Day 02 - Saturday 28th July

We slept well in our king-size bed. For breakfast, we went down to the buffet in the hotel restaurant. He gave us an excellent table next to the window overlooking the city. It was a nice start to the day. The Olympic opening ceremony was still going on the TV when we got back to our room.

After breakfast, we set out to explore the area near our hotel. Someone had told us that we should go to the government office complex which turned out to be only about 1km from our hotel. This complex has two large towers - both of which have an observation deck with a view of the city.

There was a queue for the northern tower but not for the southern tower and so we decided to go with the crowd for the northern tower. This took us to the 45th floor. It was a worthwhile view but limited by the haze.

A Frenchman in the queue behind us said the southern tower is better at night. So we decided to come back in the evening for that tower.

On the way back to our hotel, we visited the shopping area that is part of Shinjuki station complex. The little stalls were interesting. The department store was just like going to Myer.

For lunch, we found a pizza restaurant in the same building as our hotel. I liked the sound of the "painful chicken and salami" pizza. It turned out to be very spicy. I couldn't claim that I wasn't warned. I also tried a Japanese beer.

After lunch, we set off for a nearby suburb called Harajuku. We caught the above-ground metro train from Shinkuju to Harajuku. It was only two stations away but it gave us our first experience of trains, ticketing, etc.

Shinjuku is a very large station seething with thousands of people coming and going. There are at least four main entrances - you need to make sure you find the right entrance to get on the right train. We were on the Yamayote line on a Japan Rail (JR) train.

At Harajuku, we first spent some time looking at the shopping area. It was very crowded. They seem to love trinkets and knick-knacks. My favourite shop was one that sold an amazing variety of accessories for iPhones and iPads.

Next we went back to the other side of the railway station where there is a very large park that commemorates an emperor who died one hundred years ago on Monday. So it turned out to be a good time to be here.

After visiting the park and the shrine, we noticed performers in fancy outfits near the entrance. So we waited about 20 minutes for the show to start.

We managed to get lost getting out of the train at Shinjuku because we made the wrong guess about which exit to use. I turned on the data roaming on my iPhone to figure out where to go. It took more than 20 minutes to walk around this huge railway station complex to reach the road back to our hotel.

Back in our hotel, we noticed fireworks in the distance at about 7pm. They were still going at 8pm when we were having dinner.

For dinner we'd decided to go to the hotel's traditional Japanese restaurant. I went in fear and trepidation because I still remember being sick for days after going to a Japanese restaurant more than 20 years ago in Sydney.

We managed to negotiate a meal I'd be able to eat. They were very helpful. Amongst copious bowing and scampering back to the kitchen, the waitress came up with suitable options that turned out to be delicious. For example, she would come back with a word such as "scallops" on a notepad so we could nod or shake our heads.