Tokyo wildlife

Lots of pictures for my blog today! We were up very early at around 6:00am. The morning was perfectly clear and cloudless, totally sparkling. We got a great view of Fuji-San from the 40th floor where we have breakfast. We then went for a walk in the hotel gardens again and saw Dave the cat sunbathing. We spent ages watching the Koi carp - some are huge and the very dark blue ones (which I think are ghost Koi) were fascinating to observe, very stealthy. I wonder if Dave the cat ever dips his paw in after one?

We also saw these things that at first looked like tiny orange humming birds because their wings moved so fast, but they were in fact Japanese Hawk moths! They have very fat bodies and beat their wings fast as they suck nectar out of flowers which they hover over. We also saw a very large spider known as a jorogumo it has long stripey legs and has a web which can be made up to a meter across!

By 10:00am this morning we were on our way to Hama-rikyu gardens, which are a fine example of Edo period gardens. The gardens run along side the river of which there is a view below.

The gardens are beautiful full of birds and butterflies. There were some huge crows as well as woodland birds and water fowl. I saw a bright yellow butterfly but Jase managed to spot orange and bright blue ones. There were also a couple of tiger striped cats lurking in the bushes of the park. I wonder if every garden in Japan must have a cat?

We climbed the hill in the picture below and got a great view of the garden tea house.Here is a picture of me on top of the hill with the tea house behind me. As you can see the weather was glorious. About 22C and totally cloudless sky. Not perfect conditions for Jase taking photos though!
Here is my picture of the tea house and sky scraper. The red and white pointy building that looks like the Eiffel Tower is in fact the Tokyo Tower which was built in the 1950s and based on the Eiffel Tower. All tall thin objects in Japan are painted red and white!
In the lake there were many birds and I got a shot here of one airing its wings!

On my previous trip to Tokyo Jase took a picture of the building below with a giant sphere in the middle of it. Jase's picture is taken much closer but it was good to see it today from afar. After having some lunch, I had omu hyashi which is a rich beef and mushroom stew served with rice wrapped in an omelet. Great comfort food. I also tried a half of Yebisu which was a mix of larger and dark beer. It was very nice.

We then went to Akihabara "Electric Town" where Jase looked at camera gear, TVs, video games, electronic components and all things electronics! I bought a small magnifying glass in a purple case. My back was beginning to ache a bit so we came home around 5ish. All in all a very good and relaxing day!