Day 3 - Ghibli Museum, Harajuku and Shibuya

Sunday today, so had planned a bit of a slower day, less pacing, more strolling. Think the jetlag is still playing havoc though as I was awake at 5:30 :-(

We opened our day with breakfast from a local convenience store: Random things in rice + a steamed bun. My rice was full of vinegary salmon while we think Ant's was flavoured with mushrooms and bland. However the steamed bun full of pork was lovely.

Having believed we had the train system mastered, we promptly got lost in Shinjuku train station. It turns out there are 6 platforms serving the same line! 2 are for the Express trains in one direction, 2 for express trains the other direction and 2 for the stopping service! Having done a full tour of the station we managed to find the right train and off we went to Mitaka. Our destination was the Ghibli museum (it's my favourite animation house, so don't worry about going!) I'd had to book tickets 3 months ago because it's so popular, and I'm glad we went... The building alone was worth the trip.

Having been thwarted by breakfast, Ant was getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at a bakery in the train station where they had about 136 different types of Cheese bread. And a similar number of pastries. So far, all the ones we have tried have been delicious. Well worth a go.

We stayed on the train all the way back to Tokyo station which is quite impressive and went up in to the Maranouchi building for lunch (and the view. We ventured to the 36th floor to take a peek, but ate on the 6th floor as it's a fraction of the cost!) The next stop was the Imperial palace - you can't go inside it, you can't go near it and it wasn't really worth the effort. Much better to find a high point nearby to take a look. Also, I discovered a love for photo bombing.

From there we headed to Yoyogi Park to see the Meiji Jingu - it's a vast temple, teeming with tourists but still worth a visit.

It's essentially in Harajuku so we went on a mission to find crazily dressed girls. This is the first time the Japanese stereotypes have failed us. We were expecting to be surrounded by people dressed as sailors and cartoon characters, however they are very few and far between, and if that's something you're hoping to see, again, not worth the time and effort. It's still an interesting place to head to, but don't plan on spending too much time there.

About 10 minutes from here you is Shibuya and the famous crossing... The one that 1 million people cross everyday in 18 different directions. Or thereabouts. It's a pretty awesome sight to see. Amazingly, no one ever seems to bump in to each other! Who knows how, but we ended up in a beer pub called Goodbeer Faucet, which is better than the name suggests as the selection and quality of beer are great.

Dinner time next and we headed to a place called Gonpachi in Shibuya. It's on the 15th floor of a building with great views over the city and very tasty food - it's mostly Yakitori (grilled stuff on skewers, but also has noodles and rice bowls) I'd recommend you go, but try and book one of the window tables... They are the ones where you sit on the floor with your legs in a pit and the table over the top. Very Japan.

Things we have learnt:
The Japanese are nuts about Halloween. They are already dressing up and a lot of shops are decorated.
Plan better - we've done a lot of probably unnecessary walking and lots of crossing the city! Could have managed Tokyo better for sure.
My feet are sore.
Typhoons make us nervous.
Apparently gourmet popcorn is good - there was a shop selling nothing else and the queue was about an hour long.