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Our Last Day - Shibuya

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 It is hard to believe how different the weather is today. Bright blue skies, no clouds, a perfect day for a trip to Mt Fuji. Sadly, we have tried that, so today we are going to kook around Shibuya. As previously mentioned, Shibuya is where the young, trendy people hang out, but it also has a couple of other highlights. One is the famous "Scramble Crossing",  the World's busiest pedestrian crossing with as many as 3,000 people crossing at a time. It is just outside Shibuya  Station and a stones throw from our hotel. Light traffic across the scramble crossing mid morning (it is not possible to fit the whole crossing in one photo frame) Shibuya is also the site of a famous Dog Statue. Hachiko, a famously loyal Akita dog. The dog reportedly came to this spot every day for 10 years after the death of its owner, waiting for him to return. The dog stands as a symbol of loyalty, and the story of Hachchiko , was used for propaganda during WW11 to reinforce the virtues of loyalty....
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The Ghost of Mt Fuji

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It is raining lightly this morning and our driver/guide has phoned to say that he will be about 10 minutes late due to a traffic accident causing delays. The temperature is a lot cooler than yesterday and we are heading to the 5th Station on My Fuji, which is the highest you can go in a vehicle. So, we rug up, pack our wet weather gear and meet up with our driver at 8.15 am, for a couple of hour drive to Mt Fuji.  As our journey continues, the weather does not improve and the higher we climb, the thicker the mist seems. Arriving at the 5th Station, at 2305 m above sea level your can feel the air is a lot thinner.  From the 5th Station, you must walk to get to the summit up the windy trail There are busloads of other tourists who have also come to admire the mist. Somewhere up there is Mt Fuji Luckily there was a coffee shop/ tourist centee where we could seek some warmth and have a hot cup of coffee. The bad weather was good for the store/cafe Our guide is a bit disappointed t...
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A Day in Tokyo with Guide

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 Now having caught up on our sleep, we are ready to spend a day with a guide looking around Tokyo. We are quite hungry, as the last meal we had was a light snack on the plane about an hour before landing. our guide will meet us in the foyer at 9am, so we headed down for breakfast at 8am. There was a queue of people waiting for a table, so we patiently waited in line and it was only around 10 minutes before we were seated. Tourism is alive and well in Tokyo, it seems. Right on tome we meet out guide, Ryoji Shimada, and after introductions, we head off to Shibuya station to begin our tour. We will be using trains to get around and I suspect there will be a fair bit of walking, which suits us fine.  The railway station is very close to our hotel, so we board the train to our first destination, the Meiji Shrine The Main Gate to the Shrine Once through the gate, a long perfectly manicured wide path leads to the shrine, through a totally man made forest that was planted when the shr...
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