Laninga's Travel Blog

Our last port of call was Tokyo, where we spent two days visiting the city highlights.

On the first day, we visited the Imperial Palace. Although it is only open 2 days a year, the grounds are open to all and quite impressive. Especially when you see all this palatial space in the middle of high rise Tokyo! From there we walked to the Ginza, the famed shopping street. We were lucky, on Saturday the street was closed to cars and open for walking. If you want to shop for a high end name brand, you can find it here. And, at the recommendation of a local, we had what we consider the best sushi we’ve ever had in the basement of an office building.

On the last day we took an organized tour ending at Narita airport for our flight back to Vancouver. But first we stopped at the Meiji Shinto Shrine, a serene and lovely place. The 40-foot-high torii gate at the entrance to the 200-acre park is made of 1,500-year-old cypress. We were lucky enough to witness a traditional Japanese wedding procession. From there we visited Senso-ji, the largest Buddhist temple in Japan. Bit of a tourist trap, but interesting including watching (and hearing) the Kendo drummers.

Overall, a memorable trip. All this is left is a long flight back!

A view to Tokyop from the pier where we docked

Part of the Imperial Palace

Serene waters and lovely buildings

A relatively calm street on the way to the Ginza

Entrance to the Palace

A monk loking for donations

A very good traditional Japanese sushi lunch

The torii gate, made from 1,500 year old cypress

Main building at the Meiji shrine

Prayer wall… write a prayer, make a donation

Traditional Japanese wedding

Part of the Shinto Shrine history – saki barrels

At he Buddhist temple

Behind this wall is the actual buddha

Entrance to the main shrine

Part of the main shrine