July 6th, Tokyo

After the traditional Starbucks and MoreThan breakfast – we actually enjoy waking up at 6 and wandering around the park with our morning coffees, watching senior citizens work through their morning exercise routines, dog walkers, and moms with strollers, topping up with some baked goods at 8 and then heading out for the daily explorations – we relocated to the Imperial Gardens.

The tour of the Imperial Gardens is sold out for the day. And you can't go by yourself. We wandered around East Imperial Gardens for a bit and found them not too inspiring on a hot day, so relocated to the Harajuku area. 

At first, it was fascinating watching all the “cute” outfits but then we got tired of the heat and crowds going full consumerist over a bunch of things that were not actually that cute. 

Various puppy, cat, owl, and other animal cafes also. 

We ended the day at the Shinjuku GyoenNational Garden – much better than Imperial and fantastic Starbucks, with 360 views made for a pleasant break. 

For dinner, we headed out to the top floor of the Time Square building for some katsu. A total treat. As a part of the experience, we had to grind our own sesame, which we added to the sauce for the katsu. Niiice! 

As we worked our way down through the building after dinner, we passed a DYI/Michaels-like section of the store. Much different than its equivalents in the US. You can actually build a fully operational mini combustion engine; the wooden kits to build various other models and apparata were a lot more complex and involved; the section with leathers for related crafts was enviably impressive.