We Visited Japan

At the end of May, we visited Japan. Since our visit was only for 6 days, we decided to stay within the Tokyo area. We had a wonderful time. Paul opted out of going, not really enjoying large crowds. We appreciated that he took care of the farm while we were away, and he did a great job keeping up with everything.

Below are a few photos from our trip.

There were huge crowds in Shibuya. We walked across Shibuya Crossing several times. It's one of the largest intersections in the world. When it's time for the crosswalks to open, all the lights turn red so that the entire intersection opens up to pedestrians. People can walk diagonally across the intersection if they want.

We visited the Inokashira Park Zoo and Aquarium, along with several nearby parks, while waiting to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum.

While wandering around near the zoo, we came across a sculpture museum with many enormous sculptures both inside and outside.

In Harajuku, we went to a cat cafe.

Every evening, we stopped in at a convenience store near the hotel, either the Family Mart or Lawson's. The food in the convenience stores is much healthier compared to convenience stores in the U.S. and everything is very fresh. 

I couldn't resist taking a few photos of the dresses in this shopping center. Dresses are popular in Japan, and women tend to wear them even for casual outings.

We visited several beautiful and peaceful shrines.

This raven greeted us at a shrine.

We met up with a friend who lives in Japan and went around town one day. The day included visiting TeamLab Planets, an unusual art museum where you walk through a light show, go barefoot through a semi-dark room with knee-deep water, and lay on the floor while flowers descend toward you from the ceiling. There was also a room filled with gigantic balls and colors.

See the Ikea sign in the photo above? We went there one day for lunch and had Swedish meatballs. Yum!

Photos were not allowed inside the Studio Ghibli museum. It is a lovely museum that focuses on the artist's work and life. 

To get around the Tokyo area, we took the subway, train, bus, and monorail. We also took cabs to and from the airport. The flights each way were about 12 hours, with a stop in Vancouver, BC, on the way there and a stop in Seattle on the way home. It meant taking a small plane and an enormous plane. We also rode the ferry to get to and from home. It was the most public transportation I have ever taken in such a short time. It took us a little while to figure out how to get around Tokyo on the subway and train systems, but we managed with the help of Google Maps and a YouTube video on the topic.