Tokyo Part II

After a full night's sleep and a good sleep-in we emerged into the bright (but cold) Tokyo sunshine to explore more of the city. The major goal of the day was the imperial palace -- not that one can see inside the palace itself (without taking an objectionable guided walking tour), but you can see the Nijubashi (double bridge) ...

... and a huge garden ...

(... which was actually much better than the above photo suggests). The garden incorporates the old ruins of the Eco castle and occupied us until well beyond lunchtime.

From the historically significant to the pathetic, it seems we actually derived more enjoyment from riding up a seriously long escalator to emerge from the subway:

Apparently, one tourist attraction that you can't miss is the bronze dog (Hachiko) at Shibuya. Luckily this wasn't too far out of the way, and had the added bonus of a real (i.e. not bronze)  cat into the bargain. Shibuya is also the world's busiest pedestrian crossing, which entertained us for at least 2 minutes.

By this stage we were exhausted and famished, so headed home via a supermarket that sold a strange, prepackaged triangular version of sushi which revived Ella, and a pork bun for Katy.

We hung out in our hotel room for what was left of the afternoon, then headed out for dinner. Tonight, we plucked up the courage to try a more Japanese-style restaurant. Ella was pleased that she liked the sashimi (Tuna and Yellowfin), but wasn't so keen on raw octopus. Katy & I tried some ramen, while Nat tried udon. 

Tomorrow we are planning to catch the bullet train to Hakuba, ready to hit the ski slopes on Tuesday.