On our third and last day in Tokyo, we took the train to Akihabara, Tokyo’s famous electric town where we played with iPads, shopped around for cameras, watches, and funny souvenirs:
Things to Know:
*Akihabara is a shopping district in Tokyo known for its electronics
*Tokyo International Forum is an exhibition center designed by Rafael Viñoly
*Tokyo National Museum is the largest and oldest art museum in Japan
*The Imperial Palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan
*Free bike rentals are available for you to enjoy the 3km course halfway around the Imperial Palace grounds
*The Tokyo Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was dedicated in 1980 and was the first to be built in Asia
Related Blog Posts:
Shop Photography Prints
Our architect friend thought it would be fun to see the Tokyo International Forum (東京国際フォーラム). It was built in 1996 by architect Rafael Viñoly.
In the afternoon we found ourselves strolling through Ueno Park where we watched Chinese acrobats perform amazing feats. It reminded Cole and I of the time we saw the Peking Acrobats with my mom in Beijing.
We visited the Tokyo National Museum, the oldest and largest museum in Japan. We thought it was adorable that they were providing free parasols to their patrons.
We learned about traditional Japanese instruments: the kagura suzu, shamisen, the shinobue, and the conch shell, or horagai.
The museum had many beautiful and interesting artifacts:
After grabbing kakigori and soft serve ice cream, we were off to visit the Imperial Palace. The palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. We took advantage of the free bicycles.
In the 1980s, the palace grounds were valued more than all the real estate in the state of California.
In the evening, we spent some time at the Tokyo Japan temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For dinner we ate at Kua Aina, Hawaii’s best cheeseburgers. Cole and I first discovered Kua Aina on our honeymoon three years ago. We knew they had a location in Tokyo so we were determined to try it out. It tasted just as good as I remembered! Finally it was time to say sayonara to Tokyo. We caught the shinkansen bullet train, which reaches speeds up to 300 mph, to Kyoto for the next leg of our Japan summer adventure.
