Shirokanedai Night Time

The last night in Tokyo was spent exploring the area around the hotel as there were plenty of temples to explore. One in particular had significant historic value and it was that over all others I wanted to find.

As it turned out I was noticing a repeating pattern with the temples looking deserted.

Tokyo has a great mix of old and new, and not old for the sake of tourism. Temples were still being used today as they were hundreds of years ago. Japan is a very religious country but you don't associate religion heavily with the country. One downside to this mix though is that you can't easily locate the single storey temples in amongst the towering skyscrapers, a problem I was having on this particular night.

Although I came across plenty of temples I couldn't find the one I wanted. In the end I had to dip into the pigeon-Japanese again and ask a hotel security guard the way. As it turned out I was less than 100 metres away and had walked past it once already, I just hadn't realised that behind a gate was the temple in question.

And here it was, closed! Great.... It just meant that I'd have to come back first thing in the morning when it would be open. At least I hadn't gone all the way to South Africa for a ride that was closed, this was just a walk away.

A final shot close to the temple showing the other and more well known side to Tokyo. Skyscrapers everywhere....

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