Hama-rikyu Garden

Wednesday morning we had some difficulty navigating the Shinjuku train station. The station itself has to be 10 city blocks below and above ground and has at least 5 subway lines and two railway lines run by at least 4 different companies. With some help, we eventually successfully rode the Oedo line to the Hama-rikyu Garden.

The Hama-rikyu was built 300 years ago and was frequented by the Tokugawa shoguns (descendants of the daimyo featured in James Clavell's popular novel, whose family ruled Japan for 250 years). Although the views are somewhat interrupted by Shiodome skyscrapers in all directions, the garden is nonetheless beautiful. We enjoyed learning about the garden and the Shoguns who visited it, including their method of duck hunting for sport, from small electronic devices with headsets.

After touring around the garden, we boarded a boat for a 45 minute ride through the Tokyo canals, destination Asakusa and the Sensoji Temple.