Now that I’ve finished blogging each day of my trip, I thought it would be helpful to create a table of contents for the posts.

July 16 – Kyoto – Arrival

July 17 – Johnnie Hillwalker and Kiyomizu-dera

July 18 – Kinakuji and Ryo-Anji with George

July 19 – Grocery and Rainy Tonkatsu

July 20 – Mountains with Jeffrey Friedl.  Shijo and Pontocho

July 21 – Ryokan

July 22 – Kurama Temple and Kibune

July 23 – Tokyo – Arrival

July 24 – Edo-Tokyo Museum and Akihabara

July 25 – Meiji Jingu and Shibuya

July 26 – Harajuku and Shibuya

July 27 – Ginza and Departure

I have also collected my favorite photographs from the trip and present them to you here.

This morning I stopped by the local department store / grocery to pick up some of those sweet tofu rice sushi thingies and orange juice to bring back to the hotel for breakfast.  The same woman was there, who had sold them to me earlier in the week, so I asked her what they are called in Japanese.  Apparently they are called inari-zushi.  Good to know.  I snapped some photos along the way.

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Today we will visit the hip and cool Harajuku, not too far from our home base of Shibuya.  Harajuku is known for trendy and often outrageous youth culture, interesting shops and, best of all, delicious crepes.  It’s not uncommon to see a group of young people dressed as vampires or gothic lolitas – completely made up right down to eye-color changing contacts – casually perusing the clothing stores, trendy shops and snack vendors here.  Sadly I didn’t get many photos that show the unusual fashions because it was so very crowded.  We must have come on a particularly busy day.  As we entered the main shopping streets, we were swept up in a surging wave of young people doing whatever it is that they do.

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Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo is a shrine built in 1920 for the emperor Meiji and his wife.  It was destroyed (so many of Japan’s temples and shrines are destroyed) in the air raids of World War II and so was rebuilt in 1958.  We want to visit this shrine today.  First, a brief look around Shibuya and then brunch in nearby Harajuku (I can’t wait to visit Harajuku, but that’s for tomorrow)

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Took an early morning walk today around Shibuya.  I wanted to see the world’s busiest crosswalk in action during the day time.

Shibuya Crossing

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