After a busy week with a lot of train trips and walking we planned an easy day for our second Saturday in Tokyo.
Let me tell you, folks, there is no such thing as an easy day in Tokyo. Everything is a long way away from everything else and that is just how it is. Remember – Tokyo is huge as well as being densely populated. Like, really huge!
Wilf had heard that there were places in Tokyo where you could go fishing – sometimes on a river, or a lake. Or in Saturday’s case, one of the moats of the Edo Castle. This sent us to the district of Akasaka (not to be confused with Asakusa, where we are staying….). And we did find the fishing club on the edge of the moat.
It was very hot, and while the boats up under the trees looked pretty and coolish, neither one of us was volunteering to row a boat up the moat. But – right next door we knew that we could visit the Japanese garden at The New Otani Hotel. So we did. The hotel is almost like a small city. It has two towers, one built in the 1960’s, the other the 1980’s. There are more than 40 stores on site and I don’t know how many restaurants. Rolls Royce has a dealership on the ground floor, which tells you something about the clientele.
The garden is lovely and would be nice to see at night all lit up. There are several stand alone restaurants nestled amongst the trees.
And of course there are koi..
And a very pretty waterfall,
After a bit of time enjoying the garden we walked up the street for lunch at a brewpub, then headed off to see a shrine.
Somewhere in the mists of time there was a rule made that shrines and temples had to involve as many stairs as possible, and the Hie Shrine was no exception. Well, it feels like that is the rule…..
When we arrived at the street below the shrine everyone was going to the left to go up through the tori gates. I was a little – shall we say – annoyed to discover later that if we had gone to the right there were escalators to take people up top. But – good things come to those who climb stairs, right? And it is a lovely temple.
This was something we hadn’t seen before. In effect it is a tree diaper on a ginkgo tree. The female trees produce fruit in the fall and it messy and the fruits go off quickly when they hit the ground. Not a pleasant smell at all. So these big nets are up to keep it all under control!
In November there is a ceremony held at Shinto shrines to bless children who are 3, 5 or 7 year old. Three and seven year old girls and 5 year old boys. They are dressed in traditional attire, there is a ceremony and many pictures are taken of the children and their families. This shrine is a particularly popular one for the ceremony and there were lots of families about .
In order to get photographs taken, and have the ceremony at the shrine, every weekend before the ‘official’ date of November is busy with kids having their pictures taken.
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