Back to Tokyo - Day 2

Day two we went shopping. This is part of the Shibuya train station, I think. I like the art.

A cool marker on the sidewalk.

A bakery

There are still women who dress this way, perhaps she was going to a special event

Harry Potter is everywhere!

That evening we met Tomoe and Yoshino at the bar, then we went to a scenic lookout with a restaruant.

Tomoe is happy!

Here is Yoshino

We all had a snack at the bar first

The guy on the right is a monk. I was too shy to go ask if I could take his picture

A busy train station. This is Shinjuku station, I think.

The scenic lookout is at the top of this tower, at the top of Tokyo city hall.

Here is the view

The building on the right is called the corn cob building

Having dinner in the tower. This was an italian restaurant, and the food was quite good.

Here is the view after dark

We had a lovely time.

This lady played the piano in the restaruant. She was lovely and played beautifully.

After that, we walked around Shinjuku at night

We went to a special place to get our pictures taken in a group photo booth

The booths are really fun, you can add effects to your image, and you can email the pictures to yourself.

These were two really cute girls in HaraJuku type clothing, but I only got there feet. They left too quickly for me to get their outfits, but they were so cute!

There were probably twenty of these photo booths, and they were all full

Then we went out again

This is the blowfish that can be served as fugu. Potentially deadly if not prepared correctly

This is a cold-stone creamery store. They sang for us while they made our ice cream.

Back to Tokyo

We flew back from Hokkaido to Tokyo. When we first came to Japan, we stayed in Funabashi, then Odaiba, both burrows of Tokyo. Now we are staying in Shibuya, another burrow, that is near ShinJuku and HaraJuku.

Here is the train out of Hanada airport to Shibuya.

We are staying at the Cerulian Tower on the 22nd floor. This is the view from the main room.

Here is the view from the bathtub

Here is the tub

A nice room

We had a little snack in the lobby before we went out to explore. Tokyo is quite hot, with high's in the lower ninety's. Sometimes one of us would say 'It is so hot here', and then we would check the temperature in Tulsa, and it was significantly hotter. However, the air conditioning is cut back here, so there isn't anywhere to go that is really cool during the day. Also, there are power reports on the news and Tokyo seems to be running at about %80 capacity, but that's with everyone cutting back everywhere.

We went outside to one of the busiest and most famous intersections in Tokyo. It was right outside of our hotel. Charles says the opening scene of the Resident Evil movie that Stefani and Wes gave him for father's day was shot in this intersection. I am going to have to go back and review that movie when I get back to Tulsa.

After dinner we went back to our room and this was our view.

Very Nice.

Prison Museum in Abashiri

After we left Shiretoko, we drove through the park and over the mountain range to the other side of the coast. We stopped at one point marked 'scenic lookout', but really the entire place is a scenic lookout.

If you look closely in the photo below, you can see an island in the distance. This is an island that Japan and Russia both want. They are disputing ownership over it, apparently.

You can see it better here.

Still snow on the top of this mountain

We stopped at a little store in the town

The trash truck plays music so people can bring out their trash. Otherwise, bears might be attracted to it, so it isn't left out.

Beautiful countryside on the way to Abashiri

We stopped at the oldest prison in Hokkaido, which is now a museum. It was said to be so cold there, that tears froze as they fell from the inmate's faces.

Hiromi is in prison. Oh no!

The dairy products in Hokkaido were the best I have ever had in my life. Especially the ice cream.

Shiretoko

Shiretoko is a pretty little town on the edge of the north eastern side of Hokkaido, next to the Shiretoko National Park. The Shiretoko national park has a breathtakingly beautiful mountain range and incredible wildlife. It is extremely large and well maintained, almost completely undeveloped. The first night we went on a tour of the park after dark. We saw a few deer and a fox but it was dark, so no pictures. The next day we went on a cruise on the ocean, around the outside edge of the park.

Coming back into port, this is most of the little town.

We did a little shopping downtown and saw this dog

After shopping we had dinner in the hotel

This beef is not from Kobe, but it looks the same and tastes amazing

We watched the sunset from our table while we had dinner

The next morning we drove through the national park, and to the other side, on our way to catch our plane out of Hokkaido

The water around Shiretoko is clear, but no beaches and the water is cold

Beautiful little Shiretoko. Goodbye!