Once again the sun rose, as it usually does, over Ōme. Let us take a small break from my narrative to show you a quick view of the neighborhood.
Early Morning Tokyo Suburbia
Yes, the streets are about one and 1/2 car widths wide.
OK, now that we have gotten ourselves a bit more oriented, let us continue.
Today’s first outing involved (SURPRISE!) food. (If you are not sensing a theme in these posts, then I’m guessing you have just been looking at the pictures.) We cruised on down to Sukiya for gyūdon, which is basically a beef rice bowl: Cheap, tasty, filling.
Drive By Gyūdon!
I continued to notice throughout my venture that many of the menus remind me of the back of a Waffle House menu; there are lots of colorful pictures, and all you have to do is point and smile to order.
Fortified with rice, beef, and another cup of endless tea (it’s like I’m in Japan or something, geez!) Nathan and I set off to board the Chūō line, connecting with the Yamanote line for Harajuku station. Putting the Harajuku spectacles for a later date, we ventured over to Meiji Shrine for some “culture and learning”. According to the internet, Meiji Shrine is a Shinto Shrine originally completed in the 1920’s, and reconstructed in the late 1950’s after suffering damage in WWII.
What I saw was a whole bunch of really awesome nature, some cool old buildings, and a whole bunch of people “really feeling it all.”
Feel the Awe and Glory and Various Other Things that this image inspires.
And a GIANT wall of sake barrels
I may have contemplated how long it would take a normal human being to consume all the sake that could fill these barrels.
As we wandered the paths and checked out the courtyard of the shrine, I had hoped to have the big, bubbly, excited reaction to the realization that I was ACTUALLY IN JAPAN finally kick in.
Appears they are setting up for something…. Wonder what it could be?
So many prayers, in so many languages.
Here I was surrounded by all of these culturally significant examples, and instead I was feeling very calm and at peace. Which looking back at it all, I WAS at a temple, so perhaps that reaction was appropriate after all.
Purification fountain, if you are into that sort of thing.
Venturing further , we came to Homotsuden, the Treasury Museum, and an open park area.
Rounded a turn in the path, only to be greeted with this sight.
This was the view from the other side of the bridge.
Alas, the Museum was closed
I guess I’ll just have to put this on the “return trip” list.
So we headed back to our entrance by the Harajuku station, to our next destination (and future post), Shinjuku.
Something old and something new.
Slightly Off Ballance 
Love Meiji Shrine! Right next to Harajuku too!