The ship docked early in the morning at Yokohama yesterday. There was a lot of cloud and smog around but as the day went on got very hot 31 deg!
Our driver dropped us off at our hotel in Shinjuku and we had four hours to fill in so we started walking towards the shopping area. After walking for while we saw a shop entrance with the ‘i’ information sign and some tourist information pictures – well I opened up the curtain doorway to a very dark, smoky room with four men sitting on a lounge smoking and drinking – so I backed out pretty fast -certainly not the type of ‘information’ we were after. We’re near the main shopping area which is apparently also well mixed in with the red light area so the walk was interesting.
We eventually came across the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.
“Shinjuku Gyoen was constructed on the site of a private mansion belonging to Lord Naito, a “daimyo”(feudal lord) of the Edo era. Completed in 1906 as an imperial garden, it was re-designated as a national garden after the Second World War and opened to the public. With 58.3 ha(144 acres) in size and a circumference of 3.5 km, it blends three distinct styles, French Formal Garden, English Landscape Garden and Japanese Traditional Garden, and is considered to be one of the most important gardens from the Meiji era.”
Its a beautiful oasis of green in such a busy city.
We stopped off at this tea house for a while to rest our weary feet!
These fruit jellies come in a little bamboo plate.
The pavilion on the right below was a gift from Taiwan to the Emperor of Japan to celebrate his wedding. The lake has lot of koi in it.
The park was filled with families out having picnics and lots of kids running about.
After a couple of hours just enjoying the park we visited the greenhouse.
I was hoping to see lots of orchids and flowers for ikebana but there were not many flowers at all. A lot of fruit trees and plants similar to those we’d have in Australian greenhouses.
In the ice cream fridge were these frozen oranges. They come in a packet with a spoon and are filled with orange sorbet.
About 3.30 we started walking back to the shopping area where there was streets blocked off for performers. We saw all kinds of dancers over several blocks. This group was from Samoa.
We also saw these Japanese drummers – they were amazing! There was about 20 of them all together down the street. The drumming is so loud and it just vibrates right through your body.
After a bit of shopping we went down into the railway station – its a whole other world down there – just people everywhere you look and filled with shops.
By the time we emerged from the station the Spanish dancers were performing.
Then it was time to walk back to our hotel.
Our room is compact but very nice and much quieter than being on the ship. Our slippers and robes were waiting for and the deepest bathtub I’ve ever seen.
So after a really good nights sleep we’re just having a lazy morning here till we go do some more sightseeing about lunch time. Tomorrow we have to get to Tokyo station to catch our bullet train to Kyoto – hopefully we can navigate the station OK! The next day we bullet train to Hiroshima and then back to Tokyo the day after. I’m not sure if I’ll post while we’re out of Tokyo as we’re only taking a backpack with us.