Imperial Palace

To prove my own dexterity for getting around Tokyo, I decided to take an adventure to a part of town I haven't been. The Imperial Palace is located at the Tokyo Subway stop, which is about half an hour ride from my stop. They are doing alot of construction at that subway stop, but the Imperial Palace is just a few blocks up, so it wasn't very hard to find. There were some interesting buildings built on top of other buildings:




Around the outside of the Imperial Palace is a moat, a really big, really slimy green moat. I would be discouraged from invading :)



There is also a beautiful fountain park.



And then my camera battery died. I rode a different subway back home. I went into a different subway entrance, and was trying to figure out which direction home was. I must have been standing there looking at the map for too long, because the guy at the ticket booth came out and handed me a mini english map of the subway. It has been very useful.

I needed to pick up some supplies before I really went home, so I went into Shibuya where all the shops were. I was trying to find toilet paper, but my favorite store, Loft, didn't have any. I called Tim to ask where to buy toilet paper. He told me there was a store called Don Quixote across from the H&M. Immediately I am singing in my head:



I knew where the H&M was, so I went there, and walked up the street. And down the street. And around the corner. I am not seeing a huge sign with the word Don Quixote. So finally I noticed this one store that had stuff spilling out of it, and I thought, well, that looks like a dollar store or a kmart style, so maybe they would have toilet paper. In fact, they did.

Here is what the store sign really looks like:


Tim did tell me that the sign would be in Japanese and that it was big and neon, but I was too busy singing to listen to his careful instructions, and it all turned out fine in the end.