May 31

Up again at 9 am. We slept well again. So grateful for Ativan and Melatonin. We’ve had no trouble sleeping through the night.

Headed right to the train when we got up. Started our day early doing the train thing. At the train exit, we stopped at a cafe called Le Pain and had breakfast. Pretty good. 

Our first stop was Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It wasn’t raining yet and we were feeling happy about that as rain is in the forecast all day today.We stopped at the entrance to the park and bought a Cherry Blossom ice cream cone. I really liked it. Dan tells me lots of people don’t. The park was beautiful and we loved walking through seeing more of all the beautiful cherry tree blossoms on display.

We walked from there to Meiji Jingu, a shrine dedicated to the Emperor Meiji. The gardens here were somewhat austere with gigantic gates leading into the garden. This is very much a sacred place with no photos allowed and silence required. It was interesting to see it but we didn’t stay very long. 

The rain is starting to come down and the streets are thronged with people We stopped at a little Hawaiian coffee shop and got a coffee. I ordered my latte with macadamia nut and coconut flavor, sadly. It was way too sweet for me and I didn’t enjoy it too much. 

We wandered around a bit more including seeing an incredible crepe place that had every kind of crepe you could imagine. Afterward, we stopped at a little place and had eel and rice for lunch. It was so good. 

Walked to Yoyogi Park after lunch and saw yet more gardens and more cherry trees in blossom. Our umbrellas are out now and it is coming down. The park was pretty but the water fountains are under construction so it is not as beautiful as it will be where the reconstruction is complete. 

We have tickets to Shibuya Sky to see views of the city and we are not sure what will happen with this as it is foggy and rainy. We walked over to the building and went up 14 stories to the top. Every floor is full of shops and people. People is the main thing here. People everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of them. When we got to the top, they told us the observation deck was closed. We could go up to the restaurant but they told us we could get our money back if we wanted and we decided to take advantage of that. 

Found a nice little restaurant on the 13th floor and stopped to have something to eat and rest a bit. We are all feeling weary. We have many miles on our legs already today. We enjoyed some Japanese food including Okonomiyaki. I loved this dish. Had Oolong tea too which was so good. 

After our little second lunch break, we are sharing everything to keep consumption to a minimum so we can eat more often and enjoy more variety, we headed out to walk some more and see the famous Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world. It lives up to its name too. So many people, all with umbrellas up. What a sight. 

We have a dinner reservation tonight at 9:15 and we are trying to kill time. Not sure whether going back to the room is worth it. We decided to go explore the Super Don Quixote department store. And let me tell you, nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for this place. Six floors of mayhem. Lights flashing, noise, music and PEOPLE. Everywhere. We shopped for a while, or at least Mohan did. Matt and I mostly just looked around and were amazed at the junk everywhere.

After shopping, we decided maybe some time back in our room before our dinner would be nice. We headed to that train with the millions of other people who were going home from work. The train station was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Literally a solid wall of people filling up trains as fast as they arrived, every minute or two. Just Wow. 

Finally got on the train in one piece and headed back to our room. We stopped on the way to walk through the alley called Omoide Yokocho Memory Lane. This is a narrow, atmospheric alleyway known for its tiny yakitori (grilled chicken) stalls. Like nothing you’ve ever seen before, that’s for sure. Tiny little restaurants with low ceilings one after another, all filled with people. All I could think is how you’d never be able to do such a thing in the United States. You’d be breaking every code imaginable.

We walked the rest of the way to the room. By now, every bone in my entire body is hurting and I feel like I’ve been subjected to more stimuli than my brain can handle. I’m so happy for a small break in the room. After resting an hour or so, we decided to uber to our restaurant for our 9:15 reservation. 

We arrived at the restaurant and it is such an interesting hole in the wall place. This is billed as a French Bistro. We found out when we sat down that in spite of the fact that it was a fixed menu with an expensive price, we were all required to buy two drinks each. Dinner ensued and started with a salad, followed by dim sum soup, an omelette, tempura fish, stewed beef and venison and crab pasta. It was just ok and $400 later, we decided that this was definitely a learning lesson. We had better food at all the little Japanese restaurants we have visited. 

But what a privilege to travel and learn and have experiences, bad, good and spectacular. And to travel with Matt. Oh, I love this guy. He is such a money saver but never had one negative word to say when the dinner bill was $400. He was positive about everything. What a good guy. I’m lucky.