McDonald's and shrines

Today we had a late start to the day. After getting our tea at the hotel coffee shop, Angie finished up some.wprk on a video.   I had wanted to try the food at McDonald's since it is always interesting to see the menu options. We stopped at one on our way to Shinjuku station. I ordered the Teriyaki McBurger.   While it didn't look anything like the picture, it tasted pretty good.   I think almost every sandwich sold here has an egg on it.  And this was no exception. The sandwich was essentially a Sausage McMuffin with Egg on a sesame seed bun which had teriyaki sauce.   It also had a dollop of Japanese mayonnaise.  

After our early lunch, we got one of the JR trains and headed to the famous "crossing" - supposedly the busiest intersection in the world.  We found a rooftop bar where you could look down on the happenings. 

After that we headed to Meiji Jingu Shrine.  This was about a 15 minute walk through a beautiful forest.  You were in the city and then suddenly you weren't.  This was an enormous shrine which focused on honoring sake and French wine.  There were barrels of each just outside the shrine.  

After paying our respects and saying a prayer, we headed to Takeshita Street.   

First, we saw two young girls with signs asking to practice their English. They read us their questionnaire and were so excited we stopped.

This is an eclectic street which has so many fancy crepe places, rainbow churros, rainbow grilled cheese, rainbow cotton candy , rainbow corn dogs, various candy shops as well as retail shops. It was like all the shops from a carnival had landed on this quarter mile stretch of road.  

After our visit, we needed a little snack.  Many restaurants in Japan have kiosks or vending machines outside where you order your meal and then go in and pay while it is being made.  Nothing on the kiosk was in English so we had to use the pictures and try to guess what we'd be ordering. It was a bit stressful but also fun not knowing exactly what we'd receive.  After paying, we sat down and waited for our order. What was delivered was a delicious pork stir fry with fresh  bamboo shoots and rice in a spicy sauce.  Also a beautiful piece of grilled eel with hoisin sauce over rice.  We made some great choices without really knowing what we were ordering. 

After our snack we visited the smaller Togo shrine.  This shrine honors Togo Heihachiro a fames 19th and 20th century Japanese navy admiral. 

After that it was time to take the JR train back to Shinjuku and walk back to the hotel for a bit or rest.  Another 13K steps today.   We have a happy hour at the hotel at 5PM. We'll have a few snacks and then see if we want to get a proper dinner.  

Tonight is our last night in Tokyo.  We will take a 10AM train to Osaka tomorrow.