After a nice breakfast at the hotel we met Seizo who would be our guide to Tokyo for the first half of the day.

Seizo took us to the imperial Palace while telling us about the role of the emperor and his wife and Japanese culture.

Next stop was the Meiji shrine where we did some bowing and clapping and learnt about the shinto and Buddhist religions of Japan, as well as the civil war thar resulted in the demise of the Shogun. The entrance to the shrine was lined with sake from all over Japan, meant as offerings to the gods. I took the opportunity to quiz Seizo on the best sake.

Our next visit was Senso-ji temple in Asakusa and the thunder gate, named after the god of wind who defeated Ghengis Khan twice by destroying his naval fleet and saving Japan from the moguls. On the way out we had our fortunes told by wooden stick. Apparently my future couldn’t be brighter. Katrine’s… not so much.

Next up was a lovely lunch of sushi and fried cod at a nice little restaurant before heading to a park where there just happened to be a Samurai festival.

We watched performers twirl swords and scream at each other before sampling dome bites and heading to the graveyard of the last Shogun. After paying our respects, we had a delicious coffee in a lovely little coffee shop and headed for Tokyo drift junction to check out the neon signage.

We did a bit of random shopping and located the sale Seizo had recommended before sampling our first Takayoki (skewered meat) dinner and turning in for the night after a busy day.