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Sensoi Temple, Imperial Gardens, Harejuku, and more

Sunday was a whirlwind day around Tokyo. We started the day right outside the ryokan at the Senso-ji Temple and went from there to the Imperial Gardens. Thankfully it was Sunday and the crowds across the subway were not terrible. The gardens were nice and quaint, but the problem struck as around 9am the rain started and did not let up the rest of the day, going anywhere from a drizzle to full pouring rain.

After the gardens, we walked over to the Yasukuni Shrine, the source of much controversy whenever a Japanese Prime Minister visits. We strolled around the shrine, but the weather was so inclement that we made our way quickly through it. I would have liked to have spent some more time there, but I think some of the most controversial elements are hidden away (such as the revisionist history view of World War II.

We ate at a little restaurant in the area, then kept trying to wait out weather in a coffee stop. With that nowhere near successful, we continued on to Harejuku and Omote-sando. Given the poor weather, the amount of folk in cosplay seemed to be tempered but we went through the side streets and ended up at some very boutiquie stores off of Omote-sando. We stopped in the Bapexclusive store (home of the Bathing Ape line of clothes), where I was keen on buying a hoodie but the $200+ price tag on each item put me off. The store was awesome, check out the pictures.

Akihibara was next in the day, which was total chaos (in a good way). We strolled around in the mega electronics store, in Akihibara Electric City and in to some manga stores. I bought some music (which sadly I forgot in the ryokan later) in a crazy chaotic store. By this point, our feet and shoes were fully soaked so we made our way back to Asakusa.

For dinner we ended up at a grill-your-own (forget the term) place, had a couple of drinks and called it a night.