After a breakfast of sandwiches (with broccoli on them? But they were nice!) and coffee, we went out of the station and around the corner where we were collected by a bus and taken to a bus depot where we were given our tickets and told which coach to board and the off we went. Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine, a large shrine dedicated to the empower Meiji, renown for the restoration of the country. The original shrine was bombed during World War II and a new one rebuilt. This shrine is particularly visited on New Years Day and for christenings. On the way to the next stop we drove past the crown prince's residence, past the Parliament House, and past the Imperial Palace guest house. The next stop was the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. The emperor has to live in the capital city, so when it was changed to Tokyo during the 19th century a new palace had to be built and the emperor had to be moved. "Kyo" means "capital", hence Kyoto and Tokyo. Tokyo, before it became the capital, was called Edo. The tour guide told us that a lot of people travel 1 - 1 1/2 hours each way to work in the city (usually working 9am-9pm, but not on Wednesdays). Their trains are like our mountains ones - if they miss the last train home they can spend the night in an Internet cafe, at a karaoke bar, or some other 24hour establishment. We drove through Ginza during the daylight. We were then taken to a harbourside hotel where we had a western lunch (wonderrrfulll beef) on the twelfth floor, before then heading off on a harbour cruise. We have some interesting people on this cruise - a Swedish redhead, a lovely couple from Luxembourg, some Americans, some Philippinas, and a couple of groups of Indians. After the harbour cruise we visited a new precinct on a man-made island where they had a small copy of the Statue of Liberty, and then we were return to the Tokyo Station - about 5.30pm. After freshening up we went out into the station to book some Shinkansen trips for our quiet days, and buy some tidbits for dinner (still full from our 3 course lunch). We had a wrap each, a large iced chocolate and some Japanese peanut M&Ms, and all for less than $8!!!