Day 6 - Meiji Jingu Shrine, Shinjuku Park, Curry & Shibuya Bar Tour

Day 6 was a monster that kept us busy from 8AM until after midnight - so i'll do my best to condense the summary of the day to as few words as possible, as writing these blog posts is quite difficult after a 12-16 hour day of exploring.

We began our 6th day by meeting up at our hotel at 8:30AM, with Devin and Neil riding the train over from Akihabara. We headed out immediately, catching a JR line train from the nearby Suidobashi station to Meiji-jingu mae, a stop about 15 minutes away. We climbed off the train and walked about 15 minutes to the gates of Meiji Jingu shrine, which consists mostly of a beautiful forest with a shrine at its center.

Lauren and I at Meiji Jingu shrine

The main tori gate at the entrance to the shrine.

The main shrine building at Meiji Jingu

The walk to the shrine is about 1.5km, and takes you through some beautiful old oak trees, before passing through a tori gate into the shrine itself. The shrine was packed with tourists, but we were able to get some good video footage and take some nice photos while there.

After taking photos and exploring the shrine, we all headed back to the entrance and began a short walk to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a prime spot to view the cherry blossoms and see typical Japanese landscaping. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold on Friday morning, so our photography was constrained by a desire to keep moving and warm.

The scenery at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Some sakura (cherry blossoms)

An interesting flower we found in the greenhouse - look at all that detail!

After exploring the outdoor portion of the garden, we headed into the greenhouse to warm up in the humid environs indoors. The greenhouse is home to a host of tropical plants found closer to Japan's southern tip and on Okinawa, and is a short 10 minute circuit to explore.

We wrapped up our exploration of the gardens around 11:30AM, ready to eat some lunch and warm ourselves. With the cold weather that morning, none of us could object to the idea of a bowl of CoCo Curry, a chain here that sells traditional curry in a fast casual setting. Curry here is traditionally ordered by choosing your sauce base (vegetable, beef or pork), rice amount (300g is normal, but some customers order up to 800g of rice) and spice level (between 1 and 10), before selecting toppings. Toppings are traditionally meat in the form of katsu, which are panko breaded cutlets that have been pan fried. We all opted for a katsu on our curry, though some like Lauren added cheese while I added extra vegetables.

My bowl of CoCo Curry, with vegetables and a pork cutlet.

A few minutes later, our curries had arrived, been devoured and we were ready to head out. Our afternoon agenda was to head to Shibuya, a famously crowded and busy district of Tokyo that is as famed for its busy crosswalks outside Shibuya station as it is for the statue of Hachiko, a dog whose loyalty is inspiring. We braved the crowds of the Shibuya crosswalk and tried to find seats at a nearby Starbucks before realizing that the line would take us several hours. We looked for alternatives, and chose to walk just under a kilometer to a nearby area full of cafes. Once we arrived, the cafe was packed as well, and we were getting quite tired of being on our feet, so we reversed course by approximately 500m and headed to a nearby craft bewery, OL by Oslo Brewing Co.

A small shrine we stumbled upon while walking to the train station bound for Shibuya

The brewery was blessedly quiet, and much to our delight had a real Mexican taco stand out front, operated by a Mexican immigrant. We ordered a few tacos for fun and each ordered a glass of beer so we could sit and relax for a while. Our relaxation ended up lasting a couple of hours, as none of us wanted to leave the warm and comfy interior of the brewery, though around 4PM we had to head out to get Winn, Steve, Devin & Neil's rail passes activated.

The busy crosswalk outside Shibuya station

For those who aren't aware, JTB (the Japanese Tourism Bureau) offers a rail pass to foreign visitors that allows unlimited Shinkansen (bullet train) use for a period of 7, 14 or 21 days. These are a fantastic deal and enable travelers to see a great deal more of Japan without the prohibitive cost of buying multiple fares on the bullet train. Activating the passes was surprisingly easy, as there was no line and took only a few minutes, unlike the 30-60 minutes it can take at the airport.

We spent the next hour or so exploring Tokyu Department Store, as we had nothing else to occupy our time, finally heading back downstairs to meet our friends David and Grace, who had arrived in Japan a couple of days earlier and had been exploring on their own. We were all slated to embark on a bar tour of Shibuya with two local guides who speak English to act as our intermediaries. Our guides were named Rina and Yu, and were both friendly and fun to talk to. They kicked off the tour by walking us over to a nearby bar that serves yakitori, where we each ordered a drink and a food item (required by the owner). Lauren ordered the yakitori, while Winn and I had chicken karaage (friend chicken), and Steve had a fried ham dish. This bar is also well known for something called Frozen beer, where they freeze the foam on top of the beer creating a sort of ice dam. Almost everyone in the group had this to drink, while I had a soda water with some creme de cassis mixed in.

The afore-mentioned frozen beer

After some challenges splitting the bill at the first bar, we were grateful to be headed to the second and third, both of which were prepaid as part of our tour and would give us a food item and two drinks. Both bars were both located in the same dining complex (a tower of about 8 floors) and were bursting at the seams with people. Thankfully, our tour included table reservations and enabled us to walk right in and sit down. At the second bar, we ordered some wagyu beef rolls, wagyu beef nigiri (sushi pieces on rice), and some grilled chicken thighs. This bar has a unique drink called a ginger sour, which consists of the same sliced pickled ginger you would get at a sushi restaurant mixed with soda water and shochu, which is a traditional Japanese spirit made from potatoes. Lauren and Winn both ordered one of these and enjoyed it, while it seemed like the rest of us mostly drank highballs (whiskey and soda water).

The statue of Hachiko, next to a man I have no acquaintance with. Sorry folks, this is what longs lines for photos mean!

After finishing our food and drinks, Rina and Yu directed us downstairs to our third and final bar, though this time we had a private room and some very loud electronic/club music playing. We drank more highballs here, and a few lemon sours while our food order was Gyoza. Unfortunately, our Gyoza order was taken to the other half of our group and was turned away, so those of us in the back half just finished our drinks before we finally called it a night just after 11:30. Yu and Rina who had both been fabulous walked us back to the train station where we said a happy farewell and caught the last train of the night back to our hotel where we fell into bed, utterly exhausted.