Shibuya

Friday morning and one of our free days.

Another late-ish start by the time everyone finds their hats and things and brushes teeth.

The gardens surrounding our hotel.

The rail system is a dawdle now and we no longer have to ask anyone for anything much.

Simple, right?

The ticketing system is great.  Breakfast is in one of the little shops inside the station. Iced coffee or tea weather you want it or not.

mmm.. gum sugar.

We decide to go to Shibuya and check out the "Tokyo Times Square". The trip is quick an we found ourselves in the thick of it before we knew it. Shibuya station is huge and the hardest part was getting your bearings on the map compared to which direction you were facing when you alighted. The main intersection, the one you see in photographs, was very close to the station and we enjoyed crossing the intersection diagonally with the thousands of other commuters.

go go GO!

You wouldn't know we were tourists. We just blended in.

Here the shops were more colorful than any we had seen before and again, it was a little hard to find too much of interest or uniqueness. What really impressed us was the number of amazing pastry shops in Tokyo (GO PEGZ!). We bought a pastry each, kind of rolling the dice for flavor as is the case with much of the non English labeled dining here. Luckily, we all chose well and I can't imagine how you could choose otherwise. I also can't imagine why everyone else isn't sumo sized given all of the wonderful fattening food on offer. The stations are crammed with interesting diners and pastry shops. and the ground level of almost every building seems devoted to food of some kind.

A vending machine restaurant. You decide outside at the vending machine and it's cooked rapidly inside where you eat standing up.

Jelly iced coffee - in a can!

Oh, it's their Legular Menu.

We found an interesting department type store with a different theme on each floor the boys and I spent ages in the hobby/model section while Sharon poked about the craft and fashion sections lamenting the fact that we didn't have a daughter to keep her company.
Anyway, we walked our legs off again, traipsing through back streets and diving into departments stores when we needed to escape the heat, deciding eventually to head back to the room in Shinagawa for a bit of a sleep (and time for me to update the blog.