Tokyo day 2

Friday was a rainy day, so we struggled to find something to do because most of the things on our list were outside activities.  We read that the Sony showroom was right above a metro station and was 6 floors of electronics.  I thought that this would be something that Brandon would enjoy, so after getting a late start, we headed out for Ginza. 

Here's Brock with his rain gear on.   He's in there, I promise.

The sony showroom.  Ideally this would have been great, but Tokyo is not a very stroller/wheelchair accessible city.  Often times in the Metro stations we would find 1 loan elevator clear at the other end of the station.  Many times I just lifted the front of the stroller, while Brandon took the back and we lugged it up and down the steps.  I'm sure they thought we were crazy Americans, but it was a pain in the neck to locate the 1 elevator sometimes.  Anyway, getting back to the Sony Store, we took the elevator to a random floor only to discover that it was broken into little sections with each being 1 step higher or lower than the normal floor.  The place was tiny and hard to maneuver, so we ended up leaving.  

Just a few other pictures of the area.  There were a number of really high-end stores in this part of town - not places we'd normally do our Black Friday shopping at. 

We did go into the Gap.  I know, I know, but seeing a familiar store was a bit like home. 

The main shopping street.  They had the street closed to traffic, which was nice.  

We realized that Ginza was just a stop or two away on the Metro from the Imperial Palace, so we decided to check it out.  It was't raining hard, just a slight drizzle all day.  The Japanese Royal family live at the Imperial Palace in case you are wondering what's the draw.  Here's a picture of the moat around the property.  Very impressive.

This is part of the walkway to the bridge area.

If you look close, way in the background is a white structure on the hill.  That's the palace.

Here it is a little closer.

and closer still....

We are leaving the area, and this is another shot of the moat. 

The moat's wall

As we were walking to our metro stop, we passed the Peninsula Hotel.  I can't remember what kind of car this was, but Brandon was impressed, so we took a photo.

As we were walking back to the metro, we passed under a JR (Japan Rail) track.  We had read about this area in one of our guide books, and were pleasantly surprised to have just stumbled on it.  There were a bunch of tiny restaurants under the tracks.  As you can see in the picture below, that restaurant only has 4 seats.  It wasn't meal time, so it was mostly empty.

A look back under the tracks

Just a couple shots of the Shinjuku area at night.