After visiting Meiji Jingu, we returned to the Shinjuku station to go to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. And we dropped in a camara store to buy my camera lense cap. In fact I'd used my camera without any cap almost for one year after losing it, and we already knew that the Japanese camera stores sell their stuff much cheaper than Korean's stores. We wasn't wrong and could buy the cap just for 370 yen. It was about three times cheaper than to buy in Korea.


About 30 minutes later, we could arrive at the Shinjuku gate of Shinjuku Goyen. The guide map said it's just 10-minute walk from Shinjuku station south exit to Shinjuku gate of the garden, but we got lost and wandered for a while especially when we came out of the Shinjuku station. It's really big station! We couldn't even remember how many times we asked people the way to the south exit. Anyway, we managed to arrive the gate of Shinjuku Gyoen. But oh my, the garden was already closed. Shinjuku Gyoen's operation hours were 9:00 ~ 16:00. We had to return to our hotel since we walked all day and were tired out. And, That was by no means the end of the matter. We got lost around Shinjuku station, too! We turned round and round confusedly a few times, and about fifty minutes later we could arrive at our hotel.


We went out for dinner about at 19:30. We went in the direction of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, not Shinjuku station, and there is hardly any restaurants. At last we had to go to Macdonald, and returned to the hotel.

We had no plan to go to the observatory of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building at first. We thought we are too tired. But we knew well that we might not have any time to go there if we miss today night, and the government building was so close that we seemed to be considered lazy if we don't go there. So about at 22:00, we put on our shoes and go to the observatory of that building.


We were half in doubt about business hours of the observatory, but it was still open until then. It's second time to see the night view of Tokyo from here, but it was inspiring to me as ever. We looked around the shop of the observatory to choose presents, and returned to the hotel. It was about 23:00.

The first place we visited was Meiji Jingu. We took JR Yamanote Line for two stops (first stop is Yoyogi station) and got off at Harajuku station. Meiji Jingu was within my vision walking a bit more after coming out of the station. Japanese unique shrine gate, Torii was receiving us. It looked like Iljumun of a Buddhist temple, but Torii was much simpler than Iljumun. We walked along the long path through the trees passing by a lot of Japanese Sake casks lying on the sidewalk. The Sake casks were offered by alcoholic companies to wish alcohol to be ripe well. Soon after, Main Shrine Building was seen at a distance.



This shrine is dedicated to the divine souls of King (or Emperor) Meiji and his consort Queen (or Empress) Shoken, and this king and queen passed away in 1912 and 1914. This king and queen are being venerated by Japanese people since they think Meiji and Shoken led Japan to today's honor. So they donated 100,000 trees and created this forest. This shrine was established on November 1, 1920. There are 22 Jingu in Japan, but Meiji Jingu is the only one Jingu that is built at Tokyo. Like this, Meiji and Shoken are held in respect by Japanese since Meiji introduced Western civilization and laid the foundation of modern Japan. But clearly, under his reign, Koreans were suffered from the aggressive wars which Japan started and it is unforgettable true that Joseon Dynasty was forcibly annexed by Japan in 1910. (But surprisingly, the guide book of Meiji Jingu says King Meiji took the initiative to promote friendship with other countries. It must have meant just "Western countries.") It's good to commemorate their kings, but they must not forget their kings's fault, too.


At the three entrance of that building, there are Temizuya (font) like the picture above. These are the place to wash hands before entering the shrine. And this conduct also expresses the respect at Meiji Jingu. There is an order washing hands; Rinse your left hand, rinse your right hand. And pour water into your left hand and rinse your mouth. Lastly, rinse your left hand, and rinse the dipper.

We looked all around and headed to the JR Harajuku station to move to other places. It was 17:00 p.m.

It's always difficult to explain why I traveled there. I like Kendo. I like some Japanese novels, animations, and people, but is it possible to tell that those things leaded me to the Japan travel? Like all my other directions of life, my Japan travel's reason was ambiguous. My life had flown according to the casual sequence of nature, and I couldn't find any necessity of choice, but still I've been finding my own reason. Well, I can't begin to write anything without saying the reason like this...

We decided to travel with Shinjuku of Tokyo as the center because its transportation facilities were very excellent. Above all, there was the express bus station for Mount Fuji. And it was after careful consideration that I chose my lodging in many hotels in Shinjuku. The factors to be considered when I chose a hotel were the price, distance to the station, quality of the breakfast, hygiene, and size of the room. Subsidiary facilities weren't considered at first, but I got to know they could be useful when some light refreshments were suddenly needed. Considering such options, Shinjuku Washington Hotel was finally chosen. That hotel was very close to Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, and Shinjuku station. The room was a little narrow, but clean and offerd me a wonderful breakfast everyday.

It was very easy to find that hotel at first because the airport bus delivered me right in front of that hotel. But later, we had to have a hard time during the first day finding the way from Shinjuku station to my hotel because of the gigantic Shinjuku station. In addition, a lot of tall buildings blocked my eyes which were trying to find the right way, so I'd got to ask a passerby for direction to the hotel after wasting my time walking on the wrong streets. But later I got the hang of finding way after some mistakes. If you could find the South Entrance of the station, the rest is pretty easy.




The hotel had Family Mart, a convenience store, at the first floor which I could also easily see in my country. It was so similar with my country's one that I could not help dropping by that store. How much similar is Japan's Family Mart to South Korea's one? It resembled a lot each other. I thought it'd be a Japanese company. I bought my favorite coffee at that store. It's a little more expensive than Korean's one. After unpacking and clearing out, we had a bite of Udon. It's really wonderful. It was about 14:50 p.m. at the time.

and...

I also joined Facebook just because I came to know Eiga Naoki joined here. I can't sure he's handling it himself, but it's great that I can see his news in online.
 In addion, Miyazaki Masahiro joined, too.