Tokyo - Part 2

Tokyo, Day 2 (Really Day 1)
Hotel Room, Dawn
Ok so our sleep schedule is a little lagged. We seem to me on some mid-pacific time zone and are waking up at 2:30am every day. Somehow we still can't manage to get down out of the room before 7:30! Our first morning, I watch as the sun comes up in the "Land of the Rising Sun" and guess what? It's really red, just like the flag!

My camera (despite my best efforts) couldn't pick up how truly red it was.

After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we walked through town to Central Park.
So, I must tell you that I am really cold in this picture. The weather was 30s-50s temp-wise (and it is a humid cold -- read: brrrrrrrr!) and I either had this light hoodie or a light sweater! We were so unprepared for Japan in March! Regin was better prepared than George or me. He had a warm sweater and hat, knitted by his Omma, thank goodness.
He's not actually wearing all that cozy goodness yet though since we had no idea it was going to be as cold as it was when we left the hotel. Not only were we unprepared for the temps, but we were also unprepared for sight-seeing. We had no idea where we wanted to spend our four (actually two) days in Tokyo. So we stopped at a local coffee shop to flip through our travel books.
Look closely at that logo on the coffee cup. That's right, we spent this huge chunk of time researching Tokyo in a Starbucks! Blame George, not me. He was tired and chilly and wanted a Chai Latte.
Finally, we set our sites on The Imperial Palace Gardens. Sounds nifty, right? But how to get there? The subway! But first, we saw this chick:
There seemed to be some kind of formal dance held at our hotel and we saw several girls all day long wearing kimonos (though most of them were dressed just like American kids would for a dance.) Anyway... back to the subway.
To say we are both lacking in subway expertise is a huge understatement. Neither of us have any clue. Add to that the fact that some of the subway fare maps etc. only have Japanese characters and... well, it's difficult. But we figured it out. We were practically pros by the end. And we've almost got the Japanese-style address thing down. They don't have street names there, their addresses have three numbers, then a city region name, and that's it. The first number corresponds to the smaller region within the region, the second number is the block. The third number is the building on the block. Only trouble is, we have no idea how to find the correct region without other clues (we ended up looking for road patterns and things on maps), and how to know where to find particular blocks?! But once you have seen the block number, finding the building is a snap.

After the subway, we saw this building.
See how they built a skyscraper right into an old building?? Wild!

Then on to the Imperial Palace Gardens. First stop, the fountains. Cool! With an even cooler restaurant.
Check out the view!
Regin looks unhappy but he spent the whole time staring at/flirting with the girl behind him.
He wouldn't even turn around to accept spoonfuls of food from me, so I had to just reach around and guestimate the location of his mouth!

Then we had a quick studly little photo session on the restaurant's chairs.

And off to another part of the Gardens. Pretty, huh?
We had no time to look into the details or the historical significance of anything, so it was all a very visceral experience (versus a more cerebral one): Looks old, gardens are beautiful, some old-ish looking buildings and very old palace gates, etc..
It's really kind of how Regin experiences the world.
I spotted a handful of cherry blossoms just barely starting to bloom.
Although in an odd way, I'm really digging the cold weather, it's a shame that we couldn't have come a few weeks later after all the cherry trees are in bloom. Apparently the city is an explosion of pink and there is even a festival.

I still have to google the significance of this, but while we were there, a horse-drawn carriage and a couple of dudes on horses galloped on this little circuit through the park about four times.
The last time they came through with another, regal-looking carriage. Weird, but cool.

Another Imperial Palace Garden view.
Then back on the subway...

More soon...