Rainy Day in Tokyo

September 16

On Wednesday, the weather was really bad for the first time. It rained all day, but that wasn't too dramatic since our main goal for the day was a museum anyway.

Initially, however, we had a Shinto shrine and another Buddhist temple on the agenda. The Suga Shrine gained a lot of popularity in recent years because one of the most famous anime films, Your Name., features the final scene here. For Isi, of course, it was a must-see!

Together, we also bought a wish board to ask the Kami Inari of the shrine for the protection of family and friends.

After that, we took the bus to the Gōtoku-ji Temple. This temple is particularly known for its thousands of lucky cats, the so-called Maneki Neko. However, due to an acute cat shortage, everyone was only allowed to buy one cat. You are supposed to make a wish and return the cat to the temple once the wish has come true. Let’s see...

Afterward, we continued towards the museum, with a brief stop in Shibuya. Since we hadn't made it the day before, we could now take a photo with the statue of possibly Japan's most famous dog. Hachikō was a dog who picked up his owner at the train station every day and continued to wait for him there for ten years after his owner's death.

We also made a quick stop in one of the Pachinko parlors. These are gaming halls where you can squander your money on gambling machines. It is incredibly loud, and everywhere there are blinking lights. We naturally tried our luck too, but unfortunately, luck was not on our side.

Then we finally continued to the main attraction of the day: the Ghibli Museum.

There, you could see what the creative and technical process behind the famous animated films looks like. The design of the rooms was truly impressive – unfortunately, we can't provide photographic evidence of this, as no pictures were allowed inside the museum.

We could also watch an exclusive short film in a small cinema. Afterwards, the day was almost over.

On our way back, we stopped at a typical Tokyo sushi restaurant. Four sushi chefs prepared fresh sushi, which then traveled around the room on a conveyor belt. You could simply take whatever caught your eye and paid at the end per plate – depending on the color of the plate.

Since we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, we treated ourselves generously to many plates.

At one point, we came across a piece of sushi that we initially thought was tuna. However, upon closer inspection, I realized with my trained eye that it probably wasn't fish. So it had to be beef.

However, it really did taste different.

When I carefully examined the menu, I found that there was no beef offered at all – but horse and whale instead.

We didn’t ask further and went straight to the hotel and then to bed.

Enjoy your meal and good night!