Sunday - walking day

I went to church on Sunday and then walked my tail off trying to go out and see everything that I could. My first stop after church was a very cool little park just across the street from the temple. Very calm, but very noisy (the bugs here make an incredibly annoying sound. I've been told that if you've ever lived back east, these bugs are pretty common. Much louder than crickets). I happened to catch some men fishing in this small pond although the only fish in the pond were carp. They seemed to be enyoying themselves though.

From there it was off to the Imperial Palace. The inner place grounds themselves are off limits to the public, but there are several gardens and places where the public is admitted. The palace is considered the center of Tokyo and everything revolves around it (including the train system). The whole palace is surrounded by a large moat that was used in older times. There used to be a huge castle built here until it was pretty much demolished during World War II bombing raids. Only the walls, moat and some buildings are original. I grabbed a pre-made ice cream cone while walking around the grounds. The cone itself was a little rubbery as you can see in the picture. I tried to eat the cone, but just couldn't. I had to squeeze the ice cream out of the cone just like you would an Otter Pop.


This is one of my favorite shots of the bridges that lead to the inner palace grounds. This bridge is a very famous bridge.


To see more pictures of the palace grounds, check out my posted pictures HERE. From the palace grounds it was off to Shinjuku, which is considered the sky scraper district of Tokyo. The Tokyo Municipal Government Building is there, which is pretty impressive. The towers themselves are about 800 feet tall and each tower has an observation deck on the 45th floor that gives you a pretty good view of Tokyo. I happened to go up there at night to see the lights. Quite an awesome view.

Tokyo is definitely a beautiful city at night. All the lights and fun of Las Vegas, but much cleaner. I was dead by the end of the day. Fun day though.