Yeah that was fast...

So the day after my adventure to the Imperial palace, I went back. This time I took Candiece with me because it was pretty obvious that she would love it. We jumped on the train and got there in now time. That was a relief. I wasn't yet sure that I could get around Tokyo without a guide.

The Yamanote coming in.

We got there pretty early in the day so that we would have time to see the palace gardens (I only got a glimpse of them the day before). It was a pretty sunny day with only a few clouds. Very good for taking pictures.

Crossing the bridge over the first moat.

Little admission ticket. This basically says "get the heck out by 4:30".

The gardens were like a whole different world. The grounds are roughly bowl shaped, going uphill toward the edge of the stone walls. Tall trees around the perimeter make it so you can barely ever see the city outside. It was like being in a magical forest. Pretty awesome.

Path to a pond.

Candiece in front of a little waterfall!

By the pond.

A raven, a heron, and a swan.

After we were done with the palace gardens, we decided to head to Akihabara (surprisingly Candiece thought it sounded pretty interesting). I guess Sunday is a big day there because we found a wacky assortment of music just outside the Electric Town exit of Akihabara station.

First up the singing, dancing bus-top girls.

Then this punk band that had instruments but didn't plug them in...
What?

Packed streets.

After we walked around and saw what there was to see that day, we headed back. When we got back to Atsugi some of the nice folks in our group put on a little birthday celebration for a few of us (myself included) who had birthdays in the first week of the trip. Yay!

A little birthday cake made from chocopan (chocolate chip bread),
nutella, and banana slices. AHAHAHA YESSS

All in all a very awesome end to a very packed second weekend in Japan.