Japan Tour 2025: Day 16: Heating up Tokyo

 

 

By the numbers

22,362 steps

17.37 kms

Level of Chaos: Cramped train in rush hour

 

I took my time in getting up and even getting down to breakfast, although the place where we eat was near empty unless everyone comes down later than 7am. I was just happy not to be anywhere that is overly crowded with people. I was also happy not to have my breakfast as takeaway either. The plan for today was to take a train trip out to Ultraman street, who is a Japanese superhero. They have a street that has statues of him and the monsters he fought. A lapse in judgement maybe was that I left a little later and the train was sardine line and squashy. When you can feel the heat of somebodys body next to you, they you are a touch close in summer.

 

It ended up being at least 3 trains as I didn’t take the first one that arrived as it was full, so I walked down the track a bit before hopping on the next one minutes later and had to get off at Harajuku as that was where the train stopped and didn’t go further, the next one would take me the rest of the way to Soshigaya Okura station. It wasn’t that bad, but once I got off I realised the weather was hotter than it was forecast that is how it felt. I found the Ultraman statues and some of the stuff at the street entrances like man hole covers, but I was making plans on what to see next like there was a film studio a 15 min walk with Godzilla out the front, but I decided too hot for that. The plan ended up being Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I wasn’t sure where to go afterwards

 

The trains were running without a problem and I jumped off at Shinjuku, and I think the heat was starting to get to me as I wasn’t sure if the train I wanted was a JR or subway. Turns out it was a JR train so I had to get back onto the platform. It would have been a 15 min walk and I think that would have been too much. I ended up getting a train towards the gate of the gardens and realised it was on the other side of the rails and no the subway didn’t have an exit for that side so had to walk back up the stairs. I found how to enter the park and found you had to pay. I could use my handy IC card for that and went through. It was half way through I realised I probably should call it quits as it had gotten even hotter and I had too much sun. I was wanting to see the Greenhouse and ended up in the museum that was next door to it. The aircon was nice and then I decided I should head back and rest for the afternoon and can go back out when I have recovered and had enough to drink. It was around a half hour ride back to the hotel and was worth it and I could also see a storm brewing too. The temperature said it was 32 and its feel was around 38. That was telling me that I shouldn’t stay outside.

 

I ended up with something for lunch and relaxed while reading a book that I had wanted to finish. It was good to do something like that every now and then. I knew I had some of the symptoms from the head and no headache, but I don’t need to be carted off anywhere. I do plan on going out once the excessive heat has gone and hopefully wont get wet if it decides to rain. I do plan on going back to the gardens in Shinjuku as they were interesting and I want to see if I could see any orchids.

 

Before 5pm I went back out as there was a specific clock I wanted to see near Tokyo station. Its outside of a TV studio and is something to do with Studio Ghibli who made a few  animated movies. The rail was starting to get a bit busy when I left. Around 3 mins to six pm the clock starts doing a show. Things that move do move and once it was just after six it finished the show. I don’t know if some people just purposely turn up late or they just happen to miss the show by minutes. I then hop on another train to head one stop to see Godzilla Square in Hibiya and then as it was getting darker, I had the good idea to walk from the nearby Hibiya park to the grounds of the Imperial palace. The park was once grounds for feudal lords to live in and would later become military grounds. After that it became a Western style park. That was what my thoughts were until I seen a big crack of lightning in the sky and it decided it wanted to rain. I didn’t really want to get back on the train as it was actually really busy still. I ended back in Akihabara to see what it was like at night, and  I had no idea where I was as I had popped out of an exit I hadn’t done several days before. I went through one shop before getting squashed in the train again for one stop and back to the hotel.