We took the train to Shibuya to go see Hachiko, the beloved dog of Japan. Only my stepmom had watched the movie about Hachiko, but they both enjoyed seeing the statue. While there we were approached by several people for various reasons. One person was taking English lessons and wanted to give us a tour of Japan. Another person was from a TV station and wanted to interview us. Since it is a popular tourist attraction, they were all in the right place to find an English speaking audience. Normally I would love to help them out, but since it was my parent's first day in Japan, I didn't want to leave them to their own devices while I answered a whole bunch of questions.
The statue is right next to the famous pedestrian crossing. Always an interesting sight, we crossed along with hundreds of other people (up to 3,000 people cross at one cycle of the light during peak times) on our way to lunch.
We dined on tempura for lunch. It was quite delightful.
After lunch, we hopped on the Hachiko bus (a ¥100 bus) to ride over to Meiji Shrine. My dad specifically asked to see shrines and temples during his visit, so this was a good place to start. It was a beautiful day for a stroll around the shrine grounds. The sky was blue and it wasn't too cold (although the wind was sometimes pretty frigid).
I was impressed with their stamina, as jet lag can often be very difficult. They were both ready to see the sights and absorb some Japanese culture. Of course, when we got home, we made them help make gyoza for dinner - one of my stepmom's favorite meals. After dinner, we all collapsed in a food coma, jet lagged, simply exhausted heap and watched the Olympics. Not bad for a first day.
No comments:
Post a Comment