Downtown Tokyo

What a nice day we had today!  The sky was clear blue and the weather was just fantastic.  Perfect day for a trip into Tokyo!
Guillermo and I started off the morning riding bikes to the nearby mall - yes, Guillermo rode the bike and he rode it well!  We did a little looking around in the mall until it was time to meet Eva and Fernando by the grocery store.  When they got there, we went to the mall's food court to have lunch.  We had a good noodle soup and some good tempura.
Then we got on the trains to an area called Harajuku.  This district is known for the Meiji Shrine, expensive stores and outrageously dressed teens.  It was all quite interesting!  We headed to the Shrine first after getting off the train.  Walking through a nice forest of trees, the walkway to the shrine was very calming. First thing we came upon was a Chrysanthemum display which was just beautiful.  They say that these flowers represent the Imperial Family.

There were also chrysanthemums made into bonsai.  There were some impressive displays.

Here we are approaching the shrine.

And this little girl was just so adorable in her little kimono.

At the Shrine, it was interesting to see how people would throw in a coin into an offering area, then clap twice and then bow.  We were also very lucky to see a wedding procession while we were there!  When we saw this procession coming out, we were so excited!

We saw at least 3 other wedding parties and they couldn't have asked for a nicer day on which to get married!

From the park where the shrine was, we walked out onto Jingu Bridge and saw lots of dogs dressed up - possibly for Halloween.  Here are a few pictures of that!

From that bridge we walked down onto the grand shopping boulevard of Omote-sando.  Most, if not all, stores WAY out of our price range.  We found a nice little cafe to have tea time in, and after standing in line for about 20 minutes just to get in, we had some really good tea, coffee and little desserts.  Some nice Japanese lady was kind enough to take a picture of the four of us along the boulevard afterwards.

Then we got on a train again and headed for the district of Shibuya.  This area was exactly what I pictured when I thought of Tokyo.  It was wild, and colorful and crowded and busy and just teeming with life.  We had to do the Shibuya Crossing which is this MASSIVE intersection!  When we were crossing the street here, it was amazing and just made you exclaim - Wow, this is exactly how I pictured Tokyo!!!

Here is a view of Shibuya crossing from the train station.

Video taken while waiting to do the crossing.