Sunday, April 27, 2014

Tokyo - Day 1 part 1

Every year, M and I go on a trip with just the two of us.  2012 - Taipei for L's wedding, 2013 - Bangkok for work.  This year - Tokyo - for no reason at all.  :)

C begged for us to bring her, and although I wanted to cave in, M and I were firm in our resolve to have some quality time together, alone.  So bye bye C and M.

PAL was delayed for a few minutes.

Our plane (thankfully) had the individual video screen where you get to watch movies and play games.  After four hours, we finally saw this.



Quickly studied the dizzying Tokyo Metro (Meturo) Map:


Finally got to our hotel after 1.5 hours!  Hurray!  Not bad for two Japan first timers!

After freshening up, met up with my college BFF Val! She's babywearing sleeping baby Averie :)


Saw some cosplayers in Harajuku.

And some 'revels' - which is how they call themselves. The temperature must have been around 6C at this time.  Look at how they're dressed!  One is just wearing a thin sleeveless shirt!  The 'revels' gather at the entrance of Yoyogi Park on Sundays only.


Visited the Meiji shrine and saw this amazing torii - which are traditional Japanese gates found at the entrance of shrines.

Despite the near freezing temperatures, I just had to wash my hands here in the shrine.  They said doing so will erase all bad vibes and give me good blessings:

Saw these columns of lanterns made of beautiful Japanese paper, all lined up to be lit for the night.


Finally reached the place where people wrote down their prayers and wishes:

There must be thousands of tablets left here by people:

Left my own prayer here too:


To be continued...