Sightseeing!!!

Hurray! I'm finally out doing sightseeing. Yesterday I spent the day in Ginza, the shopping heartland of Tokyo. Very posh shops, so I had to stick to window shopping. All to Ian's delight. (He did get a bit worried when he heard I went to Ginza.)

Got lots of photos as each shop has remarkable architecture or window display. Or both.

In the evening I meet up with Ian and his colleague Alberto for drinks in The Bar. Well, that is the name of the place. And it was on the 45th floor. Great views as expected. On our way down we experienced a slice of Japanese life. Two older gentlemen out with their daughters!? Wouldn't think so. But they sure could have been. They were very happy and chatty. One of the men quite pleased he could show off his English, all to the girls delight...:-)

After drinks we went for some Japanese pizza. Very strange! Think buckwheat pancake with grated potatoes, leek and carrots and mix in octopus and shrimps. On top of that a thick sweet teriyaki like sauce and a raw egg. Very filling indeed. I could only eat half...

Today was Ian's first proper holiday. Yippie! Celebrated by going to Harajuku. There we started off by browsing the trendy (and strange) shops, followed by the very nice designer shops. Got ourselves two nice hats.

After lunch we went to the pretty shinto shrine Meiji-jingu. And ended up in Shinjuku where we had dinner.

Tonight's dinner took place in a tiny basement. And it had an English menu!!!! (When they don't have English menus, you can usually resort to the plastic mock-ups in the window.) Tonight we had some nice barbecued meat.

Tomorrow we are leaving Tokyo to go to Obuse, where we hopefully be able to see the snow monkeys.