Tokyo, Day 2

Day 2 in Tokyo started out better than I expected, because I managed to get some sleep between 3.30am and 7.30am. Yay! So I awoke feeling a lot more refreshed than I expected. We had time for a quick breakfast in Starbucks (the only place we could find with vegetarian food) before meeting up with Erica. She is an American girl studying over here, who I know from the internet, and she very kindly offered to show us around.

First we went to Hachiko, to people-watch at the world's busiest intersection. On a Sunday morning it wasn't as busy as usual, but it was still interesting to sit in Starbucks - yes, twice in one day - and play "spot the foreigner". We tall white people really do stand out, literally! After finishing our drinks (I had a gorgeous cold creamy green tea thing), we walked around looking at the shops and ended up in Harajuku. We went to Yoyogi park and took a stroll, enjoying the warm sunshine and the beautiful colours of the trees.

After the park, we went to the nearby Meiji Jingu shrine. We picked a great day to go, because the place was swarming with little girls in kimono, being photographed by proud parents. We also saw three wedding processions. Erica thought that it was Girls' Day today, as that is around now sometime, which would explain all the finery on show.

Pets are treated like accessories here. Lots of people have tiny dogs on leads or in baskets, and most of them are wearing some sort of clothing. We saw one man with three tiny dogs following behind him, all wearing jackets and sunglasses! I don't know how he persuades them to keep the sunglasses on - superglue, maybe? We also met a girl with a cat that looked just like my old cat Flora. It was sitting on her shoulder as she walked around the park, which was bizarre but extremely cute.

By this time it was half three and Erica had to leave us - she has exams to sit tomorrow. Skry and I headed back to the hostel to freshen up, then out again to another area with hundreds of electronics shops. It was all a bit overwhelming, as the shops were really full and cluttered with racks and racks of products, signs hanging from the room, and hordes of shoppers, not to mention the salespeople with megaphones at every doorway. We took refuge in an Italian restaurant for some dinner, then headed back to the hostel. I was so sleepy that bed at 8.30pm seemed reasonable. Well, it's better than 6.30pm the previous night!