Tokyo April 7-10 – day 2

Early(ish) next day we went to the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, built in 1920 and dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. Starting from a massive torii gate, it is a tranquil stroll through a forested area to the shrine. Lunch was a very tasty sushi bowl in a tiny restaurant and a less tasty but very photogenic piggy ice cream at The Zoo. Which brings me to one of our main pain points on this trip, the lack of garbage bins. While I support the efforts to keep the cities clean by having people taking care about their garbage, there are very limited opportunities to then get ride of such collected garbage. Not that nice if looking for a place to dispose of a dripping ice cream cone 😁For one more cherry blossom stop we went to Shinjuku Gyoen, another very pretty park with a large number of cherry trees as well as a picturesque Japanese garden.