Odaiba, Imperial Palace

Went to Odaiba and the Imperial Palace this weekend. We've got about 5 places to left to go to before we're truly out of ideas and just spend every day sitting around...

Odaiba is a man-made island type thing around the Tokyo Bay area. Generally not that much there to do bar from walking around and looking at 'proper Tokyo' from the other side of the water. Seemed to be the place to go if you want to walk your dog too. On a side note I've started noticing people doing photo-shoots of their dogs, with some dressed up in strange dog clothes. It's weird.

The Imperial Palace is near the main Tokyo station. (Yeah, smooth segway) A note about train stations: whereas in England a big train station will consist of a few platforms and maybe a Starbucks and WHSmith, in Japan it's possible to go to a train station and never actually set foot outside it. Supermarkets, restaurants, hairdressers etc. can also be found in them.

The area surrounding Tokyo Station is fairly posh with designer shops and branch headquarters (I think) of the big Japanese companies. And there's a palace. Which is also quite posh. Innit.

Tomorrow I'm revisiting Yokohama. If it doesn't rain.

Mt. Takao

Went up Mt. Takao for a bit of fresh air. Takes about half an hour on the train - luckily we're fairly near to it.

We were lazy and didn't do the main hiking part which is stupidly steep. There's a cable car/cable ski lift thing which can take you up 2/3 of the way so we opted for that. Once you get that far up it's basically a nice walk to the top.

There's a smattering of autumn leaves about but I think we were a bit too early. The adverts on trains have a lot more of it on show...

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It's my new favourite place in Tokyo. Maybe this is because I'm fed up of the endless streets, train tracks and back alleys found in Tokyo. Concrete buildings get boring.

It was 200 yen to enter and this makes all the difference. The small price prevents the crowds coming in and ruining the place. Even though it was a sunny Sunday afternoon there were not too many around the park considering its size and it was very quiet. Perfect.

There were a couple of themed gardens in the park. One of them said it was an English style garden. However, it looked to us like a big field. Maybe my dog had eaten all the plants?

The Japanese garden was really nice though. All the Japanese seemed to be just interested in the new chrysanthemums (got that right in one, thank you very much) which I don't understand. They're ugly as sin. If you're reading this and thinking of sending me flowers: send tulips. Cheers.