Tokyo Sightseeing

After three days of having to be at school by 8.00am, we had a slightly later start today - we met at the local convenience store at 8.30am to board our minibus to Tokyo. Along with ten All Saints' group members, there were another twelve Japanese volunteers with us, to help make sure we didn't get lost in the streets of Tokyo! We also had Mr Araki, a member of the Shirogane Primary School Board, carrying his Australian flag everywhere so we had something to follow amongst the crowds.

It took about an hour and a half in the morning traffic to reach our first destination, Asakusa Kannon (Asakusa temple). We enjoyed doing some shopping along nakamise dori, a short mall filled with tiny souvenir and food shops. After taking a few photos in front of the temple, we walked back to the bus and headed for Tokyo Skytree.

Tokyo Skytree was opened just over a year ago, and is 634m tall, making it the tallest tower, and second tallest building, in the world. We travelled up to the 350m level on the world's fastest lift - it travels at about 600m per minute. The view over the city of Tokyo was spectacular. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very clear day, so we couldn't see Mt Fuji, but we could still pick out lots of other landmarks. Most of the group enjoyed an ice-cream at the Cafe Before returning to the ground floor, we were all brave enough to walk over a section of glass floor that allows you to see all the way down tot he ground. Looking straight down from that height is a bit scary! After some more shopping in the Gift Shop on the ground floor, it was back on the bus and off to a restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, we headed for Harajuku. On the way, the bus driver took us past koukyo (the Emperor's residence - Japan's equivalent of Buckingham Palace). Unfortunately is well protected by a moat and huge stone wall more than 400 years old, so you can't actually see the palace. We also drove past the Crown Prince's residence, and saw the Japanese Parliament House. Once we arrived in Harajuku, we walked along Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street), another shopping mall. This one is full of various fashion shops. We saw a few interesting outfits on the people walking along the mall! The most popular purchase amongst our group was sunglasses.

Finally, we walked the short distance to "Kiddyland", a three storey toy shop, where we did a little more shopping before getting back on the bus for the trip home. We were able to see Tokyo lit up at night as we travelled back to Sakura.