In a dream world...

After a very short night (we didn't go to bed until about 3 o'clock and then couldn't really sleep), we had a hard time getting out of bed. Our bodies had suffered quite a bit from jet lag, after all, it was still the middle of the night in Germany. 

The breakfast wasn't as bad as we had imagined.

After a short meeting, we took the subway. Fortunately, they weren't as crowded as you see on TV.

We then went from the train station through the Central Business District, where not even 100 people live, to the East Garden of the Imperial Palace.

Unfortunately, the tours of the publicly accessible part of the Imperial Palace were already fully booked, so we had to be content with the park.

Here we listened to two speeches on the topics of the Imperial Palace and Tokyo as a global city and simply let the beautiful nature take effect on us.

Afterwards, we went to an underground shopping mall. These were built because space is scarce and therefore very expensive in Tokyo. So you build high-rise buildings or go underground.

There were many small shops and therefore a lot to see. For food, we got pizza and noodles here (I know, very Japanese 😂)

(often you can see the dishes in front of the restaurants made of plastic)

On the way back to the hotel, we briefly left the train station at our transfer station. Here we got our first glimpse of what we often associate with Japan, namely a lot of flashing advertisements. Unfortunately, this doesn't come across well in the pictures.

Back at the hotel, we went to the nearby supermarket, where we also found a bit of Germany:

We also got a preview of tomorrow's program, as we had a good view of the Skytree from a distance. 

On the way back to the hotel, we found our first Japanese temple and a Japanese market,

as well as a hedgehog cafe 😮

And now we're probably going to bed soon, tired but with lots of new impressions.