Day 19 in Tokyo

Laura decided to hang out with Sarah & Daniel today. She met them at Harajuku and then spent the day exploring and shopping. Laura took advantage of Sarah's advice to purchase some stylish hats.

Talking of style, there was plenty of the typical Harajuku style on display
























Diane and Geoff meanwhile headed in on the very handy Chuo line to the Tokyo Edo Museum at Ryoguko.

This very futuristic, elevated structure houses various displays, models and reconstructions of life in Edo-Tokyo from now to the period following WWII.

There is for example a partial reconstruction of Nihombashi Bridge











Models of various scenes fron feudal Edo























Model of a scene from the period of the Meiji restoration.













Performers on traditional instruments perform in front of a full sized ereconstruction of the front of a Kabuki theatre in Edo










The privations of WWII were covered. one particularly graphic display showed the parts of the city affected by the USAF fire- bombing raids of 1945 when hundreds of thousands perished












The postwar development of Tokyo was considered. Part of this included the expansion of the car industry. The Subaru 360 was the first postwar light car built in Japan. A bit of a contrast to a Liberty or Forrester of 2010!











After our day of history and shopping we met Paul & Joss at Nishi Shinjuku and went searching for somewhere for dinner. Paul purchased some supplies from a nearby vending machine to help him during our search.








We located a pork restaurant with an English menu and we were all soon enjoying a well-deserved meal!
















You can see that Laura is wearing one of her new hats. Harajuku style!


-- Post From Geoff's iPhone