a stupid tour bus, and what little time you get when you get off to explore. Fortunately, our travel package included only a half day morning tour, which was great for getting our jet-lagged butts out to see the things that we absolutely have to see on our stay here. I couldn’t have asked for more.

I’m glad we got to see a bit of old Tokyo, which is a huge contrast to modern Tokyo. The shrine and garden we visited were still crowded with people, but without the rush and seizure-inducing lights. Either way, old or new – it seems that the Japanese are big on absolute perfection in everything they do. (My sloppy American ways are probably rude and appalling in more ways than I know.)

Meiji Shrine

One of the first places we went on our trip was to the Meiji Shrine, which is a Shinto shrine built to commemorate Emperor Meiji when he passed away. Temples/shrines in Japan are either Buddhist or Shinto, and I’m glad we visited a Shinto one, as it’s indigenous to Japan.

The gate to the Meiji Shrine is a massive structure made completely out of wood. It echoed a lot of the architecture we were about to see – strong wooden structures (no nails!), subtle curves, and a striking yet peaceful presence.

Another note: The shrine is completely enveloped in a forest of trees – right in the middle of Tokyo. It’s hard to imagine you’re in one of the largest cities in the world when you’re here.

Barrels of sake are donated to the shrine. They apparently get emptied, although no one really knows who drinks it. Right across this are wine crates donated by the French. Haha.

This is the front of the Meiji shrine. It was packed that day because we went on a weekend, and during a festival (more on this later)

I was surprised at how something so ancient seemed to have modern design sensbilities. It was ornate, but not nearly as much as Western architecture – or even other Eastern architecture for that matter (example: Chinese pagodas and temples).

I think what really made the temple feel designed, as opposed to decorated, was that anything ornate either had a purpose, or was a necessary detail in the bigger picture. I noticed heavy emphasis on shape and negative space.

Left: A lock on a giant wooden door. I love the shape. Right: This is a really cool detail – underneath the roof, the ends of the wooden structure are painted white. It looks like it gets freshly painted a lot, too. Another example of embellishment without adding anything extra to the architecture.

One of the purification rituals you can do when you go to a Shinto shrine is Temizu. You use the ladle to wash your left hand, then your right hand, then your mouth.

One of the reasons it was so crowded at the shrine that day was because the Japanese are currently celebrating Shichi-Go-San, (translated: “Seven, Five and Three”). Families take their seven year old girl, five year old boy, or three year old girl to their local Shinto shrine to wish them health and happiness in their life.

I think it’s such a great tradition. Little kids get dressed up in traditional clothing, and the entire family dresses up formally (mostly in Western wear, although I saw a few women in kimonos). Everyone there was so happy and the kids were so…freaking…cute.

Parents write messages for their kids on wooden tablets, which are hung up at one part of the temple.

Seven year old girls wearing gorgeous kimonos.

The shrine is a giant square – this is one of the other entrances.

Imperial Palace, East Gardens

The next place we went to was to the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor and Empress currently live. We weren’t actually allowed into the palace, but we hung out at a huge garden area nearby.

This is the front entrance of the palace. Across this moat are enormous business buildings. It’s mind boggling how close skyscrapers to such an old area.

I think the most amazing thing about the garden was that not one thing was out of place, but it didn’t look overly-manicured, either. You could tell that every branch of every tree was considered (if it didn’t hold leaves, it wasn’t there), and even though it was fall, there were no loose leaves on any of the lawns or bushes. I always imagined that if a leaf were to fall, a little man with a special suit would scurry out to catch it. It’s the Japanese way.

The palace is right in the middle of the city. Surreal, right?

Our tour guide is showing us where we are. The palace area is enormous; we only saw a tiny part of it.

I could not stop taking photos. The landscaping was so well designed that it practically composed photos for me.

Mike walking up a small waterfall area.

I’m really glad we went during fall. It was so beautiful.

I’m not sure what these things are – lanterns? They look really cool.

I wish we had more time to spend there. It was really, really nice.

Koi fish!

Hello there.

Trees don’t grow like that, but they trim them in such a way that it makes you think they do.

Mike and I :)

This was taken at a small waterfall towards the top of the garden.

Tokyo Tower

We went to Tokyo Tower, which is a large communication tower that looks like a red and white version of the Eiffel Tower. It’s currently the second largest structure in Japan.

We went up to the observation area halfway up the tower (the big thing with all the windows on the picture on the right), where our tour guide pointed out different areas of the city to us.

Our tour guide is a tiny man that says the most hilarious things. He calls himself Mike, after Mike Tyson, and carries around the “Yellow Cat” for us to follow in a crowd.

We thought it was kind of funny there was Braille on the observation deck. From my time there, it seems that the Japanese treat their handicapped citizens with more respect than we do in the States.

The view from the tower.

On that same floor are these things called “Lookdown Windows” which do exactly that- a window on a floor where you can look down below. It was fun watching people daring each other to walk on the glass.

Giant red tower foot.

I thought this was pretty funny. A kid with a facemask wanted to take a picture through the look down window but the overprotective mom held onto him because she was scared he would fall through.

I think the best part of the tour is when our guide asked us on the bus reasons why we think the Tokyo Towers would one day collapse. “Fire?” “No.” “Earthquake?” “No.” Some guy even asked, “Sandstorm?”. “Uhh…I don’t think so.”

The answer? Godzilla. He even showed us a picture of Godzilla blowing fire on Tokyo.

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