surprise, surprise - only one shrine today! today was almost entirely dedicated to the gardens in the center of tokyo. first park was the "kitanomaru park"[002-062]. inside this park is the "nippon budokan"[006-030], an arena for all kind of martial arts tournaments, or concerts. it turned out there was a "kendo" tournament for kids today. outside the huge arena were all kind of teams doing warm up or keeping on the practice. "kendo" seems to be a quite loud sport, as the kids were screaming very loud all the time. i decided to enter the arena and watch the tournament for a while. loads of people inside (mostly parents and relatives of some kid participating in the tournament, i guess) stared at me. i soon realized i was, most probably, the only non-asian person in the arena. nonetheless i enjoyed the tournament. next stop was the disputed "yasukuni"[035-056] shrine, with all kind of war relics like kamikaze-bombers, huge canons and the like. too much strange stuff offered around the shrine, so i went on. when entering (or leaving) the shrine one has to pass by the "tayasumon gate"[031]. i also passed by the "science museum"[062], but did not enter (too time consuming). instead i headed for the "east gardens of imperial palace"[063-115]. right next to the east gardens is the "kokyogaien"[116-134], a huge open area with neatly cut grass, bushes and trees - very british (at least that was my impression). i also saw the shift changeover there of the imperial guards[125-131]. then it was time for some sweets again. this time i was more cautious (due to the "dango" disaster, see picture [072] of day 10) and bought something that looked familiar to me. so i got this "marugotobanana"[135]. biscuit filled with cream and a real banana inside. very very tasty! i wish i had some coffee with it. but instead of coffee i had "godzilla"[137-138] as companion. then i drove home. meal for today: a la cart menu[145], since the menu card had pictures, so i could just point on it, as the staff did not talk english. the waitress then also gave me a second menu card with three pictures of unknown meal on it. one looked like salad so i thought i do the save choice. once the meal was served i ate some salad and it tasted strange. so i had a closer look at what i was eating. i took a picture of my "salad"[146]. yes, that's tiny little fishes in my salad. so here's what i had ordered, from left to right: "katsudon" ("tonkatsu", that's deep-fried pork cutlets, in a bowl), "daikon" (the "salad" in the background), and "miso shiro" (the soup). the meal was very tasty, except for the "daikon" which was interesting, but not something i would order again. nonetheless i ate it all. yammi. random facts about tokyo: women like high-heels, but (almost) all of them can't walk with them. for most women it does not look elegant, but rather clumsy. additionally women tend to turn their toes towards each other, so it looks like they are having knock-knees, though their feet are just perfectly normal when they stand still.