The plan for today was to go back to Kyoto really early in the morning so we could stop by Fushimi Inari shrine (the one with the famous corridor of red gates), but we were really sick of Kyoto. We left a bit later, and went straight to the train station after returning the rental car. We planned to meet up with Masa’s sister for lunch but the train we took kept getting delayed at every stop, so we were a bit late.
After dropping off our bags at the Intercontinental, we taxied to Shibuya, where we were meeting his sister at Tamago-to-Watashi, a restaurant that specialized in omurice.
After that, we went to visit the Meiji shrine. Families in Japan have a tradition of going to the shrines at midnight on December 31st, waiting in line to get into the shrine. Then, in the morning, they go to a shrine as a family again.
Leaving the Harajuku train station, I felt like I had been deposited into the middle of a forest, despite the tall skyscrapers around me. Further down the path, we ran into the mob of people waiting to get through the bottleneck of the shrine entrance. We slowly moved forward with the crowd. Finally, after 30-40 minutes, we were able to walk inside the shrine.
Inside the inner gate, we saw yet another mob, except this time, people were throwing coins and money over a chain-link fence. On normal days, i think the fence is down, and you can see the wooden structure and the actual temple building behind it. But for new years, that would be too much traffic, so you were supposed to stand in the crowd, pay your respects, and throw a donation over the fence. We saw one guy sprinkle the crowd in front of him with handfuls of coins.
The other side of the fence is lined with plastic sheeting so that it’s easier to pick up all the coins later. We slowly made our way to the front of the crowd, threw a few coins in, and continued our walk. We walked through the souvenir stands near the end, and came out the other side, at the entrance of Takeshita street. We parted ways with his sister at the train station, and took the train to the Intercontinental to get checked in. We had a really great view of the Tokyo tower! We hung out there and enjoyed the view for sunset.
After that, we had dinner plans with two friends who were visiting Japan to see BLACKPINK. We took the train back to Shibuya and waited for them to show up. Apparently they were having trouble with customs or something. We waited for them by going up into a tower and we saw a billiards bar.
We couldn’t go any further up, so we were stuck on that floor and had to pass through the bar to get out onto the down escalator. We decided to buy a few drinks and play pool to pass the time. We played pool for a bit and then started looking for a place to eat. We eventually chose a kaiten sushi place that seemed to be the sister chain of Genji sushi.
We kept reaching the front of the line and then going back to the end, since we were still waiting on half our group. Finally they showed up and we got in. After buying them a SIM card and showing them how to get an IC card for the subway, we took the train back to Roppongi and then walked back to our hotel. The Intercontinental is really nice and it’s good for Americans, but it isn’t in the best location, since there’s nothing lit around it.
After we got back, we had some of the peach sake (yum) and tried some of the Baton d’Or. It was not as good as it was hyped up to be.
