Once again today began with a futile attempt to visit the 5AM fish market. Tomorrow is out last day in Tokyo so we will have to go see it then. I found an Internet cafe last night and Alex and I boldly set off to find it without the help of Pete. We are successful and I am able to upload a few days worth of material to the web site and check my email. Pete meets us about half an hour later. I go back with Pete and Alex to the electronics district that Ben took me to. Afterward, we decide to go see Ginza and the imperial palace. Ginza is an upscale shopping district billed as the Beverly Hills of Tokyo. We look around for a few minutes before walking to the palace. Like England, Japan has a monarch who retains figure head status. The imperial palace is in the center of Tokyo. Pete tells us that all the roads in Tokyo were designed with the intention of making it difficult for intruders to find the palace. Roads here are short and none of them lead directly to the palace. You cannot really see the imperial palace but you can see the walls and moat that still protect it to this day. Here are Pete Alex and I in front of the moat that protects the palace. There are two sets of bridges behind us leading over the moat.
From the imperial palace we go back to happy hour at the same bar as yesterday. On the way to the bar we once again cross Shibuya square once more. Pete tells us that the square is also called Hachiko Square after a true story that occurred in the 1920's. Every day a man would go to work on the subway and leave his dog in the square at Shibuya. The dog was very tame and would stay in the square all day and play with people so everyone in the city knew the dog. After work the man would come back on the train and pick up his dog and they would go home together. One day the man died while at work and, for the rest of its life, the dog never left the square. This extreme example of loyalty impressed the Japanese enough so that the square is now named Hachiko square after the dog and there is a statue and plaque commemorating him.
I take some more pictures and a movie of how busy the square is during rush hour. When the cross walks turn green, people flood the square from all angles. Individual crosswalks overflow so that a sea of people fill the street.