Tokyo, day 2

The morning

I was quite jet lagged, and my nap in the afternoon didn't help to fall asleep, so I went to sleep around 3AM (local time). As a result, I got woken up by the staff of the hotel cleaning up the pods next to me, around 10AM...

I decided to go for a sweet breakfast, and headed towards a cafe/bakery with good ratings on Google Maps. On my way there, I saw a very long queue, maybe 100 people (Japanese people love queuing up, for shrines, buses and even smoking spaces). I thought it could be something interesting, so I made a quick detour, and was surprised to see that it was just a shrine

After a bit of research, I found that this shrine, Koami Jinja, has survived both the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War 2 bombings, making it one of the oldest shrines in the neighbourhood. The believers draw a fortune for good luck and financial wealth, and today is a very lucky day according to the traditional Japanese calendar (something that happens around once a month), making it a popular spot, even during a work day.

I stop by bakery_bank for breakfast, where I get a cream melonpan and a green tea ice latte, which are great. The green tea ice latte is like a matcha latte, they also used a powder but I'm guessing it's made from normal sencha instead of the high grade shaded tea required for matcha.

This bakery is located next to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, so that neighbourhood is bustling with people in suits. Interestingly, in the streets next to the TSE, they don't have traditional advertisement billboards but stock prices billboards, where different stock updates are shown on large screens on the buildings.

I then continue walking towards the same direction, and end up in a mall, where I found some Danish design articles from Le Klint and Royal Copenhagen (they had the coveted gaiwans from Royal Copenhagen, that are only sold in Japan...).

In the basement of this mall, they had a lot of tea shops, one of them allowed me to taste some teas, that were properly prepared but they only made me taste the standard quality stuff, so it was a bit lacking. However, next to it there was a somewhat hidden tea house, where I ordered a gyokuro. The first cup, prepared by the hostess, was amazing, it had the most voluptuous texture I've ever tasted in tea. The next cups, prepared by me, still tasted good but I couldn't get it as rich and thick as when they prepared it...

To finish my morning (although it was already around 2PM at this point...), I went to Ichiran Ramen, which was highly recommended by multiple people. The ramen there is very simple, and even though the dashi was good, I was a bit disappointed that it only included a single thin slice of pork... I guess I should have expected it based on their menu recommending extra pork slices. Overall good but overhyped I think, there are plenty of local ramen shops that won't require queuing up for 20 minutes and just taste better. Sorry not sorry.

The afternoon

Since I had nothing planned for the day, I decided to go to a park (yes, again) to try to see the autumn foliage. I headed towards Meiji Jingu Gaien, where there are nice ginko trees, unfortunately it was still too early and the most I could see was a bit of yellow around the top of the trees.

I then decide to head towards Meiji Kikenkan, built from the remains of the Meiji castle that burnt during World War 2. A small part of the outside is original, but most of the building is new, and it now hosts conferences and wedding ceremonies. It is clearly a high class building, it also includes restaurants that are probably out of my budget (actually not, but I went there at the wrong time, and I wasn't hungry yet...)

I then head toward Meiji Jingu, and on my way there go by a baseball stadium that has an ongoing match. I can hear cheers and fanfare instruments playing from the outside, which sounds fun so I decide to head in.

I arrive at the middle of a match between Keio and Tokyo (universities, I think?). The crowd isn't big, but each side has its own cheering team. Keio's cheering team has brass instruments, Tokyo's cheering team has more vocalists, and they compete to see which team is the loudest during the game. There are however times between sets where only one cheering team is playing, not sure how that works.

I don't know the rules of baseball, and most of the swings are misses, so most of the game isn't very exciting for me, but it's fun to see the cheering teams do their work, and there are a couple of intense moments where the batter arrives at the corner right before the ball is caught.

In the end, Keio wins easily (I think?), and the orchestra on each side plays one after the other

I'm heading towards Meiji Jingu around 5:30PM, crossing a cosy little neighbourhood composed of 2-3 stories buildings. When I arrive there... it's already too late, the park closed about an hour earlier. Oh well.

The evening

I am close to Harajuku, so I decide to spend the evening there.

First of all, I'm getting hungry so it's time for dinner. I chose to go to Unaginonaruse Harajuku, a small restaurant selling eel dishes. The restaurant is a bit difficult to find, at the second floor of a building, requiring to go through a tiny staircase. It feels a bit shady, but I head in anyway. A single person is working there, and what a klutz! While preparing my order, he dropped a bunch of things in the kitchen, and confused my bill with the couple that got in after me (the place was empty when I arrived). That was quickly cancelled so no harm done, and the eel itself was very good. The miso soup didn't seem to have miso though, just seaweed and something else, that gave it a slightly smoky taste.

I then went through Takeshita Street, a tourist trap street for weebs, with plenty of gatcha machines, and cosplay stores (I haven't been to Paris for a while but I'm pretty sure that girls there don't normally wear cat ears...). They had some cute cat cafes though, not with cats but with piglets and capybaras.

I went for dessert at Eggs 'n Things, a Hawaiian cafe chain. I got a chestnut dessert with a chestnut drink, because it's autumn after all, even if I didn't see the nice foliage... I was way too big, from the picture I expected it to be about half the size.

And on my way home, I stopped by the Shibuya crossing, known to be the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. As it was the evening, it wasn't that busy, but when crossing it, it felt more like a square than a crossing, with people going in all directions. It was quite interesting to see it change from pedestrian chaos to a street within seconds.