Today we slept in a little till about 9am and then headed out on to the Tokyo streets. We firstly headed on the subway to Shibuya where we went in search of the famous Shibuya crossing. This is the one that is seen in all the movies and is basically a scramble crossing that allows people to cross all four streets at once inundating the entire intersection with people.... 100 thousand every hour. We popped to the Starbucks opposite the crossing to get the best view and to people watch, this Starbucks is the busiest in the world and only serves tall sizes to discourage people from staying. We didn't want a coffee as it appeared to be the most expensive Starbucks in the world as well so took some snaps out the window and headed outside.

Opposite the crossing near the subways entrance is a small statue of a dog called 'Hachiko'. This little dog is famous in these parts for being incredibly loyal. He would sit at the entrance to the subway waiting for is master every day and continued to do so after his master died... And for another eleven years until he passed away himself. He was found on a street in Shibuya and now rests stuffed and mounted in a museum in Tokyo. The statue was erected in his honour and dog lovers to his day flock to it and remember his loyalty. There has even been several films made to re tell the story.

After seeing the statue we headed down the road and found a small ramen restaurant where we ordered brunch... Steven had miso soup noodles with pork fried dumplings on the side while I had a pork and seaweed rice with an egg and some pork fried dumplings. We were so stuffed after and couldn't believe how cheap they were... About seven pounds between us. After brunch we wandered to Omote-sando-dori which is the main shopping street which contains all the fashionable shops such as Gucci, Louie Vuitton and so on. We quickly left as we felt a little out of place and headed to Takaes***a-dori which is a quaint little street where the famous Harajuku girls reside... Although if they were there we didn't really notice them. There was a couple of youths dressed a bit goth ish but no where near as extravagant as I was expecting... It was still early though so maybe they hadn't woken up yet.

We then headed to a nearby park to see the Meiji-jingu temple which has the largest shrine gate (torii). We wandered through the park and past a large collection of Sake barrels that are offered every year by Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers as an offering to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken whose divine souls are enshrined there in Meiji Jingu. It's beloved that they led the modernisation and industrial growth of Japan by encouraging various industries and supporting technological development. It was quite cool to see the numerous barrels... Each individually decorated piled on top of each other. Opposite is a similar collection of French wine barrels offered by the French as a friendly gesture.

At the temple it self was hundreds of people all making wishes and prayers. They queued up and the threw money in to the temple before paying their respects with a short ritual involving bowing their heads and clapping. Outside is a wall of hooks that has people's hopes and prayers for the year ahead hanging from them. We did debate adding one but the queue was huge and we didn't want to add to it... After all for us it was simply a nice attraction and we didn't want to slow down the genuine worshipers. The temple its self was pretty spectacular and I always enjoy these sort of sights... I find it so interesting to watch people in their chosen place of worship. As we left we saw numerous girls dressed up in traditional kimonos and wooden saddles, they look so pretty and elegant.

By now I was feeling a little washed out so we decided we would head to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to admire the view then call it a day. We walked over and found the building which has two large towers ...the north and south that you can climb for free to see the view. We were initially going to climb the north tower but the queue was pretty large so we headed to the south. We headed into the escalator and it opened out in to a large room with windows on all sides. We then wandered around for a while admiring the view from each side... You an see everything from up here on the forty third floor. We saw the Tokyo National Stadium that had a game on, we saw the famous Tokyo tower and various other landmarks... All except Mount Fuji that was unfortunately covered by mist.

After admiring the view we headed back down and jumped on the subway home... I was shattered by now and on returning to the hotel put on my pjs and curled up in bed. After a little while I thought I would see if I could find any English speaking channels, I sifted through the channels or a bout ten mins with no luck before landing on what appeared to be a Steven Spielberg film's credits... I instantly recognised it as memoirs of a geisha and was gutted! One of my fave films of all time and I have fancied watching it ever since we settled on Japan. Steven however found it on you tube so we watched it in ten minute intervals online. During the film Steven was face timed briefly by Auntie Pat who wanted to see we were ok... After a brief chat we went back to the film.

After the film had ended and I was in tears Steven decided to go and grab a bite to eat. I was feeling pretty rubbish so stayed curled up in bed while he went off to explore. He returned about an hour later with some plain crisps for me and a story of how he obtained dinner. Apparently he had Found a small establishment close to the hotel and on liking the pictures and prices in the window (here every restaurant displays pictures and actual replicas of their menu). He headed in and went to order... He said there was a machine that had buttons with pictures corresponding to different dishes and on deciding what you want, you press the button... Pay the fare and a ticket comes out. You then give the chef the ticket who cooks the meal for you and hands it to you, he ate a delicious fried chicken and rice mixture and enjoyed it thoroughly.

On returning we curled up together and planned our day tomorrow... Before I fell asleep to Steven attempting to fly a plane on the iPad...