Day 1 - Tokyo Imperial Palace Gardens and more

We slept in until 10:15 this morning, making up for the journey from Gatwick, so we missed the hotel breakfast. Food was not the 1st priority though; getting our SIM cards set up needed to be done or dozens of vital modern life things wouldn't work, like Google Translate, for example. The setup instructions for the SIMs were very simple, but they caused us no end of head-scratching because of the far-from-intuitive menus in our Android phones. Anyway, we finally aced the setup and set off at about 11:20.

The underground shopping complex at Tokyo Station is huge and sprawling. I felt like how I imagine rats in lab mazes feel, but with the help of a map, and another hour of exploration, we may have cracked it.

So, in the crushing heat, we walked to The Imperial Palace Gardens which were lovely, but I suspect there are more impressive gardens to come.

Mid-afternoon saw us stopping for an air-conditioned lunch, followed by acquisition of Suica cards for metro travel and vending machine purchases. It turns out there's a 'Welcome Suica' card which is a 'lite' 28-day version of the regular card. No deposit needed, but watch out, no refund of unused credit either!

The Modern Art Museum had an very interesting exhibition on, featuring war propaganda art by Japanese artists, and asking the question of how we (mostly - but not solely - aimed at the Japanese) approach these historical works within the context of the war(s). 

Anyway, I need a beer now, so it's back out to find a quirky backstreet restaurant.