Whirlwind tour

Woke up at 6 am this morning and decided to hit the pavement. After filling up on the hostel's cheap all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet (where I discovered a love for instant corn soup), I hit it off with an Austrian girl named Lydia and we deided to bum around together. And by "bum around" I mean walk pretty much nonstop for 10 hours. First stop: the Meiji Jingu shrine. It's tucked away in the middle of a serious forest right in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo. And that forest is DEAFENING. A million cicadas or other similar noise-making insect were going nonstop. Other than that, it was all very peaceful and serene. =)

Then off to Shinjuku, land of hustle and bustle. After some very confused wandering around (and once again being helped by more than our fair share of helpful Japanese business men) we found our way to the Tokyo Munincipal Government Office. At first we couldn't find the way inside but we managed by following some men in suits who clearly knew where they were going. On the 45th floor of TMG is a fantastic observation deck...I didn't realize until going up there how Tokyo just goes on and on forever. It is just an immense city.

Then we headed to the Hama-Rikyu Gardens to await our water bus ride back to our hostel. They were the first place we paid an entrance fee to all day, and were quite beautiful (as well as being bloody hot).