Tokyo - pt 1

Now that we are back from Japan I can sit down and write some impressions.
First, on one of our first days there we went out to Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park. The Shrine (see the day out in pics here ) is in a beautiful green area. I was warned before going to Tokyo that it was a concrete jungle. I found the opposite - that there were surprisingly large green spaces. Maybe coming from Spain I am used to brown dirt. I don't know. But the shrine is impressive and it was a great introduction to the historical cultural aspects of the city.
We stumbled across an Ayumi Hamasaki concert. I have been a fan of hers for years, but to be honest we couldn't figure out how to buy tickets! Oh well. I have the live concert DVDs.
Around the corner is Yoyogi Park. The park is also huge, but for me the big attraction was the live bands playing.
We caught a set by The Pink Panda. They were snappy uptempo JPop. Which I love. The singer(MaYou) is also terribly cute. Also saw a set by a band who's name is perhaps one of the oddest ever - A.N others after the 20th (click on the 'PC' link). I bought 3 of their singles. I found the music to be almost prog-rock. Very cool.
Across the street we stumbled into Tokyo's Earth Day celebrations. A huge area was covered in stalls selling food, earth friendly products and handing out information. There was also a stage where we caught a few live acts. Much to my disappoint there was very little food that was vegetarian. Since I consider vegetarian/veganism a good thing for the planet it seemed an odd ommision. There was a little woman handing out stuff on being a vegetarian, but that was it. We bumped into a guy (Hi Sanjay!) who was a vegan and kindly set me an email listing the good restaurants in Tokyo.
Also missing from the Earth Day booths was anything about Japan's practice of whaling. Japan consistently uses deceitful and underhanded techniques to ensure its whaling continues. It is one of the few things I hate about Japan.
But I digress.
From there it was down to Chibuya. And then back to the hotel, knackered.