We started the day out with a trip to the Imperial Gardens, which we discovered after catching 2 trains and walking 1km, was actually only 1km from our hotel to start off with. Never mind, as our Japan Rail Passes made the trains free and we are trying to get our monies worth from them.
The gardens were quite simple & not entirely what I expected. A good thing to note is that they are closed on Mondays and Fridays. We had originally tried to come on Monday but had to return later.
Entrance was free which made us happy. Just past the entrance point was a museum of sorts, where you could see original clothing worn by the emporer in 1912 or something, when he was boy, which was intersting. Most of the clothes were accompanied by pictures of him in his get-up. He didn't seem like a very happy person, but maybe they asked him never to smile in photos.
After viewing the museum we went into the gardens, where you could see the old guard towers. I was fascinated by the amount of security they had and all around the gardens as you walked were tidbits of information on how it was achieved.
The gardens were very large, and unfortunately for us, it was the hottest day so far that we had been in Tokyo, being 31 degrees celsius & humidity at 93%. Thankfully there were quite a few rest stops in the gardens with vending machines. Yep, they managed to get into the royal gardens too. We accidentally bought some sort of lemon sports water, which just made me thirstier, so had to buy another drink again. But vending machine drinks are along the lines of 110Y for a 600ml water (in Aus it would have cost about $3 AUD!) so it wasn't a problem as it was cheap enough.
On one side of the road the gardens, on the other an urban jungle
At the gardens
One of the guard houses
After the gardens we headed back to the hotel as we were exhausted from walking around in the hot sun for a few hours and both felt heat-stroked. One things I note as being interesting in Japan is that despite the amounts of walking we were doing in the sun, we never got burnt. I do wonder if the smog in Tokyo filters the UV rays from the sun. :S
At about 5pm we headed out for Odaiba, a man made 'technology' island, hosting TV broadcast stations and the like. We caught a funny half bus half train (which I will know refer to as a trabus) to the island, which did a big loop over the river, giving views of the bay. The trabus didn't have a driver and just followed its tracks around. We got off at 'Daiba' station because it was the cheapest stop to get off at and was still close to everything we wanted to see.
The island of Odaiba was quite serene compared to the rest of Tokyo, and had a slightly resortish feel to it (maybe it was the super-expensive-richpeople hotels that were on the waterfront). It had a man-made beach which you couldn't swim at, but was obviously a favourite place for couples. I think the crazy fish jumping out of the water migth have had something to do with the 'no-swim' rule. That or the pollution that was bound to be in Tokyo's waters.
So we strolled along the beach and decking area of Odaiba for a little while and then visited the 'Decks' mall. Decks was filled with cutesy shops (hello gift buying!), aracade games and other attractions such as Madame Tussauds, Legoland & Sega Joypolis. I pretty much forced Hugh into the trick museum, which yields the photos below:
We also became Manga, and shot some guns and stuff. Odaiba was loads of fun and we would have loved to visit again if we had more time. The rainbow bridge was also quite beautiful to look at.
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