Not Much

Nobu didn't really have anything planned to do, so we decided to ride into Shinjyuku and look at the precinct government building, which we'd seen the other night on the way to dinner. The station at Shinjyuku was huge. It was a junction for 15 JR lines and a dozen or so subway lines. I took a couple pictures, but they don't really show much. The Shinjyuku station underground was absolutely enormous. On the way to the precinct building we stopped at a graveyard/shrine. Japanese graveyards are very different from most of the ones in the US. To begin with, everyone is cremated, the graveyard had no bodies. Also, the graves were much smaller and packed much closer together. Some graves also had more than one person from the same family. The shrine also had a well for visitors to get water to wash the graves of their family. Each grave had some sort of vase or holder for flowers, as well as a place to burn incense. The other really noticeable difference are the wooden posts. These are bought by the family and placed at the grave annually at the day of the person's death. The other thing that struck me about the graveyard was how strange it seemed to walk through a graveyard right in the middle of the city. It was a really interesting thing to see.

From the graveyard, we finished the walk to the precinct capital building. The capital building has an expres elevator up to the 45th floor, which is apparently a pretty popular attraction. You can normally see Mt. Fuji well from up there, but unfortunately it was too cloudy today. Either
way, we still got a good look at the city. It was really amazing up at the top, the view really gives you an idea of just how big Tokyo is. Looking out it stretches all the way to the horizon, just building after building. We also had a good look at the Meiji shrine from up there. It was absolutely spectacular, a solid green spot in the middle of the city.

The weather was starting to look a little nasty, so we finished up there and headed back to the train, stopping to see another nearby shrine along the way. We barely made it back before the rain started. Tomorrow we're going to pick up Colin, which means my time in Tokyo is almost up. Just three more days before I start school in Kanazawa.