The Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and Japanese McDonald's' Newest Creations (10)
4:11 PM by , under Imperial Palace, Japan, Japanese McDoland's, Tokyo
*To begin, are the apostrophes used correctly in my title?
The grounds of the imperial palace, in the heart of the big city
My friend Alex who goes to grad-school at Waseda University, and who I graduated San Francisco State University with, joined me on a walk around the beautiful grounds which surround the imperial residence here in Tokyo. I took the subway from here in Chiba, all the way to Kudanshita station, where we met, and started on our way.The McDonald's we met in front of
A large portion of Tokyo now being available for viewing with Google Street View has made meeting in places you have never been before a little easier considering a very large majority of Japanese streets aren't named. I just emailed him a link to the Street View image I had chosen, and we were easily able to figure out where we were to meet. Here is a picture similar to the one I sent him:
大きな地図で見る
A large portion of Tokyo now being available for viewing with Google Street View has made meeting in places you have never been before a little easier considering a very large majority of Japanese streets aren't named. I just emailed him a link to the Street View image I had chosen, and we were easily able to figure out where we were to meet. Here is a picture similar to the one I sent him:大きな地図で見る
This McDonald's was unique in that it had an order-out area due to all of the people who pick up to-go orders from all of the local offices. As you can see from the picture I took, they are promoting two new items, the "cheese-katsu burger" (a breaded pork cutlet filled with cheese, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot stick), and a "macha-Oreo McFlurry" (macha is a form of green tea, I really want to try this!)
Cherry blossoms at their best
Looking down at the moat
The best thing about my first visit to this place is that I think I found the best place to picnic in the city. There is plenty of grass, nice trees, and peace-and-quiet! Hopefully the next pictures convey what I am trying to express!
I don't think we actually saw the palace itself. It is heavily guarded, and also sheltered within the nature-filled property. However, there were many traditional looking buildings that were attracting lots of tourists. I know it is sort of ignorant, but I feel like once you've seen a handful of those historic buildings, you've seen them all, so I didn't pursue finding my way in.
A couple pretty trees at the border of the imperial grounds
A group of Japanese tourists all dressed the same
We were in walking distance to Ginza, where I took this picture
