We saw Mt. Fuji after all ...

Fujisan is on the horizon: look carefully. It was hazy today.

... but from a distance. Chris saw it, wreathed in a torus (as he called it) of clouds around its middle, from the Shikansen bullet train on his way to a meeting with some engineers in Nagoya. Not to be outdone, I found that I could see it too, hazy on the horizon but wonderfully high, conical and snowy, once I'd taken a ride in a lift to the 52^nd floor of the Mori Building in Rippongi Hills. I ate a sandwich up there, looking out at it through the window. Before I took the lift back down I also saw a peculiar exhibition of sci-fi creations by the Korean artist Lee Bul which I could describe at length; I'll postpone that for now, though.

Mori Tower in Rippongi Hills

Today was our last day in Japan. We'll check out of the hotel before breakfast tomorrow morning aiming to catch the 7:30 a.m. “Limousine” (bus) to Narita airport. We already have our boarding cards printed.

Before we turn in for an early sleep tonight let me illustrate this post with some of the pictures I took today. I couldn't resist discovering one last Japanese garden, as you see. This was the Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Garden, close to the Hama-rikyu Garden I visited a week ago. It was a necessary place to go after all those tall new buildings and the weather was finer and milder than ever. A dozen turtles were sunning themselves on the rocks around the pond and I saw frogs too.

Eiffel Tower? No, Tokyo Tower

For those of you who remember my blogposts about Hangzhou last year: there was a bridge and little causeway over the pond I walked around today, and the leaflet states: “This part of the garden was designed and built to be reminiscent of Seiko Lake (Xi Hu) in Hangzhou, China [...] The real Seiko Lake was a place inhabited by holy men and Reizan, a nearby sacred mountain, was said to have mythical powers to prevent aging and bring about immortality.” A little hillock in the Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Garden recreates that mountain here in Tokyo.

The view towards the Sky Tree. Our hotel may be in this view

A city cemetery near the base of the skyscraper

The district known as Shimbashi, Hama-rikyu gardens on the left

The little "mountain" in the Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Garden

Japanese carp in the pond

Another tree in blossom