(sorry for the slow updates by the way - just catching up now - this is monday)
The imperial palace grounds take up a large chunk of the centre of tokyo and most of it is inacessible to the public, and that which is accessible to the public is not accessible to the public on mondays, the day we decided to visit. To be fair though, the surrounding grounds are in themselves seriously impressive - a massive grassy open space surrounded by walls and a moat in the centre of Tokyo then surrounded by tower bocks which feels immensely liberating to stand in and just feel the space ... man. Also, contains excellent bollards.
Just south of the palace is Hibiya Park which is, for want of a better term, 'well lush'.The wooded section I guess is what most Japanese woodlands resemble (I assume as I am yet to visit any).
Whilst sounding wilfuly pretentious, there is something about the nature of the trees in Japan which to me is a great metaphor for its difference to the west - whilst western tree brances tend to stick out more or less straight, branching off at sharp angles, Japanese trees twist and flow in a way I feel is reflected in the differences between our cultures - our languages, writing and music for example and makes me wonder the significance of how much the environment around us has defined our civilisations. I could, however, be talking bollocks. Lovely place anyway.
Akihabara is the electronics district of Tokyo, however apparently since larger electronic stores have opened in other parts of town its significance has waned. Its a bit like (as a Mr A Mackay will testify) a somewhat fancier Tottenham Court Road. To be fair its a fair step up from TCR and has a much wider range, and infinitely more helpful staff. There were some crazy prices to be found, especially on Sony camera gear and I was sorely tempted, however I use compact flash cards and Sony's proprietary memory sticks are a skank, so I just bough a cheapo USB card reader instead.
Some prices were not so attractive - I was considering buying an old Gameboy Advance SP but I couldn't find anything that wasn't significantly more than I would pay in the UK for some reason. And no I didn't buy any PSPs either as they are out in like two weeks in the UK anyway and didn't seem much cheaper (£120-150) so unless any of you who know me really need one when I get back next week I see no point in me picking any up.
The evening? A hearty feast at Mos Burger and perfect-head-vibrated Guiness and chess at a little jazz bar.