It was interesting to see the contrast between very old and very modern in Tokyo. Both cultures flow into each other, changing literally from one block to the next. Nothing is more Kawaii (cute) than Tokyo's Harajuku area. It is where the fashion-obsessed youth culture congregate to shop, hang out, and show off their personal style. It is not uncommon to see goths, mingling with punk, rockabilly, and little bo peep looking styles. This is the place to go if you want platform shoes, sugary sweet accessories, band t-shirts, and pettiskirts.
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| Chinese Style pork buns and Pork Ramen |
One block over is Tōgō Shrine (you might remember the name from my post about the battleship Mikasa in Yokosuka). The shrine is dedicated to Marshal-Admiral Marquis Tōgō Heihachirō. I love how geometric and military the shrine is. We were lucky enough to stumble upon another Shinto Wedding while we were visiting the shrine. It must have been a lucky day to get married in the Japanese tradition.
Although much newer, the Meiji Shrine has a very old feel to it. It sits in a very tall, quiet forest covering 170 acres with 120,000 trees of up to 365 varieties. Construction began on the shrine in 1915, but it was destroyed in the Tokyo air raids of WWII so it was rebuilt in 1958. It is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shōken. It is a quiet place away from the bustle of the city, and pictures can't quite capture the beautiful light filtering through the trees overhanging the paths. The park also has the largest wooden Tori gate in Japan. It was made from a 1,500 year old Japanese Cyprus.
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| 40 foot Tori Gate |
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| Colorful Sake Barrels |
We made a quick stop at the "Times Square" of Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing. Here on a clockwork-like schedule pedestrians line the sidewalks of the intersections, the lights turn red in every direction, allowing for a mass exodus of pedestrians in all directions. As soon as that crowd disperses, a new crowd immediately rises to replace it. Rumored to be the busiest crossing in the world, this is fondly called the pedestrian scramble. I added a few videos of it below. One is from the 2nd story of the Starbucks, while the other is on the street corner.
Our final stop was to see the LDS Tokyo temple, it is one of the many temples around the world built by our church. It was closed by the time we got there, but it was really nice to see it lit up for the night. We are looking forward to another trip to Tokyo when it is open so we can go inside!
Overall we had an awesome trip to Tokyo. It helped us learn to be very comfortable with the public transit system in Japan. It was fun to see the old and the new, the sacred and the trendy. I was surprised by the amount of green space and how we didn't really feel crowded or lost like we expected. It was clean, pleasant, and the people were so polite it didn't really feel like a major busy city. Tokyo is still great at preserving the traditional Asian feeling (even though it is a huge modern metropolis) by keeping the little hidden shrines safe from urban sprawl.
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