Tokyo is an enormous city! Our first trip out of the hotel was to the Asakusa district. This is the Kaminarimon Gate.

Here is the crowded Nakamise Street on the other side of Kaminarimon Gate.

Our next stop was at the nearby Senjosi Temple, completed in 645.

Next door is the Asakusa Shrine with great ornamentation.

After the temple, we walked over to Kappabashi Street with its cookware shops.

Our next stop was at the Tokyo National Museum. Among other things, it has a big collection of ancient ceramics. 

Our last stop of the day was in Ginza, with its very large department stores. The food courts are very big and we found them interesting.

On Sunday morning, we took a train over to Tokyo Skytree Station to visit the Sumida Aquarium. There are quite a few penguins, and the eyes of these fish caught our attention.

After leaving the aquarium, we went back to Tokyo Station and had lunch in Ramen Street. Customers stand in a line, purchase a ticket at a vending machine and then enter a restaurant.

After the ramen, we went to Shinjuku, and up into the 53rd floor observation platform in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see the city.

Shinjuku has a lot of high rise buildings, and even on a Sunday, there was a lot of pedestrian activity.

Here is the map showing the Metropolitan Government Building’s location (a bull’s eye symbol).

Next, we went over to Shibuya to see the busy shopping streets.

This is Hachiko’s statue. The dog waited for his owner each afternoon at Shibuya Station. The story is he continued to wait every day for several years after his owner had died.

Then we returned to our hotel and had dinner with a college friend. The next day, Monday, we took a day trip north to Nikko.

We flew from California to Tokyo Narita, transferred to a train to Tokyo Station, where our hotel is located. We will spend four days in Tokyo (with a day trip to Nikko), and then move on to Hakone.

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