Old and New Tokyo

Daniel decided that being a guest blogger was too much work to do while on vacation, so while he camps out elsewhere, I'm back to the computer.  We got a very late start today--both Daniel and I decided that we needed to sleep in and let our very sore leg muscles rest.  Gosh, we must be getting old!

We had planned on being up and out by 10:30, but fast forward 4 hours and we were finally on our way.  I'll take the credit for delaying our departure...I just could not coax myself to get up and ready to go!  Anyway, by 3:00pm we were muddling our way through Asakusa trying to find Sensoji Temple, the oldest in Tokyo.  We managed to make our way there, but Asakusa truly is old school as none of the signs on buildings or streets are in English (everywhere else we've been, signs are in both English and Japanese).  The hoards of people were our first clue that we were headed in the right direction.  As you can probably tell from our other posts from Tokyo, this city is PACKED full of people--natives and tourists.  We took a quick look at the temple, then headed down Nakamise Shopping Street to try and find some fun, authentic souvenirs.  What we encountered were TONS more people.  The street was packed to the point that all you could do was follow the flow.  We stopped for ice cream and were scolded multiple times for trying to walk and eat--I was barked at for stopping to pull out my water bottle.  Being resourceful humans, we hid out in an abandoned alley way so we could finish eating without getting into more trouble.  Here are a few pictures of the scene...

As chaos ensued around us, we walked up the other side of the shopping street back toward the temple.  Daniel found a few fun things to purchase along the way.  Approaching the temple was very cool--there are giant lanterns hanging from the main gate and the winds that had kicked up were making them sway.  It looked as if the sky was about to open up on us, but thankfully we made it inside one of the main temple buildings first.  This temple is truly incredible!

I took this shot with the panoramic feature on my camera.  Pretty cool, huh?

On our way back to the JR, Daniel was on the lookout for just the right lantern to bring home.  We came across this talented man who was painting customized lanterns and Daniel found one that was perfect!

One very long ride on the JR later, we made it to Harajuku for a bit more souvenir shopping and some people watching.  We headed straight for the Oriental Bazaar which has great items made in Japan.  The real gem of the trip, however, was Kiddy Land, a three level toy store packed full of all sorts of childhood goodness.

Harajuku is a colorful and lively area of Tokyo.  Teenagers into Manga and Anime hang out here, although we didn't see many as we walked about.  It's definitely a picture of New Tokyo.  Here's another interesting shop we spotted...

As the evening crept on, we decided to grab a bite to eat before making the half hour commute back to Ueno.  We stopped at a little cafe filled with Japanese folks and another foreigner or two and enjoyed paninis and sodas as we watched Harajuku bustling below.  Daniel really enjoyed watching the plethora of expensive cars roll by.  On our way back through Ueno station we did a bit of exploring and found so many amazing bakeries and cake shops.  Mmmmm....pastries!  We secured breakfast for tomorrow (blueberry and panda croissants) and walked back to the hotel.  Tonight we are packing our bags and getting ready for our last day in the city before we fly back to Seoul in the evening.  This is about how we looked at the end of our day today:).