A Tokyo culture milkshake.

Our first day in Tokyo was like a delicious, satisfying culture milkshake. It was quirky and beautiful and wild and confusing and serene and overwhelming, all at once…and we loved it.

We started our day with a walk to the Meiji Shrine.

The shrine is located in a park, which is itself surrounded by busy city streets. The contrast between the bustle of the street and the hush of the park is immediate and amazing.

We stopped at the cleansing station outside the shrine to purify our hands and mouths before walking inside the gates. Then we were lucky enough to see a traditional wedding procession in the courtyard.We stayed at the shrine for awhile, just walking around and noticing all of the details.

Then we continued walking through the park to Takeshita street in Harajuku.

This was another impactful moment. There were so many people and so many hyper-cute products that Josh and my son Bear went on overload.

On the other hand, my tween daughter could not get enough, and we pretty much had to pry her away.

At some point in the madness, we stopped for crepes at Marion Crepes.

The sugar rush carried us through for another couple of hours, and I would highly recommend it. 😉

After our Harajuku experience, we walked back into Yoyogi park. We were hoping to see some interesting people doing interesting things, and we were not disappointed. The park is apparently a place where people come to perform, gather, dance, sing, and generally let loose a little.

We saw robotic twins (seriously, they were moving like robots)…

…a noodle eating contest (people tried to pick up noodles with chopsticks as they floated down the chute)…

…and a bunch of other random stuff that I wasn’t quick enough to capture on camera.

When we left the park, we walked back to our hotel, exhausted but happy. It was a great day, and a great start to our trip.

Spoiler alert: the next day did not go as well. Stay tuned… 😉